Paid search and brand marketing need to combine forces

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Marketers love paid search activity (also known as performance marketing) as it’s easy to measure your return on investment (ROI) and makes it simpler to identify campaigns that work, and those that don’t. Whether it’s through native advertising, social media advertising, sponsored advertising or affiliate marketing, brands can link spending to an action such as a lead, sale or click.

Brands tend towards paid search marketing using platforms such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook as it offers a cost-effective way to target the right customers. The surge in online traffic during phone list Covid-19 meant that more brands turned to online channels to engage with customers. This created a competitive environment and forced many marketing teams to reevaluate how to get the most return for their budgets. After all, global spending on advertising according to Statista is set to reach $790 billion in 2022.

A huge shift in consumer behavior as a result of the pandemic has been a need for brands to demonstrate humanity and trust, according to Deloitte’s Human Values Compass. Customers now want to know more about the companies they buy from and what they stand for which feeds into a need for heightened brand awareness. This has become particularly important for social issues as consumers become more conscious of buying from brands that have a social conscience and want to make the world a better place.

In a bold move, Airbnb shifted its budget away from paid search marketing to focus on brand marketing, particularly PR. This shift was due to their obvious need (as a travel brand) to slash spending during Covid-19, but what they noticed during this time was that their website traffic levels bounced back to 95% of pre-Covid 2019 levels without any marketing spend.