DMR #2: George Michie – How does attribution modeling impact paid search?

David Bain: How has pay-per-click search changed over the last few years? What is attribution modeling and how will attribution modeling impact paid search and SEO in the future? Those are just three of the questions that I'm going to be asking today's special guest, George Michie. George, welcome to DMR. George Michie: Thanks, David. It's great to be here. David Bain: Oh, great to have you here. Thank you very much for joining us. George is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Scientist at RKG, an industry leader in search and performance marketing. George is a member of Google's Performance Marketing Council and a longstanding contributor to Search Engine Land. Chief Marketing Scientist. That sounds interesting. George Michie: Yeah, it's a big title to live up to but ... I'll call it aspirational if nothing else. David Bain: It certainly intrigued me. What does it involve? What would you say your role involves in a daily basis? George Michie: I think our view is that marketing in general should be approached as a data-driven science. That we ought to apply testing methodology as you do in science. That we ought to judge performance based on metrics rather than based on strategic opinions that creative guys come up with. Creative is an incredibly important piece of marketing, but whether it works or not is something that data should determine, not the highest paid person in the room.