The Voice
How we sound when we open our mouths — to clients, to prospects, and to each other.
Voice Is Identity
The way Digital Will Ads communicates is not a style layered on top of the business. It is the business. When we say we value honesty and understanding, the voice is where those values show up in every email, every call, every report. A company that claims plain speaking but writes in corporate jargon is lying about one or the other.
The balance point: we sound like a senior practitioner explaining something to a smart person who isn't a specialist. Not dumbing it down. Not showing off. Clear, direct communication between two adults who respect each other's time and intelligence.
Lead With the Number
When there is a specific result, the number comes first.
28.4x ROAS over 90 days. Started at $50/day and scaled to $500/day once the unit economics proved out.
Based on real e-commerce client engagement, 2024
We achieved incredible results for this client, dramatically improving their return on ad spend through our strategic optimization process.
Reversing this order — leading with context and burying the number — signals that the number alone isn't impressive enough. If the result is real, put it first.
Plain Language
Technical concepts are explained in terms of business impact.
Your ad spend is leaking because clicks aren't turning into sales. People click the ad, land on the page, and leave before buying. The page is the problem, not the ad.
Your CVR is suboptimal due to post-click UX friction. The CTR is strong but the landing page experience is creating a conversion gap in the mid-funnel.
Both say the same thing. One requires a decoder ring. We never use jargon to obscure, to impress, or to avoid saying something simply. Clarity is the default. Complexity only enters when it adds precision that plain language can't achieve.
Make It Stick
Complex concepts become real through analogy — natural comparisons that make the abstract tangible.
Effective analogies reference something the client already understands, illuminate the why rather than the what, and are memorable enough that the client can explain the concept to someone else. A restaurateur understands "mise en place" — everything ready before service. That's what tracking setup is. A construction owner understands "you can't build on a bad foundation." Meet the client where they live.
The test: if the client can't explain our recommendation to their business partner using the language we used, we haven't communicated clearly enough.
Go-To Analogies
| Concept | Analogy |
|---|---|
| Tracking setup before spending | Mise en place — a chef preps every ingredient before service starts. We set up measurement before spending a dollar. |
| Why testing takes time | Planting a garden, not buying flowers. Flowers look good immediately but die. A garden takes months but produces forever. |
| Full-stack ownership | Diagnosing a patient, not treating symptoms. A specialist sees one thing. A generalist sees how everything connects. |
| Budget allocation | Portfolio diversification. Don't put all the money in one stock. Spread across channels, then double down on what's working. |
| Why we recommend budget cuts | A good mechanic doesn't replace parts that aren't broken. We'd rather save you money than spend it on something that isn't working. |
| Two sets of eyes | A pilot and copilot. Not because one can't fly — because two people catch what one person misses. |
These aren't scripts. They're starting points. The best analogy is always one pulled from the client's own industry or experience. To build one on the fly: identify a process in the client's world that has the same structure as the marketing concept you're explaining, test it by asking them to restate the idea back to you in their own words, and drop it immediately if the mapping breaks under scrutiny. A forced analogy is worse than a plain explanation.
Invite, Don't Pitch
If this sounds familiar, let's talk. No pitch deck, no pressure. Just an honest look at what's working and what we'd do differently.
Sign up for your FREE strategy session today! Limited spots available! Don't miss out on the opportunity to 10x your revenue!
A pitch creates pressure. An invitation creates an opening. People who respond to manufactured urgency are easy to close and easy to lose. The clients we want are deliberate decision-makers who respond to invitations. We never manufacture scarcity. The calendar is the calendar.
Acknowledge the Pain First
Before presenting what we do, name what the client has been through. Someone who's been burned is carrying frustration and skepticism. If we jump straight into capabilities without acknowledging their experience, we're treating them like a lead, not a person. The tone should always communicate: "We understand why you're skeptical, and we're going to earn our way out of it."
How We Deliver Bad News
The voice is easiest to maintain when results are good. The real test is how it holds when results are bad. Here's what it looks like:
Quick update — the new Meta campaign we launched two weeks ago isn't performing. We've spent $2,400 and generated 3 leads at an $800 CPA, which is roughly 4x what we need for this to be viable. The creative is getting clicks but the landing page isn't converting. We're pausing the campaign today, rebuilding the landing page this week, and will restart with a $50/day test budget once the new page is live. Happy to walk through the data on Thursday's call.
Representative of actual client communications — numbers reflect real engagement patterns
We're still in the optimization phase for the new Meta campaign. Early data is showing some areas for improvement in the conversion funnel. We're making adjustments to improve performance and expect to see stronger results as the algorithm continues to learn. We'll keep monitoring and update you at the next check-in.
The first version has: the specific numbers, what went wrong and why, what we're doing about it, and when the client will hear more. The second version has: nothing. It uses "optimization phase" and "the algorithm is learning" as cover for "we don't want to tell you this isn't working." The second version is how trust dies.
What We Never Sound Like
| Never | Why |
|---|---|
| Corporate | "Leverage synergies to optimize outcomes." Means nothing. Communicates nothing. |
| Desperate | "We'd LOVE to work with you!" Eagerness reads as need. We don't need any single client. We want to work with people who are a good fit. |
| Vague | "We drive results." What results? For whom? How? Vagueness is the refuge of agencies without specifics to point to. |
| Hype | "10X your revenue! Game-changing! Revolutionary!" If the results need exclamation points, they're not that impressive. |
| Dismissive | "Your last agency didn't know what they were doing." Even if true, saying it this way is cheap. We diagnose what was wrong without disparaging the people. The work speaks. |
| Jargon-first | "CPA was above LTV threshold so we pivoted the ROAS strategy on PMAX." If the client needs a decoder ring, rewrite the sentence. |
The Five-Question Test
Apply this to any communication — external or internal, written or spoken:
- Is this true? Not aspirationally true. Not technically true. Actually, currently, verifiably true.
- Is this clear? Would a smart person who doesn't know marketing understand what we're saying?
- Is this specific? Have we replaced vague claims with concrete numbers, examples, or evidence?
- Is this respectful? Are we treating the reader as an adult — not talking down, not talking up, not performing?
- Would we say this to someone we respect? Not to a "target audience." To a specific human being whose opinion of us matters.
If all five pass, the voice is right. If any fails, rewrite until it does.
Internal Voice
The five-question test applies to internal communication too — Slack messages, account handoff notes, internal reviews. Sloppy internal writing produces sloppy external writing over time. If a team member writes a vague internal note about a client's performance, they'll write a vague email to the client eventually. The clarity and specificity standards don't have an on/off switch between internal and external. They're habits, and habits are trained in private.