Monday
Jun212010
Two Metrics for Capturing More Value from Display Advertising
Monday, June 21, 2010 at 06:01AM
A common reason I hear from advertisers that are not using display advertising is “People don’t click on ads anymore.” Which – yes – clicks or in percentage terms, Click Through Rate (CTR%), has been down across the industry to a very low level of about .25%. But if a click were the only measure of value, then why does the industry continue to grow? Because there is more to the channel then clicks and measurement technology has evolved to provide advertiser's more confidence that their campaigns are working.
OK so what else is there? Engagement time and View Through Rate are two other metrics that can be used to measure value besides clicks. Engagement time is the measurement of interaction a consumer has with your ad. The obvious prerequisite is that you have an ad that can be interacted with, like a mini-game or product slideshow or “hover here to see more” type feature. This raises your level of ad production costs, but a well designed ad can see engagement times average 30 to 60 seconds. For brand advertisers, this is a very valuable piece of information that they can’t get through traditional media channels.
The other metric is View Through Rate. This metric is measured by using cookies and tracking pixels so it does involve a little set up time. What it measures is how many people who saw your ad, but did not click, ultimately show up on your web site through another channel or search engine. While not a perfect science of lead attribution, it does help add more data points to measure influence of a campaign beyond just clicks. You will be able to see what impact your banner advertising campaigns have on your other channels like email, paid search, and organic search.
Moving your thinking beyond clicks influences your ad design decisions and vendor choices. Adding view through rate and engagement time to your list of measurements will help make display advertising a more effective channel for you.
OK so what else is there? Engagement time and View Through Rate are two other metrics that can be used to measure value besides clicks. Engagement time is the measurement of interaction a consumer has with your ad. The obvious prerequisite is that you have an ad that can be interacted with, like a mini-game or product slideshow or “hover here to see more” type feature. This raises your level of ad production costs, but a well designed ad can see engagement times average 30 to 60 seconds. For brand advertisers, this is a very valuable piece of information that they can’t get through traditional media channels.
The other metric is View Through Rate. This metric is measured by using cookies and tracking pixels so it does involve a little set up time. What it measures is how many people who saw your ad, but did not click, ultimately show up on your web site through another channel or search engine. While not a perfect science of lead attribution, it does help add more data points to measure influence of a campaign beyond just clicks. You will be able to see what impact your banner advertising campaigns have on your other channels like email, paid search, and organic search.
Moving your thinking beyond clicks influences your ad design decisions and vendor choices. Adding view through rate and engagement time to your list of measurements will help make display advertising a more effective channel for you.
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