A Perspective from Jed Manley
I’ve worked in marketing since leaving secondary school, and over the last twenty five years, I’ve had the privilege of partnering with hundreds of diverse businesses, each with its own unique challenges and aspirations. The most obvious question I encounter time and time again is, does advertising work? The answer is simple: if you approach advertising with clear measurable objectives, then develop a strategy focused on those objectives; it works.
Put a generic “here we are” commercial on television and expect customers to flood through the door next week, and you’ll likely be disappointed. Or launch a campaign on Meta expecting instant brand recall, and you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Establishing clear goals is the cornerstone of any effective advertising strategy. Google, Meta, LinkedIn, X, TV, radio, outdoor, cinema, YouTube, and press; they’re all ready to take your money, and fast, if you let them.
So before diving into any campaign, it’s critical to ask: What are we trying to achieve? Are you looking to boost brand awareness, change how your brand is perceived, launch a new product, drive sales, build customer loyalty, or generate leads?
Identify your audience.
Understanding as granular as possible your target audience is key. Create one, two, three, or sometimes four personas of your typical customer. Summarise their demographic and psychographic traits. Age, sex, income, location, personality, interests, values, and motivations. The targeting capabilities of advertising channels in 2026 is highly refined, so identifying your primary audiences will help eliminate ad spend waste and also inspire creative messaging ideas.
Know your competitors.
Almost as important. Who are my competitors? What other choices do my potential customers have? List your competitors and their key strengths and weaknesses. Ascertain what makes your service or product different, inferior, or superior than the competition. Where is my brand positioned in the market today, and where do I want it to be positioned in the future? Find your differences and play to your strengths.
What does success look like?
And finally, what will success look like? How will I know if my advertising has worked? How are we going to measure success?
Understanding these basic areas will help formulate a strategy for both the ad creative and the ad placement.
Simply put, define the below four areas before embarking on any advertising campaign, and your brief is well on the way to then develop a strategy for both ad creative and ad placement:
- What am I trying to achieve?
- Who is my audience?
- How is my business positioned against my competitors?
- How will success be measured?
In my experience, there are four key reasons a business should advertise:
1. Improve, Change or Maintain Brand Perception
Whether your brand is new to the market or in need of a refresh, advertising has the unique ability to shape how your audience perceives you. A carefully crafted creative can position your business as energetic, innovative, professional, loyal, humorous, adventurous, or even sophisticated, whatever aligns with your goals, and your audience. And perception isn’t just about being seen; it’s about being remembered, for the right reasons.
2. Lift Brand Awareness
You can have the best product or service in the world, but it won’t matter if no one knows about it. Advertising can elevate your brand to sit above a crowded market. And further to getting noticed; with discipline and consistency familiarity and trust can be built over time. When your audience sees your brand consistently, it creates a sense of reliability, and when it comes time to have a need for your product or service, they’ll think of you first.
3. Drive Product Sales & Grow Market Share
At the end of the day, most businesses measure success by the sales numbers. Effective advertising isn’t just about exposure; it’s about action. Whether you’re launching a new product or promoting an existing one, strategic campaigns can directly influence sales and help you carve out a larger piece of the market. Advertising can sell products, and build momentum.
4. Generate Leads
Not all advertising campaigns are about immediate sales; sometimes, they’re about building a pipeline. By driving leads through forms, phone calls, or email inquiries, advertising gives your sales team the opportunity to have a conversation, learn if your product suits their needs, and if it does, that prospect can convert into a long term loyal customer. A well executed lead generation campaign is like planting seeds for future growth. Create enough curiosity, and the opportunity to have a conversation with a prospect will happen.
The Bigger Picture
Advertising will quickly become an expense if no purpose exists; but when part of a clear strategy, it’s an investment in your brand’s future. A tool that aligns your business objectives with your audience’s needs and aspirations. And no two businesses are the same, which is why a tailored strategy will always work better than a ‘this month only media package.’
The key is to approach advertising with clarity and purpose. By understanding what you want to achieve, you can craft campaigns that can be measured, learned from, celebrated, and further improved.
So, why advertise? When done right, it doesn’t just work, it transforms.
