<i>&gt; Trying to generalize about banner click through rates is a futile</i>
<i>&gt; excercise...but it might help to know that at least one significant</i>
<i>&gt; internet advertiser, whom I am under a confidentiality contract</i>
<i>&gt; with, has been achieving click through rates on banners in Infoseek</i>
<i>&gt; and other search engines as high as 13%, and commonly in the 5 to 8%</i>
<i>&gt; range by constantly refreshing the banners, and being sure that they</i>
<i>&gt; offer the consumer a concrete benefit (rather than "click to my</i>
<i>&gt; site" copy) and appealing graphics.</i>
Yes, but as you point out, it is very difficult to generalize.
First, there is strong evidence suggesting that some click-through
numbers have been intentionally or unintentionally inflated by
systematically under-counting impressions. (Using
unique-domains-served is the most common way. Why would a site do
this? Because, in a rapidly rising market, it has impressions to
burn.)
Second, is the ad targeted or general? The more targeted an ad is,
the more likely it is to be placed within high-interest niche
editorial, which may make readers less likely to interrupt to visit
the ad site. On the other hand, the more general an ad is, the less
likely it is that such a small medium as on-line would be of benefit
to marketing it.
Third, we have to consider the cost of providing whatever the concrete
benefit on the other end happens to be. I could probably get a 100%
click-through rate by offering no-obligation cash to each person who
clicks through.
__________________________________________________________________
Eric K. Meyer N E W S L I N K 2,830 media links
meyer@newslink.org research/consulting <a href="<a href="http://www.newslink.org">http://www.newslink.org</a>">http://www.newslink.org</a>
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