DoubleClick: Q1 2004 Ads Richer, Engaging

Rich media and click-throughs are on the rise while banner ads have lost some of their popularity. This according to DoubleClick’s first ad serving numbers of 2004.

The data comes from the 231.9 billion ads that DoubleClick served during Q1 2004, a 69 percent year-over-year increase. The company also tapped data from DART Motif – the joint rich media solution from DoubleClick and Macromedia.

Rich media accounted for nearly 43 percent of all ads served by DoubleClick in Q1 2004, marking a 54 percent increase from Q1 2003. Rich media, which includes ads created with Macromedia’s Flash technology, garners click-through rates of nearly four times that of non-rich media (0.98 percent as compared to 0.25 percent).

The Q1 2004 Ad Serving Trend Report reveals for the first time the way in which consumers are interacting with the Motif rich media ads, though the company acknowledges its figures are based on only “several million impressions” worth of data. The company found that on average 18.4 percent of Motif units engage interaction. Motif floating ads resulted in a 28.8 percent interaction rate, followed by Motif banner (15.5 percent), and Motif expanding (14.0 percent).

Motif units are typically displayed for 85 seconds, and the average interaction time is 30 seconds, according to the data. Included among the DART Motif qualifications for interaction are users clicking to additional layers of content, mousing or rolling over the unit, playing a game, or closing the viewing window.

Average click-through rates for all ads served by both advertisers and publishers rebounded from a low of 0.44 percent in Q4 2003 to 0.56 percent in Q1 2004. DoubleClick had attributed the 2003 fourth quarter decline to an increase in ad-serving volume.

Generating the highest click-through rate was the 728 x 60 pixel ad format at 0.86 percent, followed by the square pop-up (250 x 250) at 0.73 percent. The average click-through rate for a standard 468 x 60 banner is 0.35 percent.

Banners (468 x 60 pixels) remain the top format choice for advertisers, accounting for 32 percent of all ads served by DoubleClick, but measuring a 2.3 point decline from Q4 2003. Leaderboards (728 x 90) registered 1384 percent year-over-year growth, keeping the format in the second place position at 8.6 percent of ads served.

The DoubleClick Q1 2004 Ad Serving Trend Report contains aggregate data from DoubleClick’s DART for Advertisers and DART for Publishers online advertising serving technology. The data is based on over 894 billion ads globally from thousands of clients served since Q1 of 2003.