Navigating the Digital Marketing Landscape

Channels are usually compared on cost per acquisition, which flatters whichever one happens to sit closest to the purchase. A more useful comparison is what each channel is capable of teaching you.

Search tells you what people call it

Paid and organic search are the cheapest research you can buy. The queries are the vocabulary your customers actually use.

Everything else tells you whether they care

Social, display and lifecycle are worse at intent and better at reach. Judged on last-click they will always look poor, and judged on nothing at all they will always look expensive.