New Book, "Stop Paying for Bullsh*t," Debuts at #1 in 26 Categories

Stop Paying for Bullsh*t: Why Most Marketing Fails and What Actually Drives Growth, the new book from Digital Strike - Targeted Marketing founder Chris Westmeyer, reached #1 in 26 Amazon categories during its launch week. The book, released October 19 in Kindle, hardcover and paperback, took the top spot on Amazon's Kindle Best Sellers list in Business, ranking ahead of Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk.

• Stop Paying for Bullsh*t: Why Most Marketing Fails and What Actually Drives Growth published October 19, 2026, and reached #1 in 26 Amazon categories across its Best Sellers and Hot New Releases lists in its first week.
• The book ranked #1 on Amazon's Kindle Best Sellers list in Business, ahead of Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk, and #1 among Hot New Releases in Marketing.
• Other #1 rankings include Web Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing for Small Businesses, Search Engines, High-Tech Businesses and Entrepreneurship.
• The book gives business owners, CEOs and marketing leaders seven principles for measuring marketing by what it produces, not by how busy it looks.
• Its author draws on nearly 30 years in search, analytics and agency work, including Mastercard, WPP/GroupM and 16 years running Digital Strike - Targeted Marketing

It also ranked #1 among Hot New Releases in Marketing, Business Marketing & Sales, and Business Development & Entrepreneurship. On the Best Sellers lists, it reached #1 in Web Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing for Small Businesses, Search Engines, High-Tech Businesses, and Tech Culture & Computer Literacy.

About the Book

Westmeyer argues that the most expensive sentence in business is "It's working." Failure gets attention and forces decisions. A campaign that produces just enough leads and just enough dashboard activity gets left alone, and the waste keeps compounding.

The book is built from Westmeyer’s own firsthand stories of business owners paying for bullsh*t. An internet service provider paid an agency about $100,000 a month for link building and received no links in two years. A trade school paid $8,000 a month for AI-spun content and ads that bid on its own name. A city turned on a pricey business directory nobody used because its web platform happened to include one.

From those stories, Westmeyer lays out seven principles for business owners, CEOs and marketing leaders. Each one is a question they can put to their agency, their team or themselves before the next invoice is paid.

The Seven Principles

1. Take off your blinders. Know how your agency gets paid, what it does in concrete terms, and how the work ties to your goals. If the relationship depends on you staying confused, end it.
2. Define the outcome or don't spend the money. "More growth" is a wish. Know the exact result you’re looking for, what it's worth, and how you'll know it worked before you pay for anything.
3. Conversion math is not optional. Know your close rate, cost per lead, cost per customer and lifetime value. Then check whether your sales team can handle the volume you're paying for.
4. Value the whole journey. Impressions, visits and AI-search citations all carry value once you work backward from what a customer is worth. Crediting only the last click starves the touches that earned it.
5. Avoid shiny object syndrome. Channels need time and stable signal to learn. Change course when the market moves, not when a new platform or a slow week makes you restless.
6. More isn't better. Better is better. Cheap leads from the wrong audience cost more than they save. Filter for fit first, then scale.
7. Marketing amplifies what exists. It can't fix a weak offer, a broken sales process or a business with no clear reason to be chosen. It makes whatever is already there louder.

"It's a wake-up call and a field guide. It exposes the illusions that keep you funding fluff and points you back to what actually drives traction, revenue, and enterprise value."
Jeanet Wade, writer of the books foreword, Author and EOS implementer

"Marketing is still math wrapped around human behavior. The platforms keep changing and AI is reshaping search, but the questions stay the same: What are we trying to accomplish, what is it worth, and how will we know it worked?"
Chris Westmeyer

"This book delivers an unrelenting commitment to driving better business results."
Chris Copeland, CEO, Conext

Five ways to stop paying for bullsh*t this quarter

• Ask how your agency gets paid. A fee tied to media spend rewards more spending, whether or not it helps you.
• Write down the outcome before you approve the budget. If no one can say what a win is worth, the spend has no standard to meet.
• Know four numbers: close rate, cost per lead by channel, cost per customer and customer lifetime value.
• Check what happens after you get the lead. Missed calls and slow follow-up make good marketing look like bad marketing.
• Test every new tactic against the question "Where is the ROI coming from?" Don't defund a channel with a known value to buy a new one you can’t measure.

Most marketing books teach tactics. This one teaches business owners and marketing leaders what to ask before they buy any tactic, from an experienced professional who ran search at Mastercard, led programs for Unilever, Adobe and Land Rover, and built an agency on measurable results. It reads in about two hours, honoring its name in its actual pages and going straight for value in every word. Each principle comes with a question readers can take into their next agency meeting.

Q&A

What is Stop Paying for Bullsh*t about?
Why so much marketing spend produces activity instead of results, and how to tell the difference. Westmeyer lays out seven principles for tying every marketing dollar to a defined business outcome.

Who is it for?
Business owners, CEOs and marketing leaders who pay for marketing and want to know what they're getting for it. No marketing background is required; the book opens with a plain-language glossary.

What does "#1 in 26 categories" mean?
During launch week, the book held the #1 spot on 26 Amazon category lists: 10 Best Sellers lists, including Business, and 16 Hot New Releases lists, including Marketing.

Is this an anti-agency book?
No. Westmeyer runs an agency. His target is opacity: unclear reporting, misaligned incentives and contracts that make it hard for unhappy clients to leave. The final chapter shows what happens when a client and agency get it right.

Why now?
AI is changing how people search and how buyers find businesses, often without a click. Costs are rising and tools are multiplying, so vague marketing gets more expensive every quarter.

Where can I buy it?
On Amazon in Kindle and paperback ($19.99).

Is Chris available for interviews?
Yes. Contact Hudson Davis Communications below.

About Chris Westmeyer

Chris Westmeyer has spent nearly 30 years building companies and the marketing that grows them, starting with a software company he founded at age 12. He ran organic search, paid search and web analytics in-house at Mastercard, then led search programs at WPP/GroupM for brands including Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, Adobe and Land Rover, serving on the Google and Microsoft Customer Advisory Boards. In 2010 he founded Digital Strike – Targeted Marketing in Webster Groves, Missouri.

About Digital Strike - Targeted Marketing

Digital Strike – Targeted Marketing is a search-focused digital marketing agency headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Founded in 2010 by Chris Westmeyer, the agency provides organic and local SEO, paid search, AI search optimization, web development and content marketing, along with paid social, email and display advertising. Digital Strike - Targeted Marketing has served more than 1,400 client partners in industries including senior living, home services, healthcare, higher education, financial services, fiber internet and B2B, and has generated more than 1.1 million leads for them. Learn more at www.digitalstrike.com and https://www.Station8793.com

Press Inquiries

Blair Huddy, Hudson Davis Communications
blair@hudsondaviscommunications.com
805 657 8674