• by July 16, 2001

New research by Jupiter Media Metrix, reported in a recent press release, suggests that marketers who fail to measure online branding will miss the real value of digital advertising.

The report shows that the actual return on investment (ROI) from online advertising is at least 25 to 35% higher than most marketers believe. But, according to a Jupiter Executive Survey, only 15% of marketers are conducting formal online branding measurement, while 60% favor click-rate metrics and 75%, cost per conversion.

Rudy Grahn, analyst at Jupiter Media Metrix said, "when brand advertising programs generate synergy across all marketing channels, the actual number of customers driven to Web sites by online advertising can grow significantly beyond what can be tracked."

Key findings of the study include:

- Ad spend is secondary to other factors in driving traffic to Web sites. Online advertising only contributes to17% of the traffic to a Web site, while seasonality and an increase in Internet adoption contribute to 46% and 37% of the growth, respectively.

- Jupiter analysts suggest that marketers can measure branding value by correlating behavioral data (including individual user click-streams, repeated surfing patterns and aggregate user behavior) with the flights of specific ads.

- The fractured reach of Internet media (aggregated Yahoo! audience actually represents traffic spread across 438 separate domains) makes it difficult to generate message association online using off-line marketing practices.

Grahn concludes that "What marketers learn about building targeting models from observed behavior rather than pre-campaign demographic or psychographic data must be factored into off-line campaign planning, as well."

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