Thanks for the clarification. For niche players (like me), it's difficult to separate out a lot of the Fortune 500 advice on advertising. Creating "engagement" and "brand awareness" is all well and good, but if my total ad budget is $5,000 for a year, then it's tough for me to say, "Oh well, people have a slightly improved vision of my product and/or brand. Money well spent."
We've found that ads that just come out and say what we do perform much, much better. Simply bring up the pain point we solve and how we address it. Couple that with a call to action. Sure, it's pushy and unsexy, but it's easy to understand and it translates directly into user action.
Fortune 500 advice on advertising has almost nothing to offer you; I'm glad you've been able to find a better way for yourself.
Fortune 500 Marketing 101 breaks your activities out into the AIDA funnel - Attention -> Interest -> Desire -> Action. [1]
I can't think of any reason a startup would focus on any part of that funnel before "action" unless they needed to achieve some bizarro network effect for their idea to work (in which case they better have a couple million bucks to drop, and will still probably fail).
The sort of advertising before "action" presumes you're talking to someone who doesn't already know they need something like your product, and doesn't already desire something like it. The only reason to communicate to someone like that is if you've already maxed out your market share amongst people who give a hoot.
AIDA doesn't mean separate campaigns for each. It's a guide for each ad to follow so that it achieves results.
Brand awareness campaigns mostly just lack the Action portion (At least directly).
I think startups trying to create effective ads can greatly improve their campaigns by thinking about AIDA. I have transformed the marketing campaigns and ads of small companies I have worked for and create all of my own ads for my company while thinking about AIDA principles.
Brand awareness/institutional advertising is largely useless for startups but I think they can benefit a lot from learning a little bit about AIDA. It helps cut through the clutter.
I guess you want to focus on sales, not marketing.
IMO, google text ads (and affiliate schemes, and other similar products) are sales. You find a person with a problem, drive them to a landing page, then pitch to them. Maybe you to do it a few times, but the ultimate goal is to make a sale. The fact that it costs a lot less than a salesman is just a bonus.
Banner ads are more about building your brand, and could be considered marketing.
We've found that ads that just come out and say what we do perform much, much better. Simply bring up the pain point we solve and how we address it. Couple that with a call to action. Sure, it's pushy and unsexy, but it's easy to understand and it translates directly into user action.