I wasted money on marketing, and I’m a marketer. Here’s the framework that would have saved me.
After spending on the wrong tactic, I surveyed more than 400 business owners and found the single reason so many of us choose marketing tactics that don’t work. Why? We often choose tactics that match where we want to be. Not where we are. Let me explain.
The mistake that started all of this
When I left nearly a decade of Big Tech marketing and launched my own consultancy, I thought I understood how to sequence my own growth. I had built campaigns at Amazon and Expedia. I had driven awareness, led experiments, and worked with talented cross-functional teams. I figured I could skip ahead a little.
I ran Google Ads for my brand new business. I did it before I had any real awareness, before people understood what I offered, and before my website clearly explained my value. I told myself I just needed traffic. I could figure out the rest.
It. Did. Not. Work. Not because Google Ads are ineffective, but because I was buying tactics designed for a stage I had not reached. That mistake embarrassed me enough that I decided to find out why it happens so often and whether other business owners were struggling with the same thing.
I surveyed more than 400 owners across industries and then paired the data with 2025 research from HubSpot, BrightLocal, and Deloitte. The pattern was unmistakable. Most marketing waste comes from misdiagnosing your stage of growth.
Marketing works best when it matches the moment a business is in, not the dream it’s chasing. Once you know whether you are a newer business or a growing business, the entire decision tree becomes clearer, far less chaotic. This is the newer versus growing framework. It’s not a label. It’s a map.
Before you scale, know where you stand: The two stages that matter most
Newer = building the stage
Growing = performing on it
There are endless ways to segment businesses, but for marketing decisions the stages that matter most are simple.
Newer businesses
Often zero to two years old but defined more by traction than time. You are still becoming known, still shaping what you offer, and still building trust with your audience.
Growing businesses
Often two or more years in but defined by momentum. You have awareness, repeat customers, clearer positioning, and enough data to optimize.
Knowing which one you are prevents you from buying the wrong level of help, especially with fractional CMO services where the range of work stretches from foundational story building to advanced growth systems.
Visibility first, everything second: What newer businesses actually need
Newer businesses are not just early. They are unknown. The real challenge is being seen and being understood. Without that foundation, almost every advanced tactic underperforms. Three insights stood out in my research and survey.
Insight 1: Newer businesses underestimate the power of visibility.
BrightLocal’s 2025 study found that 74% of consumers check at least two sites before making a purchase. Awareness is not automatic. It must be built with intent.
Insight 2: Many newer businesses try to DIY or avoid early investment
In my survey, nearly half of newer businesses said they either ‘prefer to do all marketing themselves’ or ‘do not need a consultant. This is a signal that they underestimate the time and expertise required to get traction.
Insight 3: Clarity is often the missing ingredient
Newer businesses tend to describe what they do in ways that make perfect sense internally and almost no sense externally. They try to serve everyone. They rely on jargon. They skip the basics that drive trust.
At this stage, I recommend:
Simple and consistent brand presentation
A clear website with a sharp, outcomes driven hero section
Early visibility tools such as a Google Business Profile and directory listings
Messaging that tells people what you do and who you serve in seconds
This is not the stage for complex funnels, advanced SEO programs, heavy automation, or paid acquisition. It is the stage for becoming findable, understandable, and credible. Your job is to be seen and understood, not to scale.
Growth is a system, not a sprint: What growing businesses actually need
Their challenges look different. They have traffic but low conversion rates. They have customers but want more predictable demand. They have content but not enough of it. They have systems, but many are inconsistent or unfinished. Three insights stood out in my research and survey.
Insight 1: Growing businesses lose leads through under-optimized demand paths
Many already receive inbound interest, but they lose opportunities because their website, funnels, or follow-up systems were never built for scale. They have awareness but not enough conversion.
Insight 2: Growth slows when content and acquisition run in silos
My survey showed that growing businesses struggle with inconsistent content creation. This mirrors HubSpot’s 2025 finding that growing companies perform better when their content, social, SEO, analytics, and data workflows operate as an integrated system. Not siloed.
Insight 3: Data exists, but the story is unclear
Growing companies often have analytics but lack strategic interpretation. They’re not short on numbers. They are short on clarity about what is working and why.
At this stage, I recommend:
Demand generation campaigns
Optimized inbound funnels
Targeted Google Ads and retargeting
Analytics that explain not just what happened but why
Content engines that work in cycles, not one-offs
Lifecycle email and nurture systems
Multi-channel growth strategies
This is the stage for efficiency, scale, and predictable revenue. Not the stage for random acts of marketing. (Hint, no stage benefits from random acts of marketing.) When you’re growing, structure matters more than awareness.
The pricing gap no one warns you about
One of the clearest findings in my survey was the gap between what business owners say they will pay for marketing and what they actually pay once the need is real.
In my survey, many newer business owners said they expected to spend around $120 per month on ongoing marketing support such as Google Ads monitoring or SEO maintenance. But in reality, reputable agencies and consultants charge significantly more, because the work requires far more time, expertise, and strategic depth than most owners initially assume.
Deloitte’s CMO Survey consistently finds that marketing leaders plan budgets optimistically but end up revising them once they confront the real complexity and capability demands of execution. Actual marketing spend often diverges from initial expectations not because of upselling, but because effective marketing simply takes more than people anticipate.
Here is how this gap plays out across stages:
Newer businesses tend to underestimate the time and cost of foundational work
Growing businesses estimate more accurately because they have lived the complexity
Understanding this gap helps you create realistic expectations and avoid choosing tactics you cannot sustain or don’t need.
The help you need, not what you wish you needed: How to choose fractional CMO services based on your stage
If you are a newer business, look for help that supports:
Visibility
Clarity
Brand presentation
Early demand signals
If you’re a growing business, look for help that supports:
Systems
Structure
Optimization
Scale
Predictability
The right partner will not flatter you by telling you that you’re further along than you are. They will tell you the truth so you can make better decisions and avoid wasting money.
This isn’t a warning. It’s an advantage.
Knowing your stage of growth gives you power. It helps you avoid expensive missteps. It helps you choose the right partner. It helps you sequence your marketing so each investment has a chance to work.
Understanding my stage is why I built Marcostrat the way I did. Or, I should say, rebuilt it. It’s why I ran the survey. It’s why I share these findings openly. You deserve support that meets you where you are, not where someone wants to sell you.
If I’d understood my stage sooner, I would have saved myself a lot of confusion, and a little cash on Google Ads. My hope is this framework helps you skip both.
