For so long now online advertisers have been focusing on getting the best return on investment from every keyword in their online campaigns. On the surface this seems like a perfectly logical process. The problem with this method is that it forces advertisers to optimise their campaigns according to last click attribution.
Last click attribution means that only the converting keyword gets any credit, where as some weighting should be applied to other keywords or advertising that may have impacted the user’s final decision. For example; appearing on a high volume generic keyword like ‘car insurance’ may not achieve the target CPA but may add value to brand exposure that encourages the user to convert at a later stage in the buying cycle. This not only applies to PPC, advertisers need to start realising the potential impact that other like activities offline, SEO and content advertising play in the success of your campaigns. The current last click approach is great if you wish to stay at your current volume with limited room for expansion but if you wish to grow then a new approach needs to be taken in which all marketing channels are used in partnership with each other to increase your brand exposure.
Unfortunately this approach is still in its development stages and all though a structured approach can see extreme growth, no one has devised a way that measures effectively what weighting should be applied to the different aspects of a marketing campaign. Some big players like Google and MSN are investing in technologies (Atlas and Dart) to try and track this engagement but the truth is that it may never be possible to devise a solution that provides a full insight because engagement relies not only on a user journey but individual thought processes.

Originally posted 2009-06-13 14:56:50.