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Showerthought: My brother-in-law said something about his small business ads that stuck with me.
He runs a little bike shop in Tacoma. We were at a BBQ last weekend and he was venting about his monthly ad spend. He said, 'I'm paying $800 a month to Google just to show up when people search for 'bike repair near me'. But half the calls I get are from people 40 miles away who just want a quote to compare.' He said he'd rather spend that money on a local flyer campaign or fixing up the shop's patio area. It hit different because I'm always chasing more clicks, more reach. But his goal is just to get the right people in the door, not everyone. Made me question if I'm optimizing for the wrong metric. Anyone else feel like they're buying visibility instead of actual customers sometimes?
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averywilliams23d ago
Man, that's so real. I've burned so much money on ads that just brought in tire-kickers who were never going to buy. It feels like you're just feeding the machine. Your brother-in-law is smart to think about the shop patio instead, that's what actually gets people to come back. Makes you wonder if we're all just stuck in this cycle of paying for junk traffic because it's the default, you know?
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theajackson23d ago
Ugh, this is everywhere now. We pay for the idea of attention instead of real connection, like buying followers. It's why my local cafe's bulletin board feels more useful than my whole feed.
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