Have you ever seen people arguing about which is better, Google Ads or Meta?
It’s a heated, ongoing debate that thoroughly misses the point.
Comparing Google and Meta Ads is like comparing an SUV to a helicopter. They’re both vehicles designed to get you somewhere, but they do it differently and neither is appropriate for every situation.
So how do you know which platform to choose? And what about email, OTT, SEO, and all the other channels?
I’m glad you asked.
The Market Journey Path
I’ve discussed the Market Journey Path before, but I’m going to go over it again for some context before I can explain channel strategy.
It’s a map of the journey every individual in every market experiences whenever they have a problem. In short, it’s a universal marketing strategy framework.
I break it up into “markets” based on the state of problem awareness and resolution because you’ll be marketing to people differently based on which stage of the journey they’re in.
Here’s a recap of the different stages, or “market segments”:
Contented Market: People here either don’t have a problem your business can solve, or they’re unaware of it.
Suffering Market: These people know they have a problem and are actively experiencing pain from it.
Waiting Market: This is a subset of the Suffering Market. People here know about their problem but aren’t ready to solve it yet. They might need more information, time, or resources.
Buying Market: These are the people ready to pay for a solution to their problem. They’ve done their research and are now looking for the best solution.
Contented Market (Post-Purchase): After a purchase, customers return to a state of contentment, but now with the solution you provided. This is where you nurture the relationship to keep them content regarding that problem and help them solve other problems.
Because you’re dealing with lots of people in every market segment, there will be groups of people moving through each stage at different times and at different speeds.
What you want to do is recognize how to speak to people based on their progress down this path of problem awareness and which channels are best for addressing each market segment.
For example, you could theoretically use direct mail to target the suffering market with a message about their problem, but it would be a big waste in most cases. However, sending direct mail to past customers with a coupon code or promotion can actually be very profitable.
Likewise, you shouldn’t expect a flood of new customers because you rented billboard space, but attorneys and realtors buy them for a reason.
All of these channels exist and are still in use because they work for some people in some situations.
Here’s the Market Journey Path again with each market segment’s goal and a list of channels that excel in achieving that goal:
Contented Market
Goal: Create awareness about the problem, its symptoms, and your solution. Get people to self-identify as your customer.
- Social Media Ads (Meta, LinkedIn, X)
- Display Ads (Google Display Network)
- Video Ads (YouTube & Meta)
- Content Marketing (Blogs, Articles, Organic Social)
- Influencer Marketing:
- OTT (Over-the-Top) Advertising
Suffering Market
Goal: Educate about the problem and introduce your solution. Demonstrate credibility & create urgency.
- Search Ads (Research-based KWs on Google & Bing)
- Content Marketing (Whitepapers, E-books, Detailed Guides, etc)
- Webinars and Online Events
- Infomercials
- Video Ads (YouTube & Meta)
- Forums, Groups, & Q&A Platforms (Reddit, Quora, FB or Skool Groups, etc)
- SEO
Waiting Market
Goal: Nurture potential customers, overcome objections, and build trust until they’re ready to buy.
- Email Marketing
- Retargeting (Meta, Google, Bing, etc)
- Content Marketing (Case Studies, Success Stories)
- Direct Mail
- Podcasts
Buying Market
Goal: Get people who are ready to buy to choose you. Generate ROI.
- Search Ads (Google, Bing)
- Product Comparison Pages
- Direct Sales Outreach
- Remarketing Campaigns
- Google Shopping Ads
- Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Contented Market (Post-Purchase)
Goal: Retain customers, ensure satisfaction, and encourage reviews and/or referrals.
- Email Marketing
- Loyalty Programs
- Social Media Engagement
- Customer Support Channels
- Community Building (Forums, Groups)
- Referral Programs
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. I left out specific use cases for each channel at each stage so you can use your imagination and fill in the blanks.
But now that you get the gist of which channels serve to communicate with each market segment, you should be able to start piecing together channel mixes in a more strategic way.
But knowing why to use a channel isn’t that helpful if you don’t know when to use it.
Identifying Your Client’s Ideal Channel Mix
The Market Journey Path is a helpful tool, but you can’t just start at the top and work your way down.
To grow any business, you have to start with the things that make money and that’s at the bottom of the journey in the Buying Market. You can then expand into nurturing existing customers to cross-sell, upsell, resell, etc, and then you move to the waiting and suffering markets before branching out into the frontiers of the contented market.
To identify what channels your client should be using, there are a lot of factors to consider.
What channels are they currently using? If they’re only using word of mouth, they probably shouldn’t start with billboards. If they’re using 5 different channels and want to add another, you’ll want to look at things more closely.
Which channels are they focused on? If they’re using Google Ads, Meta Ads, Microsoft Ads, Email, and SMS Messaging, they’re a bit heavy on the Buying and Post-Purchase markets.
Assuming they’re getting good results from their existing efforts, a company like that could use some non-search, audience-based marketing to supplement the Meta Ads efforts and cast a wider net. Perhaps SEO or starting an organic YouTube channel?
If they seem to have a pretty good split of channels, such as Google Ads, SEO, Meta Ads, Email, and a solid organic social strategy, you’ll want to start digging into the results of their current efforts.
What is their spend by channel? Sometimes budget allocation is misaligned because a channel is being managed poorly and they could move spend to a more profitable channel for quick wins without having to expand.
What about their cost per lead or per sale? Are they profitable? Focusing on ROAS or conversion volume can wreck a company if they’re getting bad leads or selling $30 products for $15 at a 35% profit margin.
What about their conversion rates? Low conversion rates indicate a higher level of waste, depending on the channel and its goals. It could also stem from targeting the wrong people, presenting the offer in a clumsy way, targeting the right people at the wrong time (e.g. “Buy my $5k course” before they understand their problem), or so many other issues.
What are their close rates on leads from each channel? Low close rates mean you’re probably not focused enough on guiding people through the suffering market and you may need some pre-call emails or a free video series lead magnet instead of focusing on “speed-to-lead” tactics.
If ecommerce, what’s the profit by channel? Amazon may be doing 5x the volume, but if you only make $0.05 per sale and the website nets you $3, which one do you want to push? (Just bear in mind that you may need to focus more on brand-building channels to escape the Amazon/marketplace trap).
How is their branded search volume? If it’s low, that’s an easy indicator that you’re probably not getting enough people familiar with their brand, which tends to happen at the Suffering and Waiting market stages if you want to stand out from the crowd of competitors in the Buying market arena.
There are a lot of ways to identify gaps once you understand the goal of targeting the Buying market first and then expanding into the Post-Purchase, Waiting, and Suffering markets respectively.
Google Ads is an awesome channel for most channel mixes because it can target all of the stages of the Market Journey Path.
However, it’s not always the best choice.
When Is Google Ads A Bad Fit?
Google Ads has tools for every stage of the Market Journey Path.
YouTube and Display for the Contented market. Search, Display, YouTube, and Demand Gen for the Suffering and Waiting markets. Search, Shopping, and Performance Max (in theory) for the Buying market. Whatever retargeting campaign types you want to use.
However, this versatility can’t overcome every problem.
For any company starting with paid advertising, if they don’t have much search volume, Google may not be the best fit.
Yes, you could use all of the non-search campaign types, run YouTube ads, and all that, but you’ll waste a ton of money with little or nothing to show for it if you can’t get people who are actively searching for a solution with the intent to buy.
You tend to see this in a lot of B2B spaces as well.
Even when there is a decent bit of search volume, the buying habits of the market don’t reflect the search volume, which tends to bear more research intent.
Because B2B companies usually have multiple decision makers or stakeholders and thus a more complex buying journey, you rarely have individuals searching for a solution and making a buying decision in one step.
For that reason, you often have to focus on market education and content distribution more than bottom-of-the-funnel searches with high buying intent. While Google Ads can help you distribute your content pretty far, you may do better with channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, organic YouTube, Podcasts, writing in industry publications, and speaking at relevant industry events.
Other times, the CPCs are prohibitively expensive.
Is your client a personal injury attorney who can’t afford $200+ per click? They probably need to focus on SEO and a ton of video, billboards, display, social, and other channels designed to make them the most recognized name in the area so people are more likely to think of them when they need an attorney.
There are lots of scenarios like these, but you get the idea.
If another channel could get better results for your client’s state of business growth and existing channel mix, don’t try to force Google to work.
When To Expand Beyond Google Ads
On the other side of things, if you have a client or prospect who is only using Google Ads, they’ll need to branch out at some point if they don’t want to be hindered by the platform’s limitations.
When search campaigns are no longer limited by budget and you’ve expanded your keyword coverage as far as is reasonable, then you’ve started to run some non-search campaigns to people in the suffering markets, look at the list above and find what would help them the most.
Can you resell, cross-sell, or upsell their existing customers? Look at the post-purchase channels.
Are they already retaining customers well and building on the previously established relationships? Look at the Waiting market channels and work to increase conversion rates and close rates from Buying market channel efforts by overcoming objections and educating those who are interested, but need more information.
I already covered a lot of this earlier, so let’s wrap up.
Summary
Your agency may sell one specific service or it may offer several. Either way, it’s helpful to know when you can best get results for a client based on their existing efforts or what they’ve tried before.
The more you understand the available channels, their goals, and how to use them together to guide a prospect through their journey from problem awareness to “ready to buy” and beyond.
This also requires you to understand people and how they experience their problems. Sometimes they move through the Market Journey Path quickly, other times they spend longer in one stage or another. That can be based on the pain of solving the problem outweighing the pain the problem itself causes, lack of understanding about the problem, behavioral style and risk tolerance, and many other factors.
At the end of the day, it takes time and experience to implement this knowledge in a practical way, but it all starts with the shift to a problem-centric approach to marketing strategy.
I hope this gives you a shortcut past the years of time and experience it took me to learn all of it!
If you’re curious about how I work with agencies or if you’re frustrated with your agency’s profitability or retention of clients or employees, feel free to reach out to me and I’ll see how I can help. I never charge for the first consultation and if I can solve it in 30-minutes, there’s no reason to pay for my services and you walk away happy.
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