Paid ads, answered.

Google or Meta, if you can only do one?There's no hard rule, and it varies by region. Google suits intent — people actively searching for what you sell; if your offer is appealing on the results page (great rates, real guarantees), it can win. Meta is disruptive— you enter people's feeds before they ask. For a new brand we usually start with Meta: disrupt, be seen, get familiar — then people go to Google and discover you. The exception is known-item or cultural products people search for by name (a Gita, a sherwani, ethnic trousers) — there, Google can win, because they'll buy from whoever has it.

And SEO? It's survival vs. the long game. On a small budget, do basic SEO but lead with paid — pure organic from day one can mean months with no buyer, while paid gives you a chance to survive on immediate returns. If you have the money, play the long SEO game from day one and run paid.

How much budget? Reverse-engineer it — the same way we run paid: how much can you sell, how much can you produce, how much can you spend? Set a target, work out how many customers you need and what one costs. Your budget is the road map to that number.

The real question isn't which is cheaper — it's when to use each. Use CPM(pay per thousand impressions) when people don't know your brand yet: you want to introduce yourself to as many of the right unfamiliar people as possible. Use CPC(pay per click) when people already know you, or you're retargeting people who've seen your ads — they're familiar, it's time to act, so you only pay when they click. The algorithms are smart: they already know who's in the frame of mind to buy and who isn't.

Everyone who spends on marketing should get a return — but there's no single “right” ROAS, because return depends on the whole business: the product, your people, supply chain, service, sales, price, and the customer. We don't know what step of the journey you're on. What we can give you is benchmarks from experience— miss them and something has to change. And content is key: authentic, relatable content is what makes people give you a chance.

Beyond that, brand equity takes the ceiling off. And keep perspective on the odds: contrary to the myth that most businesses fail in year one, the real danger zone is later. Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of businesses fail in their first year, roughly half within five years, and around 65% within ten — so most survive the first year; the test is sticking around for the next few.

Easy to picture: imagine walking into Target and buying nothing. Maybe you didn't find what you wanted, the price wasn't right, the layout was awkward, the service was bad — or you were just browsing. People browse websites the same way, except online takes none of the effort of a physical store, so the share of visitors who'll neverbuy is far bigger. That's normal. A good online conversion rate is around 1%; at 1%+ you're in order, and excellent stores hit 4–5%.

If the ads get clicks but no sales, the message is that your site isn't fulfilling the promise the ad made. Work top to bottom:

Your website needs to behave like a salesperson: show people what they want easily, no puzzles, no bending over backwards to buy. The keyword is CRO — read the best practice (e.g. the Baymard Institute), test placement, font sizes and contrast, and run a technical SEO audit so things load. Sometimes removing one roadblock unlocks sales; sometimes it needs a rebuild.

One more lever: response time. A site — and the team behind it — should answer like a salesperson who's right there.

When you can't be there 24/7, that's where automation and an AI chatbot earn their place — a WhatsApp AI trained on your products that answers, recommends and upsells instantly, so a click never waits for a reply.

Early on you run on assumptions, experience, industry standards and gut — fine when you have no stats. But you need stats to make data-driven decisions: do people like your static ads? Are videos converting? Does a bigger font do better? That's how you get more sales, better ROAS and lower cost per acquisition.

Algorithms need clean data, or they optimise on the wrong things. Say you sell high-end furniture that attracts admirers who copy the design cheaper elsewhere — if you optimise for clicks and views, you push the ads in the wrong direction. Optimise instead for booked appointments, studio visits and purchases and you get far better results. For sales that happen off the website — calls, store visits, WhatsApp — you need offline conversion tracking, which is exactly what our app Zento provides (ask us for a demo). Your job is to tell the ad — and the tracking — exactly what you want it to do.

Should you trust Performance Max or Advantage+ with your budget?If you have budget to burn, yes — the AI reads your text and images, matches them to likely buyers, and often finds pockets of demand you'd never have guessed. But it burns cash exploringa broad audience before it narrows. On a tight budget wanting quick wins, train the algorithm yourself first and only target people you're sure will buy. Either way, the honest catch: PMax and Advantage+ optimise for the platform's goals unless you point them at your real conversions — which is exactly why tracking comes first.

How long before paid ads work?The real skill is noticing the journey. Early on it's okay if people don't buy — they take time to trust. As a rule of thumb, someone needs to see your brand around seven times across several touchpoints before trust starts — and even then it means a call, a visit or an appointment, not a sale yet. Sales come from momentum, and momentum comes from the timing and frequency of your marketing.

(This maps to Everett Rogers' “Diffusion of Innovations” — innovators and early adopters, then the majority, then laggards.)

It also depends on consideration level: a high-consideration purchase like a wedding dress can take months even for established brands; low-consideration items can sell within the first few months — if everything else is right (CRO, price, site speed). So early on, target engagement over sales: get engagement and momentum turns it into sales. Why should someone buy from you just because you're selling? Build the relationship first — then, a bit deeper in, start retargeting.

Homepage or a dedicated landing page? Default to a dedicated landing page. Your homepage is a lobby with many doors — fine when someone came looking for you, but for a cold click it scatters attention. A landing page makes one promise and asks for one action, matching the ad so the click pays off. A search ad for one product → that product's page; broad awareness → the homepage is fine; retargeting → often straight to the product or cart. It's pure CRO: one page, one job, no roadblocks.

Retargeting or prospecting — how to split?Honestly, there's no fixed rule; it depends on what you sell. Bought regularly with lots of repeat customers? Retargeting can pay fast and build loyalty. A rare, high-consideration purchase like a wedding dress or a house? Prospectingtends to work better, because there's little repeat behaviour to retarget.