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.
I asked Cougar Digital to create a logo for my organization and make my handmade and very rinky-dink brochure and booklet look professional. They came through with flying colors. They gave me several options for a logo, listened carefully to my feedback and then sent me exactly what I wanted when I myself didn't know what it was I exactly wanted. Their team helped me narrow down the important information, put it in an order that made sense and then make it look fantastic. Everyone who has seen the finished product has been so impressed. Through the entire process, I found them to be easy to work with, easy to communicate with, speedy and responsive to emails and phone calls and patient when we came up against a deadline crunch (through no fault of their own). I would give Cougar Digital my highest recommendation.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!!!
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.
Fantastic service! Cougar Digital gave me very professional one-to-one couching! This is making a significant impact on my projects!
Awesome local digital agency. Their webdesign capabilities and customer rapport is super impressive. Loved working with Travis and Josh!
Cougar digital was awesome to work with. They made the website design experience very simple and were very helpful in accommodating my companies' specific needs!
So great to have a guy like Josh and the Cougar Digital team in your corner. Professional, fast, and awesome to work with.
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!
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 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.
Happy we have businesses like this locally! Great customer service. Stayed in communication with me through the whole process. Five-star service.
Ashley redid our website. She was professional, quick, and listened to all of our requests. Thank you!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
Ordered new business cards and was extremely pleased with the speed and service! Definitely recommend for your next marketing push!
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.
Excellent service. Creative work. They understand what you are trying to do and deliver! So enjoyable to work with them!
Josh was professional and personable. Produced great picture and he is a Coug to boot. It doesn’t get any better. Go Cougs
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.
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!
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.
We've had a great experience working with Cougar Digital. We purchased a package deal with a new logo, photography and web design for the Grace Brethren Church of Sunnyside. Nick and Josh were both great to work with. We've had a lot of positive feedback on the work they've done.
Thank you Josh for your patience and expertise in helping us design our logo! Matt and I are really happy with the end result.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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 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!
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.
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!
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!
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!!
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!
Travis and his team are amazing. They were quick to communicate, completely understood what we were looking for, and delivered an amazing product by the deadline requested. We can’t recommend them enough!
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!
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.