• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 20, 2004

Rich Media Scores in View-Throughs and Conversions

The DoubleClick Q4 2003 Ad Serving Trend Report, recently released, contains aggregate data and is based on over 1.3 trillion ads globally from thousands of clients served since Q1 of 2002. Useful as benchmarking statistics for advertisers, it represents one of the largest pools of information from both publishers and advertisers on ads served during a given period.

Rich media increased 59% from Q4 of 2002 to nearly 40% of all ads served in Q4 of 2003. Flash accounts for the largest percentage of rich media served and is now nearly 16% of all ads served.

For advertisers using direct response metrics (click-throughs), rich media click-through rates are more than four times higher than those for non-rich media (1.24% as compared to .27%).

Rich media continues to display stronger conversion rates than non-rich media (GIFs and JPEG ads). As compared to non-rich media, it generates higher rates of post-impression activity per impression (1.11% vs. .54% for non-rich media) and post impression sales per those activities of 2.30% vs. 1.47%: Consumers are more likely to take some kind of action after viewing, but not clicking on, a rich media unit and those activities are more likely to result in some kind of a sale.

When the subset of ads served and tracked purely by advertisers are analyzed, interesting patterns emerge: click-through rates have declined to .40% on average, while view-through rates currently average .75%. View-through rates have increased 42% from Q4 2002, while click-through rates declined 45%. Viewthroughs assess some action observed within 30 days of a consumer viewing an ad (post impression impact). These metrics are part of the larger picture of the effectiveness of online advertising: click-throughs assess immediate response, while view-throughs reflect the latent impact of that online ad.

Average click-through rates for all ads served by both advertisers and publishers declined from .72% in Q4 2002 to .44% which most likely reflects the dramatic growth in volume in Q4: the more ads consumers are exposed to, the lower the response rate.