Brand Demand Scan · PE Portfolio Engagement
Your portfolio companies
should not pay for searches
they already own
Brand Demand Scan reads each portfolio company's Search Console export. A company owns a search when its site already appears at the top of the organic results for it. The scan shows which searches the company owns, so paid advertising can leave them out, and how much of its demand leaks to competitors.
Request a scan → Quantified in EBITDA and IRR terms. Structured across 90 days.The mechanism
Paid search can buy the searches a company already owns
When a buyer searches for a portfolio company's product or name, the company's site can appear at the top of the organic results. If the company also bids on that search, it pays for a visit that its organic result was already positioned to receive.
An attribution report records the paid result as a paid conversion, so the budget appears to justify itself. No report shows which of those searches the company already owned.
Brand Demand Scan lists the searches the company owns in organic results, and paid advertising can leave those out. The paid saving is confirmed at the RoI² level, where the scan findings are combined with the company's media data.
A paid search the company already owns is a cost with an organic alternative. The scan shows which searches those are.
The scan reports three measures from the same export: Brand Demand Capture, Demand Leakage and Untapped Potential. The 90-day engagement states the result in EBITDA and IRR terms.
What the scan reports
The scan reports three measures from one export
All three measures come from the same Search Console export. They show where the company's demand comes from, where its demand leaks and where it can grow.
Brand Demand Capture
The share of the demand the company captures that comes from searches for its name. A high figure means the company depends on buyers who already know it. The scan reads it together with the other two measures to show whether that is strength or dependence.
Demand Leakage
The share of the company's demand that leaks to competitors. The scan shows in which searches the leakage occurs. The cause is content that does not answer what buyers searched for.
Untapped Potential
The share of the company's growth potential that is in category searches, where buyers do not know the company yet.
Portfolio context
Demand decides whether
the growth thesis holds
In a 100-day plan, the standard question is whether the growth thesis is achievable given the company's current demand position. Brand Demand Scan answers that question from the demand side: where the company's demand comes from, how much of its demand leaks and where it can grow.
Each scan gives a baseline before capital is allocated. A falling Demand Leakage between two scans means less of the company's demand leaks to competitors. A rising figure means more.
The baseline also separates two kinds of problem. A problem in demand, such as content that does not answer what buyers search for, is solved through content. A problem in execution, such as slow handling of the buyers who do arrive, is solved elsewhere, on a different timeline and with different capital.
Who this is for
PE operating partner conducting commercial assessment of a portfolio company's demand position during the value creation phase.
Portfolio company CEO or CFO who needs a baseline measurement of demand before committing to a growth investment programme.
Operating partner who has identified a discrepancy between reported funnel performance and commercial output, and requires a structural explanation.
Investment team conducting pre-deal commercial due diligence where the growth thesis is predicated on category expansion.
Engagement structure
Three scans over 90 days state the result in EBITDA terms
The portfolio engagement delivers three Brand Demand Scans at 30-day intervals. Each scan reports all three measures, so the movement can be tracked against the baseline set at scan one.
- The company's demand mapped from its Search Console export
- Brand Demand Capture, Demand Leakage and Untapped Potential measured
- The searches the company owns identified
- Corrections ranked by the size of the leakage they address
- Movement of all three measures against the baseline
- Change in leakage by search
- The searches the company owns updated for paid advertising
- Progress of the corrections confirmed
- Movement of all three measures since scan one
- Paid saving quantified at the RoI² level with the company's media data
- Board-ready summary in EBITDA terms
- Ongoing engagement agreed
Request a scan
The first step is a
30-minute fit assessment
There is no presentation and no sales process. The output is a commercial decision. Engagement enquiries are handled by the RoI² team.
Open an enquiry →All enquiries are responded to within one business day.