Channel Performance Comparison

We have run more than 100 Media Mix Models over the last year. If you aren't using MMM as part of your measurement approach then you are missing some crucial marketing insight. Understanding the incrementality of campaign performance is crucial, and it should be an always on part of your measurement (ie not a once a year test or MMM meeting.) While every brand performance is different there are some common themes that everyone should be able to learn from: • Paid Brand Search campaigns are typically lower than 10% incremental. So if you add a 0 to your adwords CPA it is more reflective of the true performance of these campaigns. • 40-70% of organic site traffic is driven by upper funnel marketing channels, this is usually the highest converting site traffic and it is usually driven by the channels which "aren't performance channels" (I hate this distinction..) • Influencer campaigns drive 85% of their value through indirect broadcast effects which are not measured through clicks and code redemptions. • Whitelisting assets outperform brand built assets by 30%, and show a stronger indirect uplift on organic channels. • YouTube activity significantly increases the ability to grow through search, with full funnel impact 12x stronger than shown on last touch metrics. • Channels such as Meta and TikTok frequently drive more revenue through Amazon and Retail than the DTC channels which they actually direct traffic to. • Brand Search and Retargeting channels show 4x stronger incrementality in new markets than in established markets, and are significantly more incremental during key promotional periods. • Demand generation channels show stronger synergy impact from new product content than demand conversion channels. Embedding these model learnings alongside your fast moving performance metrics allows brands to build a robust rounded measurement approach across all marketing levers.

After 10 years of running a business and growing the team, you'd think we'd have our core channel strategy perfected. We were wrong. And it took a hard look at the data to see it. Last December, our media mix was heavily skewed. We were spending nearly 90% of it on Meta and only 10% on Google. For years, we treated Google as a supporting channel. A bottom-of-the-funnel tool to just capture existing demand. Then, we had a Marketing Mix Model (MMM) done for one of our key brands. The results were an eye-opener. The team repeatedly told us that Google's overall impact was significant and that the channel was severely underutilized. So, since January, we've completely changed our approach. Here's what we did: 👉 Paused Brand Search campaigns for almost 90% of our brands. The goal was to stop paying for users who would have found us anyway. 👉 Aggressively scaled our Non-Brand search efforts, focusing on capturing new users at the point of intent. 👉 For 10% of our brand portfolio, we repositioned Google as the primary first-click acquisition channel, not just the last click. 👉 We went back to basics. We started reading more about Google from its own terms and policies to understand the system's logic, not just the marketers' assumptions. 👉 We significantly increased our investments on more sophisticated analytics to understand beyond surface level data. The shift is from treating channels in silos to understanding their real contribution to the business needle. It’s a humbling reminder that in performance marketing, your assumptions must always be challenged by data. Optimization isn't just about tweaking bids; it's about re-evaluating your entire channel strategy based on real output.

Google Ads YouTube vs. Performance Max (Which should you run and when?) 👇 1️⃣ Objective & Strategy → YouTube: Primarily for upper to mid-funnel goals, awareness, consideration, and engagement. Built for video-first storytelling. → Performance Max (PMax): Full-funnel, but conversion-optimized. Designed to drive sales/leads with maximum automation. 2️⃣ Placement Control → YouTube: Ads only appear on YouTube (in-stream, in-feed, shorts). Full control over formats and placements. → PMax: YouTube is just one of many placements. Ads also run across Search, Shopping, Display, Discover, Gmail, no placement control. 3️⃣ Targeting Capabilities → YouTube: Granular audience targeting, custom segments, detailed demographics, interests, and remarketing. → PMax: Limited targeting. Audience signals are used as guidance, but Google prioritizes real-time conversion signals. Less predictable delivery. 4️⃣ Creative Flexibility → YouTube Campaigns: Designed for video-first creatives. You choose the format, CTA, and video content. → PMax: Requires multiple asset types (video, image, headlines, descriptions). Google mixes and matches dynamically. 5️⃣ Optimization & Control → YouTube Campaigns: Manual bid strategies, audience testing, creative insights, more control, more testing required. → PMax: Heavily automated. Limited levers beyond creative and feed quality. Best performance when fed strong conversion data. 6️⃣ Best Use Cases → YouTube Campaigns: When brand storytelling, creative testing, and audience precision are critical, especially for new launches. → PMax: When you have conversion data, want to scale fast, and trust Google’s automation to find performance across channels. Use YouTube campaigns for precision storytelling and audience engagement. Use PMax when you’re ready to scale across the Google Ads ecosystem with automation-driven performance.

The world of marketing measurement is more fragmented than ever. More channels, more complexity, more fierce competition, especially on major platforms. Since announcing Halo, it’s clear the conversation around measurement is shifting fast. And after speaking with countless brands at Shoptalk this week one thing became crystal clear: we've tapped into a huge blind spot. Brands know diversifying their channels and leaning into Amazon for demand capture is key. But there's a big catch... Brands are missing a crucial piece of the puzzle: accurately measuring cross-channel impact from other DTC platforms. This gap leaves around $200 billion in potential revenue untapped (as Dom Devlin covers in this video) Here’s why it matters. 42% of Amazon sales are influenced by off-Amazon media. We've seen Unified ROAS (including Amazon sales) perform 45% better for upper-funnel campaigns than DTC-only metrics. Insights like these aren't just nice-to-have. They’re completely changing the game for measurement. On Monday, Fospha officially launches Halo. Here's exactly how it'll empower your marketing teams: > Measure Unified ROAS and the halo effect of campaigns across DTC, Amazon, and more > Make apples-to-apples comparisons of Amazon Sponsored Ads against channels like TikTok, Meta, Snap, and Google > Unlock daily, actionable insights on campaign performance, from the overall strategy right down to individual ads > Identify the channels creating the strongest halo effect so you can invest smarter and maximize Amazon sales, especially ahead of key events like Prime Day If you’re looking for that edge to dominate in today's fragmented market, this is it. Ready to see Halo in action? Scan the QR code at the end of the video or hit the link in the comments! 👇

Comparing DSP and PPC campaign performance isn't apples to apples. You need to compare the underlying STRATEGY of each to really unpack their performance. For example, if you look at ROAS in a vacuum without context, you could get the wrong impression. Your DSP campaign might have a ROAS of 10, but your PPC campaign only has a ROAS of 5. The simplistic analysis of this would be just to dump all your money into your DSP campaign. Why is this the wrong interpretation? Because your DSP campaign might be focused on loyalty, which traditionally has the highest return. Whereas your PPC efforts may be focused on winning top of search in a high volume, non-branded search. The return isn't as attractive here, but the revenue it drives is massive. Both are important advertising strategies, and you can't pull back drastically on one without compromising your overall performance. So, if you're going to compare the performance of DSP and PPC, try to look at the underlying strategies. #DSP #PPC #AmazonSellers #ChannelKeyLLC