Watch: Should you go all-in on brand marketing now?

On Friday, I moderated our latest Live with Search Engine Land discussion on brand vs. performance marketing during COVID-19. We debated whether marketers should be focusing more on top-of-funnel awareness campaigns and less on the bottom-of-the-funnel during this tumultuous period.

The panel featured:

• Chris Kelly, CEO of Survata.
• Amy Bishop, Owner Cultivative
• Michelle Morgan, Director of Client Services, Clix Marketing

With reduced budgets and pressure to justify spend and hit sales targets, marketers often default to “more measurable,” performance-based campaigns. Brand campaigns are seen as softer and less measurable than bottom-of-the-funnel tactics. Our experts discussed why abandoning the top of the funnel would be a mistake.

We also talked about which channels were performing well right now, how to measure top of funnel campaigns, connecting brand and performance marketing, messaging tone and how to proceed as local economies begin to “reopen.”

Watch it here on Search Engine Land or on our YouTube channel.

We at Search Engine Land know there is so much uncertainty now in our community, and we hope this series of live discussions, presentations, tutorials and meetups help everyone stay sharp and up to date on tactics and best practices. We do not plan to gate these sessions. This isn’t about leads for us. This is about giving great marketers a platform to inform, support and convene our global community at a time when so much is up in the air, including livelihoods. If you have an idea for a session or would like to join a panel, email our VP of Content Henry Powderly.

And check out our previews chat (on content) below.