Digital Advertising
Spending money on ads isn't the same as advertising. There's a difference.
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Have you run ads before and seen impressions, not results?
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Are you spending money on advertising without a real picture of what's working?
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Do you know which channels actually make sense for your business and why?
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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.
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Reaching the wrong people
You can have great ads and a generous budget — if they're reaching the wrong people, none of it matters.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Strategy before platforms — we figure out what makes sense before we spend a dollar
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Direct access to the people actually running your campaigns
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Plain-English reporting tied to goals — not a wall of metrics nobody explains
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13+ years in this market: healthcare, construction, food & bev, professional services, trades
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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.
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.
The Cougar Digital team is fantastic. We recently revamped our website. I worked closely with Faith and she was super friendly and helpful every time we talked whether it was email, phone, or in person. The whole team works together to make sure everything is perfect and taken of. They really took our needs into consideration. Thanks!
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!
Josh at Cougar Digital built us a beautiful website! He and Travis are wonderful to work with and made the whole process easier than I imagined it would be. I would recommend them to anyone that wants a great, quality website
Josh has a great eye and delivers on what he promises. Easy to work with and very responsive.
Had a great experience with Cougar Digital. We lost our photographer last minute and called Cougar Digital and they stepped up and really did a bang up job for us. Plus their WSU Alum and that added good fun to the shoot. Super appreciate these guys and recommend them to anyone. #AGENT509
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!
Great company! Love how quickly Josh responds to our needs, questions and requests! Highly recommend them
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!
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!
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 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.
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.
I used Cougar Digital Marketing for a personal Christmas gift in 2024. Josh was professional, friendly, and helpful throughout the whole process from setting up location and time for photos, to helping me through the purchasing process to get the photos printed. The Christmas gift was my father's favorite this year-- thank you , Cougar Digital Marketing!
Josh did a great job making a couple of highlight videos for me. Easy to work with and prompt service
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 the privilege of working with Cougar Digital to create a video for our annual Hospice Gala, and we couldn't be happier with the results. The team captured the heart of what we do beautifully, creating a piece that was both moving and true to our mission. Josh, in particular, was outstanding. His compassionate approach made our interviewee feel comfortable and valued, allowing them to share their story openly and genuinely. The video resonated deeply with our guests, effectively conveying the essence of hospice care and the impact of our work on patients and their families. Thank you, Cougar Digital, for helping us share our story in such an impactful way!
Awesome local digital agency. Their webdesign capabilities and customer rapport is super impressive. Loved working with Travis and Josh!
Cougar Digital has been an outstanding company to work with. Excellent customer service, response time & product! Highly recommend!
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!!
So great to have a guy like Josh and the Cougar Digital team in your corner. Professional, fast, and awesome to work with.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
Very grateful for Cougar Digital's marketing work for my medical practice. They really helped increase my online presence and improve my ratings online. I have referred my colleagues to Cougar.
Ashley redid our website. She was professional, quick, and listened to all of our requests. Thank you!
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!!!
Excellent service. Creative work. They understand what you are trying to do and deliver! So enjoyable to work with them!
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!
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..
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!
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!
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!
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 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.
The Review Manager service from Cougar Digital Marketing & Design is terrific! I have wanted to get reviews for years but felt awkward about asking. This service makes it easy, and the response has been phenomenal! 5 Stars and more!!
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
Cougar Digital worked closely with us to create a website for our business that truly reflects our vision. They dedicated time and effort to ensure every detail aligned with our goals, and the end result exceeded our expectations. We’re extremely happy with the final product and appreciate their commitment to quality.
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!
Cougar Digital is a top notch company. As a business owner you have to be sure that the dollars you are spending are worth the result. All too often we are promised things that never materialize. These guys deliver and they make it easy. I am not computer savvy and I'm sure asked dumb questions. They took all the time necessary to help make sure I understood and was comfortable. Great people too. Highly recommend.
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!
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.
Josh produced an outstanding web site for TRI-CITY MUSIC. He ad access to numerous resources that made for an amazing finished product. Josh also provided extensive training on how to update the website myself. I have received numerous positive comments on Josh's creation. For outstanding product and service, I recommend Josh.
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
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Quick, useful reads to help you think bigger and market smarter.
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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.