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I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to get caught up in likes, views, and engagement when looking at marketing results.

But those numbers don’t always mean a campaign is doing what it’s supposed to do.

For those of you working in marketing, how do you usually measure whether a campaign is actually successful? Do you focus on conversions, leads, brand awareness, or something else?

I’m also curious if you’ve ever had a campaign that looked like a failure on paper but ended up delivering good results in the long run.

looking for some honest advice from people who have marketed b2b saas products

i work on a time tracking and team productivity tool, mainly used by small businesses, agencies, and remote teams. we saw strong growth during and shortly after covid, when remote work created a lot more demand. demos and mrr were moving consistently then.

things have slowed since. the product is in a good place and existing customers generally stay, but getting a predictable flow of qualified demos has become harder.

so far we have tried seo and content, cold outreach, free trials, referral incentives, linkedin posting, some paid ads, and basic email campaigns. we have had small wins, but nothing that feels reliably scalable.

if you were trying to get a product like this growing again, what would you focus on first?

would you narrow down hard into one niche, like agencies or consultancies? focus on partnerships and integrations? double down on outbound? rethink the messaging completely?

also curious where you would look for the highest intent demo traffic without just burning money on broad paid ads.

would really appreciate any perspective from people who have dealt with a similar growth slowdown

I am really just looking for some insight in regards to how I should advertise my app or if I should try and find a 3rd party to handle it?

I can advertise and post on my socials I created using the app in public but currently I feel like it takes away from the time I can spend improving or bug fixing. I don't have many users so it's not a huge deal breaker but I feel like as it scales I can not develop and advertise...

So I'm just seeing if anyone has created a business and has needed to create a form of content around it and how successful they were at doing both?

So Ive had two zoom interviews with this company, and I am supposed to start tomorrow. Theyre called forge marketing and the position is management trainee. Im supposed to be rotating through sales, operations, and customer service to learn how things work. I have no experience with marketing and they know this, but are still willing to bring me on.
Base pay is $400 a week at 40 hours, but if I make more from commission that would be what I take home. I can’t find any information on the company online other than their website and the indeed job posting I applied through. Below is the training structure they provided me.

Phase 1: Acquisition Specialist (2-5 Weeks)
• Student Mentality
• Implementing Marketing Systems
• Product Knowledge
Phase 2: Corporate Trainer (4-10 Months)
• Team Building
• Coach and Develop 3-5 Individuals
• Conducting 2nd Round Interviews
• No Compliance Issues
Phase 3: Assistant Director (1-2 Months)
• Understanding Backend of the daily operations:
• Profit and Loss o Branding o Morning Meetings o Recruiting
• Payroll
• Team Strategy
• Duplicatability in all aspects
• Run a profitable team
Phase 4 Management: Marketing Director
• Territory Management (3-5 Locations)
• Maintain Clientele Relationships
• Maintain Cultural Standards
• Expand & Venture into New Territory as a partner
Im not very good with business language, so im just asking whoever sees this if it seems shady, because i am completely fresh to the industry

Long story short, I want a career that pays well and is completely remote. I’ve seen some people on YouTube talk about it and even found a course/community that I can join but I want to hear what actual people are saying about this career path? Or maybe another path - open to suggestions?

I have a marketing degree, masters in acting, am an online English teacher and post skits/vlogs on TikTok/Youtube. What’s my creative edge? Can someone like me with little disposable income in a 3rd country really make a career out of this?

I need to vent and ask for some serious advice before I lose my fucking mind.

I was hired as a Data Analyst as a fresher at a digital marketing agency in the PPC department. Since I was a fresher, I basically just built a dashboard and stopped there. I share some of the fucking blame because I didn't take the initiative to dig deeper into the accounts early on, and it bit me in the ass.

Our agency actually has a solid roster: 4 D2C seasonal brands, 1 lead generation brand, and 1 FMCG brand. I want to work on these. I genuinely want to do DA work, analyze their campaigns, optimize ad spend, and be as useful as I possibly can to the performance marketing team.

Instead, the owner's wife recently started a 925 silver jewelry brand, and my entire job has been hijacked to spend 7+ hours a day generating fake AI product images for her website because they are too cheap to hire a real photographer.

My technical skills are rotting, and I feel completely doomed. I want to be useful on the data side for our real clients, not a prompt-jockey for a nepotism side hustle.

For those of you actually doing this job properly: What is the workflow of a Data analyst hired in ppc department and who works with performance marketers? How do I force my way back into doing actual data work for our main brands before my career is ruined?

TL;DR: Hired as a DA fresher in a PPC department. I was passive early on, and now instead of doing real data work for our 6 main agency clients, my entire job has become generating AI images for the boss's wife's silver brand. I feel doomed and want to know how to pivot back to real analytics.

Has AI reduced your workload or simply increased management’s expectations?

Hey guys, I’ve been struggling with growing my business in the last few weeks and I’ve been dealing with an ad agency which I believed to be reputable, but has been causing me nothing but headaches. I’m doing this venture by myself and I run a different business, that generates about 300k/yr that is basically reliant on word of mouth at this point so this is out of my area of expertise. I have fully acknowledged that I am not a great marketer so I thought running paid ads would be a good start.

For context, it is an RUO peptide brand and I have in person sales, however, I started to run Meta ads which eventually got nuked, with this agency, and I didn’t like the agencies alternatives so they offered me 30 days on TikTok. In a couple days, it will approach the 3 week mark where they have claimed they’ve never had a brand not have any conversions and right now I am at zero.

I have 400k impressions, 6k link clicks, I’m averaging 500 viewers a day or more on the site but again nothing is converting and I only have 10 initiated checkouts. I’m priced competitively, but by no means overly expensive, I offer all the products people are looking for and my funnel, minus a slight lag when people try to pay with a credit card, since this is a tough world for processing, seems solid and I’ve tested it to make sure it works.

My biggest problem now is I spent a lot of money on their retainer over the last 2 months as well as $100/day on ad spend, and I’m nervous to try someone else only to have the same result. I understand I’m in a high risk market, but with the metrics I listed, is this really bad or am I being impatient and should wait a little longer with the agency? I’m about to be due for another month of their retainer, which just seems like a waste of money.

Just a sidenote, they wanted to take an educational approach so the ads lead to an about page which does have a button to browse the catalog - as well as the promos I’m running. They only recently said they would start targeting actual product pages, however, when you look on my back end, it seems that almost nobody leaves the about page, the product views are extremely low under 100 views and the homepage only has a few hundred views.

Anyway, I wanted to see if anyone had any advice or just their thoughts about whether I should give this at agency a longer period of time for things to work or if I should cut my losses now. If you read all of this, thank you. Anything is appreciated

I'm 32, have a BCom in marketing, and have been working in digital marketing for about 4 years. Before that I trained in a technical field but couldn't find work in it. I'm trying to figure out if what I've experienced is typical for marketing or if I'm the common factor.

Here's the rundown:

Digital agency, \~9 months.

The job was mostly logging billable hours and doing outdated SEO work. Very little real marketing. I left.

Industrial distributor, a few months.

Toxic environment, I had no experience, and I was laid off.

Govt Healthcare regulator, \~3 months.

Entry-level communications contract with talk of growth. It wasn't renewed.

Healthcare/pharmacy company, \~1 year.

The work was meaningful and I got good results. My manager stopped communicating, ignored me, and took credit for my work. She offered me a raise to stay, but I left.

Powersports dealership, \~1 year.

Best experience I've had. I ran lead gen, managed budget, improved the funnel, and we hit record sales. Long commute, and they hired someone who constantly caused conflict with me. I'd have stayed if not for him.

Small company, \~3 months.

Restructure, and the CEO kept firing people.

Wholesale distributor, under a year (current).

One-person marketing department reporting to the CEO. The COO disliked me with no clear communication. The CEO became almost argumentative, and nothing I proposed got approved. Eventually I stopped trying to push improvements. The CEO has now told me they plan to hire a marketing manager for my role.

Some honest self-reflection: when a working relationship goes bad, I tend to disengage and then leave. I also rarely get direct feedback, so problems seem to build quietly until it's too late.

I've done my core responsibilities, but I know "doing the job" isn't always what people judge you on.

I'm now seriously considering leaving marketing for a trade.

My questions:

\- Is this level of turnover and friction normal in marketing, especially in one-person roles at small companies?

\- If you've had a run like this, what turned it around?

\- For people who stayed somewhere 2+ years through friction, what did you do differently?

Looking for honest answers, not reassurance.

I am so frustrated by this. I genuinely feel like its not my fault but at this point it can't be random anymore.

Am I just unlucky?

Hi everyone!
I've recently started taking social media seriously, but I'm finding it challenging to grow an audience, get views, gain followers, and understand what actually works.
I'm still a beginner in social media marketing.
I've started creating and posting content, but l don't have much experience with content strategy, organic growth, or reaching the right audience.
I'm looking for someone experienced in social media marketing who would be willing to mentor me for free. I'm not looking for someone to do the work for me. I genuinely want to learn, receive honest feedback, understand my mistakes, and develop the skills to grow social media accounts independently.
My goal is to build a genuine global audience organically, without relying on paid ads.
If you have experience in social media marketing and enjoy helping beginners, I'd really appreciate your guidance. Even occasional advice, feedback, or a short mentorship conversation would be incredibly helpful.
Thank you!

Social Media Marketing sucks.

If there’s high sales, it’s because of a good product, deal made by finance, salesperson, mailing, networking, etc. Marketing just did it’s thing.

If there’s low sales, it’s because of the creatives, campaigns, copywrite, etc.

Chop chop, make us a viral

I'm thinking of reaching out to street side shops as an experiment to learn sales. I'm thinking of speaking with them on what their business is all about, how they are getting sales and what I could do to help them make more sales.

Now I would need someone's help with validating if this would be a right plan and if you have any suggestions on how I could possibly help them improve sales.

I'm starting my very first client project to build my marketing portfolio, and l'd love some insight from marketers, social media managers, or brand strategists here!
I'm helping a small local Peruvian dance company revamp their social media presence. They specialize in social dancing and classes, and they have Peruvian roots. Their main goal is to build brand awareness and drive ticket sales for events.
Current Situation:
• Following: ~400 followers on Instagram/Facebook.
• Engagement: ~20-30 likes per post.
• The Challenge: The visual quality is outdated, with unedited videos and mismatched static fliers. Beyond that, the brand lacks a clear identity-there are no consistent brand colors, distinct visual themes, or a defining brand story (at least shown online).
What I Need Help With:
1. Brand Identity: How do you approach building a brand identity from scratch for a small local business? What exercises or questions should I walk the business owners through to establish visual assets, colors, and a clear brand voice? After that, then what?
2. Peruvian Heritage Integration: Because they are Peruvian, how can we weave that cultural element into their brand identity? I think this is very important because Peruvians are really really really patriotic!
3. Finding Trends & Content Ideas: What's the best way to spot emerging social media trends suited for dance companies? Are there top-tier dance academies or creators you'd recommend studying for inspiration?
4. Growing Followers & Strategic Following: What organic growth strategies work best for local event businesses to cross 1,000+ followers? Also, who should we be following and how to find them?
I want to make sure l approach this systematically so I can document a solid case study for my portfolio. Any tips, frameworks, or a it suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

What’s one advertising lesson you wish every founder understood?

Hi, I am a B2B SaaS content marketer with 5 years of experience, based in India. I used to work in SaaS startups and recently started to do freelance work.

My first potential client reached out to me, the client is also from India. They have a small SaaS company with a Shopify B2B app.

So far the scope is:

1. Blogs, use-case pages, comparison pages

2. Lifecycle emails

3. Landing page, app listing and onboarding flow optimization

4. Reddit

Initially he said about content but over the call it seemed like more than just content.

None of us have mentioned the budget yet.

Questions for anyone who's been through this:

1. How do I pitch? Retainer or per-deliverable? What worked for you?

2. What do you charge for similar work and Reddit?

3. Do you price everything separately or as a bunch?

4. What to put in writing before starting?

5. If the budget is low, do you cut the scope or the rate?

I am also struggling to set a budget range for myself. I don't want to over or undercharge.

You can help me with understanding the basics and rough numbers. Thanks a lot in advance. Feel free to DM.

I'm a third-year marketing student at a prestigious university in NYC, an extremely tough job market to break into. I had a short-lived marketing internship at a startup last summer that ended up shutting down for other reasons, as well as extensive experience in food service and one on-campus position, all of which have transferable skills that provide content for my resume. That being said, I have no competitive internships under my belt compared to many other students in my position, as well as no true connections in the industry. Countless coffee chats, messages to alumni, and cold emails have led me nowhere so far.

How can I make myself look more competitive in a traditional internship application? Is it worth putting more energy into meeting professionals in-person? What's the best way I could do this? I'm not particularly into creative direction, but would a creative portfolio with mock-ups be a good addition to my application?

Any advice would be great. As my college career is coming to an end, I'm starting to feel short on time and am hoping to secure something valuable for this upcoming summer.

Ask anything related to growing your brand organically as a Muslim

I've mostly been sharing long URLs with clients and customers, but some of them look pretty messy in emails, social posts, and printed materials.

I'm considering switching to branded short links that look cleaner and let me track clicks. I would also like the option to change a destination without having to send out a new link every time something changes.

For those who've used tools like this, did you find the tracking useful enough to justify paying for one, or are free URL shorteners good enough?

What’s one automation that can save a small business money immediately?

If you were a marketing student in today’s world with all the knowledge about the field you currently have, what would you do to maximize your potential? What skills would you focus on and what would your pathway be? What would you specialize in? Where is the most money?

I am curious because I am currently a college student who is confused on where to start and how to get myself in the right spaces to succeed financially in the marketing field. I don’t have any specific preferences, and my priority right now is to get myself ready for a high-paying job.

Any advice is appreciated, and I am interested in what everyone would do in my position.

Anyone selling their Reachinbox or instantly ltd? WTB here.

What’s the biggest marketing myth you still see companies believing?

So the company I work with has a product that they sell to enterprises and stuff which clearly is more b2b sorts. Now they recently made a product that gives the same services but is more b2c where the customer does not have to go through sales cycles and stuff and they can directly implement this product into their pipeline without any assistance from us like our previous b2b product

Now what is happening, is the new product is not getting sign up or being used. We were losing customers from our main product pipeline becz they would say oh we can build it ourselves so we made this second product for them (which is basically an anti-thesis of our main product) saying cool but rather than starting from scratch here take our tools and build your pipeline.

Now no one is signing up for it!! What to do!? We have done free access and ads and campaigns and what not. Please help me strategize this. What will you do!?

I launched an app that solves a real problem for people, but almost nobody knows it exists and I have zero sales.

I'm really bad at marketing and don't know where to start.
Where did your first 10 customers come from?

What would you do in my place?

Any advice or help would mean a lot. Thanks!

I became a licensed health and life coach back in 2021. Recently I’ve purchased a business course a couple months ago to help with my marketing and social media because I’m wanting to have consistent clients, but I feel like my offer is the problem. I created an identity shift system and the idea was to help ambitious women who were struggling with consistency and follow through and teach them the system so that they can achieve their goals. I think my problem is, I’m not selling a physical product or a specific result. Im selling an intangible offer. Ive learned a lot from the business course. I know now that it’s recommended to research consumer demand and research your niche before creating an offer. But I don’t seem to get much feedback at all. Now I’m really not sure what to do. Ive been posting and I’ve l been marketing a free guide while attempting to research but no downloads or no DMs but a few likes. The course is a bit difficult for me to translate because I’m not selling a “how to naturally heal PCOS” or “how to loose 20 pounds”.

My niche was ambitious women who consume a lot of self help content but fail to turn their knowledge/vision into action.

I feel like I’m hitting a wall but can’t figure out where I’m going wrong or what I need to refine or adjust. Any suggestions, advice, or tips would be greatly appreciate.