Digital marketers have gotten used to a world of dashboards, attribution windows, and conversion reports that make it feel like every dollar has a neat explanation attached to it. Then you start investing in channels like display, video, CTV, audio, influencer partnerships, sponsorships, upper-funnel social, or broader awareness campaigns, and suddenly things become uncomfortable. The neat lines disappear. The reality is that less-trackable channels require a different mind

Cheese is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the name, “cheeseburger.” It’s a small part of the overall product. The bun, the meat, the toppings, how it’s cooked, that’s what actually makes it good. But none of that gets called out. The cheese gets top billing. To be fair, it matters. Take it away, and something feels off, but no one would argue that the cheese is the reason the burger works. Search plays a similar role in a lot of marketing programs.