Attracting Customers vs Chasing Them
Attracting means showing up when someone is already searching. Chasing means placing your message where people were doing something else. New site owners need both later, but not on day one. Understanding the difference protects a small budget from expensive curiosity clicks.
Search ads and helpful guides attract demand that already exists. Social posts, display banners, and many video placements chase attention that was pointed elsewhere. Both can work. They teach different lessons and need different expectations.
Start with attracting
Search ads and helpful blog posts attract people with intent. That usually converts better when your offer is clear and your budget is small. Someone typing “WooCommerce marketing package” is closer to buying than someone scrolling lunch photos.
Attraction also gives cleaner feedback. If search visitors bounce, your offer or page is probably unclear. If cold social visitors bounce, you may only learn that strangers were not ready. Beginners learn faster from intent traffic.
When chasing makes sense
Display or social ads can build awareness, but they work best after you know your offer converts. Otherwise you pay to introduce a confusing page to more people. Chase after you have a page that already turns interested visitors into enquiries or sales.
A simple mental model
Attraction captures existing demand. Chasing creates or reminds demand. Creating demand is harder and slower. Reminding past visitors can work well later through remarketing, once tracking and consent are set up properly.
A beginner split
- Early stage: mostly search and clear landing pages
- After first sales: small awareness tests
- Always: track which channel created real enquiries
- Never: judge chasing campaigns only by cheap clicks
How to decide this month
If you cannot yet explain your offer in one sentence, stay in attraction mode. Tighten the page, run a small search campaign, and talk to every lead. When the offer is stable and conversion tracking works, test a small chasing campaign with a strict cap.
Attraction finds demand. Chasing creates demand. Learn attraction first so your money teaches you faster and your confidence grows from real conversations.
Next steps
If you want help running ads and growing your site, check out our marketing packages in the shop. Prefer to talk it through first? Contact us and tell us what you are building.
If you want to become the expert yourself, order The Google Ads Playbook: A Practitioner’s Complete Guide to Google Ads, from Account Foundations to Full-Funnel Automation.