It pays to go beyond the last word when advertising using Google AdWords
As search advertising gains share in advertising budgets, the decision on which keywords to bid on has gained in importance among marketers - both big and small. An often debated question is: Should marketers prioritize advertising on the last keyword or the first keyword that a customer searched that led to clicks and sales? There is no obvious answer to the question. While last touched keywords attract customers who know what they want, first touch keywords help bring in customers who are beginning to explore the category. A forthcoming article in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science compares advertising strategies based on last touch and first touch keyword effectiveness metrics and finds that while the return on investment (ROI) of a last touch strategy is 5 percent more than a first touch strategy, a strategy based on weighting the two metrics improves ROI by another 5 percent.