The $113,000 paid search test: How much traffic did organic replace?

Why it matters

A 13-week controlled experiment pausing branded paid search found organic recaptured 65% of the paid-attributed revenue at zero acquisition cost, while running paid was mostly defending clicks organic would have earned anyway. It's a rare, real budget-scale test of a question most teams only argue about anecdotally. Directly useful evidence for anyone building the case to reallocate branded paid-search budget toward organic or content investment.