Advertising Can’t Polish a Turd—Fix Your Product First

Here’s the cold, hard truth: Advertising is an amplifier, not a miracle worker. You can throw millions into marketing, but if your product sucks, all you’re doing is putting a spotlight on its flaws.

Alfie Lagos, founder of Lexlab, lays it out in a brutal but necessary wake-up call: “You can make a great ad, but it won’t fix a bad product.” (Mumbrella)

Bad Product? Say Goodbye to ROI

Let’s be real—marketers love to believe that advertising can sell anything. But the reality? It can’t manufacture demand for something nobody wants.

Got a clunky website? Your expensive ads are driving people straight into a brick wall.
Weak product-market fit? No amount of creative genius will turn apathy into action.
Frustrating checkout process? Kiss those conversions goodbye.

As Lagos warns, “A painful checkout process kills conversions faster than you can say ‘cart abandoned.’”

The Blunt Accelerator Effect: Your Product Dictates Your Fate

Advertising doesn’t create success—it amplifies whatever’s already there. Lagos calls this the “blunt accelerator effect”:

Good Product + Strong Advertising = Exponential Growth
Bad Product + Strong Advertising = Faster Failure

The Harsh but Simple Takeaway

Before you throw another dollar into ads, ask yourself: Would I buy this if I wasn’t the one selling it?

Fix your product.
Fix your user experience.
**Then—**and only then—unleash your marketing.

Otherwise? You’re just setting money on fire.

For the full breakdown, check out Alfie Lagos’s original piece on Mumbrella.