A study released last week by comScore, Starcom Media and Tacoda has confirmed what many have believed for some time now - only 6% of individuals online contribute 50% of clicks to display advertisements.
The study also revealed that those individuals doing the clicking are on average between 25 and 44 years old and earning less than $40,000 a year. These are the guys that spend a lot of time surfing the net, but not necessarily spending any money on the net.
Of course most online advertisers know this and focus their attention on the other 50% of online clickers, but this does have a warping effect when trying measure return on investment.
One of the key selling points of online advertising is the fact that it is possible to measure results in detail. These findings may propose otherwise. This is further suggested by the study's findings that there is no correlation between the number of times an ad for a brand was clicked on and the measured attitude towards that brand.
What becomes clear is that one needs to use a metric that is relevant to the objectives of the campaign wishing to be measured. It may be the right metric for a direct response advertising campaign, but not for a brand-building campaign. This does not mean by any measure that companies should withdraw investment on display ads – if you're gaining a positive ROI, there's no reason to stop.
Get our latest blog posts delivered straight to your inbox.
Subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter which is packed with interesting eMarketing news, views and other quirky titbits.
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||

Name:
Friends of Quirk
Websites:
www.quirk.biz