Journal
When branded search distorts the channel story
In almost every attribution review we have run since settling in Turclossie, branded paid search occupies a peculiar seat: the growth lead does not want to switch it off, finance thinks it is ‘expensive for what it is’, and last-click makes it look like the engine of the company.
Isolation is the practical move. Report branded paid as its own line in every map. Do not bury it inside ‘search’. When capture is visible, the rest of paid search can be discussed like work rather than like a religious dispute.
Organic search and direct traffic will then look larger, which frightens teams who have been using last-click to defend social. Sit with that fright. Some of those orders were always walking in. Some were walked in by campaigns that never get the last click. The map should show both possibilities rather than picking a winner for comfort.
If you cannot join query-level files to outcomes, say so on the page. Pretending you have query-level attribution because a column exists in an export is how packs lose the room.
A mild operational habit helps: once a quarter, the growth team writes two sentences on what would happen if branded paid were halved for a fortnight. You do not have to run the test. You do have to notice whether anyone can describe the risk in plain English.