From the archives, refreshed for 2026: I first wrote this back in May 2019. The platforms have changed, the point has not, so I have dusted it off, tightened it up, and added a few years of hindsight.
TL;DR
Nobody sees your product once on Instagram and buys on the spot, the same way nobody says yes to a marriage proposal from a stranger at the shops. Marketing is a long game of small, repeated touchpoints that slowly build trust and familiarity, a real psychological effect called the Mere Exposure Effect, until someone is finally ready to buy. One ad is a hello, not a proposal.
Steady on. We have only just met.
But that, more or less, is what most businesses do to their customers, and then they wonder why they keep getting knocked back. So let me explain what a marriage proposal has to do with your Facebook ads.
As an agency, we meet a lot of people with fantastic ideas, great products and genuinely clever services. And many of them come to digital marketing believing it is a big red button marked "sell lots, make money, become mega rich". They picture a customer seeing their product on Facebook or Instagram, clicking the ad, landing on the website and buying then and there, instantly. Sale done. Sadly, that is almost never how it goes.
If you take one thing from this, take this:
Marketing is a long-term play. It is a series of light touchpoints along the customer's journey, where trust and the need for what you sell grow, quietly, until the person is finally ready to buy.
That is the whole game. Everything else is detail.
Marketing is a series of light touchpoints where trust grows quietly, until someone is finally ready to buy. One ad is not a proposal. It is a hello.
Picture this. You are single, and you decide the fastest route to marriage is to head down to the local shopping centre, get on one knee, and propose to every attractive stranger you walk past. How many yeses are you getting? I will save you the maths: none, and possibly a quiet word with centre security.
Now try again, this time waving a one-carat diamond ring about. You might, might, get a taker or two, lured purely by the rock. I would not bank on that marriage seeing out the financial year.
Because that is not how it works, is it. You meet someone in a bar, or a mate introduces you (that is a referral). You buy them a drink, grab a coffee, go on a first date, sit through a film. Maybe a holiday. You meet the parents, you survive it. Dozens of small, low-stakes touchpoints, until one day the big question comes up and the answer is finally yes.
Marketing is exactly the same. Nobody sees your product once and marries you on the spot.
There is a proper name for this, and it is not just me being romantic. It is a psychological phenomenon called the Mere Exposure Effect: people tend to develop a preference for things simply because they are familiar with them. Psychologists sometimes call it the familiarity principle.
The way you build that familiarity is to make sure your target audience sees your brand more than once. Several times, in fact, before they trust you enough to even consider handing over money. Trust is not built on a single glance at your product in a busy feed.
A touchpoint can be almost anything: a post on Facebook or Instagram, a review, a recommendation from a friend, a sponsored Meta ad, an email, a YouTube video, a Google ad, a TikTok that catches someone mid-scroll. They all count. Each one is another coffee, another date, another small deposit in the trust account. On their own they look like nothing. Stacked up over time, they are how you get to yes. This is exactly what consistent social media and advertising is for.
Here is the clever bit we digital marketers keep up our sleeve: retargeting. It lets us show ads specifically to people who have already engaged with your brand, the ones who already know your name. It is the difference between calling someone you had a great first date with and proposing to strangers at the food court. It stacks up touchpoints fast among people who are already warm, and speeds the whole thing along. Retargeting deserves its own blog, and one day it will get one.
So, in short: marketing is a long game. You will not make a sale from one click, one post, or one heroic proposal at the shops. You need multiple touchpoints to build enough trust and familiarity before anyone will even consider buying.
So get to it. Post consistently, run the ads, make the videos, send the emails, tell the stories, show up again and again. Or, if that all sounds like a lot of dating, have a chat with us and we will help you build those touchpoints properly.
Just, for now, put the ring away.
Because trust has not been built yet. The Mere Exposure Effect means people prefer brands they are familiar with, and familiarity takes several exposures. One ad is an introduction, not a proposal.
A psychological principle that people develop a preference for things simply through repeated exposure. In marketing, seeing your brand multiple times builds the familiarity and trust that eventually leads to a sale.
There is no magic number, but it is a lot more than one. What matters is consistent, repeated touchpoints over time, rather than a single ad, until trust and need line up.
Showing ads specifically to people who have already engaged with your brand. It stacks up brand touchpoints quickly among people who already know you, which speeds up the path to a sale.
About the author
Founder, Digital Marketing Adelaide
Matt is the founder of Digital Marketing Adelaide and Adelaide's face of AI Search. He leads the agency's AI search optimisation and training, and, it turns out, has strong opinions on marriage proposals.
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