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Digital Advertising

Running ads without strategy isn't marketing. It's just spending money.

Spending money on ads isn't the same as advertising. There's a difference.

  • Have you run ads before and seen impressions, not results?
  • Are you spending money on advertising without a real picture of what's working?
  • Do you know which channels actually make sense for your business and why?
  • Bottom line: Is your advertising built to grow your business, or just to run?

Digital Advertising Strategy

The platform isn't the problem — your strategy is.

Two stories we hear constantly — and both end up in the same place.

“I've never done this before.”

You know your customers are online. You just don't know where to start, what to spend, or which platforms actually make sense for your business — and you don't want to hand money to someone who'll pick for you and hope for the best.

"I've tried it and it didn't work."

You ran ads. You got reports. You got impressions. You didn't get much else — and you're not sure what went wrong.

Different situations. Same missing piece: nobody sat down at the beginning and defined what success actually looks like for your business. Not impressions. Not clicks. What would make this worth it.

No Strategy, No Results

Why most ad campaigns underperform

Here's what we see most often when businesses come to us after a failed ad campaign.

  • Reaching the wrong people

    You can have great ads and a generous budget — if they're reaching the wrong people, none of it matters.

  • Only advertising at one stage

    Most campaigns only run at the "ready to buy" stage. That leaves a huge part of your future customer base completely untouched.

  • No connection to real goals

    Impressions and clicks aren't results. If your campaign isn't tied to leads, calls, or revenue — it's just a number on a report.

  • One-size-fits-all approach

    The same campaign template doesn't work for a home builder, a restaurant, and a law firm. Every business needs a strategy built for its specific goals and audience.

Two colleagues discussing project on laptop

The Customer Journey

How digital advertising works

The best strategies reach people at every stage — not just when they're ready to buy.

Awareness

They don't know you yet. Show up before the need hits. 

Consideration

They're researching. Be visible when it counts.

Research & Discovery

They're comparing options. Stay in the loop.

Decision

They're ready to act. The right message closes.

Loyalty

They've already bought. 

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Calculate Your Marketing Budget

Not sure what to spend on digital marketing?

Our free marketing budget calculator gives you a smart starting range based on your revenue and goals — in about 30 seconds.

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Online Advertising Platforms

The right tool for the right moment.

There's no single best platform — just the right one for where your customers are and what you're trying to accomplish.

Google Search Ads

High intent. They're actively searching for what you offer. You either show up or your competitor does.

Facebook & Instagram Ads

Wide reach, precise audience selection. Build awareness and stay in front of warm audiences — the people who've already shown interest in what you do.

YouTube Video Ads

Video builds trust fast. YouTube puts your brand in front of a large, targeted audience before they even start searching.

Connected TV (Streaming)

Your ads on Hulu, Roku, Peacock — actual TV screens, with the precision to reach specific audiences. Most local competitors aren't here yet. That's the opportunity.

Retargeting & Display

Reconnect with people who've already shown interest. Keeps your brand visible across thousands of sites and apps through the buying decision.

AI-Optimized Campaigns

The latest AI-driven ad tools automatically optimize placements, audiences, and spend across multiple channels at once. Powerful when guided by the right strategy — flat-out wasteful without it.

Why Cougar Digital Marketing?

We're not the agency for every advertising budget. We're the right one for yours if you're ready to do this right.

We've gotten selective. Not because we're too busy, but because we've seen what happens when advertising runs without strategy, without the right client relationship, without honest conversations about what's actually working. It wastes money — yours and ours.

What we offer is a real partnership. We learn your business, build a strategy around your specific goals, and stay invested in the results. We're local, which means you can sit across a table from the people running your campaigns. We're not routing you through account managers or reading from a script.

  • Strategy before platforms — we figure out what makes sense before we spend a dollar

  • Direct access to the people actually running your campaigns

  • Plain-English reporting tied to goals — not a wall of metrics nobody explains

  • 13+ years in this market: healthcare, construction, food & bev, professional services, trades

  • Invested in what happens after launch — not just at launch

leads in the first year alone

What happens when you pair a new, modern auto repair shop website with a hyper-focused Google Search Ads strategy?

team blog

125+ 5-Star Reviews

When you do great work, people notice.

Great company, great people. Vision matched expectations!

Josh Kandle was able to complete a wonderful presentation to my Introduction to Business class at Columbia Basin College. He brought to life the world of Marketing on the internet and how to use it effectively and consistently. The students left the presentation with knowledge they could go out and use immediately. He was great!

Ashley redid our website. She was professional, quick, and listened to all of our requests. Thank you!

We highly recommend Cougar Digital Marketing for their exceptional marketing services. We used them initially to build our new website for our commercial and residential General Contracting company, and we signed on with them for future partnership hours. We have been pleased with the seamless results Travis's company has provided us. The team's collaboration and communication with the website designer, Ashlie, the marketing guru, Josh, and the photographer, Mykayla, were ALL GREAT. Having these marketing resources under one roof has made our transition from our last website company, much easier than expected. Their prompt availability and amazing support made the entire experience enjoyable. We are extremely satisfied with the results and grateful for their partnership and guidance!

Cougar Digital went above and beyond to ensure our complete and total satisfaction with creating and launching our new website which can be a challenging process when multiple opinions are involved. Josh in particular was very attentive, patient and helpful throughout the creative process and also with recommendations for SEO and innovative solutions for soliciting reviews and feedback from customers to boost online reviews. He also facilitated communication with our existing IT support to smoothly transition our domain and emails. I highly recommend the expertise of Cougar Digital for help with all things digital. If they don't offer a solution themselves, they will help you find one!

I originally had a very basic logo for my business, but after Travis, at Cougar Digital, kicked it up a few notches, now it really stands out! I have used them for a number of graphics projects since, including business card and rack card designs and I am always impressed with what they produce! They are very easy to work with as well.

I recently coordinated several marketing projects for the Benton Franklin Census 2020 Complete Counts committee. Josh and Ashley at Cougar Digital provided great service and expertise. We utilized Cougar for several campaigns, including Facebook Ads, YouTube Ads, Display Ads and video production. The quality and creativity were great and I highly recommend them.They also adapted extremely well when COVID-related restrictions were put into place half way through the project. Thank you so much!

Travis and the Team impressed me as having great listening skills! I had them create a website and the main priorities were SEO, Responsive across all devices, Reasonable loading speed and the Contact Info was responsive so it’s easy to place a call or send email. They surpassed these objectives and did a great job of matching the graphics with the content on each page. Very punctual and professional and we’re sensitive to my schedule also. I was impressed by the way all Team members signed off before launching as a measure of quality control. Their values are put into action and not just on a plaque in the office.

Mykaela Faulconer at Cougar Digital is one of my favorite people to work with, ever, across the board. She is incredibly talented, and has done consistently stellar graphic design for me and my team at Tri-City Orthopaedic Clinic. I have never had a bad interaction with Mykaela, and she goes above and beyond to provider exemplary customer service at every turn. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work with Mykaela on a daily basis. Everyone at Cougar Digital is amazing, and I would recommend them whole-heartedly.

Working with Josh Kandle on several video projects was such a great experience . He is not only a real pro and easy to work with but he was also so open to all of my ideas for creativity and understood a lot of what I was looking for as an independent recording artist. i would highly recommend him and look forward to hopefully being able to do more in the future. ~ Lisa Mitts, Recording Artist Songwriter, Performer

Service is the difference!! Ashley is super sharp and ahead of the curve but the real value is access and responsiveness. Other providers I have had were great until they got paid then very slow to respond to updates and changes I needed. Ashley is lighting in a bottle and handles updates and changes with urgency as well as keeps us informed of new emerging opportunities to consider. Highly reccomend. It would be a Mistake not to give her a meeting before deciding who to partner with.

Happy we have businesses like this locally! Great customer service. Stayed in communication with me through the whole process. Five-star service.

Cougar Digital has been so incredible to work with! They are always able to turn our words and ideas into a beautiful finished product quickly. The staff is responsive and professional and we love working with Josh. He is a true artist and always delivers a stunning product. Thank you Cougar!

Josh and Cougar Digital did an amazing job on a video for an event. We were super proud to show it to donors and had a wonderful response by community members regarding the video. Well done Josh and Cougar Digital!

Greatly appreciate the work that Josh and the Cougar Digital Marketing team did for our organization. We had a vague vision and they were able to make it better than we could have imagined. Appreciate their flexibility to work with us on a short turnaround and their suggestions for making the best video possible.

Working with Cougar Digital to launch a campaign for kids to support the Prosser Boys & Girls Club. I was impressed with their creativity, professionalism, and attention to detail. They helped us to achieve incredible results and bring our ideas to life!

We hired these guys to handle some commercial photos for both exterior and aerial shots. Josh and team were excellent to work with and made things easy while adapting to changing schedules and weather. The photos turned out amazing in the end. Highly recommend.

Fantastic service! Cougar Digital gave me very professional one-to-one couching! This is making a significant impact on my projects!

Josh Kandle was excellent to work with on remaking our branding guidelines, etc. He was helpful, patient and his work was outstanding. Thanks Cougar Digital and Josh for making this process so great.

I recently had an opportunity to choose a web designer to re-vamp and optimize Stepping Stones Alliance's website. Having worked with Cougar Digital before they were my choice for this project. I'm so glad they were able to work with us! The entire process from first meeting to re-launch of the site was stellar. They are quick to respond, listen to feedback, professional and clear in their communications, and spot-on with fulfilling the client desires. The entire team was great to work with along the way and I appreciated the high level of customer service at every point. Not only will I continue to work with them for all our organization's website needs, but I will recommend them to anyone looking for website and marketing projects.

Cougar Digital Marketing & Design does outstanding work. Prosser School District has utilized their expertise on multiple occasions to assist in communicating our message. They are easy to work with and most importantly, they deliver!

We had a short timetable and a limited budget. The end result was great. Working with the Cougar Digital team made the project very enjoyable.

Josh Kandle and his team did a great job educating us about the importance of up-to-date digital tools, and how quickly out-of-date solutions can hinder our on-line reach. The solutions he offered were more than fairly priced, paid immediate dividends, and I am happy to refer him to any business in need of a productive digital marketing program.

Josh and the Cougar Digital team did an amazing job with a drone video production that included narration. The quality of audio and video show a professional production level. I appreciate the attention to detail and quality of work by the Cougar Digital team.

I am the Office Manager of a business that badly needed a website reworked. I knew that Cougar Digital was up to the task, but I was unsure of my own Manager. He really didn't want to go through the steps to work with anyone on anything like a website. Nick was fabulous (as in over the top) in his Customer Service skills with a very hard to work with man. The professionalism of Cougar Digital, coupled with the patience and skills of Nick, provided my Manager with everything he needed to get a new website. The website is beautiful and I am one very pleased customer. I will always go to Cougar Digital for all of my marketing needs.

Always a pleasure to work with the Cougar Digital Marketing & Design team! They excel in creativity, effectiveness and efficiency.

Travis Hartliep and his crew are amazing! I worked with Josh on designing a book cover and he was great... was willing to work through numerous changes and updates, suggested helpful things to push the project along, and was very patient and courteous. We came in on budget and on time for the project and the end result was fantastic. I highly recommend Cougar Digital for any and all of your design and marketing needs.

I would highly recommend Cougar Digital Media! They worked with us on creating the exact vision we had for our website, they worked around our schedule to make sure the website matched our vision. Working with Nick went as smoothly as it could go, he went above and beyond with his creativity!

Couldnt be happier with Cougar Digital! They crushed our websites!

I highly recommend Cougar Digital. I am currently working with them on 3 separate projects. They took over 2 community based websites that were painful to use and turned them into user friendly, performant websites. Their website & database design is outstanding and they have consistently exceeded my expectations. It has been a pleasure working with everyone at Cougar Digital!

Josh and his crew go above and beyond. He offers very personalized service and is always willing to go the extra mile. He never hesitates to come in to my office and personally show my staff how they can maximize their services. I've wasted too much money over the past few years on worthless SEO. It's great to have someone local who is accountable and provides fantastic service!

I was very happy with my exsperience there! Great team & Customer service.

We absolutely loved working with Cougar Digital on the launch of our new website and throughout several incredible photo shoots. From start to finish, their team was creative, responsive, and truly understood our vision.

Working with the Cougar Digital Marketing team was an absolute delight. Truly good people who are VERY skilled at what they do. Running a large regional food company, it's a blessing to work with an experienced digital team here locally, and not have to seek services in the Seattle or Portland market. I highly recommend working with Cougar Digital!

If you need a website. Call these guys and you won't be disappointed. You'll be surprised at how affordable they are and with the great LOCAL customer service they provide. These guys know their stuff.

Great work and very professional! Thank you!

These guys are top notch! Very knowledgeable and helpful!

Working with Josh at Cougar Digital Marketing & Design was an excellent experience! The process was incredibly collaborative, allowing us to bring our vision for the Pasco School District Career Guide to life. Josh listened to our ideas, provided valuable insights, and worked tirelessly to ensure the final product exceeded our expectations. We are thrilled with the outcome and can't wait to share our new Career Guide with our students and families. Highly recommend Cougar Digital for any design and marketing needs!

Working with Cougar Digital on our logo design was fantastic! Their creativity, professionalism, and attention to detail brought our vision to life, delivering a result that exceeded our expectations. Highly recommend their team!

Very helpful and easy to work with. They thought about everything that we needed on our website and it looks amazing! Very satisfied.

We had such a good experience working with Cougar Digital Marketing for building our website. They did an awesome job and worked around our crazy schedule so well for meetings/photo shoots/etc. Would highly recommend for any website/marketing needs.

Josh did a great job on my headshot. He provided a timely appointment and spent the time to make sure he got the best shot. He was even willing to try several different locations. I would recommend him for anybody looking to update the professional photos.

Josh did a great job making a couple of highlight videos for me. Easy to work with and prompt service

It was such a pleasure working with Cougar Digital. Not only was the process fast and easy, the work they created is amazing! Josh gave us a variety of different options to work with after taking the time to carefully listen to our needs. He made every little detail count and really brought our vision to life. We will definitely continue to work closely as our business continues to expand. Thank you, we could not be any happier.

The team at Cougar Digital Marketing are great to work with! They were very professional throughout the entire process of creating a beautiful website for me. Every member of the team I worked with was attentive to all of my questions/needs and they delivered exactly what I was hoping for in a website. I am so glad I found them!

Cougar Digital provides excellent follow through on all our projects. We trust them with developing solutions for our email marketing campaigns, graphic design, and collateral creation. Their designs are used by our partners nationally. We count on them for specific website support work and they always come through for us. They are solution oriented and their upbeat, friendly customer service is unparalleled.

Cougar did a wonderful job with our new site. Ashley and Travis were extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly. We will definitely be coming back for any needs in the future!

We have nothing but great things to say about Cougar Digital Marketing! Travis took the time to understand our goals, worked around our schedule, and went above and beyond to make our vision come to life. Ashley was a whiz and was always available when we needed her. Our site turned out better than we imagined. Can't recommend them enough.

We’ve been working with Cougar Digital Marketing for almost 6 years, and they have consistently gone above and beyond for Boiada Brazilian Grill. Josh is amazing at graphic design and always brings our ideas to life in fun, creative ways. Travis and Ashley have done an exceptional job with every aspect of our new website build — from strategy meetings and design to training and development. Cougar is professional, timely, fun to work with, and they create outstanding content. We couldn’t be happier with our new website — it’s beautiful and easy for our team to edit and update. Highly recommend Cougar to any business looking for a true marketing partner!

These guys are great! It's always an interesting scenario when you begin a relationship with a new company. I will say that from experience Cougar Digital is one of the easiest and highly educated companies to work with. If you have a question a quick email or call gets an answer. If you have an idea these guys will without a doubt help to the best of their ability. I'm no expert in the marketing world but Cougar Digital makes me feel like I have everything I would ever need at my fingertips. Thanks a ton guys, we look forward to our continued partnership!

Questions?

Digital advertising FAQs

If you’re thinking it, there’s a good chance someone else asked it too. 

How much do Facebook ads cost?
How much should a local business spend on digital advertising?
How do I know if my digital ads are working?
How long does it take digital advertising to work?
Do you work with small digital advertising budgets?
What is the best digital advertising platform for a local business?
What is the difference between Google Ads and Facebook Ads?

Digital Marketing for Busy Professionals

Learn more. Grow faster.

Quick, useful reads to help you think bigger and market smarter.

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