Turning off ads means no orders: a sign that you are selling but do not have a brand yet

There is a test that any online shop owner can do today: turn off all ads for two weeks. If orders drop close to zero, it is not a budget issue or a wrong algorithm. It is a sign that your brand does not truly exist in the minds of customers.

Sales machines and brands: two different things.

A sales machine works well when you pump money into it. Stopping the pump means stopping the run. A brand is different. It creates pull from within: customers remember the name, actively seek it out, and recommend it to others without you having to pay for each impression.

Most online retail shops in Vietnam currently operate like the first machine. It is not because they do not want to build a brand. Rather, the pressure for short-term sales causes every budget to be poured into conversion ads, while building identity and storytelling is postponed to "when we are bigger, we will do it."

When platform fees account for nearly half of revenue, there is no margin for error. And the most common mistake is not running ads incorrectly, but having nothing exist outside of ads.

Customer acquisition costs are rising: growth trap.

The cost of acquiring new customers (CAC, which is the cost to obtain an order from someone who does not know you) in global e-commerce has risen sharply in recent years due to increasing advertising competition across all platforms. This loop is very familiar: run ads, get orders, turn off ads, no orders, so you dare not stop, and must keep running at increasingly higher costs.

Meanwhile, a loyal customer costs much less to maintain than continuously attracting new customers. The LTV:CAC ratio (lifetime value of a customer compared to acquisition cost) at 3:1 is often seen as the minimum sustainable threshold. Below that, businesses grow in a leaky bucket manner: bringing in as much as they lose.

The 60/40 rule: budget allocation is different from what you are doing.

Research by Les Binet and Peter Field for the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) indicates that the optimal ratio for most industries is to allocate about 60% of the marketing budget to long-term brand building and 40% to short-term sales activation.

Sales activation works short-term. Brand building works long-term. Both need each other, but cannot replace one another.

Les Binet & Peter Field, The Long and the Short of It, IPA, 2013

Most online shops in Vietnam are running the reverse ratio. Almost 100% of the budget is poured into performance marketing (ads that measure immediate conversion), while brand building is at zero. The result: the machine runs well in the short term but accumulates nothing to gradually reduce dependence on ads.

60/40 is not an absolute number. For completely new brands, the ratio may lean more towards activation in the early stages. But the principle does not change: without a portion dedicated to brand building, you will never escape the loop of running ads forever.

Building on rented land: platform risk.

When your entire sales channel is on Shopee, TikTok Shop, or any other platform, you are building a house on rented land. The platform changes its algorithms, increases fees, or allows competitors to advertise right under your products. You have no control.

More importantly, customers on the platform remember the platform name, not yours. They return to Shopee to buy, not to find your brand. This means that all your marketing efforts are indirectly building assets for the platform, not for yourself.

A sign that you are selling products but do not have a brand.

Not every shop needs to build a brand in the full sense right from the start. However, there are specific signs that indicate you are in a purely sales machine phase and risks are accumulating:

• Turning off ads for two weeks results in orders dropping below 20% of normal.
• Customers cannot describe who you are beyond the product name and price.
• No one is searching for your brand name directly on Google.
• Customers make a purchase once and do not return unless they see discount ads.
• Competitors selling the same product at a slightly lower price means you lose orders immediately.
• You compete by lowering prices more than by other reasons to choose.

The next step is not to turn off ads, but to change the ratio.

Paid advertising is not the enemy. It is a necessary tool, especially in the early stages and when you need to accelerate revenue. The problem arises when it becomes the only means and you never escape that dependency.

Building a brand in retail does not mean spending millions on TV commercials or hiring large agencies. It starts with more specific actions: having a real reason for customers to choose you over competitors, consistent identity across all touchpoints, and a clear enough story for customers to remember and share. This is the foundation for advertising to work more effectively, not to replace advertising.

A brand does not eliminate the need for marketing. It ensures that every marketing dollar you spend accumulates as an asset rather than evaporating when campaigns are turned off.