Latent impact of display ads
How effective are online display ads?
Online display ads ads have more of a long-term impact on consumers in Europe than across the Atlantic, a new study reveals.
This week, digital marketing intelligence provider comScore published a report called How Online Advertising Works: Whither the Click in Europe? It collated results from almost 20 comScore studies on the continent, investigating the complex subject of latent view-through rates rather than simple click-through rates.
One of the key findings was that consumers exposed to online marketing campaigns in Europe were 72 per cent more likely to hit the advertiser’s website than those who had not seen the ads. A comScore analysis of hundreds of American ad effectiveness studies found that the comparable figure in the US was just 49 per cent.
How do display ads influence search?
Another surprising discovery was that European consumers were 94 per cent more likely to carry out a trademark-based query on a search engine after seeing an online display ad. Again, the US data shows a far lower response rate of just 40 per cent.
Mike Shaw, director of marketing solutions at comScore, has commented on the findings. “The results of these initial ad effectiveness studies we’ve conducted in Europe are rather provocative. They not only demonstrate a clear view-through value of online ads independent of internet users clicking on the ads, but the resulting lifts in behaviour substantially outperform what we’ve seen in the US.”
Increasingly, online display ads are being served on sites like Facebook, YouTube and Digg. A comScore digital marketing report found that 13.8 billion display ads were shown on social media portals in a single month last year.