Don’t Spread Your Marketing Budget Too Thin

We’ve all been guilty of it. Budget season rolls around and suddenly there’s a 50-line Excel sheet of “opportunities.” Radio. SEO. Billboards. Maybe even field marketing just to check the box.

I’ve done this myself. And every time, it felt like progress. Until it didn’t.

Because here’s the truth: spreading your budget thin doesn’t create growth.

What Actually Works

The companies I know growing the fastest aren’t doing ten things halfway. They’re running one or two channels up to $100K a month.

I’ve seen it firsthand. A friend in Chicago pushed PPC to $90K a month because that’s what worked for them. We did the same thing with LSAs: $80,000, $90,000, $100,000 a month. Why? Because it filled the board.

It wasn’t flashy.
It wasn’t new.
It was just the same channels we’d already proven, scaled up until they were maxed.

And the result? The board stayed full, which is the only thing that matters.

Why Spreading Fails

Spreading your dollars across too many tactics feels like progress. But when you’re buying billboards, church bulletin ads, and/or community sponsorships while the board isn’t full today or tomorrow, you’re fooling yourself.

At best, those branding plays help years from now. At worst, they burn cash that should’ve gone into proven lead capture.

Even when our ad budget grew to millions, I thought we’d be doing splashy things like sponsoring sports teams, big community campaigns, and brand-first plays.

The reality was much different. We were still just buying leads. Just a lot more of them.

Demand Capture First

Every dollar of marketing spend falls into one of two buckets:

• Demand capture: LSAs, PPC, SEO, reviews, lead partners. These fill the board today.
• Demand generation: TV, radio, billboards, sponsorships. These build brand for tomorrow.

Both matter. But the priority depends on one question: is the board full today, tomorrow, and the next day?

If the answer’s no, you don’t need branding. You need leads. That’s why for years our mix was 85% capture and 15% generation. Only recently did we even loosen it to 75/25.

Because nothing else matters if the board isn’t full.

Scaling Isn’t Sexy

This is where most people get it wrong. They think hitting a million-dollar marketing budget will change the playbook. But it doesn’t.

At $200K, $2M, or $20M the strategy looks the same. It’s just more of that same.

• More LSAs.
• More PPC.
• More investment in SEO and reviews.

That’s how you actually scale. Boring, repetitive, and effective.

The Lesson

Growth doesn’t come from spreading thin.

• Run your winners until they’re maxed.
• Keep the majority of your budget on capture until your board is full every day.
• Treat branding and spread as supplements, not the main course.

Spreading slows you down. Concentration fuels growth.

‍