Banner blues a great ad myth

Siimon Reynolds,13 October 2000

IN the grey and ever changing world of online advertising, there's one fact that everybody seems to agree on: most banner ads don't work.

This virtually universal view has been reached by simple analysis of banner ad click through rates in recent times.

While two years ago banner ads had an average click through level of 2%, according to Jupiter Research, this has fallen to a mere 0.5 %.

This fact, combined with ever increasing advertising space becoming available as the total number of Web sites skyrockets, has meant prices for banner ads have fallen alarmingly. For instance, search engine pricing for run-of-site two years ago was eight cents per impression. Now the average is between four and six cents.

Not surprisingly, respect for the medium amongst marketers has paralleled the click through and price drop.

Well, the negative view of banner ads may be becoming ubiquitous, but is it actually fair? I believe it isn't.

In fact, I believe the apparent ineffectiveness of banner ads is one of the greatest myths in advertising in the world today.

The medium is being evaluated in completely the wrong way. Allow me to explain.

Throughout history, each new communications medium has come with particular advantages earlier media couldn't match.

For example, radio added sound that newspapers didn't have. TV added moving pictures that were impossible for either print or radio to offer.

Now banner ads offer the ability for consumers to get deeper information about a product or service, at the touch of a button.

Now this may be the unique advantage of this medium, but it is certainly not the only advantage of the medium.

There's one other advantage--a huge one-that appears to have been totally forgotten: banner ads are seen, and often read, even if nobody clicks them on.

In this respect they differ little from magazine ads, newspaper ads or outdoor communications.

In fact, by using outdoor advertising as an example, the absurdity of evaluating banner ad effectiveness purely on click through becomes glaringly apparent.

Let's look at transit/bus advertising as an advertising vehicle (pardon the pun). Nobody argues with the notion that thousands of people see these bus posters daily and many read them. They are, as a result of this, widely viewed as a good advertising medium.

But what if we tried an experiment. What if we attached to each bus poster a little leaflet holder. And what if we put into each one of those leaflet holders brochures packed with more information about the product that each bus poster was advertising.

For example, if the bus poster was advertising Heineken beer, the brochures might give details about how well Heineken was made, and offer a 20% discount on the next dozen you ordered.

So let's say we do this and then send those buses off on their usual routes for the rest of the day.

What do you think would happen? Would many people bother to read those leaflets on the product each time the bus came to a standstill? I doubt it.

So here's the point: The fact that no-one takes the leaflet doesn't mean they never read the larger bus poster. They just didn't need that much information.

So it is with banner ads. Just because very few people click through on the banner ad, doesn't mean nobody is ever reading the banner ad.

Millions of people read banner ads every single day, they just don't care enough about the product to require more information.

Banner ads are being used in totally the wrong way - they don't have to offer incentives to click through at all, in most cases they should almost forget about click through and just create a succinct and memorable summary of the products' benefits . . . just like outdoor ads do.

Now I'm not suggesting that you jettison the facility to click through, after all a very small amount of viewers may indeed want to obtain more data, but it's absolutely crazy to build your whole online campaign around them doing so.

It's equally ludicrous to conclude that the ads didn't work because people didn't click through. It's a far too simplistic evaluation of the medium's benefits.

Billions of banner ads are read in their entirety daily but not clicked through. Is that really of no value? Let me tell you, if I was a major advertiser I'd be delighted if thousands of people read my ad everyday whether they immediately act on that ad or not, because at least I have raised awareness of my brand.

Intelligent banner ad analysis should be based on reach, frequency, awareness/memorability and, only then, click through.

So in conclusion, be very careful writing off banner ads until you think deeply about the benefits they bring.

What is currently viewed as a failed advertising medium may in truth turn out to be far more successful than everyone imagines.
Siimon Reynolds is chairman of brand expression company Love.
www.lovebranding.com.au

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