Advertising strategy · Marketing
Decide what the advertising is for before anyone quotes you a rate.
Media planning and buying picks the placements and argues the rate down. This page is the step before it, where you decide how much goes to advertising this year and what the money is meant to come back as.
In one paragraph
Advertising strategy decides whether to advertise at all, which media carry the message, how the budget splits between them, and what each one is answerable for. GullySales writes that plan before any space is booked, so the buying that follows has a brief to work against rather than a rate card.
Most of the argument is one split. Money that harvests demand already there, like search and the enquiry portals, pays back inside the month and is easy to count. Money that creates demand, like a hoarding or a television burst, pays back later and never reports for itself.
So the plan fixes what each rupee is answerable for. Search is judged on cost per enquiry. A burst on regional television is judged on brand searches and walk-ins in that state, and judging it on the last click kills it in week two.
The problem
Does this sound like your business?
What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.
“The budget was fixed before anyone asked what it is for”
A number carries over from last year and gets split across whatever was pitched that month. No line in the split is answerable for anything in particular.
“Everything is judged on the last click”
A buyer passes the hoarding, hears the radio spot, searches the name and fills in the form. The form gets the entire credit, and the media that started the journey are the first to be cut.
“The message changes with the medium”
The newspaper advertisement says one thing, the hoarding says another, and the sales team says a third. A buyer who meets all three does not add them together.
“Every advertisement carries the same number”
One office landline and one home page sit under every medium, so nothing can be told apart afterwards, not even roughly.
What we do
Everything that is included.
Each deliverable, and what it gets you. Nothing here is an extra.
The case for advertising at all
A straight read on whether paid media is the best use of the next rupee, or whether a faster reply to the enquiries already arriving would earn more.
Budget split with a reason on each line
How much goes to harvesting demand, how much to creating it, and what each half is expected to bring back.
Medium shortlist
The two or three media your buyer is genuinely in front of, with the rejected ones written down and the reason kept on record.
One claim the campaign repeats everywhere
A single line in your own words. Then the version of it that survives ten seconds of radio, a hoarding read at fifty kilometres an hour, and half a page of newsprint.
Burst calendar
When the money leaves. A builder buys the weeks before a launch, a coaching centre buys the admission months, and nobody visits a site in the monsoon.
A measurement plan per medium
A separate phone number, web address or code for each medium, and the yardstick it will be judged on, both agreed before anything runs.
What we are not buying
The media pitched to you and refused, in writing, so the same package does not come back in three months with a new cover page.
How the result is measured
- Share of budget by medium against the plan
- Cost per enquiry from the media that can report one
- Brand searches during and after a burst
- Enquiries and walk-ins from the burst area before, during and after
- Media pitched and refused, with what refusing them saved
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, then reported every month against it.
Who it is for
This is written for you if these sound familiar.
- Owners about to spend on advertising for the first time, holding three quotes for three different plans
- A business whose advertising budget is last year's figure plus a bit, with no reason under it
- Companies running ads on four platforms where nobody can say which one earns its keep
- Manufacturers and dealers planning a launch, where trade media and consumer media want the same money
- Anyone sold a package of a hoarding, a radio spot and a magazine page with no reason given for any of it
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- Businesses that have already settled on the medium and want the booking done, which is media planning and buying
- An owner whose enquiries sit unanswered for two days, because advertising widens that leak instead of closing it
- A budget that stretches to one insertion in one place, where the plan costs more than the media
How it works
From your first message to the first monthly report.
No open-ended retainer. Each step has a point in time and something you receive.
01 · Day 1
Free audit call
45 minutes with whoever handles your enquiries: how they arrive, how fast they are answered, where they are lost.
02 · Within a few working days
Written, scored report
Six areas scored, fixes ranked by return and cost. If you want our help, the scope and fee come with it, in writing.
03 · Before work starts
Baseline recorded
Enquiries by source, reply time, conversion and cost per order, written down so every later month has an honest comparison.
04 · Month 1
The first fix goes live
Usually the cheapest one on the report: reply time, a follow-up sequence or the marketing-to-sales handover.
05 · Every month
Report against the baseline
What moved, what did not, and what changes next, in plain words.
06 · Month 3 to 6
Renew on the numbers
The term ends and you decide whether to continue from the results. No twelve-month lock.
How the advertising strategy work runs
- 1
Start at the enquiry record
How enquiries arrive now, how fast they are answered and which ones ever became orders. The free audit covers this ground before any media talk.
- 2
Agree the job
Being known in a new city, enquiries this quarter, or dealers whose phones ring. Those are three different budgets and three different media.
- 3
Split the money
The share going to demand you can harvest and the share going to demand you have to create are put on paper with a figure against each.
- 4
Choose the media and write the line
Media are shortlisted for the buyer rather than for the rate, and one claim is written that holds up in every format on the list.
- 5
Set the yardsticks
Each medium gets a response route of its own and a measure recorded before the first booking, so nothing is argued about afterwards.
- 6
Read the burst and change the plan
The monthly report puts what arrived against what the plan expected, and the next burst moves money towards whatever held up.
Proof
What happened when owners fixed this.
Real clients, the work we did, and the result as it was recorded. Where no number was recorded, none is claimed.
SB Engineering
- Situation
- Buyers searching for laser cutting and sheet metal work in Bengaluru were finding other suppliers first, because the company did not rank for the terms its own customers type.
- What we did
- The site redesigned for mobile
- Search work on the buyer's terms
- Content that shows the work
- Social channels managed
- Result
- Website traffic rose 60% within six months, against a target of 50%.
- High-quality leads rose 45%, with a rise in conversion rates alongside them.
- Fifteen target keywords moved up the rankings, five of them into the top three positions.
Hotel Felicity Inn
- Situation
- A traveller compares three hotels on a phone and books one. The website was not built for that.
- What we did
- The site rebuilt around booking
- Photography and one look
- Search work for destination searches
- Content a traveller reads
- Result
- Online bookings increased 35%
- Organic traffic increased 50% within six months
- Positive reviews on Google and TripAdvisor increased 30%
Chord Road Hospital
- Situation
- Patients who knew the hospital trusted it. Patients who searched for a department or a treatment in the area did not find it.
- What we did
- Website rebuilt around patient needs
- Search visibility
- Social media on a schedule
- Review management
- Result
- Organic traffic increased 60% within six months
- Online appointment bookings increased 40%
- Social following grew 45%, and engagement on it rose 70%
Also worked with
Curtain Label · Difesa Security Services · Hands On CSR · Implevista · Kambar Group · Kalessi · Kerur Pain Clinic · LL Trust · Lucky Deals · Natural Gases · NavaShakthi Souhardha · NewCom Logistics · Proton Technical Services · Shakthi Foundation · Shakthi Group · Urbanest · Insyde Studio · Venkateshwara Laser Tech · Vivara Studios
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every monthly report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No lock-in, no guarantees we cannot keep
Three to six months at a time. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Engagement options
Ways to work with us.
Pick the size of commitment that fits. Every option starts with the free audit.
Option 1
The audit on its own
A 45-minute call and a written, scored report. It says honestly whether you need outside help, and many fixes are ones your own team can make.
Option 2
One fix, scoped
Start with the fix the audit ranks first, such as reply time or follow-up. The fee is in writing before anything starts.
Option 3
A three-to-six-month programme
We run the work month by month, report against the baseline every month, and you renew on the numbers. No twelve-month lock.
Option 4
Guidance for your own team or agency
We plan, brief and check the work of your in-house team or current agency, instead of replacing them.
The offer
Start with a free audit of how you sell.
It is useful on its own, whether or not you hire us.
What you receive
- A 45-minute call with the person who will do the work
- A written, scored report on the six places orders leak, within a few working days
- Every fix ranked by what it returns and what it costs
- The one thing to do first, and why
- An honest line on whether you need outside help at all
- If you do, the scope and the fee in writing
No invoice. No obligation. No sales script.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How much should we spend on advertising?
Is this the same as media planning and buying?
Can you prove the hoarding worked?
What if the answer is not to advertise?
How is this priced?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
By industry
Advertising strategy, written for your industry.
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Often bought with this, or instead of it.
Read before you buy
- Premium audience advertising strategyNo platform in India sells you verified income. Everything offered as affluence targeting is inference, and the cheapest filter you own is putting the price in the first frame.
- How to cut channels from your advertising planMost owners never chose a mix, they accumulated one. Four eliminations to run before you add anything, then a decision about depth or spread.
- How to advertise to homebuyersHousing is a restricted advertising category, so the demographic targeting most builders ask for is off the table. What is left is search intent, honest geography and creative that does the selecting.