# Why your advertising doesn't work, and where the problem sits [Home](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en) › [Study](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/study) › [Articles](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/study/articles) author: [Axel Jedlitschka](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/about) published: 2026-10-13 updated: 2026-10-13 language: en reading time: 5 min topic: Marketing & sales source booklet: [Who Are You Actually Talking To](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/shop/introduction/publics-surveys-image) Advertising that brings no result has almost always reached the wrong people, so before you change the wording or the budget, check who it actually reached. Advertising that brings no result has almost always reached the wrong people. So before you change the wording, the picture or the budget, check first who it actually reached. Nearly every business owner has the thought that advertising simply does not work for them. It arrives after a few attempts: an ad you paid for, some posts, perhaps someone you hired. Something happened, but not what you expected, and from there it is a short step to deciding that your trade is different or that your customers are not like that. If you recognise yourself in that thought, the booklet tells you openly that this chapter will not comfort you. What it does is point your attention somewhere else. ## The thought is the symptom The booklet starts exactly where most people stop thinking, at the conclusion itself. The source behind the booklet knows that conclusion, the one a person without training in this area reaches, and answers it in a single sentence: “Promotion never works on wrong publics.” That sentence places the failure in who the advertising reached. This is why it would have failed in any wording and on any budget. That is good news, though it may not feel like it. A weakness in your writing would be hard to repair. A wrong recipient is something you can track down. Suppose a studio owner advertises for three months in groups full of designers. She collects compliments and no customers, because she was talking to colleagues and the people who buy were somewhere else. Or suppose a fitter posts an ad for fair-priced professional installation in a residents' group in his area. The people who reply are hunting for the lowest price, because that was the promise every reader received. The same fitter, with the same service and the same budget, posts in a group of residents' committees, and the result is entirely different. ## The number behind the rule Why press so hard on this? Because the source gives it a number. According to the source, the wrong public lies behind roughly 99% of the errors in this area, which makes it the leading cause of failure there. Ninety-nine per cent is nearly all the causes put together. So when a piece of your marketing falls flat, the likelihood is high that the fault lies in the who rather than the what. Begin your search there. The source names what comes after the recipient: the wording, the budget and the design. The booklet adds that the recipient is hard to see from the inside. Most people check in the opposite order. Suppose an owner changes the wording four times and the picture three times, and never once changes who he is talking to. Now suppose a consultant who changes the public and does not touch a word of the message. The same text brings her three times the enquiries. ## The double cost of the wrong public The first cost is obvious, and the source puts it plainly: a message to the wrong public “simply costs lots of money and gets no result.” The second cost is larger and easier to miss. It is the conclusion you draw. You lose the money, and on top of that you learn the wrong lesson from it and stop trying. That is how so many owners come to feel they have tried everything, when they have tried one thing, over and over, on the same public. Suppose a garage owner decides, after two campaigns, that today's customers only want the cheapest option. Both campaigns ran in a single place, and bargain hunters are who turn up there. His conclusion feels like experience, and it grew out of where he advertised. ## The question to ask after a campaign fails From here comes a small difference in a question, with a large effect. After a campaign fails, most people ask why it did not work. According to the booklet, that question leads to better wording. The other question is who it actually reached. Suppose a clinic owner asks that instead, right after a failed campaign. According to the booklet, this question leads to a solution. The two questions sound alike, and they send you to two different places. So when you tell yourself that you tried it and it did not work, that is useful information only if you know who you tried it on. The booklet has two exercises for this chapter, one for spotting and one for analysing, plus self-check questions. From there it moves on to what a public is in the first place, and to how you find out what each public wants to hear instead of guessing. Before you improve an ad for the fifth time, check who it is meant for. According to the source, that is where almost all the errors sit. - [Who Are You Actually Talking To](https://theonlyaxelj.com/en/shop/introduction/publics-surveys-image): Who your audiences are, and what each one wants to hear. That is enough to stop wasting a budget. --- [עברית](https://theonlyaxelj.com/he/study/articles/why-advertising-doesnt-work-for-you) · [Español](https://theonlyaxelj.com/es/study/articles/why-advertising-doesnt-work-for-you)