Avoid These 5 Marketing Mistakes

Rising Ad Costs Are a Problem.

Wasting Budget is a Choice.

When I used to run marketing operations, I saw 1 thing over and over. Brands throwing money at paid ads like it was THE magic bullet. The thinking was simple. Spend more, get more leads, grow faster.

But, that is not how it actually works.

Ad platforms are built to extract as much money as possible from advertisers. If you do not know how to play the game, you are going to overpay for clicks, burn through budgets, and wonder why performance keeps getting worse.

The best marketers are not the ones who have the biggest budgets. They are the ones who know where to spend, when to spend, and when to pull back.

When I was deep in the weeds of marketing operations, I learned to see paid acquisition differently. It is not just a faucet you turn on and off. It is part of a larger system that connects demand creation, targeting, conversion, and retention into a single machine built for sustainable growth.

Here is how I think about keeping Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) under control while still scaling.

1️⃣. Create Demand Before You Pay for Every Lead

Most brands treat paid ads like a magic growth lever. But, the truth is if nobody knows your brand, your ads are working against you.

Ad platforms prioritize engagement. If people scroll past your ad without clicking, costs go up. If people recognize your brand and engage, costs go down.

This is why paid ads should not be your 1st touchpoint. Instead, build familiarity and credibility before a prospect ever sees an ad.

Here is how:

✅:  Invest in dark social — Your buyers are in LinkedIn comments, Slack groups, Discord, and niche communities. Be active there. The Marketing Millennials started because I wanted to test LinkedIn as a channel back in my marketing operations days. 

✅:  Run low-cost video ads — Engagement campaigns make future conversion ads cheaper.

✅:  Leverage personal brands — People trust people more than logos. Get your team posting content.

When you do this, by the time your paid ads hit, your audience is already primed. They know who you are. They trust you. They click. And, your CAC drops.

2️⃣. Fix Your Targeting or Keep Burning Cash on the Wrong People

Once you’ve created demand, you need to be ruthless about where you spend ad dollars.

Too many brands are still wasting budget on broad audience targeting instead of focusing on buyers who are actually ready to convert.

✅: Retarget like a psycho — If someone visits your pricing page, downloads content, or engages multiple times, they are in the buying window.

✅: Use account-based marketing lists in B2B — Upload lists of actual decision-makers and stop paying for unqualified clicks.

✅: Prioritize high-value customers in B2C — Optimize for lifetime value, not just cheap clicks.

This is how the best companies keep CAC low without cutting ad spend.

3️⃣. Your Landing Pages Are Bleeding Money

Getting clicks is not enough. If your landing pages are not tested for conversion, you are just lighting money on fire.

The biggest problem? Most brands send traffic to generic homepages or bloated lead forms instead of high-intent conversion pages.

✅: Stop sending ad traffic to your homepage without testing another LP against it — Use pricing pages, demo forms, or quizzes that guide users toward conversion.

✅: Reduce friction — No one wants to fill out a ten-field form. Use autofill, one-click signups, and social logins. You can get more info later. 

✅: Make pages fast — A one-second delay in load time can drop conversions by 7%. Speed matters.

If your landing pages do not match the intent of your ads, you are losing conversions before the conversation even starts.

4️⃣. Your Ads Are Fatiguing Faster Than You Think

Ad platforms prioritize fresh creative. The longer you run the same ads, the more expensive they become. If you are not launching and testing new hooks constantly, you are losing money.

✅ Swap out creatives every seven days—Ad fatigue starts fast. Do not let performance decay. When I say swap out, I mean add new creative. Don’t turn off anything that’s performing, EVER. That’s a rule. 

✅ Use native content styles—A heavily branded ad will get scrolled past, but a lo-fi UGC-style ad feels organic and converts better. Whitelist that UGC and now we’re cooking. 

✅ Repurpose organic content—If a LinkedIn post or tweet goes viral, turn it into an ad. If a TikTok performs well, retarget with it. Good organic content is good paid content.  

Creative is the most controllable lever for lowering CAC. But, most brands are still running ads like it is 2018.

5️⃣. If You Are Only Focused on Paid You Are Playing the Short Game

Paid ads work, but they are not a moat. If your only acquisition strategy is spending more money on Meta and Google, you are renting your audience instead of owning it.

✅: Invest in owned media — Email, SMS, and organic content give you a direct line to your audience that does not cost you per click.

✅: Turn customers into a distribution channel — Affiliate programs, referrals, and community-driven marketing amplify reach without driving up ad spend.

✅: Use retention marketing to increase revenue per customer — If your LTV goes up, you can afford to spend more to acquire each customer.

The brands that build long term growth do not rely on paid. They use it to accelerate demand they already own.

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