Lesson 1 of 3
How advertising works: reach, frequency and the creative
What an ad can and can't do for a small business
The idea
A poster for a gig only works if people pass it, pass it often enough, and like what it says. Online ads work the same way, with three dials.
- 1
Reach
How many different people see it
- 2
Frequency
How often each one sees it before acting
- 3
The ad itself
What they see: the opening, the offer, the proof
Ad platforms now pick much of the audience themselves, from your ad and the people who respond to it. So the picture and the words do more than clever targeting.
From seeing to buying
Step 1
See
The ad reaches someone
Step 2
Click
The promise is clear enough to act on
Step 3
Land
The page keeps the promise
Step 4
Buy
The offer is easy to say yes to
A weak step anywhere wastes the ones before it. Fix the page and the offer before you pay for more people to see them.
Sort it
1 of 6
Ready for ads?
“People buy after a call, and you can tell which channel they came from”
Today, with AI
Ad platforms now choose much of the audience with their own AI. The ad itself, and tracking what happens after the click, matter more than targeting.
AI makes ad versions cheap. That only helps if you test them one change at a time.
What AI does well
Writing versions of the ad, proposing the setup, and reading the numbers after the test.
Where it goes wrong
It will happily spend money on an offer that doesn't sell. Whether you're ready is your call.
What stays yours
Whether the business is ready, the budget, and the result that counts.
Check yourself
Do it in the studio
- 01
Open Get customers → Ads, Your brief: whether you run ads already, the monthly budget, and what counts as a result.
free - 02
Play the ready-or-not game above for your own business, honestly.
free - 03
When it's ready: Propose a Google campaign, or Meta or LinkedIn under More you can do.
25 credits
Done when You know whether your business is ready for ads, and what to fix first if it isn't.
Go deeper
University courses on the same topic, if you want to go further.
Northwestern Medill
Media Foundations and Media Marketplaces (MS IMC)Reaching people through traditional and digital media
Harvard Business School Online
Digital Marketing Strategy and AI, Module 3: Acquiring Customers, Part 1: Paid MediaSearch and display ads, and how to measure paid channels