Why Right Now Is a Great Time for Your Business to Invest in Paid Digital Ads

1. Paid ads meet your customers where they are.

When you think of paid media, you might only think of the ads at the top of a Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page). You might even wonder, “Do people actually click on those?”

The answer is a definitive yes. 

These ads are highly effective, but studies also show the average consumer needs 8 to 15 digital touchpoints before making a decision. To bridge that gap, our paid team creates a comprehensive strategy to ensure your brand is visible across the entire digital landscape through:

• Search Engine Ads (PPC): Capturing high-intent users at the very top of Google and Bing results.
• Display Advertising: Placing visual banners on the websites your customers frequent to keep your brand top-of-mind.
• Social Media Ads: Engaging your target audience where they spend their downtime, including platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• Multi-Channel Retargeting: Following up with previous site visitors to provide the repeated touchpoints necessary to close a sale.

2. Paid ads have an almost-immediate and long-lasting impact.

With many aspects of digital marketing, there can be a latency period between when you start making improvements and when you start seeing results. With social media, it takes time to build a following. With organic SEO, it can take a couple of weeks to months before the big search engines recognize the value of your content and start ranking it prominently.

With paid media, there is no such lag. Once the generator is turned on, it’s on, acting as a powerhouse for the rest of your overall digital presence.

3. We don’t do cookie cutter campaigns. We custom-design your campaign to match your business needs and goals.

Think of your ad spend as the fuel that runs the generator. There is a right amount of fuel to add. Too little might not get you the volume you need. Yet too much and your business might not be able to sustain all of the leads.

The key is finding the sweet spot – the right amount of leads you need to allow you to sustainably grow your business. And that’s one of the areas our paid team can help you with. We manage paid campaigns for businesses of all sizes – from national brands that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in paid advertising every month to small local mom and pop shops that top out at $1,500 – and we’re able to deliver needle-moving results for all of them.

Our paid ad campaigns can help you:

• Multiply your current leads and sales
• Build brand awareness and value in specific markets
• Estimate costs and strategize expansion into new territories
• Re-engage previous visitors who left your site without converting
• Identify and capture high-intent buyers at the exact moment they search for your solution
• A/B test messaging in real-time to discover what truly resonates with your audience
• Own the top of search results for your most competitive and profitable keywords
• Shorten the sales cycle by putting your best offers in front of ready-to-buy prospects
• Gather actionable data to turn unpredictable marketing into a scalable revenue engine

4. A flagging economy means more opportunity for you.

This is key. Right now is a great time to invest in advertising, even if it doesn’t seem like it.

The economy is facing some significant headwinds. Prices are high and climbing higher. Consumer confidence is low and sinking lower. Many businesses are taking this as a sign that it’s time to pull back on advertising. 

View your competitors’ hesitancy as your opportunity. Paid ads are a numbers game. When your competitors pull back on their advertising budget, don’t just be content with the fact that consumers will be seeing less of them. Step in and fill the void to ensure they’ll be seeing more of you. 

Let’s not forget it takes the average consumer about 8 to 15 digital touchpoints before they’re ready to make a decision. When your competitors aren’t spending as much on advertising, it lowers the demand, making those clicks, impressions, and digital touchpoints a great value right now.

The struggling economy means that everyone is zigging for shelter right now. Instead of zigging with them, it’s a great time to be bold and zag. Invest in your paid digital marketing campaigns now to set yourself up for success when the storm is over.

5. Those leads are going to go somewhere, so they might as well go to you.

Discretionary purchases are much more affected in a slow economy than things people need now. Pipes still break. Roofs still get old and need replacement. Pest infestations still happen. 

And when they do, you need to be there to position your company as the go-to choice. If you’re not, your top competitors will be. Don’t hand your competitors these high-value leads on a silver platter. It only strengthens their business when it could be strengthening yours. 

Studies show that, compared to companies that reduce marketing budgets, companies that advertise during a recession bounce back more quickly and come back stronger than ever. 

6. Even if they seem expensive today, current customer acquisition costs are a great value – and worth it.

Our clients occasionally mention they’re concerned about customer acquisition costs via paid campaigns. As an example, let’s say your wildlife control company averages a CAC of $100 for every $500 raccoon removal service you perform. 

Consider the overall value you’re getting for 20%. 

A brand new customer is one of the most valuable commodities any company can have. It’s more than the revenue they give you; they’re also an opportunity for a new five-star online review – and positive online reviews have significant value.

Here’s something else to consider – that $100 CAC you’re paying right now is the cheapest it will ever be to acquire a new customer. Countless studies have shown that customer acquisition costs have risen rapidly over the last decade, outpacing inflation, and that pace has only accelerated in the last few years.

By the time 2028 rolls around, there’s a good chance you’ll be looking at your marketing budget, wondering what you have to do to get your CAC down to the $100 range. That’s why we think it’s valuable to put aside sticker shock and invest in customer acquisition now.

7. Steady revenue from paid campaigns helps you plan for the future.

There’s another dimension to the $100 CAC for a $500 service example. You have to take into account the steady reliability of your lead generator. It’s $400 of revenue you’re creating every time you spend $100 – and it’s repeatable.

With one hundred jobs, you’re up to $40,000 with a $10,000 advertising budget. This is real revenue that allows you to keep your staff busy and gives you a cost modeling data to plan medium and long-term growth goals. 

That kind of predictability is invaluable – no matter if you’re a growing local business or an expanding regional pest control company, our team helped to $4.4 million in paid ad revenue last year.

>> Learn more about how we target the right audience for your paid campaigns.

8. Paid ad campaigns strengthen your organic SEO.

Paid ads or organic SEO – which is more important? While we would love to point to one or the other and say it’s a better investment of your time and money, the unsatisfying answer is both. 

Both are equally important – and they rely on each other like a system in equilibrium. When your paid ad campaigns direct a consumer to one of your pages, and they go on to convert to a customer, Google takes note of that signal, and it builds trust. Likewise, if Google loves the content on your page and it’s well optimized for SEO, your cost per click is often lower.

It’s a self-sustaining and self-reinforcing cycle that benefits your entire digital marketing footprint in these ways:

• Boosts Organic Trust: When ad traffic leads to sales, Google recognizes your page as high-quality, helping your organic rankings climb.
• Lowers Your Ad Costs: As your SEO improves and your site becomes more “relevant,” Google often rewards you with lower prices for your ad clicks.
• Dominates the Search Page: Appearing in both sections gives you double the visibility, making your brand the obvious choice over competitors.
• Closes the Loop: Our full-funnel digital marketing strategy converts customers at every phase of the buying journey. Organic SEO helps them discover you early in the research stage. And since the average consumer needs 8 to 15 digital touchpoints to decide, our paid digital ad campaigns keep you top-of-mind until ready to buy.

9. Paid ads help you identify issues and gaps in your sales funnel.

No sales funnel is perfect – even Fortune 500 companies frequently tweak and revise theirs to match shifting market demands and customer behavior.

The problem is, with a low volume of potential leads entering that funnel, it takes longer to recognize the gaps and adjust. You will likely notice them in a matter of time, but by the time that happens, you may have lost plenty of leads and put yourself in a weaker overall position.

Paid ads supercharge your funnel with potential leads, so gaps and problems are easier to identify immediately, and begin to figure out the solution.

10. When you work with us, you have an entire team dedicated to your paid ads.

Most companies rely on a single marketing manager or one specialist to juggle their entire ad spend. No matter how talented that individual is, they are limited by their own bandwidth. 

We take the time to listen to you and understand your pain points, what’s working and what’s not, and come up with a detailed strategy to target your best leads and best ROI. After all, tangible results are the only metric that matters. 

At City Ranked, we replace that bottleneck with an entire department of paid media experts, ensuring your campaigns benefit from:

• Multi-Platform Mastery: Access deep expertise across the full digital spectrum — including Search, Social, Display, and Programmatic — rather than relying on a “generalist” skill set.
• A National Track Record: Our team managed nearly $10,000,000 in cumulative ad spend in 2025, generating ~177,000 verified leads for businesses across the U.S. Leverage our experience building successful campaigns for businesses in your specific industry, skipping the learning curve an in-house hire would face.
• Data-Driven Certainty over Guesswork: Eliminate “trial and error” by utilizing our years of proprietary data and analysis to determine exactly what works.
• Advanced Predictive Modeling: Receive detailed cost analyses and performance estimates based on real-world benchmarks, allowing you to budget with confidence.
• Proactive Strategic Oversight: Benefit from a team-based approach where multiple sets of eyes monitor and optimize your campaigns, ensuring no opportunity for growth is missed.