Digital marketing Panama: where to start

Published on November 6, 2026

In short: Aarón Gómez, a specialist in web positioning and artificial intelligence answers, says a Panamanian small business with a tight budget has no single answer on where to start: it depends on whether people already search for what it sells. If demand exists, his practical order is to claim and complete the Google profile, build one page per service and keep ads for a concrete, measurable offer, with social media last if the business is not visual. Each month, an owner only needs three numbers: how many real inquiries arrived, where they came from and how many became a sale. When hiring an agency or freelancer, he recommends asking for access to the accounts from day one and a written plan with metrics. He answered six questions in writing for Daniela Bohórquez, a Radar Panamá reporter, on November 6.

Contents of this interview

Who is answering and why it matters
Where to start: it depends on demand
Search and social: two paths, two customers
The three numbers that matter each month
Mistakes when hiring an agency or freelancer
Store, service or clinic: the page that matters
A year from now: an acceleration
What the data says
Practical summary
Frequently asked questions
Sources

Who is answering and why it matters

Aarón Gómez is a specialist in web positioning and in artificial intelligence answers (SEO, GEO and AEO), with 8 years of experience. He holds a business administration degree with a focus on accounting systems, works with projects in Latin America and North America, and collaborates with Radar Panamá. His professional profile is on LinkedIn.

Daniela Bohórquez, a reporter at Radar Panamá, asked him six questions about digital marketing from the point of view of someone running a small business who must decide where to put time and budget. Aarón Gómez answered in writing on November 6. The quoted answers are his; the rest of the text is written by Radar Panamá, which adds context from public sources wherever a verifiable figure exists. Answers translated from Spanish by Radar.

Where to start: it depends on demand

The first question was direct: with a small budget, does a small business start with SEO, ads or social media?

«It depends on one thing: do people already search for what you sell? If so, start with SEO and Google Business Profile, because you capture existing demand without paying per click. If the product is new or nobody searches for it yet, ads or social media can build awareness faster. For a small business with a limited budget, my practical order: first claim and complete the Google profile (free), second one page per service (an investment of time), third ads only if there is a concrete, measurable offer. Social media last if the business is not visual. There is no single answer; there is an answer according to demand.»
Aarón Gómez

His order puts first what does not require paying for each visit and keeps ads for when there is something concrete to offer and it can be measured. On the Google profile, the official Google Business Profile help page explains that local ranking depends on three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. According to that same page, more reviews and good ratings can help improve local ranking, although Google does not publish how much each factor weighs.

Radar note: there is no verified data showing which channel converts best for a Panamanian small business. The sequence Aarón Gómez describes is his professional judgment, built on the logic of existing demand versus demand that still has to be created.

Search and social: two paths, two customers

The second question asked him to tell apart the customer who arrives through each path.

«Through search comes someone with intent: they already know what they need and are comparing options. Through social media comes someone you interrupted while they were looking at something else. The search customer is usually closer to buying; the social customer needs more education and more contact. That does not mean social media does not sell: it means the cycle is longer and the content has to sustain interest. For a small business, search usually brings inquiries faster; social media builds recall. Mixing them without measuring is the mistake.»
Aarón Gómez

The comparison is the interviewee’s reading, based on his experience, and Radar Panamá presents it as such. What can be placed with data is the size of both scenarios. According to DataReportal, Digital 2026 Panama, the country had about 3.60 million internet users at the end of 2025, 78.4% of the population, and 3.18 million social media identities. DataReportal clarifies that the social media figure does not equal unique people, because one person can hold several accounts.

The internet and social media figures describe large audiences reachable through different routes: the person who types a need into a search engine and the person who comes across a post while browsing. That is the distinction Aarón Gómez draws in his answer.

To see why visibility in the top results matters on the search path, an analysis by Backlinko on click-through rates in Google, using Search Console data, found that the first result receives 27.6% of clicks and the top three receive 54.4%. It is a global average for English-language searches; other studies give different percentages for the first position, so it works as an order of magnitude and not as a figure for Panama.

The three numbers that matter each month

The third question was how an owner can tell whether marketing is working without getting lost in vanity metrics.

«Three questions, three numbers: how many real inquiries arrived (calls, WhatsApp, forms)? Where did those inquiries come from (search, social, ads, direct)? How many became a sale? If you cannot answer all three, the rest of the metrics are decoration. I also like to look at impressions in Search Console to see whether visibility is growing, but that is an early signal, not a result. A small business owner does not need a dashboard with twenty charts. They need to know how many people asked and how many bought. The rest gets reviewed when those two numbers do not add up.»
Aarón Gómez

1. Real inquiries

Calls, WhatsApp messages and forms received during the month.

2. Source

Whether each inquiry came from search, social media, an ad or directly.

3. Sales

How many of those inquiries ended in a sale.

Search Console impressions, which count how many times the site appears in Google results, remain in his view an early signal: they show whether visibility is growing, but they do not replace inquiries or sales.

Mistakes when hiring an agency or freelancer

The fourth question asked for the most frequent mistakes when hiring outside help in Panama and how to avoid them. What follows is the interviewee’s advice, with no reference to any particular company.

«Frequent mistakes: hiring without asking for access to the accounts (Search Console, Analytics, Google Ads) and ending up dependent on an intermediary; accepting promises of results without an explanation of how they will be measured; not asking who does the work (sometimes they sell and subcontract without saying so); and signing without an exit clause or ownership of the assets. How to avoid them: ask for access from day one, ask for a written plan with success metrics, ask about real cases with a name or at least the sector and metrics, and make sure the accounts are in your company’s name, not the agency’s.»
Aarón Gómez

Mistake he describes	How to avoid it, according to Aarón Gómez
Hiring without access to the accounts	Ask for access from day one to Search Console, Analytics and Google Ads
Accepting promises with no way to measure them	Require a written plan with success metrics
Not knowing who does the work	Ask, because sometimes work is sold and subcontracted without saying so; ask for real cases with a name or at least the sector and metrics
Signing without an exit clause or asset ownership	Make sure the accounts are in the company’s name, not the service provider’s

Store, service or clinic: the page that matters

The fifth question was how the strategy changes depending on the type of business.

«Online store: the focus is product, category, price, availability, and measurement is conversion and cart. Service: the focus is trust, coverage area, contact process, and measurement is inquiries and appointments. Clinic: the focus is location, specialty, hours, and reviews; measurement is calls and visits. The practical difference is in the page that matters: for a store, the product page; for a service, the service page; for a clinic, the Google profile and the specialty page. Copying the strategy of one type of business to another is one of the most common causes of spending without return.»
Aarón Gómez

Type of business	What it focuses on	What it measures	Page that matters
Online store	Product, category, price and availability	Conversion and cart	Product page
Service business	Trust, coverage area and contact process	Inquiries and appointments	Service page
Clinic	Location, specialty, hours and reviews	Calls and visits	Google profile and specialty page

This is why the Google profile appears in the clinic answer: according to the official help page cited above, relevance, distance and prominence determine how a local business is ordered in the results.

A year from now: an acceleration

The last question asked for a look ahead: how will the way a Panamanian finds and chooses a business have changed?

«I think we will see three changes: first, more people will ask long questions to AI assistants before searching on Google, and companies without clear, citable content will be invisible at that step. Second, the Google profile and reviews will weigh even more, because local answers are built from that data. Third, differentiation will move from “having a website” to “having the right answer at the right moment.” It is not a revolution; it is an acceleration of what is already happening. Companies that invest in verifiable content and clear contact details will be better positioned.»
Aarón Gómez

Radar note: this is the interviewee’s forecast, not a measurement. On how artificial intelligence assistants choose which business to recommend, Radar Panamá spoke with another specialist in the interview with Néstor Romero on why AI recommends a business, and Aarón Gómez himself explains how to check it in Aarón Gómez answers: how to check if AI mentions your business.

What the data says

Data point	What it says	Source
Internet users in Panama	3.60 million at the end of 2025, 78.4% of the population	DataReportal, Digital 2026 Panama
Social media	3.18 million social media identities (69.3%); not unique people	DataReportal, Digital 2026 Panama
Local ranking on Google	Depends on relevance, distance and prominence; Google does not publish the weight of each factor	Google Business Profile Help
Clicks on top results	The first result receives 27.6% of clicks and the top three 54.4% (global English-language average)	Backlinko

Caveat: these data describe the size of the digital audience and how the Google profile works. There is no verified measurement of which channel converts best for a Panamanian small business, so the comparison between search and social media remains the interviewee’s opinion.

Practical summary: where to start

Ask whether people already search for what is sold. The path depends on the answer: search if there is demand, ads or social media if the product is new.
Claim and complete the Google profile. It is the first step in Aarón Gómez’s order, and it costs nothing.
Build one page per service. It is an investment of time, not of money.
Use ads only with a concrete, measurable offer, and leave social media for last if the business is not visual.
Review three numbers each month: real inquiries, where they came from and how many became a sale.
When hiring outside help, ask for access to the accounts from day one, a written plan with metrics, and accounts in the company’s name.

Key fact: according to Aarón Gómez, in the digital marketing of a small business with a limited budget there is no single answer on where to start, there is an answer according to demand: if people already search for what is sold, it is captured through search and the Google profile; if nobody searches for it yet, awareness has to be built with ads or social media.

Frequently asked questions

Where should digital marketing start for a small business with a tight budget?

It depends on whether people already search for what the business sells, according to Aarón Gómez. If there is demand, his practical order is to claim and complete the Google profile, build one page per service, use ads only with a concrete, measurable offer, and leave social media for last if the business is not visual.

What is the difference between selling through search and through social media?

Through search comes someone with intent, who knows what they need and is comparing options; through social media comes someone who was interrupted while looking at something else and needs more education and contact. It is the interviewee’s opinion: for a small business, search usually brings inquiries faster and social media builds recall.

What numbers should an owner look at each month?

Three: how many real inquiries arrived (calls, WhatsApp, forms), where they came from and how many became a sale. If they cannot be answered, according to Aarón Gómez, the rest of the metrics are decoration; Search Console impressions serve only as an early signal of visibility.

What should a business ask for when hiring an agency or freelancer?

Access to the accounts (Search Console, Analytics, Google Ads) from day one, a written plan with success metrics, real cases with a name or at least the sector and metrics, and accounts in the company’s name. It also pays to ask who does the work and to sign with an exit clause and asset ownership.

Does the strategy change between an online store, a service business and a clinic?

Yes. For an online store the focus is product, price and availability, and the key page is the product page; for a service business it is trust and coverage area, with the service page; for a clinic it is location, specialty and reviews, with the Google profile. Copying the strategy from one type to another is, according to Gómez, a common cause of spending without return.

Sources

Written interview by Radar Panamá with Aarón Gómez, answered on November 6.
Aarón Gómez on LinkedIn, the interviewee’s professional profile.
DataReportal, Digital 2026 Panama, report published on November 8, 2025: internet users, social media identities and mobile connections.
Google Business Profile Help, how to improve your local ranking on Google, official Google help page.
Backlinko, Google click-through rate statistics, analysis of Search Console data updated on April 16, 2025.

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Aarón Gómez answers: where a Panamanian small business with a tight budget should start digital marketing