The “viewability” of display ads are more important than their click through rates (CTR) when determining their conversions according to some new research from ComScore. In an industry where ads are often sold by networks such as Google AdSense on a PPC (Pay Per Click) model, this study implies that the click-through metric is not as important as previously believed.
Ad views, defined as for the research as 75% of the pixels of the ad being visible in the browser, achieved an overall correlation to conversions ratio of 0.35. If users hovered their cursor over the ad the correlation between views and conversions rose even higher to 0.49. However the correlation between clicks and conversions was almost non-existent at 0.01 – cursor hovering or real views appear to be a more useful metric for measuring the value of ads than click through.
The report also cited a 2011 report from Casale Media, which indicated that ultimate conversion rates rise 6.7 times over when display ads appear “above the fold” on web pages – and are therefore immediately more viewable to users. Kirby Winfield, SVP of Corporate Development at comScore added:
It’s time to start measuring the impact of campaigns using metrics that really matter, not just the ones that are most easily measured.
[via ComScore]
