A recent study by Starcom MediaVest called Natural Born Clickers finds “a very small group of consumers who are not representative of the total US online population is accountable for the vast majority of display ad click-through behaviour.”
It also quantifies just 6% of the online population are heavy clickers which accounts for 50% of all display ad clicks.
While many online media companies use click through as an ad negotiation currency, it appears heavy clickers are not the true representatives of the online population.
“Further preliminary Starcom data suggests no correlation between display ad clicks and brand metrics, and show no connection between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked. The research presentation suggests that when digital campaigns have a branding objective, optimizing for high click rates does not necessarily improve campaign performance. “
This makes sense. It is fair to say that agencies have the tendency to fall on CTR and clicks to optimise and report campaign results. Clients demand accountability and ad servers delivers a tonne of insights on clicks. It is important to have objectives set out clearly whether the campaign is a Branding or Performance (Clicks) based exercise. We’ve known clicks do not translate to a successful brand campaign and as shown in the report that there was no connection between measured attitude towards a brand. What would be interesting is the measured brand shift from a banner branding campaign… what is the effective SOV% / importance of contextual relevance / creative cut through for an efficient brand shift?
“What would be interesting is the measured brand shift from a banner branding campaign… what is the effective SOV% / importance of contextual relevance / creative cut through for an efficient brand shift?”
There’s nothing stopping marketers doing this already - both Dynamic Logic and Neilsen have research tools that can do this and many have been done in the local market.
It’s positive to see studies like this coming out in terms of adding more voice to the fact click through is sometimes an irrelevant metric. I wouldn’t say that many agencies now fall back on CTR though … I think most have moved on.
by Ben on February 20th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Dynamic Logic is great for using banners to extend a branding campaign and has shown success in the past.
You’re right that it is good these studies are popping up for the industry to move beyond the click. Clients seek ROI in their media investment and without a brand metric study, clicks and impressions is the next obvious thing.
by dave on February 22nd, 2008 at 10:53 am