When online businesses expand their acquisition activity they experience diminishing returns from PPC, as they chase more and more generic search terms. 

They will then exploit affiliate marketing opportunities as well as social media. But again, these routes to market experience diminishing returns. 

If these businesses can increase their number of searches they can achieve greater scale… and if they can increase the proportion of brand searches versus generic searches…  they will incur lower search costs 

• Increase proportion of natural (free) searches
• Lower PPC costs 

TV (in the form of DRTV, direct response TV) has been shown to be the most effective offline channel for many of these businesses. 

DRTV generates immediate responses 

• Cost per Visit as low as £0.50, depending on the industry 

Visits can be measured on a TV spot-by-spot basis and optimised by programme in a similar way that PPC search terms can be optimised. 

But clients need a #DRTV commercial that efficiently drives a visit, and that requires a deep understanding of how creative should stimulate action, and not simply perishable brand name awareness. 

(with grateful thanks to our good friend Andy Sloan at All Response Media, London)