Are Paid Ads Legit? The Truth About Digital Marketing in 2025

Are ads worth it?

In this episode of the Authentic Media Podcast, Danielle J. Martin sits down with Alissa Menke of Cohort Digital to unpack the real benefits of running paid ads. 

From Facebook and LinkedIn to YouTube and Google search, Alissa explains how ads can guarantee visibility, provide data you can actually use, and help you grow without wasting your energy on aimless posting.

You’ll learn:
- Why paid ads beat guesswork every time
- The difference between awareness campaigns vs. conversion campaigns
- How to decide if your business is ready for ads
- The organic + paid strategy that actually works

If you’ve ever wondered how to take your content further and put it in front of the right people, this episode is for you.

#PaidAds #AuthenticMediaPodcast #MarketingStrategy

Transcript

[00:00:00] Good. Everything needs to be strategically built on reaching your goal. Define it, figure out how we're gonna be able to measure it, and then let's go. If everyone is doing the same thing, how do you stand out? That's a great question. It's why I'm not a content creator. Okay. You wanna spend $10,000, but you're driving people to a website for a paragraph.

Yeah. Of information Yes. About this thing. If the call to action's not on there, right? Then you need to understand that what I'm really running is an awareness campaign. Woo. That's good. Ooh.

The online world is loud. If you are wondering, what do I even post right now? There's so many different things and trends you don't know where to start. Do I use chat, GPT? Do I run ads? There's a lot of questions about digital marketing, so if you're tuning into the Authentic Media Podcast. This episode is for you.

Joining me right now [00:01:00] is Alyssa Menke of Cohort Digital. Alyssa, welcome to the show. Hello. Hello. How are you? I am fantastic. I'm looking forward to the conversation today because before we started recording, I told you how right now digital marketing is the hot topic right now. There's a lot of business owners, there's a lot of people, um, your clients I'm sure you're working with that have this question around what's the latest trends, what do I do?

Where do I start? And so I kind of wanna start in the area of, um, what's the biggest mistake do you see like brands making right now when it comes to digital marketing? Um, so the biggest mistake that I would say that I see is people not being really strategic and knowing their target audience. And so like.

For instance, we have someone that's like, oh, I need to place ads on LinkedIn because I use LinkedIn all the time. If you don't look like your target audience, they may not be on LinkedIn. [00:02:00] And so it doesn't make any sense to invest ad dollars on LinkedIn. Mm-hmm. And it may not make any sense to invest a ton of time organically creating content for LinkedIn.

Yeah. So you really need to know. Who's your target audience and where are they spending time online. Mm-hmm. And, um, if, if your target audience is in like the Kansas area, we actually have a really cool social media usage trend, um, like data fact sheet on our website that people could go to. Uh. That just popped in my head as we were talking.

Yeah. So if you don't know where they're at, use that as a cheat sheet and go, go, go find where they are and only invest your time in those places. Mm-hmm. Don't try to be all the places 'cause you're gonna get burnt out. Right. I like what you just said. I don't wanna like go past it. You said you don't look like you're target audience.

Can you explain that? Well, so the way that I've figured this out is that I am, am not normal. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, I think none of us really are, but yeah, the way that I use the internet is not the way that you [00:03:00] use the internet. Mm-hmm. And I, I learned this pretty early in my career, um, because we were doing some user testing where we had developed this website in a, in a previous job that I was in, um, at Jones Hewitt Partners.

It was an ad agency and I was kind of helping do this user testing where. Yeah. Literally you fill out this form. Mm-hmm. And you hit what? I am not joking, a green pulsing go button. Okay. Like, okay. Yeah, I, that is my call to action. Mm-hmm. I clicked that no one got it. We tested like, you know, a dozen, two dozen people.

Yeah. And the percentage of people that knew that they were supposed to click that button was in the minority. Wow. And so we had to go back to the drawing board. Mm-hmm. And so it was one of those things where I was like. Oh. Mm-hmm. Well, who would've, who would've thought, right. And I just, throughout my career and having discussions with other people mm-hmm.

I'm, I'm a student of trying to understand user behavior. Mm-hmm. That's good. You know? The things, like I said, the things that I consider to be really [00:04:00] normal Yeah. Are not the things that my parents consider to be normal. Yeah. Or even my siblings to be considered normal. Mm-hmm. And we all grew up in the same household.

Right. And so you really need to get into the shoes of your target audience. That's good. And understand and. You know, that's not necessarily like, oh, women 45 to 65. I mean it, it might be. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But also it could be that depending on what you're offering, it's really people that have like a specific interest.

And when you narrow it down just by demographics, you're like excluding people that. Maybe like super users. Yeah. That don't just fall in this tight little box that you've created. Right. I think that's a good point. 'cause I think when we hear target audience, we're thinking, like you said, women, 45 black, white, Mexican.

It's like we start to get very like singular a little bit, but then it's kind of like you said, you're missing out on people who may be your target audience, but they don't look like you. Think that might be your target audience, if that makes [00:05:00] sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So how would you recommend that someone go about like finding their target audience, doing it the way that you recommend, especially with your clients?

So there are a couple of ways that you could do it. And if you have a storefront, it's, it is literally just. Observation. Mm-hmm. And then having conversations with the people that are coming in Yeah. And buying the things that you expect them to buy. Yeah. Right? Yeah. If you don't have that, you know, um, opportunity.

Mm-hmm. Then it's like looking at, um, how can we test this in the digital world? Mm-hmm. Right? So. Uh, I hate just throwing money out there to see what it does, but also there is a time and a place where that makes sense. Mm-hmm. Where you might say, I'm gonna invest a thousand dollars in meta ads. Mm-hmm. And I'm gonna really drill in to see who's clicking on those ads.

And we will be able to understand, um, you know. Uh, gender and age and mm-hmm. Were they on Facebook? Were they on Instagram? Were they on a phone? Were [00:06:00] they on their desktop? Yeah. If you have Google Analytics on your website mm-hmm. And you have a solid privacy policy, you could also factor in things like what kinds of, um, like in market shopping behaviors.

Mm-hmm. Are they exhibiting online? Yeah. What other kinds of content are they looking at? Yeah. And these are, they're big buckets. Mm-hmm. But they get you a little bit closer. Yeah. I think too, what's also important is to talk about the platforms. You kind of mentioned it already, Facebook, LinkedIn. So another question that I typically get, and I'm sure you get all the time, is what platform do I use for my business to market?

Yeah. And it's like, okay. Explain to the people. There's not like a one size fits all. Oh no. Like, only use this platform. Only do this. So walk us through, like when someone comes to you and they're like, okay, I wanna start marketing my product, or I wanna start marketing my service. Which platform do I use?

Yeah. So we, we run through this whole list of questions. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, what is your goal? Who is your target audience? Love it. What is [00:07:00] your budget? Because if I come back to you and I have this like really robust plan and you're like, oh, why that's, we don't have budget for that. Right? Like, I don't wanna turn you off.

Mm-hmm. But also, I know through experience that while I can reach certain people on LinkedIn, that I could, on Facebook, LinkedIn's gonna be three to four times more expensive. Mm. Right. So I, that may be one of those things where we say, okay, your audience is on LinkedIn, but you need to focus on organic LinkedIn.

Yeah. Um. We are in the Midwest. Mm-hmm. And for the most part, we're still pretty regularly using meta. Right? Yeah. Like TikTok is fun. Um, and there we're seeing growth there for sure. Right. Snapchat we saw actually a little, like, there's been a little bit of a drop off on that. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, the other thing besides meta that you can really look at Uhhuh is, um, two things.

One, YouTube. Yeah. Literally everyone's, everyone uses YouTube. Everyone's, yes. They may not [00:08:00] even realize they're using YouTube, but they're using YouTube. Right? Um, and then the other one is search. People still, when they're trying to find something, will still go to the keyboard and search or, you know, use on their phone.

Hey, Google, Hey Alexa, whatever. Yeah, that's good. And so we think of those buckets first. Mm-hmm. Okay. But yeah, the answer is there's not like one one size. Yeah. One size fits all. Hey, you absolutely have to do this. Because as soon as I told you that in my brain, I would come up with like, oh, but this person, they definitely should never do that.

Yeah. That doesn't make sense in that business case. Right. So it really just depends on just like, I like how you talked about it before your goal, what is like, where are you trying to go in the future? So then what um, plan and path can we create for you to get there? Absolutely. That's really good.

Everything needs to be strategically built on reaching your goal. That's good. Define it. Yeah. Figure out how we're gonna be able to measure it. Yeah. Make sure all of that tracking's in place and then let's go. Yeah. Remind me, how long have you been doing this? Oh, [00:09:00] uh, digital marketing I've probably been doing for about 15 years.

Wow. Okay. I say that because that's a long time, but within a year we've already seen things like switch on and off. So talk to me about what do you see like in the digital marketing space that is not working anymore? Uh, when, when people go just like, oh, I'm gonna run a Facebook ad. Yeah. I'm gonna do a boosted post.

Yes. There's nothing wrong with a boosted post. Okay. But you need to have a goal. Mm-hmm. Even if your goal is. I don't wanna get this message in front of as many people as possible, as many times as possible. At least then, you know? Yeah. How you're gonna determine was it successful or was it not successful?

Yeah. Let's talk about aimlessly posting. Oh, okay. And nobody got time for that. Nobody has time for that. But the amount of people that I work with, small business owners, content creators, they get into this. Space of like, okay, I'm just gonna post every single [00:10:00] day. And that is gonna be like the goal, which I think there's, um, you know, there's good to that.

But there there's also like, going back to, you keep saying it. Strategic, strategic, strategic. Yeah. Talk about how aimlessly posting is not working anymore. Yeah. I mean, I think you really ought to, well, one, I'm sure you've picked up on this by now. Mm-hmm. I, I am all about looking at the data. Yeah. Right.

I'm gonna invest my time and effort and energy into what data is showing me is working. And so I would start, if I didn't know how frequently I should be posting mm-hmm. I would probably go out and, well, I mean. Wouldn't probably, I do this. Yeah. We've done social media audits where we go and we look at like, okay, what has been your posting pattern?

Mm-hmm. How frequently, what type of content, what's been the performance and the engagement on those things. Mm-hmm. And then compare it to like a couple of in-market competitors. Okay. But then also like look out of the market, but at somewhere that's sort of, you know. Like your market. Mm-hmm. But, but not, yeah.

What are they [00:11:00] doing? Right? Mm-hmm. And, and then look at this joint spreadsheet of data and understand like, okay, what's, okay? They're really high. Mm-hmm. They're really low. Like, what's the sweet spot? And then that's good. Start to really understand how to dial what you are capable of doing into that picture.

That's good. Um, I think that there are absolutely brands that can post and probably should post every day. I don't think that most probably should, honestly. Wow, that's an interesting point. Let's talk about chat GPT. Oh, I love it. I know. Okay, so I'm excited because I'm interested in your thought process because right now I feel like everything looks like chat, GPT, and I feel like if you really know how to use it and you pay attention to people's posts, you can identify it immediately.

Okay. Talk about like. How you should use it and how you should not use it. So I am super into using chat GBT for ideation. Mm-hmm. For brainstorming, for if you put on a single prompt [00:12:00] Yeah. And it spits out a thing and you're like, yes. Like you're not really probably using it. Yeah. To the, to the best of its capability.

Mm-hmm. Right. Like. I consider chat GPT to almost be like my office mate that I am like whiteboard, brainstorming with. Yes. And the, the place where I love it is that I struggle to get started. Hmm. Right. So I'm, I'm not a writer. But I'm really good at talking. Yeah. And so historically I would have to, like, if I was writing a blog post, I would have to have someone basically interview me and come back and say like, here's what you said.

Yeah. And then from there, we'd work on it. Mm. What I'm finding with chat GPT is that I can instead. Have this whole conversation where it is taking that, and then from there I'm saying like, oh, okay. I wanna make these modifications. Okay. Let's limit my run on sentences. Yeah. You know, and, and really tailor it so that it [00:13:00] stays in my voice and it mm-hmm.

Accomplishes the goals that I've set out to accomplish. Right. But it takes this weight of like looking at a blank screen off my shoulders. That's good. And can you talk about, so people can know that you can actually customize Chad GPT for it to fit your brand voice. There's a lot of people that don't know how to do that.

Can you explain that? Sure. It gives you basically what you ask for, right? So like, and, and I don't, that's good. I'm always really polite, so I'll be like, can you please? You talk to it like it's your assistant. Well, and it, and it gives you multiple options usually. Yeah. Like if it says like, Hey, I'm wanting to do this thing.

Mm-hmm. What, you know, can you gimme some ideas? And then it'll be like, oh, here's the light and quirky one. Here's the professional one. That's good. And so then from there, I go through and I will like, Hey, I I great work. I really like this part from this piece. Yeah. This part from that piece. Can you help me pull those together?

Mm-hmm. And it's, it is really truly a conversation where I'm, yeah. Yeah, talking to it [00:14:00] about like, Hey, this is my website, right? These are my brand, you know, this is my brand identity and my colors and my logo, and this is the way that we talk. Mm-hmm. Another one that I really like is Notebook. Lm. Okay. I don't know if you've used that.

No, but it's that like a software, um, it, it's like a Google product. Okay. Um, and it. You can go through and upload mm-hmm. Lots of things. And then say like, hey, like for instance, it's a great way to fast track research. Okay. I've got five articles that are all about this thing. Mm-hmm. I am on the go. I, I need to know the highlights, so I'll upload these five.

Yeah. And I say like, I would like to understand what, what is the same in all of these. Mm-hmm. I would like to understand what the different points are. Like it can help you fast track. So that you can then take, and it, it includes backlink. Mm-hmm. So that you know what to reference so that you can fact check 'cause Right.

Always fact check, check. Oh my gosh. Yes, please. Literally. [00:15:00] Um, but you can then go back and instead of reading all five articles, you hone in on the couple of paragraphs throughout those that really get to what you are looking for. Mm-hmm. Instead of. You know, the half hour time investment it was gonna take to get there on your own.

Yeah. That's really good because I think what we're starting to see, like I said, is like the captioning in a lot of things. Um, it's just, there's a lot of copy and paste and I think people don't realize, like you can tell chat GBT to write it in your voice. Like I say it all the time. Yeah. Like write it in Danielle j Martin's voice.

So it sounds like me. It's organic, it's it's authentic. It's, um. It's not like choppy or just like a robot. I'm like, I don't talk like that. So I think that's important to make sure people understand that. You can fit it to you. Yeah. Um, speaking of organic, what is your recommendation for organic versus paid, like advertisement content?

Um, I know you said earlier it goes back to where are you [00:16:00] trying to go, but there's a lot of people too that I'm hearing that they're pushing organic, but I'm curious like what your thoughts are. Well, I mean, the first thing I need to do is a disclaimer. I run a paid, you know, advertising company. Yes. So, obviously we default towards paid, but I, I tend to default that way because I can guarantee you mm-hmm.

That you're gonna, all that time and effort you put into creating that content Yeah. Is gonna have eyeballs on it. Yep. Right. And I get, I'm gonna be able to tell you. They looked at it, they did this, then they did that, right? So there's, there's some real benefits to paid. You can get those same things in organic, but also, as I'm sure you know, organic is still sort of out of your hands, right?

Mm-hmm. Like it depends on the algorithm and what time you posted your content. And did you get, you know, any level of engagement within the first couple of hours? Yes. Because if you don't. Yeah. It, it, it disappears into the ether. No one ever sees it. Yeah. It can be exhausting. [00:17:00] Yeah. I think, um, you kind of touched on it, but this is your moment to definitely geek out here, but convince me why someone should use paid advertisement and like, basically how is it gonna work in their benefit?

Yeah. Oh, I mean, kind of like what I just said in the, the previous, um, answer. We've paid, I'm gonna be able to give you a very robust report. Mm-hmm. That shows not only your ad was seen this many times. Mm-hmm. It was clicked on this many times. This many people went to your website, this many people looked at this specific page and put that in the shopping cart and made this purchase of this amount, right?

Yeah. So yeah, with the proper tracking, I can see all of that. But also like, I don't know that Danielle Martin did that. Yeah. Like that's not. That's not data that I get my hands on. Right. Yeah. Um, so there, there is that level of privacy in there. Mm-hmm. But it helps you really understand when you're trying to figure out what kind of content really resonates with their audience.

Mm-hmm. What kind of products are people really interested in? Yeah. You know, [00:18:00] um, like sometimes we'll run carousel ads with lots of different looks. Mm-hmm. And then you see like, oh, they like, pants must be hot right now because everybody's clicking on the pants. But they did not care about that sweater.

Yeah. And then, uh, what are your thoughts on AB testing? We ab test the time. The time. All the time. All the time. Yes. Because like, I mean, why wouldn't you? Right, right. Like if I can put a small chunk of the budget to AB test mm-hmm. To tell me mm-hmm. From a data standpoint, what was the right choice? Why would I ever guess?

Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Now talk to me about the clients that you serve. Um, small business owners, marketing agencies, so the people can understand to your background. Sure. Yeah. So we really work with clients all across the board. Mm-hmm. I've got some, um, entrepreneurs that are only spending 500 ish dollars a month on ads.

I have got some. Um, giant organizations that are spending a hundred thousand dollars a month on ads. Right. Wow. Literally everywhere in between. Yeah. Obviously the [00:19:00] plans for those look much different. Right. But that's, that's the what the benefits of working with us mm-hmm. Are, you're gonna get a plan that's built very specific to, to your needs, to your goals.

Yeah. Um, but you're gonna get the same amount of time from us. Mm-hmm. Whether you've got that $500 budget or that a hundred thousand dollars budget. Yeah. 'cause we're getting in and touching your campaigns several times a week. Mm-hmm. We're helping you lean into the ads that are performing well because.

We're gonna tell you from the very beginning. Yeah. I'd love to see like three or four ads. Mm. So that the ones that are working, we lean into, yeah. We pull money away from the ones that aren't, and then I'm gonna come back to you and say, Hey Danielle. Mm-hmm. That ad that was, you know, you from the front.

Yeah. With this headlines working really well. Can we get a couple more of those? Right. Right. We are gonna make sure that your investment goes as far as it possibly can. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because like. Yeah, I'm an athlete. My team is full of very like high competitive folks. Um, we [00:20:00] wanna win and that's exciting.

We wanna do better than we did last week. Mm-hmm. We want you to come back and be like, whoa, that was awesome. Yeah, that's a good analogy. We really think about it. Marketing is really all about like a race. Like how can we figure out like what is working immediately and then just. Like keep running that same like system.

That's so good. I mean, certainly on the digital side it is. I, there's, there's definitely a time and place though where having sort of that broad visual coverage mm-hmm. That's. Like constantly planting seeds so that you know, they're always in the back of your mind. And Yeah. And you see that more in the traditional media, the billboard going down the road, the TV spot or the radio spot mm-hmm.

That, that you, maybe you're not even sitting down, but you still hear it, right? Yeah. Like those are planting seeds and so. Ooh. Um, that's, that's sort of the next evolution of cohort digital is that we are now no longer just digital. We are, this is exciting. All paid media. Right. [00:21:00] Love it. So if you see an ad out in the wild Yeah.

Um, we could help your company get placement there. Yeah. Because we know that while lots of folks spend lots of time on digital Right. That's not the only place that they're being influenced. True. Right? That's good. And so we wanna help clients create this whole landscape of all of the placements that they need to be, to make sure that they're, they're right there for their target audience.

That's good. So now you guys are not only doing digital marketing, you're doing radio, tv. What are some other platforms? Magazine, newspaper. Wow. Good. And we don't, that's good. We don't design anything, right? Mm-hmm. So we are purely the consultants that come in and say, yes. Okay. Based off of your, your plan mm-hmm.

Of like your goals. This is the plan and the strategy that we wanna execute for you. Yeah, that's good. And it's great because we're really impartial, right? Mm-hmm. Like, I don't. I don't have like a favorite TV station. Yeah. I don't have a Right. I'm gonna go to [00:22:00] wherever is going to make the most sense for your target audience.

Mm-hmm. And that's really hard when you're a small business owner and you're like, okay, my media budget for the entire year is $10,000. Yeah. Because you've got. Every single radio station and TV station in town knocking on your door saying like, Hey, we can do good work for you. Right? And they all can, but also you can't afford to be on all of 'em.

Yeah. So, so how do you decide that's good? Where do you go? We go to you, you help us decide, okay, Alyssa, is this gonna be smart for me? Yeah, no, that's what we want. Yeah. Marketing is expensive and I think a lot of people get intimidated and really they get burnt out and I guess I'm glad you clarified that 'cause I was curious you guys create the content too.

Nope. For the client. But that's where I think a lot of people. Telling Alyssa earlier, I was like, I had to take a pause on social media because you know, you gotta build the business, you gotta do the work, you gotta create the content, you gotta post the content, you gotta schedule. Talk about burnout here.

Do you ever have clients like come to you and say like, okay, like I [00:23:00] need you to take this off of me because I can no longer do this. I don't know that I have clients. I mean, I guess some have said that, but it's more one of those things that once they meet us Yeah. And they realize like, yeah. They know what they're doing.

Mm-hmm. This is no longer a weight I'm having to carry by myself. Yeah. I've got this entire team of women that are gonna take care of this team of women. Oh, young girl, girl, let's go. We're all a powerhouse. Um, we're gonna be able to, to take this off of their plate and it's, it's a relief. Yeah. It is a sense of knowing that you've got somebody that's fighting that battle for you when you don't have the time.

Or the energy to do it anymore because you've got, you know, 75 other things that are also on your plate in your job every day. Yeah. Your brand deserves more than just a selfie. It deserves a vision. Captured perfectly. Hi, I'm Danielle J. Martin, and I'm here to help you create a visual identity that creates a lasting impression.[00:24:00] 

So whether you're launching a business or you're enhancing your presence, or you are rebranding your photos are your first. Impression. So our brand photo shoots aren't just for you to take pretty pictures, but they're for you to tell your story, build trust, and connect with your audience in a whole different way.

So if you're ready to elevate your brand that creates a lasting impression, go ahead and click that link down below.

I love that you're excited about data, which is weird, but I'm like, this is why is here. Um, I'll be honest, I'm one of those people that's like, tell me what's working. You know what I mean? Like when it comes to data, like sometimes the numbers like are overwhelming and I don't know what that means, so, okay.

Let's maybe like be simple a little bit for the audience. Okay. But like, how do you know if specific data is working for a client when it comes to paid media? So I, [00:25:00] you know, first and foremost, look at their goal, and then I try to sort of work my way back. Okay. If our goal is to fill butts in seats, right?

Mm-hmm. We're trying to sell tickets. Yep. So I'm gonna say, okay, uh, we ran this campaign for two weeks. Mm-hmm. And we sold a hundred tickets. Okay? So. At a hundred tickets, how many people did we have to drive to the website to do that? Of the people that we drove to the website, how many ad clicks did that take of the number of ad clicks that that took?

How many impressions did that take to help understand. Are we funding? Are we funding that campaign at the right level? Yeah. But then I'm also gonna get in and look at the four or five different ads we're running and we're gonna say, okay, if those ads mm-hmm. Which one drove the most ticket sales. Right.

You know, what was our lowest cost per ticket? Yeah. And let's lean into that and pull out those ads that are [00:26:00] not performing. Mm-hmm. So that's how I use the data. Okay. Um. It. It is. It is all about finding the data points that really align with the goals that you've set. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. I'm glad you mentioned impressions.

Can you explain like what that is? Sure. And I know some people are like, oh, does that mean like someone is interacting with me? Does that mean someone just scrolled on my. You know? Yeah, I was gonna say, so an impression is that ad was loaded on a page. That person may not have scrolled down to ever even see that ad.

It is purely that ad or that piece of content was served. Okay. But it doesn't really do anything for you. Okay. No, I mean, it potentially, potentially it, it leaves a brand impression, you know? But again. What if my ad was down in the footer of the website and what you were looking for, you didn't [00:27:00] even have to ever scroll.

Right. Okay. Let's go even more specific on content creators, online coaches, people who are basically have online businesses. Okay. Let's say that, um, what is working for them in the digital marketing space? I think. When they just, 'cause you're online, you know what I mean? It's like if everyone is doing the same thing, it seems like.

Yeah. How do you stand out? Uh, I mean, that's a great question. That's, that's why I'm not a content creator, Danielle. Um. The things that the, the places where I've seen people be really successful is when they are very methodical mm-hmm. About their content creation. Yeah. Right. That's good. Like they are putting out a podcast at a very, uh, um, regular cadence.

Mm-hmm. Whether that's once a month or once a week, but that's not the only thing they're putting out there. Yeah. They're complimenting that podcast with a blog post that's [00:28:00] covering similar things because some of. Some people will never, ever listen to that podcast, but they might find your blog post.

Right. Um, it's, that's true. It's better indexable from an indexable standpoint on Google. It's more likely people will find that, um, there. So your podcast available everywhere. Podcast can be available. Yeah. You're posting it on YouTube. You're putting links on all your social media. Mm-hmm. You're doing this blog post, you're taking little pieces of it.

Like if, if this podcast is a rock mm-hmm. You are then putting little pebbles of it that you've chipped down. Yeah. All over the place for the, you know, you could probably get a week or two weeks worth of content out of a, out of a really solid podcast For sure. And then you follow that up with an email mm-hmm.

Where you're promoting the podcast, you're extracting a couple of highlights. Mm-hmm. And it's just. Being consistent and it's Right. It's great. I mean, you have, you have a template for it so that you're not having to like, recreate the wheel every [00:29:00] time. A hundred percent. Yep. But it, but it's doing that. And then when you, when you feel like you've found your niche, making that investment mm-hmm.

To really make sure that you're getting that out in front of new folks. Mm. Right. So part of the way you're gonna grow, um. Your, your audience for this content creation, whether it's podcasting, blogging, whatever. Mm-hmm. It's gonna be by bringing new eyeballs on it by ha, by having guests host. Mm-hmm. Or, or, you know, by having guests come on your podcast, having somebody come in and guest blog interviewing somebody.

Yeah. So that they have a reason to share with their entire network. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's good. You wanna take it a step further by, you know, really supplementing, like let's say you interview somebody that's in the aviation field. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, find ways to, to go out mm-hmm. And really make sure that that podcast gets in front of people that would have interest in that aviation topic.

Right? Yeah. So, you know, you're. That's good. You go through and you [00:30:00] boost your post based off of those things. If you aren't running a full on ad campaign mm-hmm. It's tough, right? Mm-hmm. Like everybody Yeah. Is creating content. My, my 11-year-old creates fantastic content. Yeah. About the NBA. Yeah. Oh, that's nice.

And he's putting, well, I mean it is, but it's also like, he's like, well, I stop using the computer. Oh God. Oh my God. That's funny. Wait, what is he using like. Like YouTube or he's using cap cut and PO and then posting it on YouTube. Wow. Kid doesn't even have TikTok account. Wow. I don't know how he's doing it all.

Wow. Cap cut. Yeah. That's a pro. That's a pro. So here's the thing that is mind blowing to me. Yeah. Um, he started it on YouTube channel, not. Terribly surprising with that, uh, by the time I found out about it. Mm-hmm. He had already had, you know, five or six videos and these videos have thousands of views. Oh my God.

And he's talking about one topic. He's, but that's the [00:31:00] thing is he is very narrowly focused on Oh, that's good. Creating content about the NB. Yes, that's good. Okay. Because people are afraid to niche down. Oh, it's all about niching down. Yeah. Right. Like that's how you find your audience. Mm-hmm. If you're talking about anything and everything, then you better have already had a following somewhere.

Right. Like you're, you know, yeah. The Kelsey's or so, you know. Yeah. I mean, like literally you, you've done something that puts the, the star shining on you. Yeah. 'cause just, you know, your average Joe. Um, so before he did this NBA stuff, he was using my YouTube channel. Mm-hmm. And I, I mean, like as a 6-year-old Yeah.

We were making videos about him doing Lego builds. Okay. I knew you'd be shocked at how many views he got for Lego building. Like that's all he did. Wow. And, and part of that was coaching from me because I told 'em like, no, no, no, we're not, we're not doing all this other stuff. Mm-hmm. [00:32:00] That's, if you wanna gain a following, you have to be very consistent about Yeah.

Like, so that your audience, when they come back because they want more, more is there, it is not like, oh. Well, today you're doing a cooking show. Mm-hmm. Because he also wanted to do a cooking show. No, no. We're not doing that. Yeah. I think that's important to keep reiterating too, because I think as a small business owner, when you first start, I think there's this like.

Overwhelm, imposter syndrome, you know, tactic that's like, I'm gonna miss out and I wanna make sure people know I do all of these different things. But even for me, I had to learn to just like go back to the drawing board, start with what, you know, eventually expand. But how long would you say talking about like a specific topic or niching down, like how long should you stay in that lane?

I think you need to stay there for at least a year before you determine like, oh, I don't, I don't think this is working. Hmm, that's good. And, and then like, you know, you've. Assuming [00:33:00] that you've been really regular with your cadence, you've been really regular with sticking on that topic. Yeah. Then you can move on feeling confident that okay, that wasn't it.

But you know what, that doesn't mean that it's a it for you. Yeah. Pivot into the thing that either interests you or that you've picked up from what you've done. Right. That is, but at the end of the day, Danielle, it's gotta be something that's really important to you. Mm-hmm. So that you don't get burnt out about it.

Right. 'cause if you're just following the trends, at some point you're gonna be like. That's good. I don't even like this. That was my follow up question. Okay. So I wanna get into like messaging. Right. Okay. And when you're helping clients message around like, um. Kind of like similar to what you just said, literally around I'm gonna follow the trend, versus like, I'm gonna speak more professional or I'm gonna speak more.

Um, just like conversational, like even for me, like my brand voice I had to find is very conversational. Yeah. It's not like. Hi, I am Danielle Martin and you know, I'm here [00:34:00] today talking with Alyssa about digital marketing. Like I had to scratch all of that. Um, how do you help clients, I guess, find that brand voice?

And I guess like how do you know what's working, especially when it comes to paid ads? Like is it more professional, is it more like, it depends on the client, obviously, but Yeah, I mean, so it definitely depends on the client. I think the thing that I would say here is. That is not probably so much in my wheelhouse.

Okay. Most of the time they've figured that out by the time they come to you. By the time they get to us. Right. Good to know. Yeah. You've, by the time you're ready to run paid ads mm-hmm. You typically have an established brand brand look. Yep. You typically have a website that is up to date with accurate information.

Right. I keep preaching to the choir point. You, you'd be amazed. Yes. Like we have, we have straight up turned away work where I'm like, wow. Um, your website, that web, that that phone number on your website was from the old owner. [00:35:00] So I'm gonna send traffic to your site and then they're gonna. Call the guy that used to own this company, and then it's like on his goodwill to pass it along to you.

Like, I don't, I don't know that I'd make that investment personally. Yeah. Get good to know. Get access to your website and make that update, man, that's not hard. Yeah, good to know. Um, but yeah, I mean that things like that are pretty common where you are like, mm-hmm. Well, so you're selling this thing, but you haven't uploaded any photos or content about it.

Yeah. Where, where do I send people? Right. And then how do they, how do they raise their hand and say they want it? If, if it's just, you're just not ready yet. Right? Right. Get, get all your duck ducks in a row before you spend any money. That's good to know. And, okay, quick checklist. Let's go through that. So by the time someone.

Is ready to run paid ads, what is the checklist? By the time they're ready to come and meet with you, what do you need to make sure that their [00:36:00] campaigns are successful? Sure. So, um, I'm gonna ask you, what are your goals? I'm gonna ask you. Your about your target audience. And I'm going to, I'm gonna dig pretty deep because there are some, I've, I've been doing this for a while now, and so, you know, if you come to me and you say like, Hey, um, I'm interested in getting people to come and visit my community.

Mm-hmm. And I'm, we're doing a tourism thing. Mm-hmm. I travel a pretty regular amount, but I've been working in tourism for 15 years. Yeah. So I have a pretty good idea. Mm-hmm. I need to know what makes your community special. Mm, yeah. Right? Yeah. But we really wanna dig in on that target audience. Yeah. Then I'm gonna ask like.

What? What platforms are you regularly producing content in? Yeah. I am not gonna suggest a TikTok campaign if y'all aren't on TikTok already. Right? Right. Thank you. I'm not gonna suggest a LinkedIn campaign if you're not on there. No one's been able to access the LinkedIn, Facebook, or the LinkedIn [00:37:00] pay profile for the company.

Yeah, talk about it for two years. Right? 'cause that, that's a common thing. Uhhuh. If marketing is turning over. Sometimes people dunno how to get into, like, that's why our Facebook page isn't updated. No one has access to it. Well then we should probably not run ads there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, that's good to know.

So, so we, we wanna understand where mm-hmm. And then are you already running ads? If you are, what are, what are those things? 'cause I wanna make sure that we're being consistent in look Yeah. We're being consistent in tone. Yeah. And that we're not. Spending money where there's gonna be potential overlap.

Mm-hmm. I want this to add on to not collide with. That's good. Then I really wanna understand, you know, the, the timeframe for the campaign. Mm-hmm. The budget of the campaign. Right. Do you already have ad creative? If you don't, I can. I can. Give you the, Hey, these are all the sizes we're gonna need. Mm-hmm.

Here's some, you know, helpful tips on best, you know, best practices for Yeah. Video or for, for [00:38:00] whatever. Yeah. Um, but understanding what those a, uh, ad types are, so that if you don't have a videographer on staff mm-hmm. And you've got a budget of $5,000, I don't come back and tell you, Hey, we should be doing YouTube because Right.

By the time you. Pay for the, if you, yeah, you, if you don't have the capability to do it in house. Right. By the time you go out and you get a videographer to create that 15 or 32nd YouTube ad. Yeah. It might be 5,000. I was gonna say your YouTube ad budget just got it. At best probably cut in half, right? If not, potentially all depending on where you're going and what you're asking for.

Yeah, those are good. Those are really good like tips and items to check off because I don't think people are really thinking about that. Kind of like going back to access to the social media account. 'cause I'm sure by the time, you know, people come to you, the expert, they're like, well, help me, like get inside and figure it out.

And you're like, that's great, but we, you know, for you to get successful faster, you know, um, it. Make sure you have access to all of your logins. [00:39:00] Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, well, because also I'm gonna need you mm-hmm. To sh to add someone on our team to your page. Right. To get access. Yeah. 'cause we wanna run ads that look like they're coming from your page.

Right. Which means. We need access. Yeah, we have that access. Yeah. And going back to your website, it's interesting that people's websites are not up to date. Yeah. And it's interesting because, so in the area that I help people's, like with professional photos, right? Making sure you have professional photos that go on the website.

To look up to date. And so it's just interesting that it's like, okay guys, I'm not crazy here. We have Alyssa, like reiterating, like your website needs to be up to date. So, oh, that is probably the most frequent thing that we will turn people away from, where it's like, okay, you wanna spend $10,000, but you're driving people to a website for a paragraph of information about this thing.

Yeah. Give give me a full landing page. Yeah. Tell me. You know, let the, let the person that's [00:40:00] reading there understand the who, what the why, but also, yeah, that's good. What's the next step? If the call to action's not on there, right? Then you need to understand that what I'm really running is an awareness campaign.

Ooh, that's good. That's good. Okay. Awareness campaigns. What are some other campaigns that you guys run? Sure, so there's, there's like brand awareness, which is basically just trying to get out in front of your target audience as many people in your target audience. Much as we possibly can. Mm-hmm. And without being annoying.

Right? Yeah. Like there are thresholds before you're like, girl, I'm so tired of that up. I'm unfollowing. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. So, so you've got that. You've got conversion based campaigns where we are all about trying to get. Whatever that goal is accomplished, whether that's a purchase, a lead generation, uh, um, you know, driving people in person to a specific event.

Yeah, that's good. Those, those are basically like the two umbrellas of the campaigns that we run. Okay. So earlier, I know we said we're gonna talk about this [00:41:00] data privacy laws. Yeah. Such a big word. Okay. What does that mean? Um, as a business owner. Do we need to even know, obviously, like what all entails under this data privacy laws, like when it comes to marketing?

Sure. So, well, I mean, to some extent it depends on what state your customers are in, right? Like if we're out in California, then our data privacy laws are different than when we're in Kansas, which are different than we are in I Oregon, Massachusetts. Lots of states are going after some level of privacy law.

Yeah. There are just some things that we can't do, right? Like we can't advertise to a younger age demo. Um. You if you are running Google Analytics on your site mm-hmm. Which we're gonna want, we wanna understand what's happening on the site. Mm-hmm. You need to let the people that are visiting your site know that through a privacy policy.

Right. You need to have a popup that allows people to decide whether or not it's okay [00:42:00] for you to put cookies on their site. Yeah. So that you can understand what's going on. You can recognize them when they come back. Mm-hmm. All of those things help empower people to decide what's best for them. I'm in marketing sometimes I'm like, yeah, accept these cookies.

That's great. Let's go. Yeah. And then sometimes I'm like, no, no, bro, you don't need that. Yeah. Like, I'm doing a single transaction with you. Mm-hmm. I gotta, I gotta look at this piece of information. I will never be on this site again. Right. I would say I probably lean towards more of the accept. Mm-hmm.

Because the more knowledge a website has about me mm-hmm. The more it is going to be catered to me. Right. Yeah. That's good. Like I always talk about how, um. I like the idea of personalization mm-hmm. And getting ads that are very specific to me because Yeah. I, it en it enhances my internet experience.

Right. There are gonna be ads on the internet, whether you like it or not, because you are not, for the most part. Mm-hmm. Paying to do that. Right. I don't pay to have a Facebook page. Right. I don't pay [00:43:00] to, to, I don't know. Look at. people.com. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. So those ads have to be there because it's not free for people to have their own website.

Right. And so I'd rather them be catered to me than just be like random stuff. Right. Like I always, I always make the joke when I was a little kid. Mm-hmm. We didn't get a lot of channels. I would watch the prices. Right. Every day at 10 o'clock. The ads that are on during price is Right. Are not targeted for children.

Right. They're targeted for those children's grandparents. Right, right. So like I knew a whole lot about adult underpants and Meta Aus and all these things. Yeah. Because you know that. The general demographic of that program. Right. That resonated with, yeah. But on the internet, it is really more of a one-to-one instead of this very general thing.

Yeah, and I'd really like that one to be what I want it to be right. And things that I might actually have interest in and might enhance what I'm, you know, [00:44:00] my life in general. I love the way you just explained all of that because No, I think seriously, so solid because again, I think we are using tools be, we are unaware why we're using them.

So like, I'll be honest, I'm sure someone is thinking, I accept cookies all the time, but I don't know what I'm accepting. Yeah. You know what I mean? Sure. And so the way that you just explained that it's all about like, if I'm accepting something to enhance my internet experience, to target me, maybe it's something I like.

Shoes, or it's Amazon or something, but like, you know, you are now attracting the things that you like versus like having things that are, 'cause the way that this world is working right now with just crate chaos. Yeah. Like, I don't like politics personally, so it's like I don't want politics all on my internet experience For sure.

You know? And, and the way that the internet works mm-hmm. Is. Google or whatever, whatever platform is serving ads for that particular [00:45:00] website. Yeah. They are taking all of those little data signals mm-hmm. That, that come around with Danielle Martin's online presence. Yeah. And they're making these like, you know, millions of a second decisions of like, these are the ads that mean show to Danielle.

Right. That, that really are reflective of what they know about you, what you've been doing on the internet. Mm-hmm. My brother and I have, have long, had conversations about my, my brother is also like a computer engineer guy. Mm-hmm. So he, like, he understands how the internet works. Mm-hmm. He, he gets it and he's like, I will gladly let you know whatever you need to know about my online experience.

Right. If, if it means that the internet stays free for me. Right, right. Because like there's a lot of valuable things that you can learn. Right. And when. I was having another conversation with someone on my team the other day, and she was talking about like, when we get to the point where there's so much AI that there's, it's just the internet's [00:46:00] become rife with misinformation.

Yeah. Right, right. Like hours aren't right. Um, so I'm showing up at places and they're closed. Right. And I can't, I can't count on the price, I can't count on the, the facts. Mm-hmm. If, if that stuff all becomes so mo muddled and no one really can trust it anymore, then at that point I don't. Like, what's the value of the internet?

Right? I mean, I guess maybe entertainment. Wow. But also, I'm kind of at a era in my life where entertainment from the internet is not happening. I don't have time for that. No. At all. I'm good. I My kids do. Yeah. Yeah. Kids will watch YouTube. As long as you let them, you're like, you need to go outside. I need, yeah.

Every day I'm like, turn it off. That is so funny. Let's go outside. Yeah, let's shoot some basket. S Okay. So this conversation was so valuable. I really appreciate it. First of all, I'm like over here geeking out because I'm like, I could talk about marketing all day. Okay. But as we come to a close, what are some things [00:47:00] that, I mean, you would maybe as you're learning, um, through your process of being in the digital marketing space, but now expanding your services in the arena of marketing, um, as business owners are coming to you, as clients are coming to you, what's, what are some things maybe you're finding out the latest.

It could be anything, information that we need to know as consumers. I mean, I think as consumers you should always really think about where your information source is coming from. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. And understand the motivation behind it. Um, because I think we do live in a world where people are using ai, but in like the most simplistic way possible.

Mm-hmm. And so it's not great. There's a lot of really. Bad stuff on the internet. Mm-hmm. Um, so really try to understand what, what it is in question, what you're reading, what you're looking at. Yeah. Um, but I would say like, as a, as a business owner, the thing [00:48:00] that I would say is I have conversations with people, right.

Have conversations with, with your target audience, with people that are coming into your store or, or whatever. Um. Have conversations with the vendors that you're working with. Mm-hmm. And be as transparent as you can possibly be. Right? Yeah. Like we're all out to learn. Mm-hmm. And I am of the opinion that the majority of us really wanna help other people.

Yeah. Right. Like that's the reason that I got into this way back in the day was I saw the frustration of. People trying to work with these third parties that are like, oh, well we're located in Chicago. Oh we're in Georgia. Yeah. And you're talking to the sales rep. Mm-hmm. That doesn't really know. So they're gonna have to go talk to the person that's actually placing the ads.

And by the time you do that telephone talk mm-hmm. The question you had took you a week and a half to get an answer to. Yes. So if there was some type of like action that was supposed [00:49:00] to come from that insight. You've now lost a week and a half plus, you're gonna have to say, Hey, go have them do this.

Yeah. Which adds more time to it. And then no transparency in pricing. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Like, um, very early on I kind of had the opportunity to, to pull the curtain back and be like, we. We, that was, that was a 12 cent click. Mm-hmm. And you're charging my client 75 cents. Wow. And, and on top of that, you're taking a management fee.

Like what's happening, y'all are putting in pools and like, I don't know, every one of your 25 children are getting braces. What's going on? Alyssa's, like, this is not right. Wow. 12 cents to 75 cents. Oh yeah. Jeez. Giant. Giant markups. Yeah, and it just. You know, I don't, yeah. Marketing is outright, outright expensive and it is insane.

Yeah, you'd mentioned it earlier. [00:50:00] Videography, photography, all of these things. And what I'm learning is that there's a lot of people overly charging and overpricing for something they are not delivering like value-wise For sure. And it's very sad. And well, and then, I mean, don't get me wrong. Yeah. Like there are.

TV spots mm-hmm. That are worth the a hundred thousand dollars they paid. Yeah. Right. A hundred percent. Like there are also people that are paying Yeah. $25,000 for a TV spot that probably should have been $5,000. Yeah. Right, right. Like, yeah, there's just, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people in this industry that, I don't know, I, I don't know how they say that, but it, but it was very frustrating because I'm, I'm.

Born and raised in Kansas. Mm-hmm. And I just don't, you know, you treat people the way you wanna be treated and you just don't do people like that. Yeah. Right. Not at all. Any other things that we need to keep in mind going into 2026? [00:51:00] Um, anything? Yeah. Don't, don't be afraid of ai. I mean, like, yes, be skeptical of ai mm-hmm.

But you need to embrace it. Mm-hmm. Whatever that looks like for you. You need to, you know, if you're in the workforce, you need to figure out how to really use it. To help sort of fill the deficits that you have. Yeah. And understand it so that you can benefit. 'cause E, everybody else is going to be. Yeah.

Wow. What a phenomenal conversation with you, Alyssa. Thank you so much. Yeah. Okay. I know we're gonna have to have her back because Yeah. The gems were dropped today. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for watching the Authentic Media Podcast, YouTube at Authentic Media Company. Our mission is to help you develop an authentic brand so you can make the impact that you are called to make.

If you got anything from today's episode, make sure you drop a comment down below. I'm interested to see what your takeaways are, and if you haven't already, [00:52:00] make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel so you can be the first to know when we drop our newest episode. In the meantime. Have a great day.