Voices of Search Podcast

Episode: Will email marketing outperform paid search ROI over the next 12 months?

Date: October 28, 2025
Host: Tyson Stockton
Guest: Patrick McKenna, DMI Partners

Episode Overview

In this episode, Tyson Stockton hosts a focused, fast-paced lightning round discussion with Patrick McKenna from DMI Partners. They explore whether email marketing will deliver a stronger return on investment (ROI) than paid search channels over the next year. The conversation centers on ROI attribution, technology advances, and the critical factors that could tip the balance in favor of email marketing.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Will email marketing outperform paid search ROI?

• Patrick’s Position: Strongly believes email will significantly outperform paid search regarding ROI in the next 12 months.
• Rationale:
  • Challenging to build a model where email doesn't win on ROI due to its relatively low costs and high engagement.
  • Attribution is critical: assessing true costs and revenue from each channel is necessary.

Patrick McKenna [01:14]:
"Yeah, I mean, definitely email will outperform paid search ROI. It's not... I mean, there's obviously attribution work that needs to go into... the costs that you're attributing to email and the revenue that you're attributing to email. But in general, I think it would be extremely hard to develop a model where email marketing doesn't significantly outperform paid search on an ROI basis."

2. Will the ROI of email marketing continue to improve with technology over the next 12 months?

• Patrick’s Analysis:
  • The effectiveness of email relies on companies’ abilities to deliver personalized and timely content.
  • Technological advances (better data, messaging, targeting) will likely make it easier to reach consumers in their inboxes and drive engagement.
  • If brands continue to send the right message to the right person at the right time, performance will further improve.

Patrick McKenna [01:54]:
"There’s a layer of data that has to go into that too, which is like how, how effectively are companies able to get that message into the customer, into their inbox, that they're able to see it?... If we're getting that right message to the right person at the right point in time, that's going to be a message that that person is going to want to open."

Patrick McKenna [02:21]:
"So as long as that maintains true I think, yes, it will continue to get better. So I kind of hedged and then I answered, perfect."

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Direct Position:

  "Definitely email will outperform paid search ROI."
  — Patrick McKenna [01:14]

• On Technology and Content:

  "...as we're able to leverage better content...we're going to be more likely to get our messages into the inbox."
  — Patrick McKenna [01:59]

• Caveat on Data & Personalization:

  “If we're getting that right message to the right person at the right point in time, that's going to be a message that that person is going to want to open.”
  — Patrick McKenna [02:04]

Timestamps of Important Segments

• 00:43 – Introduction and explanation of the episode format (lightning round).
• 01:14 – Patrick McKenna stakes his position: email marketing will outperform paid search ROI.
• 01:38 – Discussion shifts to whether email marketing ROI will continue to improve with evolving tech and data.
• 01:54-02:21 – Patrick discusses the increasing importance of personalization, timing, and advancements that aid inbox delivery rates.

Summary

This episode delivers a clear, actionable takeaway: According to Patrick McKenna, email marketing will likely continue to outperform paid search regarding ROI in the coming year, provided brands can maintain effective personalization and leverage evolving technology. The conversation highlights the crucial importance of accurate attribution and the evolving landscape of data-driven content marketing.

Listeners can expect a concise but insightful debate, grounded in real-world experience and practical marketing realities, making this a valuable episode for anyone in digital marketing, email, or paid acquisition.