I still get asked this question all the time. “Should we be doing TV?” It usually comes up when a business owner hears about a local TV station offering some kind of ad package — maybe a few thousand a month for a certain number of spots. Sounds legit. Sounds like real marketing. And I get why it’s tempting. TV feels big. TV feels official.

But here’s the thing. Feeling big and actually driving results are two very different things.

At SpredX, I’ve managed ad budgets for over 170 businesses across practically every platform — Google, Meta, YouTube, TikTok, you name it. And when a client asks me whether they should put money into TV, my answer is almost always the same: not yet. Here’s why.

TV Can’t Tell You What Worked

The biggest problem with TV advertising for local businesses isn’t the cost — although that’s a factor. It’s the tracking. Or rather, the complete lack of it.

When you run a Google Ads campaign, I can tell you exactly how many people saw your ad, how many clicked, how many filled out a form, and how many turned into a paying customer. I can tell you which keywords drove the best leads, which ad copy performed, and what your cost per acquisition was down to the penny.

TV gives you… a viewer estimate. Maybe a reach number. That’s it. You don’t know who saw it. You don’t know if they cared. You definitely don’t know if they called you because of the ad or because their neighbor recommended you last week. It’s a black box. And for a business spending three, four, five thousand dollars a month on marketing, you need to know what’s working.

The Targeting Gap

Here’s another thing that gets overlooked. With digital advertising, I can target a 20-mile radius around your storefront. I can target people who are actively searching for what you sell right now. I can show your ad to someone who visited your website yesterday but didn’t convert. I can segment by age, income, interest, behavior, and intent.

TV? You’re buying a time slot on a local station and hoping the right person happens to be watching at that moment. You’re paying to reach everybody, including the 95% of viewers who will never need your product. That’s fine if you’re Coca-Cola. It’s not fine if you’re a local furniture store trying to get more foot traffic this month.

When TV Can Work

I’m not anti-TV. I think there’s a place for it — just not as your primary channel. If your digital marketing is already humming and you’ve got budget to burn on brand awareness, TV can reinforce what you’re already doing online. It can make your brand feel more established. It can add another touchpoint in the customer journey.

But it should be the last thing you add, not the first. You don’t build a roof before you pour the foundation. Get your website right. Get your funnels built. Get your Google Ads and Meta campaigns producing measurable leads. Then, if you’ve still got money left and want to layer in some brand awareness, go ahead and explore TV.

The Budget Reality

For most of the businesses we work with, the marketing budget is between two and five thousand dollars a month on ad spend. At that level, every dollar matters. And I would rather put every one of those dollars into a channel where I can measure, optimize, and scale the results than into a channel where we’re guessing.

Digital advertising isn’t just more trackable — it’s more flexible. You can pause a campaign tomorrow if it’s not working. You can shift budget from Google to Meta if one platform is outperforming the other. You can test five different ad variations and let the data tell you which one wins. Try doing that with a TV spot. You can’t.

The Bottom Line

TV feels like real marketing. Digital is real marketing. If you’re a local business with a limited budget, put your money where you can see the return. Build your digital infrastructure first — the website, the ads, the funnels, the tracking. Once that foundation is solid and profitable, then you can start thinking about layering in traditional media.

But if someone’s telling you TV is the move when you don’t even have a proper landing page for your Google Ads? Walk away.