Topic
Every post on the Index about budget allocation.
Jerry questions media claims that Meta's faster ad growth over Google reflects a shift to chatbots, noting Google's paid search clicks rose 8%. Jerry advises reviewing organic traffic, Search Console, AI referrals, and conversion by source before moving budgets.
By Jerry West
Joel argues that marketers clinging to outdated metrics miss shifts in how people buy, and that comfort with familiar measures is costly. He points to an apparel brand whose last-click view hid the early influence of its social campaigns until multi-touch attribution revealed it.
By Joel Breen
Todd argues that dashboards report what happened instead of guiding decisions. Predictive metrics like Google's are a step forward, but they must work at the level of investment choices and model interactions across the whole marketing portfolio to guide budget allocation.
By Todd Kirk
Joel argues that media planning should move from static plans to adaptive systems where AI analyzes signals and reallocates budget live. Without a supporting culture and operating model, though, the tools go unused, so humans must still decide how aggressively to act.
By Joel Breen
Dahv argues that buyer behavior is now moving faster than old planning cycles, so waiting for certainty costs more than adjusting. Dahv's team tightened audience and creative pairing, moved budget to placements producing qualified actions, and shortened reporting loops to weekly.