Repeat after me: Build the brand before you burn the ad budget

You’ve got the product. You’ve got the roadmap. You’ve even been granted some budget for paid ads.

But if you haven’t nailed your brand strategy first, you’re about to launch a beautifully-targeted shrug into the void.

Harsh? Maybe. But true.

At KOTA, we’ve helped startups go from zero visibility to high-performing campaigns — but only once the brand foundation is solid. Too many tech companies rush into performance marketing without clarity on who they are, how they sound, or why anyone should care.

The result? Expensive CPCs, underwhelming CTRs, and messaging that changes every two weeks because no one knows what the brand actually stands for.

Let’s get into why brand is the bit that makes the rest work.

Paid ads amplify what’s already there

…So what’s actually there?

If your positioning is fuzzy, your tone is inconsistent, and your product promise changes with the weather, paid ads won’t fix that. They’ll just expose it — faster, and in front of more people. Like running a TED Talk with no slides, no script, and no trousers.

A solid brand strategy gives you:

• Clarity on what you do and why it matters
• Consistency across every touchpoint (from founder pitch to Instagram Story)
• Messaging that scales — from landing pages to ad copy to investor decks
• The confidence to stick with it, long enough to learn and optimise.

Paid ads work best when the brand underneath is tight. If the foundations are weak, you’re pouring ad spend into a leaky funnel.

People don’t remember products. They remember brands.

We bang on about this a lot, but it’s worth repeating. You’re not just selling features — you’re selling a feeling.

A solution to a frustrating problem.

A way to save time, look smart, feel confident, or finally stop swearing at broken workflows.

You’re selling relief.

Even in B2B. Even in fintech. Even if you’re “not the brand-y type.”

And when you’re not the only player solving the same pain point, your brand is what makes you memorable. It’s what builds trust. It’s what creates brand salience and emotional stickiness in a market full of clever tech and functional parity.

According to the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, brand salience — the ability to be noticed and remembered — is one of the most reliable predictors of long-term market growth. 

What happens when you run ads without brand strategy?

Short version: chaos.

Long version:

• Mixed messages in your copy
• Irrelevant traffic on your landing pages
• Creative that doesn’t resonate
• Clicks that don’t convert
• Endless A/B testing to fix the wrong problem

And when it doesn’t work? The brand gets blamed. Or worse — the audience gets blamed. (“They’re just not ready.”)

What to build before you launch performance marketing

Here’s what we help startups lock down before spending a single penny on ads:

1. Positioning

What’s your core value? Why should anyone care? Why now? And remember this isn’t just a paragraph on your About page — it’s the foundation of every product launch, pitch deck, ad campaign, and sales conversation.

Strong positioning answers:

• What problem are we solving?

• Who are we solving it for?

• What do we offer that competitors don’t (or can’t)?

• What role do we play in the user’s life — functional and emotional?

• Why is now the right time for this product?

When it’s done right, it becomes the north star for everything else — your tone, your messaging, your roadmap, your creative.

Tip: Pick a message that cuts through with clarity — especially in a landscape where everyone’s calling themselves “innovative.”

More than two-thirds (68%) of buyers say that ‘many of the brands I see at work have very similar marketing and communications messages – they all sound and act the same’. (From a 2024 study by Dentsu, Marketing Week)

2. Tone of voice

How do you sound when you show up? Sharp and punchy? Calm and confident? Quirky but credible?

Your tone isn’t just what you say — it’s how you say it. And for startups trying to stand out, it’s one of the fastest ways to build trust, personality, and emotional connection.

A well-defined tone of voice acts as your brand’s social cue. It tells people what kind of company you are before they’ve even finished reading. Are you here to disrupt? Reassure? Inspire? Educate?

A strong tone of voice should:

• Reflect your product’s personality and positioning

• Match your audience’s mindset and emotional state

• Stay consistent across every touchpoint (from your 404 page to your investor deck)

• Flex in tone without losing your voice (you don’t have to sound the same on LinkedIn as you do in error messages — but both should feel like you)

It also helps:

• Align internal teams around a consistent communication style

• Speed up content creation (no more rewriting every sentence 4 times)

• Avoid sounding like every other AI-generated brand in your category

A strong tone of voice is clarity with a pulse. It’s how your startup sounds like it knows what it’s doing — and who it’s doing it for.

3. Messaging framework

Think of this as your startup’s verbal infrastructure.

A messaging framework gives structure to how you talk about your product — across audiences, channels, and contexts. It prevents every campaign, landing page, or LinkedIn post from sounding like it came from a different startup entirely.

What it includes:

• Core narrative – the high-level story: what you do, who you do it for, and why it matters

• Value pillars – the 2–4 key reasons to believe in your offer

• Audience-specific messages – tailored angles for different personas (e.g. users, investors, decision-makers)

• Message laddering – from big emotional benefit → supporting proof → feature-level detail

This framework is what keeps your comms coherent at scale — whether it’s a founder doing a podcast, a sales deck in the wild, or a PPC ad in the funnel.

4. Visual identity (or “brand codes”)

Strong brands use brand codes (think: colour, type, layout, iconography, image style) to build familiarity and trust over time. These are the consistent, recognisable elements that help people spot you in a crowded feed, remember you later, and associate your design with a certain feeling or quality.

A proper visual identity includes:

• Typography system – primary and secondary fonts, usage rules, hierarchy

• Colour palette – core colours, accents, accessible contrasts

• Layout guidance – spacing, grid structure, how content is framed and prioritised

• Photography & illustration style – visual tone, subject matter, treatment

• Motion principles – how transitions, hover states, and interactions feel

• Logo system – primary, secondary, and shorthand marks + usage rules

When done well, your visual identity builds trust through consistency, reinforces your positioning without saying a word, and creates a recognisable presence across product, marketing, and ops.

Design plays a bigger role in performance than most founders think. Good creative isn’t decoration — it’s conversion infrastructure.

Want better ROAS? Start with brand.

Performance marketing isn’t a replacement for brand strategy. It’s an amplifier of it.

When brand and performance work together, you get:

• Lower CPAs
• Higher retention
• Faster trust-building
• Clearer product-market fit signals
• A narrative you can scale

You stop reinventing the wheel with every campaign.

You start building brand equity with every impression.

According to LinkedIn and Edelman, 71% of B2B decision-makers say they’re more likely to engage with a brand that has a consistent, recognisable voice. (Edelman)

TL;DR

You can’t optimise your way out of unclear positioning.

You can’t retarget your way into trust.

You can’t outspend bad messaging forever.

So before you pour budget into Meta, LinkedIn, or Google Ads, ask yourself:

Do we actually know who we are, who we’re for, and what we sound like?

If not — let’s talk.