I saw a posting on SEMGEEK.com asking the question of whether or not Web Analytics (WA) are hurting paid search. The first thing that popped in my head was another question. Are there really SEM providers or clients out there that are blindly launching SEM campaigns without WA or conversion tag tracking???

I can understand launching paid search without a WA platform if you have conversion tracking enabled via Google, Yahoo! or a ClickShift-type SEM tool and you're actively managing or at least monitoring your cost per conversion. Or on the other hand utilizing your WA platform to track and manage your search performance as well combined with the Google or Yahoo! data. But are there really companies out there throwing money at SEM without any inkling as to how it's performing?

Now I realize I'm jaded since I've been in the measurement and analysis business for a long time, but I'm continually baffled when I hear about companies conducting large scale marketing efforts with little or no knowledge of the performance or ROI. I definitely realize that some of the traditional advertising media are not as easily tracked or managed and that is largely how big agencies were able to stay in business. An example is a former client (that won't be named!) who was spending millions of dollars on direct mail and didn't have any response tracking let alone accurate accounting as to how many pieces they sent out and printed. Oh, how I wish I owned that mail house!!