"The most important search engine is still the one in our minds."
That quote—from Jon Bradshaw, founder of the consultancy Brand Traction—is the most profoundly pithy idea I've heard in a long time. Let me unpack why.
The SEO Obsession
For twenty years, marketers have been obsessed with search engine optimization. How do we rank higher? How do we get more clicks? How do we dominate the SERPs?
And to be clear: SEO matters. If someone is actively searching for what you sell, you want to show up.
But here's the thing: most purchasing decisions don't start with a search. They start with a mental list of brands the buyer already knows and trusts. The search, when it happens, is often just validation of a decision already made.
Think about it: when you need new business software, do you start with a Google search? Or do you start with the brands you already know—the ones you've heard about from colleagues, seen in publications, or encountered at conferences?
Google optimizes for queries. But purchases are won before the query is typed.
Mental Availability
Researchers at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute call this "mental availability": the probability that a buyer will think of your brand in a buying situation.
High mental availability means when someone thinks "I need project management software," your brand is one of the first that comes to mind. Low mental availability means you're invisible until someone specifically searches for you—and by then, you're already at a disadvantage.
The research is clear: brands with higher mental availability grow faster. This is true in B2C. It's equally true in B2B, though the B2B marketing industry has been slower to accept it.
The Brain Engine Optimization Framework
So how do you optimize for the brain's search engine? Here are the principles:
1. Reach > Relevance
Contrary to hyper-targeting dogma, broad reach matters. You want future buyers to encounter your brand repeatedly before they're in-market. The 95% who aren't buying today are your target for brand building.
2. Distinctiveness > Differentiation
Don't try to be meaningfully different from competitors. Try to be easily recognized. Visual assets, sonic branding, consistent messaging—these create the memory structures that make your brand pop into mind when needed.
3. Consistency > Creativity
Boring consistency beats exciting inconsistency. Every campaign that looks different from the last is a missed opportunity to reinforce memory structures. Build brand assets and use them relentlessly.
4. Presence > Persuasion
Don't try to convince people to buy. Just make sure they know you exist and what you're for. When they're ready to buy, being top-of-mind is more valuable than any persuasive message.
Simulated Cohorts and Mental Availability
Here's how this connects to synthetic user research: one of the most valuable uses is understanding your mental availability across different customer segments.
When you interview synthetic personas about their category, pay attention to:
- Which brands come up unprompted?
- What triggers thoughts about your category?
- What associations are linked to your brand (and competitors)?
- What would make a persona think of you when they need a solution?
This research is hard to do at scale with real users—but synthetic personas can give you rapid insights across diverse segments.
The Takeaway
I'm not saying to abandon SEO. When buyers are actively searching, you want to be found.
But the brands that win don't just optimize for Google. They optimize for the brain. They build mental availability so that when a buyer thinks about the category, their brand is already at the top of the mental search results.
Stop chasing keywords. Start building memories.