And nothing throws a budget out of whack faster than advertising.

Advertising, or paying good money to get your message in front of your target market, still has a place in your marketing mix, although it's not quite as effective as it once was.

If you're going to advertise, you need to be smart about it -- or you can quickly find yourself with a blown budget and not much to show for it. Below are seven questions to ask yourself before writing out that check.

1. Do you need to generate customers/traffic/leads/etc. right away? If so, then you better pull out your wallet. Advertising is hands down fastest way to get your message in front of your target market. (You're paying for placement after all.)

2. Do you have another way to get word out about your business? For instance, do you have a customer database or an e-zine list? If so, then you might be better off sending an e-mail (assuming you have customers' e-mails). Although technically e-mail announcements fall under advertising, I'm not counting it in this particular case because it's more or less free (or very low cost).

Perhaps you have a good news angle and a good relationship with a reporter. Or you have a high-traffic Web site and/or blog. Or maybe you're an active volunteer with a large organization and can use networking to get message out.

But if none of those really apply, then you'd better take a closer look at advertising.

3. Do you need to augment your other marketing efforts? Maybe you have articles featured on a Web site targeted to your customer base. Great when your article is front and center and not-so-great when your article is buried in archives. A little advertising on that site can keep you in your target market's sight all time. Or maybe you struck gold and got a big article written about your company in perfect trade publication. Fantastic for that month and not-so-fantastic for other 11 months of year. Or maybe it's taking you longer than you'd like to drive traffic to your Web site. Advertising is good for speeding things along.

Frequency is king when it comes to marketing -- if you're out of your customers' sight, you're probably out of their mind when it comes to buying time. Advertising is a good way to beef up or speed up what you're already doing.

The best products to sell using humor tend to be those that consumers have to think least about. Products that are relatively inexpensive, and often consumable, can be represented without providing a lot of facts, and that’s where there’s room for humor. Candy, food, alcohol, tobacco and toys/entertainment related products have proven to benefit most from humor in their campaigns. One of most important things to keep in mind is relevance to product. An example of an extremely successful humorous campaign is series of “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” commercials. The star, a tiny talking Chihuahua who is passionate about his Taco Bell got people repeating company’s name across country. The repetition of company name and actual content of commercial reinforce message in a relevant manner. Taco Bell saw a substantial rise in sales and their own mascot became a pop icon.