Avoid this ONE deadly marketing mistake.

Not long ago, I ran into an old friend. It was a great opportunity to reminisce about the good old days.

Times when information travelled faster by carrier pigeon than through the internet.

We eventually moved on to the present day and real estate marketing.

He shared with me a very insightful story. I'll share it with you as well.

Because indeed, people learn from their mistakes... And today, we can learn from someone else's.

Here is his story:

We had an office in the city on seven hills. We were managing a real estate advertising account. Those were good times. We were spending over $1,000 a day using Google AdWords, and the ROAS was around +/- 5.

Quick maths: for every dollar spent, five came back!

Real magic.

I was proud of myself. Like an emperor. I even ordered a laurel wreath crown, but, as life and history often show, I didn’t see Brutus coming.

The Biggest Business Mistake.

It was a rainy morning. I logged in and noticed that the Google account was locked, and the ads were paused. Probably just a temporary issue, I thought, or a quick server update, so I calmly went on with my day.

A few hours later, the same problem persisted. I made a call to customer support.

No way to talk to a real person. Even though you’re spending $30,000 a month, you’re still considered a small fish in the ocean. So, I sent message after message.

After three days, I got a response. The account was blocked because someone flagged the ads as potentially misleading.

How can a real estate ad be misleading? I did my best to sort it out, but nothing worked. Time passed, and I had no potential clients.

Why?

Because I bet everything on one horse. On ONE source of leads. The dumbest mistake you can make.

The most hated number in business.

I blamed everything—from Google to Big Tech, even all the plants in my house.

Then it hit me.

It was all my fault.

I let myself be stabbed because I treated one source as my only friend. ONE is the worst number in business.

One key employee. One source of leads. One big client.

If that ONE is taken away from you, you’re down for the count. And if something can go wrong, it probably will.

That day, I promised myself that I’d never let it happen again.

Dressing your marketing in real armour.

I became hypersensitive to “ones” and started looking for them in my business. Each one of them knows exactly how to stab you in the back. They’re just waiting for the right time and opportunity. You know exactly what I mean.

The worst part is when you ignore that “one” from the start because you convince yourself that this one is different.

In marketing, we always aim for the ad to do its job: work. Then we branch it out across different platforms.

Meta ads working? Great, but don’t rest on your laurels.
Let’s check YouTube.
And Google. And offline.
And direct mail. And cold email.
And autoresponder marketing.
And affiliate marketing.
And referral marketing.
And carrier pigeons.
And anything else that comes to mind.

That’s the only way to avoid getting killed—or rather, to become hard to cancel.