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003: Brand-defense Search launches in 6 markets: Niagara Falls CA, Toronto, Niagara Falls USA, Austin, Halifax, San Antonio

  • Date: 2026-08-30
  • Decider: engine proposal (Claude, from the v1 build plan), pending Daud approval before any campaign goes live
  • Status: proposed
  • Review by: 2026-11-30 (one quarter after launch)

Decision

One national pure-brand exact-match campaign plus six market campaigns (brand + market terms), Target Impression Share 90-95 percent, $50-150/month per market, AI Max off, "Book Direct, No Booking Fees" copy. Specs in docs/marketing/campaigns/brand-defense/.

Evidence

  • Market ranking from live CMS product counts (fetched 2026-08-30): Niagara Falls CA 72, Toronto 69, Niagara Falls USA 24, Austin 20, Halifax 18, New York 16, San Antonio 14.
  • San Antonio outranks New York despite fewer products because it is the only non-Niagara market with a dedicated paid landing page in app/(ad)/, meaning active paid spend is already creating brand searches there worth defending. New York is the named first expansion.
  • Caveat recorded: product count is a supply proxy, not demand. Booking volume per city should confirm the ordering before launch; the human approval gate covers this.
  • Campaign spec parameters from docs/research/marketing/google-youtube.md:46,72 (TIS 90-95 percent, $50-150/month, AI Max underperforms on brand: 35 percent lower ROAS, $100.37 vs $43.97 CPA in the cited comparison; OTA conquesting leakage ~$7,500/year for a ~300-booking/month operator).

Predicted effect

Exact-brand impression share reaches 90 percent+ in all six markets within 4 weeks of launch at a total spend of $300-900/month, and branded CPC stays under $1.50. Success is defended bookings, not ROAS: the monthly cannibalization audit should show OTA ads pushed below the fold on our brand queries in those markets.

Measured effect

(pending)