10 common mistakes on digital marketing (after working with 1,000+ customers)

Ever looked at your marketing results and thought "where did all my money go?" Trust me, you're not alone. Throughout my 10 years at Google, I've worked with thousands of companies to help them optimize their digital marketing strategies -from local plumbing businesses to Fortune 500s, all over the globe.

And here's the thing: I've seen the same mistakes again and again. So don't feel bad when you catch yourself making one of these errors. Chances are, you're already doing better than many big MNCs I've worked with.

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1. Do you know what you are doing?

Every time I work with new clients I always check out their websites first. About 40% of the time, I leave confused: What are you really selling? Why you but not the million others out there?

I can't stress enough the importance of brand positioning - that unique value your brand offers customers. One fintech I worked with saw conversions jump 35% just by making their homepage actually explain what they do. Do the homework and answer these:

• what problems are we solving for customers?
• what's the value add provided by my products?
• who's our target audience?
• how is the target market, who's my competitors and how do I differentiate?

Having a solid brand identity ensures your messaging stays consistent across channels. It also helps you save marketing dollars by attracting your unique niche of customers that actually get you, improving customer loyalty and growing that sweet, sweet LTV.

2. Operating like an artist, not a business

What's the difference? An artist focuses on him/herself but doesn't really care what others want (most of the time). A business is here to solve problems.

So many people just assume there's a market for their idea without bothering with user research. I'm not saying every business needs to do weeks-long design sprints, but you need to, to some degree, talk to your target audience and understand what they actually need.

One e-commerce client was shocked when they finally asked customers what they wanted. Turns out people wanted the story behind their handmade products, not just another discount shop.

You don't want to put everything into selling orange juice when what they actually want are simple, fresh oranges.

3. Trying to run before you have learnt how to walk

Who would do that? All sorts of companies, believe me.

No digital marketing efforts will succeed without good foundations, and here I'm talking about your website, your app, your landing pages, etc. So many people come to me super excited about launching viral YouTube campaigns with huge budgets. But these same companies haven't figured out basic website UX, their page speed is terrible, or their app store listing is a mess. Before dropping cash on fancy campaigns, check that you've got:

• Pages that load in under 3 seconds
• A clear customer journey from landing to buying
• Responsive website and consistent look & feel across all platforms
• Optimized product pages or app listings

I get it, it's important to move fast and iterate, but these fundamentals are non-negotiable. Without them, your marketing budget is basically going into a black hole.

4. Remind me again what's your goal(s)?

Become a millionaire. Get to IPO. No, not those types of goals, but your actual business goals and how they translate into marketing objectives.

I once had a gaming app client who kept saying they wanted better ROI but was only bidding for installs (CPI) - they were focusing on user acquisition when they should have been optimizing for return on ad spend (tROAS). So many companies set business targets completely disconnected from their marketing efforts.

Your marketing objectives should align with your business objectives. If your goal is more purchases, your digital marketing should be set up for that (maybe not day 1 when there's no customers, but you get what I mean).

5. Being consumed by the buffet rather than consuming the options

It's great to be ambitious. But not when it paralyzes you.

Some clients come to me totally overwhelmed by all the different terminologies, platforms, and metrics. I get it. But the answer isn't to use fancy automation tools to manage everything in one place. The answer is simply prioritization, especially if you're a solopreneur.

You won't need content marketing, partnerships, influencer marketing, Instagram ads, LinkedIn ads, Google ads all on day 1. Pick the ones that make the most sense for your business right now.

6. Go big or go home?

Digital marketing is not gambling, where you pour in a huge budget and pray for good performance. It's a data-driven thing that needs testing.

Never underestimate the power of A/B testing. From my experience:

• By changing just the title of an app store description (which takes literally 1 minute), one client saw a 40%+ jump in conversions
• A B2B client found that question headlines beat statement headlines by 27%
• One e-commerce site moved their reviews above the fold and boom - 18% more sales

Do tons of small experiments, watch the results closely, and only then scale what actually works. The winners aren't the ones with deep pockets - they're the ones who test smart.

7. Not talking in the same language

Your creatives matter. A lot. And that doesn't simply mean they need to look pretty.

They need to speak to the right person, at the right time, with the right message, in the right language. Simple, right? Not really. It takes serious customer segmentation, tons of iterations, and constant testing (see points #2 and #6).

In fact, I'd say the best marketers spend at least 70% of their time on creatives - figuring out customer personas, crafting messages that hit specific pain points, designing visuals that connect with people. One luxury brand I worked with made 15 versions of basically the same ad for different customer segments - and saw results triple.

8. AI is dumb (but in a specific way)

You've heard enough from Google and Meta about machine learning and AI. Yep, most ads today run on AI algorithms, as they have for years actually.

People love saying that advertising platforms are "black boxes," and yeah, to some degree they're right. Nobody knows exactly how the algorithms work, but that doesn't mean there's no formula for success.

AI runs on data - the more good data you feed the machine, the better it learns about you and the better it performs. What data matters?

• Detailed conversion events (not just purchases but add-to-carts, sign-ups)
• Clear campaign goals that match your business objectives
• Just enough budget for the system to learn (stingy campaigns can't optimize)
• Multiple ad creatives to test

One travel client who properly set up enhanced conversions and gave the algorithm different creative options saw their cost per booking drop by 35% in just two weeks.

9. Ok so how do you measure your goal(s)?

90% of measurement issues can be fixed with proper tracking. Let's be honest - measurement in marketing is chaotic. We see different terms and attribution models across channels, not to mention cross-device stuff or connecting offline to online.

One retail client was celebrating their "successful" campaign because traffic was way up - until we helped them track actual purchases and discovered that despite the influx of visitors, their conversion value had actually dropped. They were getting more but lower-quality traffic. A classic case of optimizing for the wrong thing entirely.

Take time to understand attribution, set up proper conversion tracking beyond simple pageviews, and play around with Google Analytics. What you measure should connect to what actually matters for your business.

10. I'll get older but your lovers stay my age (thank you Taylor)

Get it? The business landscape changes, and digital marketing strategies change too.

Even if you want to age together with your target audience from 10 years ago, you need to consciously stay relevant. The tactics that worked last year might already be useless today.

When I first started in digital marketing, I spent most time explaining to customers about the difference between broad match and exact match search terms. Today it's all about AI-driven campaigns and first-party data in a privacy-first world. Remember when Facebook reach was free and massive? Those days are gone.

Evolve, or be extinct. The winners adapt while staying true to what makes them special.