Okay, so it’s not the mountain gorillas themselves who will improve the ROI (return on investment) of your ads, but it is what you can learn from them. If you are constantly fighting for views or clicks on ads that cost a bomb, you need to hear about the Mountain Gorilla Marketing Principle. 

The mountain gorilla marketing outlines the idea that most digital marketing methods will eventually become saturated and stop being effective. You see, mountain gorillas don’t try to out-compete other animals for resources, but instead move to somewhere new where food is abundant and unpoached. 

Imagine your ad spend is the effort the gorilla makes each time they eat. They move to a new bush, sit down, and eat until they’ve had their fill. Now imagine there are other gorillas and animals also trying to graze on that same bush, and others around it. The gorilla eats a few leaves here, walks a while to the next spot, eats three leaves before they get crowded out, and walk a while again to a new bush. 

The gorilla in this scenario is expending a lot of energy, right? Likely almost as much as it’s taking in. This is the same way your ad spend increases – there are more people fighting for the same space or keywords which drives the ad spend up. 

But, if you’re smart – mountain gorilla smart – you can move beyond the scarcity mindset and move on. It is possible to catch potential customers earlier in the buying process and nurture them until they’re ready to buy, rather than fighting over them the moment that decision is made. This takes more work, but your ad spend will be reduced. 

You can also be mountain gorilla smart by moving away from where all the other animals are trying to get the same piece of food and move to somewhere else entirely. You don’t need to invent a whole new method of marketing, you just need to do it differently enough that when your customers see your ad, they actually see it rather than drifting past it. 

If you are getting less for your money each quarter with your money, something isn’t working. It may be working for the experts, but it’s not working for you. It’s time to realize that it’s not going to magically start being wildly profitable. Stop pumping more money into an ad that isn’t working and look to your ideal customers to find out what resonates with them – survey them if you need to. “If your marketing methods are failing, take an objective look at the marketing avenues you’re using and ask yourself if you are making conscious decisions or just following what you think you should be doing”. (source)

Be the mountain gorilla who isn’t so afraid there won’t be any more food elsewhere that they stay where they are, competing for the same food. Be bold and don’t be afraid of the unknown. There are always more customers, and you’ll find them when you are prepared to do something differently.