Search marketing is one of the most accountable advertising mediums ever created. Advertisers pay only for clicks from users who are explicitly looking for specific products, services or information. Those clicks can all be tracked to the exact keyword that the user entered. And the users can be tracked to conversion. Seems like a closed loop, right?
Wrong. Eighty to ninety percent of the conversions, in some verticals, that are generated by search cannot be tracked. They happen offline, where the user goes after researching online or looking up a store address. Or they happen after a tracking cookie expires or is cleared by the user.
So, yes: search addresses Wanamaker's axiom: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." But it introduces another vexing challenge for search marketers, and thus my Corollary to Wanamaker's First Law of Advertising Accountability:
I know half the value I'm driving from advertising (even in search) is untracked, there's just no easy way to track it!
Some additional thoughts on this topic as they pertain to local and mobile advertising, in my presentation from SMX Local in Denver. (Christine's reference to Wanamaker in her presentation triggered this thought for me. Thanks Christine!)
