Clickthrough -the Online world of Advertising

In marketing, it is necessary to make consumers aware of a product, and to ensure they care about it, before they can ever make the decision to purchase it. This fundamental marketing principle has sometimes been forgotten in the 'clickthrough'- oriented world of Internet advertising. Online advertising needs to provide a relevant message to the right audience, in a manner that is not only noticeable, but also consistent with good user experience. A well-placed banner in a high-value area of a site might have more of an impact on consumers than a large unit in an area that gets little attention. But nevertheless, there is enough evidence to establish the power of online advertising.To quote Owen Thomas of Business 2.0, "New online ad formats are whirling, shaking, popping, and tilting all over the Web."The popular forms of online ads are:Banner - Standard rectangular ad found atop most web pages.Floating ad or Shoshkele - Animated object, like a car that races across your screen which are very high on attention grabbing parameter.Interstitial or Superstitial - Full-page ad, often with video or animation. Very useful indeed but web users complain that ads take over the screen.Large rectangle - Oversize ad placed in the center of the page.Pop-under - Ad opens in a window under the web page but majority of the readers close the page without even reading it.Pop-up Ad - It opens in a window on top of the web page.Skyscraper - Vertical banner.Superbanner - Twice as wide as a standard banner.Surround session - Users are served ads from one advertiser during their entire visit to a site. It's a costly affair.Text ad - No-frills, text-only ad that appears alongside search results.
Online Ad unit effectiveness Study - IABThe Interactive Advertising Bureau(IAB), the leading voice of the interactive advertising and marketing industry, in association with Dynamic Logic, an independent research company, conducted a study on the 'Ad unit effectiveness'. It confirms the online advertising's ability to foster brand attitudes among consumers. In addition, the data show that creative innovation, in this case the new, larger sized ad units, can extend online advertising's branding power.
The joint exercise has attempted to explore the branding impact of the standard banner, large rectangle, and vertical skyscraper banners units. The three ad units were tested across four different campaigns running on four different websites. The skyscraper sizes included 120X600 and 160X600 pixels, and large rectangle units included 240x400, 336x280, 360x300 and 300X250 pixels. Banners were all 468x60.
The study participants included:Publisher /AdvertiserCNET Networks, Inc./GenuityiWon/Vaniqa (Bristol-Myers Squibb)MSN/uBidSnowball/Coke
A total of 8,750 respondents were recruited from April 26, 2001 until June 11, 2001 for this study.

Schematic illustration of the study design The Dynamic Logic AdIndex™ methodology(used in this study) is based on a classic test versus control in market design enabling the testing of actual ads in a live environment.
The metrics included in the research are:Brand AwarenessBrand FavourabilityMessage AssociationPurchase IntentAd Recognition/Recall
Study Finding:The study confirms the branding effectiveness of banners. The 468X60 banner produced significant increases in certain brand metrics for all four campaigns.
The new unit sizes (skyscraper and large rectangle) were 3-6 times more effective than standard banners in increasing brand awareness and message association.

The campaigns were most effective in increasing brand awareness and message association (ability to link a message to a brand). Purchase intent and brand favourability were not generally increased by one ad exposure although there were significant increases in purchase intent in two campaigns.
While not the focus of the study, the study found that higher exposure levels (more than one) did significantly increase purchase intent and brand favourability in the aggregated data.
All three unit sizes were effective in increasing brand awareness in at least one campaign, with statistical significance. The skyscraper unit was most effective, followed by the large rectangle and then the standard banner.
The larger formats were effective in significantly increasing message association in multiple campaigns. The large rectangle was most effective, followed by the skyscraper.
So overall the IAB study found that the larger format sizes, which are naturally more visible and provide for more creative freedom, did prove to be significantly more effective than smaller, standard banners across all campaigns. These unitsmight develop even more of an edge in the future, since their size accommodates more interactivity and technological flexibility.
In the end, the results of the study should provide solid evidence for the branding power of the Internet and provide support for continued investment in extending creative innovation and development.
GlossaryBrand Awareness - Measures the level of familiarity respondents have with the brand (aided).Brand Favourability - Measures the extent to which respondents have a positive or favourable opinion of the brand.Purchase Intent - Measures the likelihood of respondents to purchase the brand in the future.Message Association - Measures the extent to which respondents can match the copy or messages in the creative to the brand.Statistical Significance - Measures the probability that the difference between the population proportions in the sample is representative of the entire population of web visitors targeted in the campaign. For this study, the minimum significance level to make projectable conclusions was 90%.Lift - The relative difference or percent change between the exposed and control (non-exposed) cells. It is a measure of progress relative to the baseline. The formula is (exposed % - control %) / control%.Difference - The absolute difference between the exposed and control (nonexposed) cells. It is calculated by subtracting the control from the exposed. In the report, this metric is referred to as the increase or decrease in the branding metrics.Indexed Mean Percentage - Method of computing Purchase Intent and Brand Favourability that gives weights to the 5 possible answers, with greater weights given to positive points on the scale.e.g. Very Likely - 100%Somewhat likely - 75%May or may not be likely - 50%Not very likely - 25%Not at all likely - 0%
Top Two Box - Method of computing Purchase Intent and Brand Favourability that includes those who respond via the top two answers (very and somewhat likely, or very and somewhat favourable).