What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
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Re: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
#2> Technically, when someone does a Google search for “Williams Sonoma Cast Iron Skillet,” they probably would have clicked on one of the first 10 organic results, EVERY ONE OF WHICH leads to their website. But, y’know what ol’ Billy Ma’s performance marketers couldn’t then do: prove their value to their bosses.
> [picture of that search term and williams sonoma ads with shopping links]
The main problem here is that if Williams Sonoma was not advertising on that search term, Lodge and Food52 etc etc would, and then those companies would be above the Williams Sonoma organic placements.
The spend is necessary in a defensive way because Google creates a bidding war even for the hyper relevant.
edit: I just checked and if you search "williams sonoma skillet", if WS was not paying for [green] then the very first "result" (ad) would be Food52 [red] https://imgur.com/a/9Nnxs6h
I just tried "airbnb paris" and the first result is, somewhat predictably, an ad that is not airbnb. But the second one is also an ad, this time from airbnb. So they clearly didn't keep their spend dialed down to zero, and are aware of the need to advertise on their own keyword.
Re: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
#3[deleted]
Re: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
#4AirBnB has such good brand awareness that it’s not surprising they don’t need to advertise very much anymore”. On the other hand, advertising might be a pretty good investment for their competitors, like VRBO.
Re: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
#5It's weird that Rand Fishkin has been in the marketing space for so long, but somehow hasn't encountered a single effective performance marketing team that measures their spend well and complements the efforts of SEO and social media marketers (like Rand).
Hard not to see this as a clumsy sales pitch for his company, especially when it starts with such a disingenuous example/quote (of course AirBnb didn't have to spend on performance marketing during a global pandemic where everybody was suddenly looking for a getaway...)
Re: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
#6> Technically, when someone does a Google search for “Williams Sonoma Cast Iron Skillet,” they probably would have clicked on one of the first 10 organic results, EVERY ONE OF WHICH leads to their website. But, y’know what ol’ Billy Ma’s performance marketers couldn’t then do: prove their value to their bosses. > [picture of that search term and williams sonoma ads with shopping links] The main problem here is that i…
Defensive spending to protect otherwise organic traffic could also be called extortion.
Re: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
#7> Technically, when someone does a Google search for “Williams Sonoma Cast Iron Skillet,” they probably would have clicked on one of the first 10 organic results, EVERY ONE OF WHICH leads to their website. But, y’know what ol’ Billy Ma’s performance marketers couldn’t then do: prove their value to their bosses. > [picture of that search term and williams sonoma ads with shopping links] The main problem here is that i…
> if Williams Sonoma was not advertising on that search term, Lodge and Food52 etc etc would
If I as a customer am using such specific search terms, then I would assume that my intention is to find and possibly buy this specific product. The results of other brands might be annoying, but why should I click on them? The relevant results are still displayed on the first page.
Re: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
#8It's well known that the self reported performance numbers from Google Ads and Facebook Ads are inflated, however those ad channels still do drive real value. I run an ecommerce marketing attribution company (ThoughtMetric) so I have first hand knowledge and data about this subject.
The most common source of inflation in Google/FB self reported performance numbers is multiple ad channels taking credit for the same order. If a customer clicks a Google ad then clicks a Facebook Ad then makes a purchase, each ad channel will claim credit for that purchase. In reality each ad platform only has claim to ~50% of the purchase (depending on what attribution algorithm you want to use).
In terms of knowing that real value is produced from these ad channels, I see it every day in many of our customers data. Clients will increase or decrease ad spend and there will be a correlated increase/decrease in sales.
tldr; Google/Facebook ads over report their numbers but do ultimately drive sales according to the data I have first hand access to.
Re: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
#9No, advertising is not a scam.
It's only a scam if you pay for the visitors that would have come anyway (buying your own keywords, and also retargeting/remarketing in most situation).
Re: What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?
#10The example given in the article of the planner ads isn't a good one. The author is trying to make the argument that performance marketing mostly unfairly takes credit for sales that would have happened away, but this particular sale, even if it had happened, would have been unlikely to have gone to the specific brand that was advertising. If they hadn't placed that ad, they wouldn't have made that revenue. Some other planner company would have.
(If you have a near-monopoly on planners, of course, such an ad would indeed have been a waste. The author would have come to you by default once he decided to get a planner. )