The Baby Monitor Brand That Cut Its Search Budget by 80% and Grew
Owlet, the maker of FDA-cleared baby health monitors, cut its total marketing spend by 80% in 2023 to survive a financial crisis. Google search advertising was
"Word of mouth can sustain this brand. Google search may not be as vital as we once thought." — Owlet marketing team
Owlet, the maker of FDA-cleared baby health monitors, cut its total marketing spend by 80% in 2023 to survive a financial crisis. Google search advertising was among the first things to go. What happened next is worth paying attention to.
The brand did not crumble. It redirected spend to paid social, Reddit, influencer partnerships and parenting blogs. The algorithmic targeting on social platforms found expectant parents more effectively than keyword-intent matching in search. Demand held.
The Owlet case is not a verdict on search as a channel. It is evidence of channel fit. Search works when buyers know what they are looking for. Baby monitors sit in a category where product awareness is low and purchase timing is driven by life stage, not active search intent. Social met buyers where they were discovering the category, not after they had already decided to buy.
Why it matters
Channel allocation is a strategic decision, not a default setting. The tendency to treat Google search as the anchor of a performance marketing budget because it converts well ignores a more important question: is it finding incremental customers or harvesting ones already primed by other channels? Owlet's experiment, forced by financial necessity, produced evidence that search was doing more of the latter than anyone had realised.
Cut to Owlet's total marketing spend in 2023 that included switching off Google search ads entirely
What to do about it
Run a channel incrementality test before assuming search is driving your conversions net new. If your category has low awareness and purchase is triggered by life stage or circumstance rather than active search intent, the budget case for paid social, content and community may be stronger than your attribution model suggests. Attribution almost always credits search for conversions that other channels primed. Incrementality testing tells you what search is actually adding on top of everything else.