By: Sarah J. Heim Site Will Focus On Other Advertising Metrics
(Adweek IQ) No longer content to wait for an industry consensus on how to
best measure online ads' effectiveness, CBS MarketWatch.com is
eliminating clickthrough data from ad performance reports for its
advertisers.
Beginning Monday, the financial news site stopped using the oft-
maligned clickthrough rate -- defined as the cumulative number of
times a given banner or button is clicked on -- as the standard
metric in its client ad performance reports. Instead, the San
Francisco-based company will retool its reports to focus on other
metrics, such as ad campaign reach, post-impression analysis, and
brand awareness and lift.
The site is currently in negotiations with third-party research
firms, including Dynamic Logic and Diameter, to develop pre- and
post-campaign research methodologies comparable to those used for
researching offline campaigns.
"Instead of thinking of ways to create more clicks, we need to be
thinking of more ways to gauge the success of online advertising
campaigns," said Scot McLernon, executive vice president of sales
at CBS MarketWatch.com.
McLernon admitted that at first he scoffed at the idea of taking
clickthrough data off CBS MarketWatch.com's ad reports, since
clickthroughs are widely regarded as the primary measure of an
online ad's success. He said he thought online ad guru Doug
Weaver, president of Upstream Group, a Charlotte, Vt.-based
consultancy, was joking when he suggested the idea to him a few
months ago at an Interactive Advertising Bureau program in San
Francisco.
After further consideration, McLernon said that removing
clickthrough data made sense. Using Budweiser, a current
advertiser on CBS MarketWatch.com, as an example, McLernon
explained that the beer distributor -- like other consumer
packaged-goods companies advertising on the Web -- is not
necessarily interested in selling its product online. Instead,
Bud wants to know statistics such as how many unique users saw
the ad and how long those users were on the page.
McLernon acknowledged that because of the data's widespread use,
some publishers and advertisers may be reluctant to let go of
clickthroughs as a primary metric. However, McLernon hoped CBS
MarketWatch.com's initiative will spur discussion and encourage
other publishers and their advertisers to proactively address the
issue. He also hoped to heighten awareness of the Web as an
effective branding tool.
Nick Nyhan, CEO of Dynamic Logic, an online advertising-research
company, agreed with McLernon's assertion of the Web's branding
capabilities. Nyhan's company specializes in measuring the
branding value of online advertising rather than the more
commonly recorded conversion or direct response rates.
By implementing traditional research methodologies in the online
format, New York-based Dynamic Logic aims to provide traditional
marketers with metrics they can understand based on their
experience in the offline world.
"It is a sign of the times that clickthrough rates are finally
being viewed as less important than branding," said Nyhan. CBS
MarketWatch.com's move away from clickthroughs is an indicator
that the industry is stepping out of the clickthrough-centric
corner it painted itself into over the past few years, he added.
"Clicks are such a nebulous figure [for many advertisers],"
McLernon agreed. "Just because an ad hasn't been clicked on
doesn't mean it has failed." Comparing the effectiveness of
billboards and online ads, Nyhan quipped, "There are many
billboards in Times Square that don't get clicked on -- yet they
still deliver a powerful message."
On financial and sports sites, in particular, the branding
opportunities for advertisers are abundant, said Mark Stephens,
director of media services at San Francisco-based interactive
agency Lot21. Clicking away from content on sites such as CBS
MarketWatch.com is not something that happens naturally, he said.
Therefore, branding campaigns by nature are good in these
environments, he added.
However, at the same time, Stephens doesn't anticipate that
clicks as a metric will drop entirely off the Internet
advertiser's radar screen. "Symbolically, CBS MarketWatch.com is
making a good industry move," Stephens said. "Clickthroughs just
need to be de-emphasized."
Jupiter Media Metrix analyst Rudy Grahn agreed that advertisers
need to be weaned from their reliance on clickthroughs as the
principal metric for measuring campaigns. But, like Stephens, he
cautioned that many advertisers will still need and want to know
clickthrough rates to best optimize their online efforts --
especially if the goal is to drive traffic to a site.
Daniel Silmore, a CBS MarketWatch.com representative, noted that
clickthrough metrics will still be available by request for
advertisers on the site.
Whether or not advertisers and publishers will discover the true
measure of success for an online campaign, the debate over
clickthrough rates as a valid metric will continue. "We're just
taking one more small step for the industry," said Silmore.
"We're confident that other publishers will follow."
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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