Does Prioritizing Digital at the Expense of Direct Mail Lose Money for Restaurants?

Twenty years ago, spending marketing dollars on digital ads was a new concept. Facebook? Didn't exist. Instagram? Also non-existent. Google was still young, but they had a new advertising platform that used an old-fashioned but attractive buying strategy:  The auction.

The Growth of DigitalUnlike traditional advertisements like print mail or radio, the auction allowed you to bid what you wanted for an ad, not some flat rate outside of your control. This meant if you had no competitors, you could advertise for cheap. That's exactly what people did.

Not only were digital ads cheap, but they were also effective (and they’re still effective, just not as cheap as they used to be). Businesses took their money from traditional marketing budgets and shoved it into digital. As the internet shifted from a place where people went to find information to a place where people went to be entertained, more advertising options opened up. Social media companies offered ads using the same…