In response to MediaPost’s Steve Baldwin’s piece ”Is Search An ‘Ugly Cousin’ With a Rusty Collecting Pan?...“

“I don’t disagree with Mr. Baldwin’s judo analogy and the reality of how search works… but I disagree with the grain of salt approach to conversion attribution.

We are not trying to say to cut search spending necessarily. We are saying that it’s vital to understand the interrelationship—and interdependence—of the various parts of your marketing mix in order to understand what drives positive behaviors.

The problem in today’s world is that since search is often getting credit for single-handedly driving conversions, the first place marketers look when cutting back is display and other programs; however, if they cut those programs without knowledge of how it might affect search, they could well end up showing up for the harvest with nothing to reap… because they hadn’t done enough/any planting and weeding. No one is saying abandon or dramatically scale back search—just that search is one component of an overall (hopefully) integrated plan.”

John Ardis
VP, Corporate Strategy
ValueClick, Inc.