Fun Stuff
Bing Bong We Gatch Yer Bannerz
Psst!
Hey you.
Yeah, You. That brand that is beholden to terrible interactive media buying and pointless bannerdom.
Right...YOU.
The one who gets giddy with excitement at your last .064 CTR.
It is time to go. Now. Read this.
Better yet. Skip that. Read THIS.
Still not getting the picture? Howzabout this:
A study released Tuesday found that about half of all clicks on display ads were by a tiny, non-representative, and economically unattractive group of Web users. These "natural-born clickers," according to the study by ad agency Starcom USA, Web analytics firm Tacoda, and digital audience measurement firm comScore, comprise a 6% slice of the population that is between 25 and 44 years old and in households with income of less than $40,000 a year.
Don't get us wrong, we measure 2x and cut once and all that. We'll even do a banner or two every now and again. Especially if it brings a valuable experience with it. But banners are definitly moving into more of a supporting role. And if they are - how's that going to help you if a less than generally less than desireable target is the only person you're attracting?
Comments
philmang : Sunday, 02 March 2008
i like the “natural born clickers” bit… I also marvel at the fact that i’ve seen rich media campaigns come in with a 13% CTR due (in my opinion) to extreme targeting and audience relevance, and yet most campaigns don’t bother to target or include relevant content. perhaps the reason that only these clickers notice them, and drive that whopping .64% CTR.
chris : Sunday, 02 March 2008
Too much an over generalization. 1. The effectiveness of advertising is not purely measured by clicks. That’s the same as claiming the effectiveness of a print ad is measured by seeing how many call a 1-800 number after seeing the ad. There definitely is enough proof out there that shows the positive branding effect (and subsequent latent behavior) of banner ads. 2. Not all clicks are created equal. With strategic placement, coupled with carefully drafted messaging, you can (and I have) generate a considerable number of qualified clicks, that drove lower funnel activities.
tom : Sunday, 02 March 2008
Hey Chris! Good points for sure. We’d love to see some of the work you have done that drives lower funnel activities. Where do you fall on the “experience banner vs. message banner” debate?
seth : Sunday, 02 March 2008
Saw a study on something interesting that relates to this discussion. An experiment was run with these two media placement scenarios using the same total budget for banner concepts, production and placement: (A) brand creates campaign messaging and employs a barrage of rich-media and animated banners in high profile placements. (B) brand buys the maximum amount of leftover, non-premium banner ad space and displays only static GIF’s of their logo. No messaging. No Animation. The study showed that the static logos with no message or experience of scenario (B) returned more clicks. Will try and dig up the link….
seth : Sunday, 02 March 2008
Actually it wasn’t measuring clicks, i think it was measuring recall.
chris : Sunday, 02 March 2008
Hi Tom, I work in the consumer electronics category - very little product differentiation, extreme consumer confusion, long and involved research process (predominately online). There are probably 4~5 key touchpoints (or gateways) that consumers generally go through on his ultimate path to purchase. Moving away from the traditional approach of place banners -> build-microsite-they-will-come, we decided to build and invest a portion of our marketing into these key touchpoints, with the sole goal of driving leads and consideration (active research of our brand). Key tool behind this…the simple contextually relevant banner. The result - 38% increase in leads over previous year, 36% increase in consideration. More importantly by understanding the nature of the business, by driving consideration, we were able to get our brand on CNet’s most popular list that in term got syndicated to NY times, WSJ, and a myriad of other media. Free (and non advertising driven media worth millions). Banners if used correctly still work. They may not be sexy (like gps devices on cows) but they still solve marketing problems and provide solutions to clients. But they need to be carefully placed and monitored. Regarding the experience vs messaging banner. I must say it depends on what the objective and parameters of the marketing problem is.
chris : Sunday, 02 March 2008
Hi Tom, I work in the consumer electronics category - very little product differentiation, extreme consumer confusion, long and involved research process (predominately online). There are probably 4~5 key touchpoints (or gateways) that consumers generally go through on his ultimate path to purchase. Moving away from the traditional approach of place banners -> build-microsite-they-will-come, we decided to build and invest a portion of our marketing into these key touchpoints, with the sole goal of driving leads and consideration (active research of our brand). Key tool behind this…the simple contextually relevant banner. The result - 38% increase in leads over previous year, 36% increase in consideration. More importantly by understanding the nature of the business, by driving consideration, we were able to get our brand on CNet’s most popular list that in term got syndicated to NY times, WSJ, and a myriad of other media. Free (and non advertising driven media worth millions). Banners if used correctly still work. They may not be sexy (like gps devices on cows) but they still solve marketing problems and provide solutions to clients. But they need to be carefully placed and monitored. Regarding the experience vs messaging banner. I must say it depends on what the objective and parameters of the marketing problem is.
See-ming Lee : Friday, 25 April 2008
I read about that report, too, however, consider this: those natural-born clickers in 5-10 years would probably become your target audience. (where were you 5-10 years ago?) I'm wandering into the direction of thinking, well, maybe banner ads can be good for long-term brand building, instead of what they do now: short-term gains. It's a little bit far-fetched but long-running campaigns such as the MasterCard priceless ads have proven that there is something to be said about building brand value over time. Cheers, SML