I'm not sure if businesses spend roughly the same on advertising. I've experienced wildly different %'s of total spend depending on various factors.
Regarding the efficacy of online advertising, some businesses do notice but at the same time there's a larger question which is the trade-off between what online ads can achieve for different products at different stages.
Imagine a scale from "sitting in front of someone and explaining the value prop" to "an adwords ad."
If you're trying to remind someone about a brand they already know about, or attract them to a value prop that is easily explained online ads are great. If you have an unknown or hard to explain value prop you'd be better off starting elsewhere.
I agree that we need more research. Also, some suggested reading for anyone who's interested:
Regarding the efficacy of online advertising, some businesses do notice but at the same time there's a larger question which is the trade-off between what online ads can achieve for different products at different stages.
Imagine a scale from "sitting in front of someone and explaining the value prop" to "an adwords ad."
If you're trying to remind someone about a brand they already know about, or attract them to a value prop that is easily explained online ads are great. If you have an unknown or hard to explain value prop you'd be better off starting elsewhere.
I agree that we need more research. Also, some suggested reading for anyone who's interested:
Traction: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22091581-traction (Good comparison of different marketing channels)
Scientific Advertising: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2621927-scientific-adver... (1923 book on measuring marketing)
Positioning: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/760025.Positioning (First book to properly capture the ideas behind "brand marketing")