This would be a cracker of a session Jenny!

I think Google gets far too much credit for the sales process and simply funneling more budget to search will likely deliver diminishing returns. Of course most companies still are woefully underutilising SEM so there are still low hanging fruit but beyonf that, it gets much harder.

The old approach of advertising your way to sales is no longer the silver bullet it once was. Attention fragmentation requires having a presence in more channels and connected marketplaces punish inauthentic spin.

Smart companies (i.e. Zappos) realise that every touchpoint is a marketing opportunity so they focus on developing a culture of customer service and empower everyone in the organisation to be a marketer in whatever channel/community they naturally participate in.

We are all in buisiness to help our customers solve their problems – we just seem to forget that a lot of the time. Allocating marketing budget to understanding what these problems are and then sincerely going about solving them is the long term approach that will keep those last clicks streaming in.

Anywas, attributing all ROI to the last SEM (or SEO) click is extremely short sighted as you are not considering any impacts of other channels (online and offline) on peoples search behaviour.

Search is often the last activity before purchase, but there are many tasks performed prior to that final search that businesses can influence. SEM ads are (usually) up against a stack of competitors ads (even on a brand search) so outside messaging will influence what the user clicks.

If Marketing budgets start getting cut next year, eventually you will get to a ceiling on your search budget if you stop everything else!