During slow periods like the HVAC "shoulder season," customer search volume plummets. Pouring more money into digital ads is ineffective because the core issue is a lack of demand, not insufficient marketing reach. The focus must shift to operational tactics that generate demand, like outbound campaigns.
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When a business gets high visibility but low conversions, the impulse is to blame the platform or marketing tactic (the 'sink'). However, the real issue is often the core offering—the product, pricing, or value proposition (the 'well'). People obsess over front-end fixes when the back-end is the actual problem.
By measuring success on 'last lead source,' the company was incentivized to pour money into paid search for product trials—a clear final touchpoint. This model blinded them to the higher value of other lead types and actively discouraged investment in demand creation activities that build brand and generate higher-quality leads.
Marketing is an accompaniment to a great operations team, not a replacement. If your company culture, leadership, or service delivery is weak, increasing your marketing spend will only expose and accelerate those foundational flaws. You must fix the core business before scaling marketing efforts.
Effective demand generation is a barbell, requiring strong top-of-funnel brand investment to create awareness and great bottom-of-funnel product marketing to convert interest. Viewing performance marketing as a standalone function and funding it in isolation is like "throwing money at a problem but not solving it."
When ad performance breaks at scale, the problem isn't your bidding strategy; it's that you've saturated the 3% of the market ready to buy now. To grow, you must target the other 97% with broader, less direct hooks and lead magnets that educate them first.
Spending on brand awareness outside your ideal customer profile does more than waste budget; it creates demand you cannot supply. This educates and warms up potential buyers, effectively teeing them up for your competitors to acquire, turning your marketing spend into their lead generation.
Data shows a predictable drop in shopper intent from roughly November 7th to 20th. Brands should run an initial early November sale, then strategically pull back ad spend during this "dead zone" to preserve budget for the main BFCM push starting around the 21st.
Pouring marketing resources into a "leaky bucket" is inefficient. If customer onboarding is flawed, prioritize fixing it before optimizing top-of-funnel campaigns. The highest leverage is in ensuring activated users convert, not in acquiring more users who will quickly churn.
Marketers often equate effectiveness with ad ROI, but communications typically drive only 10% of sales. The other 90% is influenced by levers like pricing, distribution, and product performance. True marketing effectiveness requires a holistic view across all these business areas, not just advertising.
In a digitally oversaturated landscape, successful ABM campaigns require a mix of touches. Reintroducing traditional physical elements, like thoughtful direct mail, alongside digital tactics creates a multi-dimensional experience that drives engagement and opportunity creation.