Brand vs. Performance.
The hottest debate in marketing is coming to an end.
In the 2010s, we lived in the golden age of performance marketing.
Google and Facebook sold us a perfect dream:
- Invest $1. Get $5 back.
- Track every single user journey, from ad click to purchase.
It worked. For a while.
Until two asteroids hit the marketing planet:
1. Privacy killed the cookie 🍪
-> GDPR and browsers like Safari blocked third-party cookies.
The bridge between ad click and purchase started to collapse.
2. AI broke the funnel
-> “Upper funnel" discovery now happens in ChatGPT or AI Overviews.
These conversations are critical for purchase decisions. But they generate zero clicks.
Think about it.
Users discover your brand by talking to ChatGPT, and then visit your site directly to complete a sale. Which ad brought the sale? Impossible to tell.
So, what now?
A landmark study by WARC found that when brand and performance activities merge, they multiply ROAS and sales, both short and long term.
Whether we like it or not, the tech giants are already forcing us there.
Look at Google Performance Max or Demand Gen.
They are AI engines designed to optimise results across the entire user journey.
With or without clicks.
AI is solving the problem that AI created 😅
So,
No more Brand vs. Performance.
Now it’s Brand x Performance x AI.
Are you in?
