comScore released a bombshell at the iMedia Brand Summit, and yet not everyone has heard about it and the conclusions are striking. Briefly:
- comScore updated their “Natural Born Clickers” study and the main findings are shown in the chart below:
- Only 16% of internet users account for all clicks on display ads – down from 32% 2 years ago
- 8% of users account for 85% of all clicks
- Those that click on ads have lower education and income levels than the non-clickers
The conclusion that many in the online advertising industry are drawing from this research is that “the click” is not the right measure. If I were selling display ads I’d try to find another measure as well. The search is now on for attribution evidence of behavior change driven by subconscious exposure to the ads. The problem with this effort is that it flies in the face of eye targeting studies (see chart below that shows heat map of where we focus our attention on a web page) and the growth of ad blockers. If someone never even sees the ad, it can’t even have a subliminal impact.
The more likely explanation is much simpler. 84% of us have learned to ignore or block the ads. If you want to reach us, you need to place some useful content on the content side of the page where we focus our attention. This will lead to a shift in ad dollars from display ads to content sponsorships and the rise of new tools to help make sponsorships much more easy to manage.
Which conclusion do you reach from the survey?
- Click is the wrong measure
- Need to focus on the content real estate
Great article! Good job!
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