Digital Advertising
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
125+ 5-Star Reviews
When you do great work, people notice.
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!
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!
Cougar Digital Marketing ROCKS! I've worked with Travis and Josh from the very beginning. These folks know their stuff and do a fantastic job with website design & promotion, digital photography and so much more. Their services are very reasonably priced and they know how to GET RESULTS. Great BANG for your marketing BUCK. Look no further that Cougar Digital - these folks will take good care of you.
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.
We’ve had the pleasure of working with Cougar Digital Marketing on both of our company websites—Ellison Earthworks and EE Traffic Management—and we couldn’t be happier with the results. From the very first meeting, their team was attentive, creative, and incredibly easy to work with. They took the time to understand not just our services, but our brand values and voice, and they translated that into two beautiful, functional, and user-friendly websites. Their communication was consistent and clear throughout the process, and every step felt collaborative. They made what could’ve been a stressful experience feel seamless and even fun. The final products truly reflect the heart of our companies and the industries we serve. We highly recommend Cougar Digital to any business looking to elevate their online presence. Thank you for bringing our vision to life so perfectly!
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.
Excellent service and good pricing. It was a pleasure working with Travis and his team. I highly recommend them!
Travis and his team are top notch and very professional! They kept us on tract to make our website target date with daily/weekly tasks. They made the job seamless and supported us through the whole process! Our site is interactive with our industry software because Travis took the extra time to learn what we needed to make it work. Thank you so much Cougar Digital!
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.
Josh Kandle has changed the way we gain new customers by drastically improving our SEO. If you are static in your internet leads Josh can fix that. In the past week the phone just keeps ringing. Good job Josh.
Ordered new business cards and was extremely pleased with the speed and service! Definitely recommend for your next marketing push!
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.
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!
I have been working with the team and Cougar Digital now for almost five years and I genuinely love working with them. They have become such valuable partners on the marketing side of our business. I can't recommend them strongly enough!! I would give them 10 stars if I could!!!
Thank you Josh for your patience and expertise in helping us design our logo! Matt and I are really happy with the end result.
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!
Awesome local digital agency. Their webdesign capabilities and customer rapport is super impressive. Loved working with Travis and Josh!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
We needed to update our website and Josh at Cougar Digital was very responsive, helpful, and capable. Our refreshed website looks great! -Jennifer Williamson Forster, Executive Director, South Sound Reading Foundation.
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!
Cougar Digital has truly exceeded expectations with their outstanding work on our website. From start to finish, their team demonstrated peak professionalism, creativity, and technical expertise. The design they crafted for our website is nothing short of spectacular. It perfectly captures the essence of our brand while ensuring a visually stunning and user-friendly interface. Every detail was meticulously planned and executed, resulting in a site that not only looks impressive but also functions seamlessly! 100% Recommend Cougar Digital to all businesses.
We recently Had Travis and his team build a custom website for our Boat Dealership. Nixons Marine.. Josh, Nick and Travis were awesome. We got tired of the common dealer site and they hit it out of park with our website. What a great project!! Thanks So Much for making it easy..
Cougar digital has been an awesome! Basin Pacific Insurance could not be more happy about the work that they have done, the personal experience, and the creative ideas! Keep up the good work! Josh Toner/ Basin Pacific Insurance
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.
Thank you Cougar Digital. Over the past couple of years we have worked with Cougar Digital for rebranding, website updates, new logo, updating our business card and promotional material. They also produced an amazing testimonial video - so much fun working with Josh and his team to create this. I can’t begin to express how happy we are with the work Cougar Digitial has completed for us over the years. They are professional, punctual, very creative and so easy to work with. Looking forward to our partnership for years to come. I would highly recommend Cougar Digitial. Our team at New Leaf Creations is thankful for all of your amazing work and looking forward to working with Cougar Digital in the future.
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!
We had a great experience working with COUGAR DIGITAL for creating our website and helping us with our ongoing marketing needs. Ashley, did an exceptional job with the website. Josh created an awesome logo and branding bible for us, and Makayla's photos added a professional touch. Highly recommended for top-notch digital marketing solutions!
Josh was professional and personable. Produced great picture and he is a Coug to boot. It doesn’t get any better. Go Cougs
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.
Cougar Digital has been great to work with! With their support we have seen significant improvement with our marketplace campaigns.
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.
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!
Josh was fantastic to work with! He took Real Estate photography photos on the 14th, and had all of them beautifully edited and back to me in 24 hours! Highly recommend his services!
I honestly don't know where to start. My partners and I could not be happier with the process from start to finish working with Ashley and Cougar Digital Marketing. It was an absolute pleasure working with Ashley and I would recommend her to anyone who is looking to either create a website for their business or enhance their current one like we did. The service and pricing we experienced completely exceeded our expectations.
It is always a pleasure working with Cougar Digital, especially with Josh and Mykaela. It's been a very good partnership with them. Very professional, always available for any questions or inquiries. Looking forward for more years of partnership.
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!
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!
Josh has a great eye and delivers on what he promises. Easy to work with and very responsive.
Cougar Digital should be your only call for web design. I would give them 6 stars if I could. #Silverline
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 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!
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?
Most small businesses should expect to spend at least $500–$2,500 per month on Facebook ads, depending on the audience, location, campaign goal, and level of competition. A smaller budget can work for testing, but consistent results usually require enough spend to reach the right people more than once.
The bigger issue is not just the ad budget. Facebook ads work best when the campaign has a clear strategy, strong creative, a defined audience, and a landing page or follow-up process that turns clicks into leads.
How much should a local business spend on digital advertising?
A local business should spend enough on digital advertising to reach its audience consistently and collect meaningful data. For many small businesses, that often starts around $1,000–$3,000 per month in ad spend, though the right number depends on the industry, location, competition, and campaign goals.
The ad budget should also account for strategy, creative, landing pages, tracking, and campaign management. Spending more is not always better, but spending too little can make it hard to learn what is working.
Check out our marketing budget calculator for a ballpark starting range →
How do I know if my digital ads are working?
Digital ads are working when they are helping you reach the business goal you set before the campaign starts. That goal might be phone calls, form submissions, booked appointments, website traffic, store visits, brand awareness, or qualified leads.
Before launching a campaign, we define what success should look like. Then we track the right metrics and explain the results in plain English so you can see what is working, what needs to change, and where your budget is going.
How long does it take digital advertising to work?
Some digital advertising campaigns can start generating traffic and leads quickly, especially Google Search campaigns where people are already looking for what you offer. Other campaigns, such as Facebook ads, display ads, and CTV advertising, usually take more time because they are building awareness and trust.
Most campaigns need time for testing, optimization, and better data. We set realistic expectations before launch so you know what should happen right away and what may take longer to build.
Do you work with small digital advertising budgets?
Yes, we work with some small advertising budgets, but the right budget depends on your goals, market, and competition. A small budget may be enough for testing or a focused local campaign, but it may not be enough to support a full digital advertising strategy.
We do not recommend spending money on ads if the budget is too low to produce useful results. If you are unsure what makes sense, our budget calculator can help you understand what level of spend is realistic for your goals.
What is the best digital advertising platform for a local business?
The best digital advertising platform for a local business depends on the goal. Google Ads is often a strong choice when people are actively searching for your service. Facebook and Instagram ads are useful for awareness, retargeting, and reaching specific audiences. CTV advertising can help local businesses build brand recognition in a defined geographic area.
Most businesses get better results when the platform is chosen based on strategy, not just popularity.
What is the difference between Google Ads and Facebook Ads?
Google Ads reaches people based mainly on what they are searching for, while Facebook Ads reaches people based on interests, behaviors, demographics, and audience targeting. Google Ads is often better for high-intent searches, while Facebook Ads can be better for awareness, education, and staying visible to the right audience.
The best choice depends on whether you need to capture existing demand or create more awareness for your business.
Digital Marketing for Busy Professionals
Learn more. Grow faster.
Quick, useful reads to help you think bigger and market smarter.
Let's Talk
Ready to treat your advertising like an investment instead of an experiment?
We'll start with a real conversation about your business, your goals, and whether this is the right time to build something together.