The "Doing Stuff" Problem: Why Random Marketing Kills Optimization

Liz Willits, founder of Content Phenom, recently called out a problem most small businesses face:

"Small businesses don't have a marketing problem. They have a 'doing stuff' problem."

Post on social when you have the time to. Run an ad when sales slow down. Send an email when you want to push a particular product.

Three months later: "Marketing doesn't work for us."

No. Random doesn't work.

As Willits puts it: "Marketing that works is boring. It's the same message. To the same audience. In the same places. Over and over. For months. But most business owners get bored first."

She's right. Businesses chase new tactics before the old ones have time to compound.

But here's the piece that gets overlooked: consistency isn't just about showing up repeatedly. It's about creating the feedback loop that makes optimization possible.

This article shows how consistency fuels algorithmic learning—and how to automate the cycle so your campaigns get smarter with every conversion.

The Real Cost of Random Marketing

According to Event Tech Live, approximately 30-40% of marketing spend is wasted or underperforms due to poor optimization timing, especially when campaigns are adjusted or killed too early. When campaigns change every few weeks, ad platforms never learn what works.

Google's Smart Bidding needs volume to identify patterns. Meta's algorithm needs time to find your best audiences. Both need consistent signals—qualified leads with clear values flowing back to the platform regularly.

Stop-start marketing breaks the optimization cycle before it begins.

Here's what happens: you run a campaign for three weeks, generate 12 leads, then pause to "try something new." The algorithm was just starting to understand your audience; now, it resets.

You switch messaging. Change targeting. Launch a different offer. Each time, the learning phase starts over.

Meanwhile, your competitor runs the same campaign for six months. Their cost per lead drops 40% while yours stays flat—not because their creative is better, but because their algorithm has seen 500 qualified leads instead of 12.

Consistency creates the volume automation needs to optimize.

Why Optimization Requires Repetition

Smart Bidding doesn't work on hope. It works on data.

Feed it three qualified leads this week and five next week, and it's guessing. Feed it 50 qualified leads every week for three months, and it's learning.

The difference shows up in performance. Agencies that consistently qualify and value leads—then sync that data back to Google Ads in real time—watch their campaigns improve automatically.

Each qualified lead teaches the algorithm which audience signals predict success. Each quote value shows what "valuable" actually means. Each conversion refines targeting and bidding.

The platform gets smarter, but only if you feed it consistent, high-quality data.

Without consistency, there's no pattern to learn from. The algorithm optimizes toward whatever worked yesterday, which might contradict what worked last week.

What Consistent Optimization Actually Looks Like

Top-performing agencies don't just run campaigns consistently. They qualify and value leads consistently, then push that intelligence back to ad platforms automatically.

Here's the system:

Capture every lead. Calls, forms, chats—everything tracked with full attribution showing which campaign, keyword, and ad drove it.

Qualify immediately. Apply lead intelligence rules to score and categorize leads as they arrive, separating qualified prospects from noise.

Assign realistic values. Attach quote values or revenue potential to qualified leads so the platform understands what "good" means.

Sync automatically. Push qualified lead data with values back to Google Ads in real time, creating a continuous feedback loop.

Repeat daily. The algorithm learns from hundreds of signals per month instead of a handful, sharpening its targeting with every conversion.

This is what consistency looks like when it's infrastructure, not intention. Marketing happens on schedule. Data flows automatically. Optimization compounds.

Proof: How Consistency Drives Results

Collideascope adopted this exact approach. They automated the entire cycle—qualifying leads, assigning values, and syncing that data back to Google Ads dozens of times per day.

The platform learned fast. Within weeks, Smart Bidding started prioritizing audience signals that predicted high-value leads.

The results: 3X more qualified leads, 61% lower CPL, and an 8% decrease in monthly ad spend. Not from better creative or bigger budgets—from consistency creating the data Google needed to optimize smarter.

Read More: The Optimization Flywheel: How Collideascope 3Xed Qualified Leads and Cut CPL by 61% [Case Study]

The Bottom Line

The LinkedIn post got it right: small businesses get bored before their marketing has a chance to work.

But the problem runs deeper than showing up consistently. You need to feed automation consistently.

Ad platforms make thousands of micro-decisions per day. When you give them sporadic, unqualified data, they optimize blindly. When you give them consistent, qualified signals with clear values, they optimize intelligently.

That's the difference between campaigns that plateau and campaigns that compound.

Consistency isn't just strategy. It's the fuel optimization runs on.

Ready to turn consistency into automated optimization?