4 ms·

Selling more sales (aka marketing) is the ultimate value proposition. Google and FB print money because they call up business and say “Pay us $$ and we’ll give

Selling more sales (aka marketing) is the ultimate value proposition. Google and FB print money because they call up business and say “Pay us $$ and we’ll give you $$$”.

Gigachad 5y ago
I wonder how much of it is a zero sum game. Some amount of advertising would induce impulse purchase but surely some of it like marketing for a plumber just causes sales to be redirected to the one who spent the most on marketing rather than actually creating new sales.
- jcims 5y ago
  If your plumber's marketing is 'hey I'm plumber mcplungerface, call me' then yes. If your marketing is 'Hey <local high school football team mascot>s, protect your family from black mold! For $249 we'll inspect and treat your sump pump and water conditioning system and guarantee the work for ten years' you'll generate demand.
  - quickthrower2 5y ago
    Plumbers are a bad example: Its hard to find one thats even available around here. Some just say “sorry booked for 3 months”
    - jcims 5y ago
      There’s one not far from me that has taken a more modern approach and now has 20 employees.
      - quickthrower2 5y ago
        Good for them. But thats 20 people who are not working elsewhere and the macro supply/demand ratios are the same.
- antisthenes 5y ago
  Google's business model for the last decade has been to pitch people who want advertising against each other, bidding ever higher for top placements. It's up to you to decide whether that's a zero-sum game (personally I don't think it is by a strict definition), but Google is certainly responsible for more and more companies allocating an ever growing part of their budget to advertising. It isn't immediately obvious whether that results in more business. Some of these companies may be spending more and more just to keep the same amount of sales due to bid prices increasing. This effect is somewhat masked in a vibrant and growing economy, so it's not that easy to distill.
  - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
    I suppose in theory people only have so much to spend but on the other hand growing the economy grows that disposable income. What I found was indirect competitors with deep VC funded pockets were bidding rates high enough that it wasn't viable for me. I say indirect as they didn't compete against my product but did bid on the same keywords. I wonder if there is some upper limit on how much advertisers can extract from the economy before they start to weaken it.

Selling more sales (aka marketing) is the ultimate value proposition. Google and FB print money because they call up business and say “Pay us $$ and we’ll give you $$$”.

Gigachad 5y ago

I wonder how much of it is a zero sum game. Some amount of advertising would induce impulse purchase but surely some of it like marketing for a plumber just causes sales to be redirected to the one who spent the most on marketing rather than actually creating new sales.

jcims 5y ago
If your plumber's marketing is 'hey I'm plumber mcplungerface, call me' then yes. If your marketing is 'Hey <local high school football team mascot>s, protect your family from black mold! For $249 we'll inspect and treat your sump pump and water conditioning system and guarantee the work for ten years' you'll generate demand.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  Plumbers are a bad example: Its hard to find one thats even available around here. Some just say “sorry booked for 3 months”
  - jcims 5y ago
    There’s one not far from me that has taken a more modern approach and now has 20 employees.
    - quickthrower2 5y ago
      Good for them. But thats 20 people who are not working elsewhere and the macro supply/demand ratios are the same.
antisthenes 5y ago
Google's business model for the last decade has been to pitch people who want advertising against each other, bidding ever higher for top placements. It's up to you to decide whether that's a zero-sum game (personally I don't think it is by a strict definition), but Google is certainly responsible for more and more companies allocating an ever growing part of their budget to advertising. It isn't immediately obvious whether that results in more business. Some of these companies may be spending more and more just to keep the same amount of sales due to bid prices increasing. This effect is somewhat masked in a vibrant and growing economy, so it's not that easy to distill.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago
  I suppose in theory people only have so much to spend but on the other hand growing the economy grows that disposable income. What I found was indirect competitors with deep VC funded pockets were bidding rates high enough that it wasn't viable for me. I say indirect as they didn't compete against my product but did bid on the same keywords. I wonder if there is some upper limit on how much advertisers can extract from the economy before they start to weaken it.