A new study released by Starcom MediaVest Group shows that heavy clickers are distorting click-thru metrics on online advertising. Apparently, 6% of people online account for 50% of display ad clicks.
The study goes on to say:
"Heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.”
While the theory of “heavy clickers” has been floating around for many months, the results of the study cement the idea that the “click” is not the end-all-be-all it used to be. Measurements such as view-throughs, user path, engagement, and sales are beginning to take on ultimate importance in campaign analysis.
"We have known (or at least believed) for years that some people like to click on banner ads, and many others don’t. While it’s never been the subject of a lot of research, it’s something that most of us have believed intuitively… What does all of this mean? It means that while clickers may be valuable audiences, they are by no means representative of the Web at large. Focusing campaigns to optimize on clicks means skewing campaigns to optimize on middle-aged women from the Midwest.” Dave Morgan
While many agencies, including Organic, have been expressing metrics in a more holistic fashion for a while, this news is important to consider when looking at the results of auto-optimization for online campaigns. A concept well put in the study:
"...data suggests no correlation between display ad clicks and brand metrics, and show no connection between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked. The research presentation suggests that when digital campaigns have a branding objective, optimizing for high click rates does not necessarily improve campaign performance.”
So how will this news effect the way we work. Russ Hopkinson, Strategy Manager for Online Advertising in the Organic Detroit office, had this to say:
"The results of the study make sense conceptually. I have seen data in the past that shows an aversion to banner ads by a majority of online users, and this just reinforces the direction we are already heading with online advertising. For example, we have discussed optimizing to the success metric based on spotlight tag activity rather than to a click through rate (or some weighted percentage of the two elements). If our upcoming initiatives move forward, we will be able to optimize to other even more meaningful metrics as well – engagement, page specific engagement, etc.
Another implication is that we need to continue to push online advertising beyond the banner. Banner blindness, heavy clickers and general aversion to being “advertised to” are fundamental problems with IAB standard banner advertising. There are many other options/opportunities that we have available to us in the interactive space. We have started to take advantage of some of these, but we need to find ways to quantify and systematically include new opportunities to interactive advertising."
Marta Strickland
Strategists & Planners