{"id":103081,"date":"2018-08-16T02:04:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T07:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/multi-touch-attribution-whats-the-real-value-of-branded-sem\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:41:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:41:21","slug":"multi-touch-attribution-whats-the-real-value-of-branded-sem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/search-optimization\/multi-touch-attribution-whats-the-real-value-of-branded-sem\/","title":{"rendered":"Multi-Touch Attribution: What\u2019s the Real Value of Branded SEM?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Savvy clients are always asking us questions like, \u201cWhat\u2019s the real value of branded SEM<\/a>? How do I know I\u2019m not just paying for clicks I\u2019d get organically anyway?\u201d These questions have been around for a long time, but improvements in multi-touch attribution technology are more recently beginning to provide better answers.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, there are three reasons to run branded search:<\/p>\n

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  1. To keep competitors out of the top spot when they bid on your branded keywords<\/li>\n
  2. To help make up for any shortcomings in your organic search presence<\/li>\n
  3. To take advantage of ad extensions that are unique to paid placements (click-to-call is an especially important one for businesses interested in telephone leads)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If your competitors are not bidding on your name, and you\u2019re doing a pretty good job with Search Engine Optimisation<\/a>, then running branded paid search may not provide as much \u201cincremental\u201d value as it does \u201cattributed\u201d value, and may not actually be the best use of your media dollars.<\/p>\n

    When we talk about \u201cincremental\u201d conversions, we mean the ones that wouldn\u2019t have happened without the influence of a given media touchpoint. \u201cAttributed\u201d conversions, on the other hand, are ones that get counted toward a touchpoint based on the attribution model (typically last-click). In many cases, conversions that are attributed to branded search are actually the result of some other media channel (maybe even an offline one) introducing the customer to your brand.<\/p>\n

    For example, if someone sees my TV ad for Cooney\u2019s Hamster Breeding, and then goes online to search \u201cCooney\u2019s hamsters\u201d and clicks on the paid ad at the top of the results page, branded SEM gets the credit in a last-click model.<\/p>\n

    What is multi-touch attribution?<\/h2>\n

    Multi-touch attribution begins to solve this problem by looking at all measurable media touchpoints, using algorithms to figure out which ones are the most important and assigning fractional credit to them (multiple media touchpoints get partial credit for the same conversion). A number of technology vendors offer multi-touch attribution solutions, and the most sophisticated ones can report on the value of television broadcasting by ingesting TV logs and calculating when a corresponding lift in digital response occurred in the markets at the times when the TV ads ran.<\/p>\n

    Multi-touch attribution models tend to shift credit away<\/em> from branded search and allow marketers to more correctly value media touchpoints that generate initial brand awareness. When we implement these solutions for clients, it is common for us to see that only about 30-50% of conversions previously attributed to branded SEM are truly incremental for that channel. However, because the cost of an incremental branded search conversion is still so low, it typically makes sense to continue funding.<\/p>\n

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