The media-modeling tool was kicked into high gear two years ago when Chad Jacoby, senior manager of Nissan's Business Intelligence Unit, used years of Nissan's consumer research to build a computer model comparing the relationship of each phase of their "purchase funnel"--from awareness to purchase consideration to a transaction--to the phase before it.
Our somewhat non-traditional, strategic use of SEM taught us that we could influence the purchase decision through the bid process by driving search down the funnel to known opportunities.
Brand advertising creates awareness, favorability and consideration at the top of the funnel, while search slightly overlaps with consideration and intent to purchase.