Digital Advertising
Whether you're starting from scratch or starting over, you're in the right place.
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Are your competitors showing up more often than you?
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Are you spending money on advertising without a real picture of what's working?
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Are you unsure where to even start with digital advertising?
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Do you have a strategy behind your ad spend, or are you just guessing?
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Bottom line: Is your business growing as fast as you want it to?
Digital Advertising Strategy
The platform isn't the problem — your strategy is.
We hear two stories a lot:
"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.
"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.
Both are more common than you'd think. And both point to the same root problem.
Digital Advertising Strategy
Running ads without a solid strategy is a waste of your marketing dollars.
A real marketing strategy means:
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Knowing exactly who you're trying to reach
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Understanding where they are in their buying process
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Saying the right thing at the right moment — not just showing up
Done right, digital advertising keeps your business visible from "I've never heard of them" all the way to "I'm ready to buy." That's what we build.
How Digital Advertising Works
The best strategies reach people throughout the customer journey.
The old sales funnel is dead. Real customers don't move in a straight line — they search, get distracted, come back, read reviews, ask a friend, and eventually decide. But even in a non-linear journey, there are distinct moments where the right ad can make a real difference.
The goal isn't to push people through a funnel — it's to be there at every moment that matters, however they get there.
Awareness: They don't know you yet.
Before anyone can choose you, they have to know you exist. This is about showing up for the right people before they're even actively looking — so when the need hits, you're already familiar.
Consideration: They're looking around.
Now they have a need and they're researching. This is where being visible when someone searches for exactly what you offer becomes critical — and where staying in front of people who've already found you keeps you in the running.
Research & Discovery They're going deep.
They're comparing options, reading reviews, visiting websites, asking for recommendations, and circling back again. This stage can last days or weeks. Businesses that stay visible throughout this loop are the ones that make the short list.
Decision They're ready to act.
All that visibility pays off here. The right message at the right moment — a strong offer, a clear next step, an ad that speaks to someone ready to decide — can be the difference between them choosing you or your competitor.
Loyalty They've already bought.
This is where most businesses check out. But a customer who's had a great experience is one of the most valuable audiences you can advertise to. They refer people, come back, and keep your brand alive in conversations you'll never see.
Want to dig deeper?
We wrote an in-depth blog post about how the modern customer journey works.
Marketing Budget Calculator
How much should you spend on marketing?
Why Cougar Digital Marketing?
13+ years of campaigns built around real goals.
We're not a national agency routing your account through layers of people. We're a local team with a genuine stake in seeing the businesses here succeed.
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Campaigns built for your specific goals
Because there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all digital advertising strategy.
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Direct access to your team
No account managers, no handoffs. Direct access to the team actually running your campaigns.
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Honesty and transparency above all
Real numbers, plain-English reporting, and real transparency when it comes to what's working and what isn't.
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A partner, not just an agency
We're invested in what happens after the campaign goes live — not just in delivering a thing and moving on.
Digital Advertising Case Study for a Tri-Cities Auto Repair Shop
What happens when you pair a new, modern website with a hyper-focused Google Search Ads strategy?
leads in the first year alone
Online Advertising Platforms
The right tool for the right moment.
There's no "best" platform to run digital ads on. There's the right one for your goals and where your customers actually spend time.
Google Search Ads
You either show up when someone searches for what you offer, or your competitor does. High intent, low waste — this is the most direct form of digital advertising there is.
Facebook & Instagram Ads
Reach the right people before they're ready to buy — and stay connected with existing customers and warm leads while you're at it. Powerful targeting, wide reach, full funnel.
YouTube Video Ads
Video lets people get a feel for who you are in a way static ads can't. YouTube puts that in front of a large, targeted audience at exactly the right stage.
Streaming TV Ads
Streaming TV ads put your brand in living rooms with digital-level targeting and none of the traditional TV price tag. Most of your competitors aren't here yet.
Display Advertising
Targeted ads served across thousands of sites and apps, based on who your audience is. Built for longer buying cycles where multiple touchpoints matter.
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.
125+ 5-Star Reviews
Don't take our word for it.
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.
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.
Awesome experience working with Josh on a 25th anniversary video of my wedding photos set to music. Couldn’t be happier with the finished product. Thank you Cougar Digital and Josh!
Had a great experience working with Josh! Super easy to work with and really knows his stuff - especially when it comes to lighting and editing for interior shots. The photos turned out amazing, with just the right vibe we were going for. We ended up adding a few extra shot requests last minute, and Josh had no problem fitting them in. He also helped with staging, which made a big difference, and the drone footage was a great bonus. His pricing was very reasonable for the quality we got. Great value for money. We’ll definitely be hiring him again for future shoots!
I really love the team approach with Travis and the group, they are very professional, organized, and skilled at what they do. I wish I had employed them for my website and advertising years ago. I regret spending so much money trying to do it on my own or with cheap services that took my money and did nothing. I feel like they are MY team, and I feel I'm not alone trying to achieve my business goals to get my services out to the public.
Josh was easy to work with. He returned my calls and emails promptly! And he did amazing job. I will not hesitate to reach out to him again for up coming projects!
Cougar Digital took my website to a whole new level! They are very professional and knowledgeable and did excellent work. They also filmed a few videos for me that turned out amazingly well! They were very responsive to what I wanted and envisioned and were extremely patient with me. I would highly recommend them to anyone!
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 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 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.
Josh was quick to reply and great to work with. I would highly recommend and look forward to the next opportunity we get to work with him.
Cougar Digital has been immensely helpful in launching my business website. Being new to the business world, they were patient, professional and diligent in getting my website looking absolutely wonderful. They provided me with the tools to make the website impressive and productive. Further, the opportunity to have the website monitored and refined by Cougar Digital relieves me of a great deal of stress.
Cougar Digital answered the phone, literally. During a company name change, we reached out to multiple design and marketing groups from the Tri-Cities to Walla Walla to Spokane. Although we'd left messages with each vendor, Cougar was the only one courteous enough to respond. After a couple consultations, Joshua Kandle, Director of Marketing took charge of the design of our new company logo. With patience and professionalism, he listened to our concepts and following a series of modifications, he created a logo that is printed on millions of labels and boxes that're shipped globally. The logo is headlined on our website and our email, along with being printed on our work garments. Digital art might be easy with today's technology, but without Joshua's patient nature and ability to listen to our ideas, the incredible logo wouldn't have been possible. Vehemently I recommend Cougar Digital. They're professional yet personable. They're communicative and driven while remaining patient.
I absolutely love working with Cougar Digital for every aspect of marketing our business utilizes. From digital content and graphic design work, to helping us create content (photos, videos and language) for various types of media and needs, Cougar does it all. The staff is awesome! Everyone is personable, prompt and professional. They are fun and I look forward to working with them on each project because I know the results will be incredible every time. Cougar's team members are open and flexible in helping us reach our goals and are authentic in their approach to meeting expectations and timeliness. Their consistent delivery of high level results within projected timeliness makes them my first choice for all marketing needs
Josh did a great job making a couple of highlight videos for me. Easy to work with and prompt service
Always a pleasure to work with the Cougar Digital Marketing & Design team! They excel in creativity, effectiveness and efficiency.
Cougar Digital has been great to work with! With their support we have seen significant improvement with our marketplace campaigns.
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
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!
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's team has provided us with fast and courteous service that is paying dividends. We couldn't be more pleased with their positive, can do attitude and would recommend them to anyone wanting to separate themselves from their competition. Aperneo thanks you as well!
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 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 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!
Ordered new business cards and was extremely pleased with the speed and service! Definitely recommend for your next marketing push!
Cougar Digital did a great job arranging literature and building a website for us. Travis was very easy to work with, and the finished marketing material looks great. Thanks Cougs!
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!
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.
My class and I had a great time learning from Josh about his background, experience in design and video, and creative process. Thank you so much for volunteering!!
This team is awesome! they truly have most things figured out and thought through before you walk through the door. And the unknowns are easily resolved with their level of professionalism! We cant say enough about Ashley the design manager and Josh the photographer! They both made the process fun and easy and we were constantly surprised by the “WOW” factor! Thank you all and we look forward to future growth for both our small businesses.
Josh created a style guide for us to help with consistency throughout our agency. He did a great job creating the guide with little information. He did a great job explaining everything to us. He went above and beyond troubleshooting a zip file issue. Our services with Josh Kandle were 5-star service! He was kind, patient, thoughtful with his work and helpful with creativity in our style guide as well and assisting with technical difficulties. Thanks again Josh!
Sonar Insights had the pleasure of partnering with Cougar Digital Marketing & Design, LLC on two separate occasions - a video campaign for the Benton Franklin Census 2020 and a video for a client. It was a big undertaking to take the script sand creatively execute on them. Josh Kandle and his team did a masterful job at realizing the vision for the projects with a fantastic end product. Could not be more pleased!
Our website turned out great! Nick was super easy to work with really made the process a breeze. Josh was our photographer for our website, after seeing the results from the first shoot we had to schedule for another! The pictures turned out better than imagined. Josh did a great job staying out of our crews way but managed to catch all the action with great detail. 10/10 would recommend to anyone!
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!
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!
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 Kandle was absolutely terrific to work with and the quality of his product is outstanding. Josh made great use of our time and was very collaborative for our project. I would highly recommend Cougar Digital Marketing they produce great product at awesome value. Cheers, George Stanley General Manager Audi/BMW Tri Cities
I enjoyed working with Josh. Josh explains things in a way that make easily understandable for someone who is not in the marketing industry.
Josh did a great job on our logo! He even let us sit with him at his personal computer so we could be involved with the finishing touches. Thanks Josh and Thanks Cougar Digital!!
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!
Easy to work with, delivered what I asked for, competent, quality work by nice guys.
Josh has a great eye and delivers on what he promises. Easy to work with and very responsive.
It was a pleasure to work with Joshua, he made us all feel comfortable despite not having experience speaking in front of a camera. I would totally recommend Josh and his team. The video was exceptional!
Cougar Digital took the time to get to know our firm and our marketing goals before shooting any video. This made the video production process smooth and efficient. A short time after the shoot, their rough draft clips turned out to be nearly perfect final drafts, requiring very little input from us. They have an impressive creative and production team who strikes the right balance between respecting the time of their customers and getting the customer exactly what they want.
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.
Digital Advertising FAQs
Questions? We've heard 'em all.
If you’re thinking it, there’s a good chance someone else asked it too.
How much should I budget for online advertising?
That depends on your goals and how competitive your industry is—but we’ll help you find a smart place to start. We’ll never push you to spend more than you’re ready for, and we’re upfront about where your budget is going. Whether you want to test the waters or scale up, we’ll build a plan that fits.
Check out our marketing budget calculator for a ballpark starting range →
How will I know if my ads are working?
That depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. A brand awareness campaign is going to look different than a lead generation campaign—because success means different things. If you’re focused on getting your name out there, we’ll look at reach, impressions, video views, and engagement. If you’re aiming for leads or sales, we’ll track clicks, form submissions, calls, and conversions.
That’s why strategy matters. Before we launch anything, we’ll talk through your goals and set clear expectations about what success looks like. Then we’ll send you monthly reports with real numbers—not just marketing jargon—and walk through the results together. You’ll always know where things stand, and what we’re doing to make them better.
How soon will I start seeing results?
Some campaigns (like Google Search ads) can generate clicks right away. Others, like brand awareness or retargeting, take time to build momentum. We’ll let you know what to expect based on your goals and the platform we're using—but in general, we aim to start learning and optimizing within the first 30 days.
Why do I need different types of ads? Shouldn’t one be enough?
Because most people don’t go from “never heard of you” to “take my money” in one click. The customer journey isn’t linear—it usually takes multiple touchpoints to build awareness, earn trust, and prompt action.
That’s why a strong ad strategy usually includes more than one type of campaign. For example:
- Awareness ads introduce your brand to new people.
- Consideration ads speak to people who already showed interest (like visiting your site).
- Remarketing ads follow up and give them a reason to come back.
- Nurture campaigns keep you top of mind over time.
We build your campaigns to work together—so your future customers don’t just see you once and forget. They see the right message, at the right time, in the right place.
Digital Marketing for Busy Professionals
Learn more. Grow faster.
Quick, useful reads to help you think bigger and market smarter.
Free Digital Marketing Consultation
Let's talk about your online advertising strategy.
No hard pitch. Just an honest conversation about your goals and whether we're the right fit.