“Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand.” (David Ogilvy)

Search engine marketing (SEM) is usually measured along direct-response lines - conversions, purchases, signups, outcomes, page views, and so on. But a new school of thought is emerging - that branding and SEM are not mutually exclusive.

Branding work is cool. Its intangible makes it difficult to measure campaign success, it requires deep strategic thinking, budgets tend to be larger, and there’s no responsibility to directly drive sales. People involved in branding rarely consider SEM as an option.

Maybe they should:
- 41% of users gain awareness from online search results (DoubleClick, 2005)
- 27% of respondents are more likely to name a brand if it’s in the top spot on Google (IAB, 2006)
- Top listings have a significant upward lift on branding metrics, particularly with unaided awareness (IAB/Nielsen NetRatings, 2006)
- 60% of 3,000 respondents’ brand opinions were changed or enhanced as a result of searching (Dieringer Resource Group, 2005)

Proof that effective SEM builds brand. For those of you who still judge your campaigns by return on investment (ROI) metrics, it may be time to judge campaign effectiveness by different metrics.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 15th, 2006 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Search Engine Marketing, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.