Clicks are cute and traffic is nice, but neither pays salaries, says Reach lead account director Lizette Du Preez. The gap between “looks like it’s working” and “actually works” is where many New Zealand SMEs lose money. Du Preez shares tips on how to turn digital marketing activity into real growth.
Let’s just say it. If your digital agency is still reporting on impressions like they’re a KPI, you’ve got a problem.
Clicks are cute. Traffic is nice. Engagement? Love that for you. But none of those pay salaries.
Sales do. Leads do. Actual humans turning into actual revenue – that’s the game.
And quietly, the gap between “looks like it’s working” and “is actually working” is where a lot of NZ SMEs are bleeding money.
What results actually look like
Take a few real-world campaigns:
- An airport retail business shut down during Covid – pivoted to ecommerce and cleared $1.1 million in revenue in 6 months with a 17.76 ROAS (return on ad spend)
- A small NZ wellness brand went from stuck to scaling with a 302% increase in conversions after fixing fundamentals and focusing on top products
- A rural real estate client generated 1,485 qualified enquiries by prioritising lead quality over volume
- A home builder drove 1,053 enquiries off 58K clicks – not the clicks themselves, the outcomes
- A rural equipment supplier held leads steady at $41 per lead while driving both online and in-store sales
Different industries. Same pattern. And no one’s celebrating ‘impressions’ in those rooms.
The pattern
When you strip it back, none of these wins came from “more ads”, they came from better decisions:
- Prioritising top-selling or high-margin products instead of spraying budget everywhere
- Structuring campaigns around how people actually buy, not how platforms want you to spend
- Moving from basic setups to more advanced campaign types over time
- Combining channels intentionally – not just ticking the “we’re omnichannel” box
- Obsessing over lead quality, not lead volume
Translation? It’s not about being on Meta, Google, TikTok, whatever the flavour of the month is, it’s about knowing what you’re trying to make happen commercially and building backwards from that.
The checklist when shopping for a digital partner
If you’re about to hire, switch or side-eye your current digital advertising setup, here’s the filter checklist:
1. Do they talk in revenue, or reports?
If the first thing you get each month is a deck full of charts and no clear link to sales, ask them the following questions:
- What did we make?
- What did it cost to acquire that?
- Is that improving?
If it’s vague, it’s not under control.
2. Can they tell you what’s actually driving performance?
Not just “the campaign is doing well”, but specifically which products, which audiences and which stage of the funnel? Because the difference between a 2x ROAS and a 5x ROAS is usually focus, not budget.
3. Are they optimising for volume, or value?
More leads = better business?
The real estate campaign above didn’t chase volume – it filtered for quality buyers and still delivered at scale.
Same with ecommerce: more traffic doesn’t fix a weak product mix or poor conversion flow, if anything, it just burns cash faster.
4. Do they evolve the strategy – or just “run ads”?
There’s a big difference between setting up campaigns versus actively improving them over time.
The best results came from progression, so if your account looks the same as it did three months ago, there’s likely room for improvement.
5. Are they comfortable talking about what isn’t working?
This one’s underrated. If everything is always “positive”, it’s either not true, or not useful.
Good partners will tell you where budget is being wasted, what needs fixing before scaling and when to pull back – not just “increase spend” and hope.
The slightly uncomfortable truth
A lot of digital marketing works. But the issue is whether it works for your business, or just works on paper.
Because you can absolutely hit click-through rate benchmarks, drive thousands of clicks, grow impressions month-on-month and still be out of pocket.
However, the shift is already happening. It’s less: “Look how many people saw your ad” and more
“Here’s what it did for your business”.
What should you do with this?
You don’t need to rip everything up tomorrow, but you do need to ask better questions and expect better answers.
Because the businesses winning right now aren’t necessarily spending more. They’re just clearer on outcomes, tighter on execution, less distracted by noise and increasingly, not relying on digital alone.
They’re showing up physically, where attention isn’t being fought for in a scroll.
Make it drive something real
We’re not going to do the hard sell here. But if you’re reading this and thinking: “Yeah… I actually want to know what’s working and what’s not”, then you already know what kind of partner you need.
One that’s focused on growth, not just activity.
You can run digital on its own, or wrap it with something that actually lands in people’s hands.
Reach didn’t bolt digital on because it was trending. We built it off the back of 20-plus years working with Kiwi businesses, seeing where marketing works, where it wastes money and where it quietly falls over.
From the letterbox through to digital, it’s always been the same goal: make it drive something real.
Lizette Du Preez is lead account director at marketing agency Reach.
