4 ms·

I run marketing campaigns and my perspective is that retargeting is effective but you can't believe the actual ROAS shown. Companies that only do retargeting wi

I run marketing campaigns and my perspective is that retargeting is effective but you can't believe the actual ROAS shown. Companies that only do retargeting will pitch guaranteed amazing results because it's the easier part of the funnel and all your efforts from all your channels feed it. Branded SEM is another area that you can't trust the numbers. You'll have an amazing return because people were searching for your brand in the first place.

josephjrobison 8y ago
I know the paid search folk may claim otherwise, but as an organic search practitioner I agree that branded AdWords (bidding on your own brand name) is the biggest crock ever. If you lump brand keyword and non-brand keyword bidding together, the ROAS/ROI (depending how you measure) looks good, but then when you break out just non-brand, you often see how terrible the return is. Not always, but often.
- vgeek 8y ago
  People who take excessive credit for branded KW bidding, especially agencies, are unethical. Every agency I've encountered loves to subsidize their mediocre non-branded performance with branded campaigns. Google loves branded KW bidding, because it cannibalizes traffic that 90%+ would go to an organic result. Even with a lower CPC, the high CTR means that on a CPM basis, Google is making more per impression (nevermind the trend of the Chrome omnibox preferring branded queries than direct navigation queries-- Google can't make money if their SERPs aren't shown). Bad marketers will say "it is a low CPC and a high conversion rate", but is that better than no CPC? It is just shifting free traffic to paid. SEM has changed so much over the last 5 years. It is so much more difficult for per unit profitability on search, too many people don't understand their margins and are overpaying. It kind of feels that digital is reaching equilibrium with traditional media, but it is easier to measure that it isn't working.

josephjrobison 8y ago

I know the paid search folk may claim otherwise, but as an organic search practitioner I agree that branded AdWords (bidding on your own brand name) is the biggest crock ever. If you lump brand keyword and non-brand keyword bidding together, the ROAS/ROI (depending how you measure) looks good, but then when you break out just non-brand, you often see how terrible the return is. Not always, but often.

vgeek 8y ago
People who take excessive credit for branded KW bidding, especially agencies, are unethical. Every agency I've encountered loves to subsidize their mediocre non-branded performance with branded campaigns. Google loves branded KW bidding, because it cannibalizes traffic that 90%+ would go to an organic result. Even with a lower CPC, the high CTR means that on a CPM basis, Google is making more per impression (nevermind the trend of the Chrome omnibox preferring branded queries than direct navigation queries-- Google can't make money if their SERPs aren't shown). Bad marketers will say "it is a low CPC and a high conversion rate", but is that better than no CPC? It is just shifting free traffic to paid. SEM has changed so much over the last 5 years. It is so much more difficult for per unit profitability on search, too many people don't understand their margins and are overpaying. It kind of feels that digital is reaching equilibrium with traditional media, but it is easier to measure that it isn't working.