On: What if performance advertising is just an analyti...

[bombcar]

This will work for someone like eBay (people searching eBay want eBay) but for other "brand-name" terms it may NOT work - people searching for Travelocity or whoever is the hotness there may be perfectly happy with the first "similar enough" link.

[colinmhayes → bombcar]

There's no way to know until they do an A/B test like eBay did I guess. EBay was certain that they needed to do the on brand ads before this economist showed up too.

[lazide → colinmhayes]

Even the eBay test can be misleading - if everyone sees competitor B anytime they search for eBay, eventually they are going to give it a try.

[tomrod → lazide]

This is untrue. A small proportion, but most people searching for something specific what that something that is specific.

If I search for a Dell computer, no way will I buy Apple.

Likewise if I use Bing to search for Chrome, no way will I download edge except for user error.

[bombcar → tomrod]

It's when the phrase is at or near generalization that it comes into play - someone searching for Kleenex likely doesn't care what tissue they find, and many people who Google Google would be happy to click Bing if it popped up first.

"Dominos" might be one where people wouldn't mind ordering from Pizza Hut as they're using it as a generic term for pizza.

[tomrod → bombcar]

I'm quite certain brand confusion is entirely the result of a poor advertising system that allows it.

[colinmhayes → lazide]

They talked about this on the 2 hour long podcast. It was actually pretty funny too, I'd recommend it.

[bombcar → colinmhayes]

A/B for E/Bay. Hmm.