Digital marketing and where the money goes

Digital marketing for a small business spends money in two places: the platforms, and the people making what runs on them. Keeping those two apart is most of what makes a budget readable.

Ad spend here goes directly to the platforms, so a business sees every euro they took and what it bought. The 1,000 euros a month covers the concept, the production and running the distribution. Nothing is marked up in between, which removes the usual reason to spend more than a campaign needs.

The report counts what came back: a booking, an enquiry, a call. Impressions stay out of it, because a campaign can collect a great many of them and still produce nothing a small business can pay rent with.

The cheapest wins usually sit before any ad runs. Quadomania's riders film vertical clips on their phones, and the site kept them vertical, because the people comparing tour operators in Žabljak are holding a phone in portrait. Booking hands off to WhatsApp with the tour, the date and the number of riders already written in. An ad that sends someone to a card form loses them at the form, however well the ad was made.

Paid placement has a weakness a small business feels: nothing about it is visible. BidChamp was built around that, a public board where paying more than the current holder takes the slot in an animated bout, so the money leaves proof behind.

Concept, production and reporting are on the growth and marketing page, and what digital marketing means for a small business covers how one idea holds across every channel.