Rich Media Ads, CTRs Up in 3Q

The online advertising industry has been served well by rich media, as a report from DoubleClick Inc. found that nearly one-quarter of the ads that were served during 3Q 2002 used the dynamic technology, representing 34 percent growth from 1Q 2002.

Doubleclick’s research, culled from more than 144 billion ads, revealed that the average click-through rate (CTR) [define] for rich media increased slightly to 2.7 percent – from 2.5 percent in the first quarter. CTR for non-rich media declined slightly from 0.4 percent in the first quarter to 0.27 percent in the third quarter.

“We are very encouraged by the growth of rich media usage and the significantly higher click-through rates that these formats have been generating, which together reflect the increasing sophistication and performance of the online advertising medium,” said Doug Knopper, vice president and general manager of Advertiser Solutions at DoubleClick.

In a 2Q 2002 report, DoubleClick estimated that 20 percent of the 2 billion ads it serves daily are rich media. Of that group, more than 30 percent are Flash – the technology that was found to increase branding metrics by 71 percent in a 2001 study conducted by Diameter, Doubleclick’s former research division.

According to Diameter, rich media technologies such as audio, video, Flash and DHTML deliver greater impact and different placements for these ads, like interstitials, boosted key brand metrics by an average of 194 percent.

Jupiter Research (a unit of this site’s corporate parent) echoes the expectations of growth for rich media with predictions that the format will account for 22 percent of online advertising spending by 2007. The remainder will be attributed to streaming (12 percent) and conventional ad formats (66 percent).