Branding their way to the bank

A few days ago I was talking with an account rep from a large Australian media agency and he cited the example of a client of theirs who had just spent over $150,000 on a banner advertising campaign, and the rep was shocked that the client was complaining that they only had 30 trackable orders to show for their effort. The rep was going on and on about how the client just ‘didn’t get it’, and was ‘totally underestimating the branding’ and ‘brand equity’ they had built.

Now I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty upset if I’d just spent $150,000 and only received 30 orders. And the orders weren’t for Boeing 747s either. The average order value was about $60 !!! That’s a cost per acquisition of $5,000….

It seems to me that every time an agency runs a campaign that fails to deliver clicks or orders they turn around to the client and call the whole exercise ‘Branding’. It’s the catch all term that really is saying “your campaign failed and you basically have nothing to show for your spend”.

If ‘Branding’ doesn’t ultimately deliver clicks to your site, then it’s money poured down the drain. If you’re running a banner campaign and you don’t get clicks to your site, then your campaign has failed. Whatever the agency tries to tell you the proof is in the clicks and orders.

If you want to ‘brand’ just run a ppc campaign with a poorly worded ad. Your ad will appear and get you ‘brand exposure’ but you won’t have to pay much because no one will click on your ad. Pay per click is Branding for the frugal.

But the big agencies don’t want you to know all that because they want you to continue with $150,000 branding campaigns.