Kill the red. Grow the green.

Want to learn one of the fastest ways to earn trust, respect and authority? Say No.

Saying 'No' creates boundaries. Know what has boundaries? Things worth protecting. When you say 'No' it's because you have established rules about managing that thing. Whether it's a relationship (business or professional), in a purchasing process, or managing your ad campaigns, having boundaries is important to success.

So, how do you know when to say 'NO!' to the wrong parts of a campaign? Just as important, how do you know when to say 'GO!' to the things that are working?

Kill the red. Grow the green.

I forget where I heard it first, but it was when I was learning Google PPC. Figuring the best way to learn stuff that works was from people who were fronting ad spend in exchange for revenue sharing aka affiliate marketers.

It's not that affiliate marketers are particularly better at Google Paid Search, per se, but their mentality is different. They answer the "spend the budget as if it were yours" requirement with a literal 'okay' because it is actually their money and that is a different frame of reference altogether.

• To "Kill the red. Grow the green." means to stop spending money on stuff that isn't working and to double-down on the stuff that is.
• To "Kill the red. Grow the green." means to have the confidence to walk away and the willingness to do so quickly.
• To "Kill the red. Grow the green." means using equal parts feedback and instinct to optimize decision-making versus the particular components of a campaign.

How to optimize Out of Home (OOH) campaigns like Digital Marketing

The same way. That's the secret. You optimize OOH campaigns the same way that you optimize Digital Marketing campaigns.

By monitoring foot traffic to the restaurant, relative to real-world billboard placements, we can determine which billboard locations make the most sense for businesses to get:

1. More of their best customers to come back more frequently
2. More customers like their best ones

And if this was a conversation about Facebook or Instagram ads, we'd call those things Custom and Lookalike Audiences.

Want to target your competitor's best customers?

Just track their business as the "conversion point" instead of your business. Where are they getting their best customers from?

Don't have a brick and mortar location? Sell online?

Pick a place in the real-world that your customers go or that your competitor's customers go.

PRO TIP: If you sell fishing tackle online, it may make sense to target Bass Pro Shops physical retail locations for feedback on whether your Out of Home campaign is reaching your target audience.

In conclusion, whether you're a challenger brand disrupting an industry or an established blue-chip, making advertising decisions based on actionable insight is the key to scalable success.