What to Measure?

Click-through rates are on the decline and are no longer a valid core metric for the effectiveness of online advertising. Take into consideration the recent spotlight on click fraud and the issue is greatly amplified. For years, the attention has been on post-click actions that are more attuned with actual business results. The analysis around clicks should focus on an index. That is, what percentage of clickers are actually good prospects and did a campaign lift the percentage of good prospects (shown as an index). In other words, shift from looking at fractions of a percentage and very small numbers to looking more closely at the quality of the click.

During a recent group discussion with comScore about the "Natural Born Clickers" study, our Director of Planning and Insights, Minal Kamlani, said something that rang so true to me as both a media professional and a father of two. She pointed out that when you take a toy away from a baby, you need to replace it with a new one. This begs the question of the day: what is the new toy we can provide to prevent marketers from having a total meltdown?

Partially it goes back to the most basic measurement of advertising; reach and exposure. Advertising must have the chance to be seen. The creative must have impact. The banner effectiveness question is as much about placement (above the fold), size (more impact), and the overall quality of the message and the creative. Are all of these variables working as hard as possible to drive success?

If the answer is yes, and the metric is not simply a click or a click percentage, then we can begin to look at measurements that are truly about downstream business-building results. But still, one size does not fit all. It requires a deep understanding of what drives a business, what highly valued customers look like, what place in the purchase pathway the adverting is designed to address, where the revenue event actually takes place, and what data will ultimately be available.

We all know them (awareness, affinity, time spent, site visitation, lift to branded search, transactions, etc.) and we all know that each have varying degrees of value (although transactions may be pretty explicit), but I suggest we remind ourselves that it may be time to grow up. It’s time to replace that CTR toy with something more challenging, and perhaps, it’s time to allow clients to throw a little tantrum knowing that you are ultimately going to provide a shiny new toy that will be much more satisfying.