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Just an Online Minute... View-Through Rates Up

DoubleClick Inc. today announced results of its Q4 and full year 2002 Ad Serving Trend Report based on more than 630 billion ads from clients, and the data reveals the continued effectiveness of online advertising, in terms of planning and creative. Specifically, the data shows that view-through rates and rich media usage continue to increase, while click-through rates have remained stable.

While the use of IAB standard sizes remains stable at 70% of all ads served over the past year, larger unit sizes have increased in usage, DoubleClick says. The skyscraper now accounts for over 8% of total volume in Q4, almost doubling from Q1. In addition, large rectangles have increased in usage 4 times from Q1 to Q4, even though they account for just over 2% of total volume in Q4.

According to the data, rich media creative has increased substantially in usage each quarter pointing to an increased sophistication of creative. Rich media usage has grown by 43% from Q1 to Q4, approximately 25% (24.9%) of all ads served by DoubleClick. Average click-through rates for rich media held constant at approximately 2.5% in Q4, while click-through rates for non-rich media declined from 0.4% in Q1 to 0.3% in Q4.

DoubleClick says that publishers and advertisers continue to accept content and keyword targeting as the most effective way to reach an audience and elicit a response. More than 42% of all ads served were targeted either by keyword or content targeting in Q4, compared to 40% in Q1. In addition, geographic targeting was used in 6% of all ads served. Targeting by time of day, which takes advantage of the prime-time at-work audience online, though still accounting for a small percentage of total volume, has grown slowly from 1.3% in Q1 to 1.4% in Q4.

Most importantly, as a result of larger ad sizes and greater use of rich media, the data shows that view-through rates - which assess users who convert within 30 days of seeing an ad, but do not click on a banner - have increased by 47%, from approximately 0.36% in Q1 to 0.53% in Q4. Marketers who only assess click-throughs as a response metric are missing these conversions.

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