On Monday AdWeek published an article pondering the question - ‘Does Search Get Too Much Credit’. The article discussed the rising popularity of search engine marketing, how it relates to larger branding initiatives, and the tendency of marketers to apply too much credit to the “last click” leading to a sale or conversion.

From the article:

…if you go upstream from (search) clicks, a lot of users have been to the advertiser web site before because they’ve been exposed to other advertising…

This article couldn’t have come at a better time. Search marketing budgets everywhere are expanding and more organizations are devoting resources to the interactive space. It’s nice to see that a leading publication such as Adweek is taking notice, and their commentary on the last click debate sheds
light onto an increasingly complex scenario - who gets the credit for success?

The idea of a last click is something that makes offline advertisers pull their hair out and online advertisers crack open a bottle of bubbly. If a conversion is generated through a specific piece of online media, the digital group has typically been quick to capitalize on that success. Yet if an advertising campaign is engaging in multi-channel distribution it’s easy to see how the last click may have been the penultimate in the buying cycle, but it may not have been the one to initially engage the customer.

For too long the debate has focused on after-the-fact accountability - who’s to blame for something not working and who gets credit when it does. Though Adweek points out agencies such as Avenue A/Razorfish who typically only apply 60% of the credit to the last click and the rest to prior initiatives, it still doesn’t answer the question of who is ultimately responsible.

Some would argue that the solution is to only count certain search campaigns as being 100% responsible for the conversion. Others, like Avenue A, will say that only a percentage of those campaigns are responsible. And still others will say that all online transactions are being driven by offline media, or vice versa.

But if any of these solutions worked, why is the argument still raging?

The idea of “credit” as it is presented here is at odds with today’s online audience. Web users no longer behave in a linear fashion. They move in and out of digital spaces with fluidity and ease.

The once clear distinctions between offline and online activies have now been replaced by seamless transitions as audiences flow from terrestrial to digital and back.

The current approach to “who gets the credit” is rooted in linear measurement. It presumes that individual stakeholders will be responsible for success or failure. It supports the methodologies of design, strategy, and distribution taking place within distinct silos apart from each other.

This model is wrong. In today’s web experience no single group is responsible for the outcome of an advertising campaign. They all are.

Instead of asking “who gets the credit”, shouldn’t marketers be figuring out why they’re still trying to slice up the pie?