In the past, conversion rates of sales from click-through were the single factor in determining the success or failure of your Internet advertising return on investment. But a new conversion model is emerging, meaning that we can count sales from clicks, but also sales from ad views.
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make any noise? Or, reworded for this audience: When a banner ad is served and no one clicks on it, does it have any effect?
Until recently, the answer would be a collective shrug. But with strides in the ad serving arena happening on a weekly basis, a number of firms have released tools that now capture the true return on investment when measuring brand effect on the Internet.
What Exactly An Advertiser Measures
People believe that about one in every 100 ads are clicked on (a number which is actually closer to three) and either lead to a sale or not. The question then becomes: What happened to the other 99 ad views, or impressions, that were purchased?
Most ads are seen and never acted on in any capacity. But we now can measure which ads were seen, never clicked on, but eventually led to a sale.
Say That Again?
Let’s say you go to a site, you see a banner ad for a product that may interest you, but you don’t feel like clicking on it. The next day you are back on the Net and you decide that you want to buy that product you saw in the banner ad. So you type in the URL, go to the site, and buy the product.
Today, this brand effect is measurable. An advertiser can now attribute the sale of a product to a specific ad served that was never clicked on.
Expanding Your ROI Analysis
In the past, conversion rates of sales from click-through were the single factor in determining the success or failure of your Internet advertising return on investment. Today, a new conversion model is being instituted. Not only can we be concerned with sales from clicks, but also sales from ad views.
So Let’s Not Get Out Of Hand
Of course if an ad is viewed, not clicked on for two months, and then that same person visits the site and purchases the product, the sale should not be attributed to the brand effect of the ad served. Shelf life for any ad program must be taken into account. A tight timeframe must be decided on when implementing a brand effect measurement program. Giving undue credit to any ad campaign will only hurt the overall ROI model.
What Effect Will This Have
The greatest effect will be the further justification of the ad dollar being spent online. It will allow marketing directors, media planners, and anyone else who is accountable for the performance of Internet based ad plans to claim a greater stake in the number of product sales resulting from dollars spent in online advertising.
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