Don’t Just Consider the ‘Last Click’
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Written By Peter Hershberg | June 12, 2007 | Share This
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According to a new study released by the Atlas Institute, 90% of conversions are driven by overlapping ads across multiple sites rather than by the search ad that leads to the last click. All too frequently, said Atlas, credit for the sale is inappropriately given to search.
“Right now when you look at how advertisers are evaluating their campaigns, when a sale appears on their Web site, they credit the last ad or click with the entire credit for that sale. And more often than not that last click came from Google,” said Young-Bean Song, vice president of analytics for Atlas. “So wow-holy-cow, it looks like Google is responsible for the vast majority of sales on the site. The consequence of that is month after month, they buy more Google and cheap advertising space.”
The report, titled “Overlap’s Impact on Reach, Frequency and Conversions“, goes on to critique marketers that depend too heavily on paid search. Atlas claims that advertisers should re-evaluate the effect of overlapping advertising, from TV, Radio, Print, Banner, etc, on paid search performance.
As co-founder of a search marketing firm and long-time search industry advocate, I take issue with the Atlas study (surprise surprise). To be sure, I don’t disagree that overlapping forms of advertising can impact the success (or failure) of a paid search campaign - 80% of online users start at a search engine, but it would be foolish to suggest that they do so by random coincidence. In all likelihood, the searcher saw an ad elsewhere that inspired him to seek out more information - a TV commercial, an online sponsorship, a print ad, a billboard, or perhaps just a conversation with a friend. All forms of advertising drive people to search engines - on that fact, there is little debate.
What I do disagree with, however, is Rob Hof’s interpretation of the Atlas study. Based on Atlas’ finding, Hof beleives that advertisers may be spending “too much on search ads.” He suggests that marketers will soon act on Atlas’ results “by shifting some of their spending from search ads back to banner ads.” Hof points to Google’s recent Doubleclick acquisition as further verification that banner ads are being under-valued.
But Hof is missing a key point: the question provoked by Atlas is not whether advertisers are spending too much on search, it is whether they’re spending enough money everywhere else. If advertisers shift dollars away from search and into other ad formats, they won’t be able to effectively convert the incremental number of users being driven online. To increase “overlapping” ad spend at the expense of search would be like building a skyscraper without a doorway - it might make your brand more visible, but without a key point of entry, it’s effectively useless.
As my colleague, Josh Stylman, noted
in an interview with AdWeek, what’s most important is ensuring that a search marketing campaign compliments other offline and online advertising campaigns. If done properly, we’ll all get the credit we deserve.
Topics: Advertising: Online, SEM: Paid Search |