Putting advertising efficacy’s new focus on search data into practice

Examines the role of search volume as an indicator of sales, and what it means for advertising strategy.

Recently, James Hankins and Les Binet have lit a fire under the established notion that advertising spend is the number-one leading indicator of sales marketers ought to be considering.

As SOV data becomes increasingly questionable, it appears the volume of search for one brand versus another may be a viable alternative for predicting sales.

Disappointingly, the debate Hankins and Binet prompted this autumn has quickly polarised around whether this observation is universally true or not.

What is clear is that for somebrands, a change in search volume for the brand does precede a change...

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