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If advertising drives sales then you will see a decline really quickly if you cut spending. You’ll likely see this decline within hours. In order to restore sal

If advertising drives sales then you will see a decline really quickly if you cut spending. You’ll likely see this decline within hours. In order to restore sales the first thing you’ll do is restore spending. You’re not going to wait to collect a bunch of data in order to be able to roll it up into meaningful research for a blog post because those lost sales are real money that you’re losing. The thing is, it’s in AirBNBs interest to discredit advertising because they have a huge organic advantage over their competition. If I want to rent a holiday place somewhere, I’m going to search AirBNB first. Only if it doesn’t work out will I try a broader search, and be exposed to AirBNBs competitors. Competitors won’t want to publicise the fact that ad spending is important because it gives them an advantage over those who believe AirBNBs argument.

MomoXenosaga 5y ago
This is interesting, maybe cutting all your ad spending is one of those things you can't really test? Because the consequences if you get it wrong are potentially devastating.
mkmk 5y ago
>If advertising drives sales then you will see a decline really quickly if you cut spending. You’ll likely see this decline within hours. In order to restore sales the first thing you’ll do is restore spending. True for digital, but not for TV, podcast, and OOH. On those channels, it’s common to see a multi-week long tail of performance even after spend stops. Very annoying for testing.
- human 5y ago
  I’ve always pictured branding like a flywheel. Advertising adds momentum. If you cut spending it will take a while before you see it slow down. And by the time you notice a real slow down it takes months to build it back up.
- doctor_eval 5y ago
  But this article is specifically addressing performance advertising where the advert is intended to directly influence sales through conversions. Awareness advertising, like TV and billboards, is presumably coated separately. (I admit I wasn’t clear about that in my post but it was my intent)

MomoXenosaga 5y ago

This is interesting, maybe cutting all your ad spending is one of those things you can't really test? Because the consequences if you get it wrong are potentially devastating.

mkmk 5y ago

>If advertising drives sales then you will see a decline really quickly if you cut spending. You’ll likely see this decline within hours. In order to restore sales the first thing you’ll do is restore spending. True for digital, but not for TV, podcast, and OOH. On those channels, it’s common to see a multi-week long tail of performance even after spend stops. Very annoying for testing.

human 5y ago
I’ve always pictured branding like a flywheel. Advertising adds momentum. If you cut spending it will take a while before you see it slow down. And by the time you notice a real slow down it takes months to build it back up.
doctor_eval 5y ago
But this article is specifically addressing performance advertising where the advert is intended to directly influence sales through conversions. Awareness advertising, like TV and billboards, is presumably coated separately. (I admit I wasn’t clear about that in my post but it was my intent)