Whether you should reduce your marketing budget during an economic slowdown or downturn depends on the type of marketing campaign you are running.

If your marketing campaign has a measurable goal, and is profitable, then there would be no reason to reduce your budget. Some examples would be a Google Ads Campaign for an eCommerce website, or an Amazon PPC Campaign.

The ROI of these campaigns are easily measurable, and as long as they are profitable, it would be counter-productive to reduce your ad spend.

However, there are some campaigns where the objective is not an immediate sale, typically, these are referred to as “Brand Awareness Campaigns”. With Brand Awareness Campaigns, the objective is to place your brand in the public conscious, and give your company credibility, so when the time comes for someone to make a purchase, they will consider your brand.

Popup, or display ads on your computer would typically be considered Brand Awareness Campaigns. They don’t pop up as a result of a search, and are not necessarily expected to lead to an immediate sale (with the exception of re-targeting ads). Other examples of brand awareness campaigns would be TV Ads, Billboards, and most Print Ads.

Unlike targeted search ads, the efficiency of brand awareness ads are more difficult to measure, and it should be viewed as a long term investment, not necessarily as something that will bring an immediate ROI. That being the case, reducing spend on these ads during an economic slowdown could be the right move.