Last click strikes back: Bupa, Pet Circle marketers say inflation, cost cuts will push CMOs, brands down funnel – so brace for search-social price spikes, but here’s how to protect budgets

Last click attribution is back. Tightening wallets, soaring inflation and a VC focus on profitability over growth is prompting a return to the metric, which Pet Circle CMO Jon Wild reckons is the least bad of a range of “horribly flawed” attribution options. Pet Circle has 800,000 active customers and revenues in the hundreds of millions. “For far too long, I think our industry has been peddling reach and frequency and brand consideration,” Wild says. “These metrics are very hard to put in a spreadsheet.” And they don’t satisfy the C-suite when staring at one of the biggest lines in a P&L. Bupa’s performance chief, Clea Baker, says prices are due to jump in search and social – but she’s investing in media mix solutions to protect brand spend on the increasingly rocky road ahead. Atomic212’s James Dixon and Rory Heffernan outline how marketers can start sandbagging against rising waters of cost cuts.

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