E054 - Paid Search 101 (For Lenders) - With Ross Cohen, Former COO (Field Productivity) at New York Life

Search is often just 10% of a lender's marketing mix — but Ross Cohen makes the case that it's the most powerful channel for experimentation and the best "shock absorber" when direct mail or affiliates come up short.

Ross, an advisory partner at Arica Consulting with 20+ years running search across Capital One, New York Life, FrontPoint, and Greenlight, has evaluated search agencies from every angle — client, operator, founder, and agency owner. In this deep-dive with Carlos, he shares the exact questions a non-technical CMO can ask to separate the pros from the pretenders.

We cover:

Why quality score and the keyword vs. search term gap drive everything

The branded/unbranded commingling trap that hides massive unbranded overspend

Why optimizing to CPL instead of CPA is the single most common mistakes agencies make

Reading the change log, auditing Google's auto-recommendations, and the marginal vs. average CAC test

How to start from scratch: build an MVP account, one landing page, a few keywords

This conversation is practical, in-the-weeds, and refreshingly honest.

Find Ross at recohen.com or on LinkedIn

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Come meet Carlos in San Francisco!