Digital Marketing Interview Questions and Answers

I would not choose on gut feel. I would decide using payback, intent and time horizon.

Paid search is fast and controllable but stops the moment spend stops. SEO compounds and can lower long run acquisition cost, but it takes months and is harder to attribute.

I would model both. For keywords with high commercial intent and proven conversion, paid often makes sense immediately, especially if payback is under a target such as twelve months. For informational, high volume topics where we have topical authority, SEO is usually the better long term investment.

I would run a small paid test to measure true conversion rate on a keyword cluster, then use that data to decide whether to invest in content for the same terms.

The answer is usually a portfolio: paid for demand capture now, SEO for demand generation later, reviewed quarterly.

ROI is the incremental profit attributable to a campaign divided by its cost. The hard part is the word incremental.

I start by agreeing on the metric that represents value, revenue, margin or pipeline, and the attribution window. Then I try to isolate the campaign's true effect. Where possible I use a holdout or geo test, because correlation between spend and sales is weak evidence.

I calculate fully loaded cost, including media, creative, tools and people, not just ad spend. For brand campaigns I use proxy measures such as branded search lift and assisted conversions, and I am honest that long term brand effects are measured over quarters, not weeks.

I report ROI with the assumptions and confidence level, and I compare against alternative uses of the budget. A campaign with a three times return is only good or bad relative to what else the money could do.