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It comes from the real economy in the sense that it is money they could be spent on something productive, but was instead wasted on ads.
by bee_rider 1y ago
It comes from the real economy in the sense that it is money they could be spent on something productive, but was instead wasted on ads.
- piva00 1y agoIn a video I watched recently there was a breakdown of how much a plumbing company had to spend on "marketing" (aka: Google ads placement, Facebook/Instagram) to attract customers and their per-click pay was about 60 USD, they were spending around 16-18k USD per month on online ads to keep the business afloat. I had no idea that physical small businesses like that needed to spend so much on marketing just to be found.
- jdross 1y agoThe very first thing you discover as a business owner managing cashflow is how hard you must work to get customers versus to provide a service.
- ch4s3 1y agoHave to seems like a strong phrase. I found my last plumber and window guy on a facebook neighborhood group. Local ads for general services can be quite expensive, but doing some marketing through local groups only costs your time. I can see how driving business though clicks is attractive, but I'd be surprised if there was no alternative.
- piva00 1y agoHave to if you want to scale the business, if you are a sole trader doing small gigs it's probably very achievable to only use local groups. If you rely on people searching for "plumbers in <X> city" while running a small business with some 5-10 folks I don't think you'd get enough work.
- bryanlarsen 1y agoYou don't want to use a plumber that has scaled their business. That means that they're sending out a new hire to do your plumbing rather than the plumber that originally built the company's reputation. The best plumbers spend $0 on advertising. They've got enough business through repeat customers and word of mouth to keep their small set of plumbers busy, and they're expanding slowly enough to properly train apprentices and ensure quality.
- ncruces 1y agoAnd, as a customer, you find that plumber how? What about when they tell you they'll be available 2 months from now for a 1 day service?
- bryanlarsen 1y agoYou find the plumber by asking your local network. Neighbors, etc.
- lotsoweiners 1y agoWhen I needed an emergency water heater I asked my boss who manages a few of his rental properties. When I needed a new roof I asked one of Facebook/Reddit/Nextdoor. I’d always favor word of mouth recommendations vs advertising.
- insane_dreamer 1y agoThat's great for already establish plumbers, not for new ones.
- giancarlostoro 1y agoIts worse if you get bombarded with negative reviews, which is why stuff like yelp holding you hostage is so bad. If you own an independent business outside of marketing, your reputation is everything. Especially now that anyone can blast your name because they didnt like how you said shiboleth or whatever. So if you have a zillion negative yelp reviews, which you have no idea where they came from, since there's more negative reviews than you've ever had customers, but they want your money to hide them. ;)
- wiether 1y ago> In a video I watched recently Macy with Morning Brew ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucWsaVbEu78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucWsaVbEu78
- piva00 1y agoExactly that one, couldn't remember at the time I posted, thanks!
- xnx 1y ago> they were spending around 16-18k USD per month Unfortunately, this doesn't mean too much without knowing the size of the business.
- cm2012 1y agoAds are a necessary matching method in capitalism, there is no better alternative unfortunately.
- bee_rider 1y agoI don’t think this is true, but I also don’t know anybody way to verify it either way. Enthusiast forums were always a better source, although native ads can mess that up. But, even if ads are a necessary evil, they are definitely overhead (in the sense that they don’t actually accomplish anything, just influence the decision as to what should be done). Maybe we can define some sort of ad-efficiency metric for an economy; what percentage of the money is spent influencing decisions, what percentage is spent actually implementing the decisions…
- cm2012 1y agoHere is a longer version of my thinking: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44714407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44714407
- msgodel 1y agoI don't know if that's quite right. A nice business directory would probably be better but most people don't want to settle for that.
- cm2012 1y agoHere is a longer version of my thinking: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44714407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44714407
- msgodel 1y agoNah I don't think the directories need to be reviewed (except for listings for things that don't actually exist.) Just show the listings in lexicographic order like how phone books worked. We already have the law as the meta norm. Let law enforcement do its job.
- msgodel 1y agoSales are the most important thing in business. Everything else only matters insofar as it drives sales.
- bee_rider 1y agoBusinesses aren’t real, they are just imaginary things that people use to help us organize the act of building and distributing things.