Marketing With Elliot

Marketing With Elliot I help business owners fix broken marketing. Book a free discovery call on my website and I’ll customize an advertising solution for you.

08/04/2026

Geofencing isn’t dead, but for most small local service businesses, it probably shouldn’t be where your next marketing dollar goes.

The upside: you can target people who visited a specific competitor, event, or location.

The downside: being somewhere doesn’t mean someone is ready to buy and the attribution can get pretty fuzzy.

Before spending money on geofencing, I’d make sure you’re already capturing the demand that exists through Google Search, Google Maps, local SEO, and solid conversion tracking.

Capture intent first. Experiment with awareness tactics second.

ServiceBusiness

Sending more traffic to your website will not fix it if the website itself isn't doing its job. It just means more peopl...
08/03/2026

Sending more traffic to your website will not fix it if the website itself isn't doing its job. It just means more people see the problem.

Every small business website that actually converts visitors into customers does four things well. It tells a visitor exactly who it's for within the first few seconds. It shows real proof instead of stock photography. It gives the visitor one clear next step instead of five competing buttons. And it matches whatever promise brought that visitor there in the first place, whether that was an ad, a search result, or a referral.

Miss any one of those four things and you can double your ad budget and still wonder why nothing's converting.

Save this and check your own website against these four things tonight.

07/31/2026

"Our ads aren't working" is the most common thing I hear from small business owners, and it's usually not true.

I've walked into businesses where the leads were coming in perfectly fine. The problem was that nobody called them back for three days. That's not an advertising problem. That's a follow up problem, and it's one of the cheapest problems in marketing to fix.

Before you spend one more dollar on ads, look at how fast your team responds to a new lead. Spending more money doesn't fix slow follow up. It just makes the slow follow up more expensive.

Follow along for more honest breakdowns of where marketing budgets actually go to waste.

"Should I run Google ads or Meta ads for my small business?" is the question I get more than any other, and the answer i...
07/30/2026

"Should I run Google ads or Meta ads for my small business?" is the question I get more than any other, and the answer is simpler than most business owners expect.

Google ads show up when someone is already searching for exactly what you offer, so you're reaching people who are ready to buy right now. Meta ads show up while someone is scrolling, so you're introducing your business to people who weren't thinking about it at all.

If people are already Googling what your business sells, start there. You're reaching warm, ready customers instead of trying to manufacture interest out of nothing. Most businesses need both platforms eventually, but the order matters more than most agencies will tell you.

Comment which one you're currently running, Google or Meta, and I'll tell you what I'd try next.

Most business owners find out their marketing company owns them the hard way, usually the moment they try to walk away.H...
07/28/2026

Most business owners find out their marketing company owns them the hard way, usually the moment they try to walk away.

Here are three warning signs I tell every business owner to look for. You don't have your own login to your ad account. Every report talks about impressions and reach but never mentions how many leads actually became paying customers. And somewhere in the sales pitch, someone guaranteed you a result, even though nobody controls the algorithm, your competitors, or the market well enough to promise that.

A real marketing partner hands you your own login on day one, because they know they're not holding you hostage. If your current marketing company can't say yes to that, they're not a partner. They're a landlord.

Save this before your next call with any marketing company, so you know exactly what to ask.

07/24/2026

A lot of marketing companies offer a "free audit," and most of the time it starts and ends with a screenshot of your ad account and a scary looking number.

That's not how I work with small business owners. When I sit down with a business, I start with the offer itself, because if what you're selling isn't clear, no amount of ad spend fixes that. Then I look at your website, because traffic doesn't matter if the page doesn't convert it. Then I look at how fast you follow up with new leads. Your ad account is the last thing I check, not the first.

Save this so you know what an honest audit actually looks like the next time someone offers you one.

Ask ten different marketing companies what they do for small business owners and you'll get ten vague answers full of bu...
07/22/2026

Ask ten different marketing companies what they do for small business owners and you'll get ten vague answers full of buzzwords. Here is my honest one.

I manage Google ads and Meta ads so your budget goes toward people who actually buy from you. I fix websites so the traffic you're already paying for turns into real leads instead of bouncing off the page. I work on search rankings so people can find you for free, without spending a dollar on ads. And I build the follow up system that makes sure a new lead gets a response the same day instead of three days later.

I've built and sold two agencies, so I know what it looks like when a marketing company locks up your ad account so you can't leave. I don't do that. You own your ad accounts, your customer data, and your follow up system, always.

If your small business marketing feels like a handful of separate problems instead of one connected plan, comment the word MARKETING below and let's talk it through.

I built two marketing agencies over the last nine years and sold both of them. The most recent one, De Novo Agency, grew...
07/20/2026

I built two marketing agencies over the last nine years and sold both of them.

The most recent one, De Novo Agency, grew to almost 39,000 followers before I walked away.

I don't run an agency now. I work one on one with business owners on the parts of small business marketing that actually move the needle: Google ads, Meta ads, your website, your search rankings, and the follow up system that turns a lead into a paying customer.

Most marketing advice you see online is written by someone trying to sell you a course, a guarantee, or a shortcut. I've managed real ad budgets and watched real customer lists get ignored while everyone argued about follower counts instead. That's what I actually talk about here.

If you're a business owner who feels like you're spending money on marketing without knowing what's actually working, follow along. No fluff, no sales pitches, just what actually works.

07/13/2026

The fastest way to get bad marketing advice?

Ask someone who only sells ONE marketing service.

The Meta agency thinks every business needs Meta Ads.

The Video Guy says you need more videos.

The SEO agency thinks every business needs more SEO.

The web designer thinks your website is the problem - you get it, right?

Funny how that works.

I run Google Ads, Meta Ads, SEO, websites, analytics, CRM systems - the whole thing.

I don’t really care which channel gets the credit. I care which one is most likely to make you money.

For most local service businesses, your first marketing dollar belongs where people are actively looking for your service, not where they’re watching dog videos and rage bait.

Build the foundation first. Then layer on everything else.

DM me what your business does, and I’ll tell you exactly where I’d spend your first $1,000 if it were my own business. No sales pitch. Just strategy.

07/12/2026

I swear some marketers have convinced an entire generation of business owners that Instagram is where EVERY customer starts.

It isn’t.

For most local service businesses, especially those serving adults over 25, Google is still where buying intent lives.

People use Instagram to validate you. They use Google (and now AI search) to find you in the first place.

Every business is different, though.

DM me what your business does, and I’ll tell you where I’d spend your first marketing dollar: Google, Meta, both, or somewhere else entirely.

No sales pitch, just the strategy I’d use if it were my own business.

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