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Is the Click-through in Trouble? (Are you kidding me?)

By: Raquel Hirsch
Date: October 11th, 2009

In a surprising (at least for me, anyway) article published in eMarketer this week entitled “More Trouble for the Click-Through”, the author describes the click-through as “a metric in decline”. This reminded me of Mark Twain’s retort that “Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

Apparently, there are researchers questioning the value of the click as a metric of success.

comScore and Starcom USA have followed up a July 2007 study conducted with Tacoda that segments Internet users into heavy, moderate and light clickers and found that a decreasing percentage of users are making up an increasing portion of all click-throughs.

Here are the researchers’ findings:

• Heavy clickers only accounted for 4% of all Internet users in March 2009, but they were responsible for more than two-thirds of click-throughs that month.

• Both moderate and light clickers decreased in number and in share of clicks.

• Non-clickers rose as a proportion of all Internet users by 16 percentage points.

As a result, researchers asked themselves, ‘With just 16% of Web users clicking on ads in March, how informative are click-through rates?’

And answer themselves they did: “A click means nothing, earns no revenue and creates no brand equity. Your online advertising has some goal—and it’s certainly not to generate clicks,” said John Lowell, Starcom USA SVP and director, research and analytics, in a statement.

Are these people for real?

These researchers have suggested other metrics, such as the view-through rate, gross ratings points (GRPs) and dwell time as more appropriate gauges of success.

This is certainly not what we are seeing happening today.

Especially in this economic environment, marketers desperate to create demand for their products and services are relying very heavily on click-throughs as well as conversion rate (the “post click experience”) as key metrics.

It seems to me these researchers should have spoken to actual marketers, right down in the trenches, working hard and succeeding under very difficult conditions.

What we are seeing is that now, more than ever, click-through and conversion rate are the key metrics driving decisions around advertising and marketing spend.

While I acknowledge these researchers are talking mostly about advertising metrics and not direct-response metrics, it seems to me irresponsible of eMarketer to decry “More Trouble for the Click-Through” at a time when click-through as a metrics is more important than ever to marketers.

Perhaps the real question these researchers should be asking is, “What is the future of Advertising?”

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Posted in: Marketing metrics | Online Advertising | best practices | economic downturn

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4 Responses to “Is the Click-through in Trouble? (Are you kidding me?)”

  1. Sean Anderson Says:
    October 12th, 2009 at 9:07 am

    “A click means nothing, earns no revenue and creates no brand equity”

    This comment doesn’t compute for me either…

    1) The value of a click is certainly quantifiable with regards to revenue. Dollars aren’t changing hands but a click-through is an “advance” towards a commercial transaction and can be assigned a dollar value.

    2) CTR, in of itself, may not create brand equity, but it can tell you how your brand’s messaging is resonating with your audience. It tells you if your message matters.

    Sean

  2. Raquel Hirsch Says:
    October 12th, 2009 at 9:19 am

    Sean, IMHO, you are absolutely right.

    The only instance where “awareness” plays a larger role is in the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) space, where consumers “become aware” of a product and then pick it up at the supermarket. But that is not the whole universe of marketing! So comments such as these reinforce the fact that the advertising industry (and its researchers) are out of touch with the market realities.

  3. Steve Kirstein Says:
    October 27th, 2009 at 10:35 am

    “Your online advertising has some goal—and it’s certainly not to generate clicks,” said John Lowell, Starcom USA SVP and director, research and analytics, in a statement.”

    Spoken like a guy who is still trying to sell “branding” as if it meant something on its own. hey, while you’re at it, try selling me some “eyeballs” at an indefensible cost per thousand.

    You are right, Raquel. Clicks leading to conversions are where ‘the rubber meets the road”, and are measurable indicators of success.

  4. Wilson Says:
    December 5th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    I disagree with this article. The CTR is what is keeping agencies and publishers on the losing end of increased revenue and conversions. I can’t believe that we are sitting here talking about CTR’s that are below 1%. If you are ok with this as a publisher or advertiser, you shouldn’t be in business and you won’t be for long as CTR continues to decline.

    Go ask publishers who ARE in the trenches working hard if they are generating new business and keeping advertisers happy. Display ad’s should be interactive and combine elements of both engagement and call to action. At the end of the day you can have your .15% CTR, I’d rather have a 10% dwell rate and zero in on meeting advertisers objectives WITHIN the ad unit.

    CTR is traditional because it’s what everyone knows. What I know is that CTR is declining and will continue to do so. CTR is like IE. Instead of Microsoft just fixing browser issues they put a band aid over them so you end up with a million patches that don’t ever address the real issue. Like a million display ads that only receive a hundred clicks.


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