October 2, 2000

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Advertisers Seek More Bang For Their Web Bucks

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More on Web advertising:

sidebar: Agencies Concentrate On Measuring Ad Effectiveness Web-Traffic Analyzer (9/4/00) Computer Reseller News: E-marketing Welcomes New Players (9/11/00) InternetWeek: WWF keeps The Online Hits (9/4/00)

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Supermarkets Online also has begun measuring the effectiveness of its banners and affiliate programs using cost per click, which essentially determines how much it costs to attract a customer to the grocery discount site. Supermarket Online's cost per click now averages 13 to 15 cents per customer, though it sometimes drops as low as 11 cents per customer. Ideally, Blyth wants to drive that cost to below 10 cents per customer.

Slicing and dicing market data is an advertising agency's stock in trade. The problem with online advertising is that some agencies measure clicks, while others measure eyeballs, impressions, or unique visitors. Measurements and audits are different. "Putting a piece of software on a file server and recounting the data isn't an audit," says Pete Petrusky, director of new media at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "An audit is a process-based approach: How do you know the insertion order was entered correctly, that the right banner was loaded, or that someone didn't tamper with the log files?"

For now, there are no standardized metrics to compare results and processes across multiple sites. So whether it's an accounting firm or a publishing or media audit bureau, independent verification is important to ensure an advertiser gets what it pays for. "Given the amount of continuous spending in this industry, continuous accountability is required," Petrusky says. "If I'm devoting X percent to online, I want to make sure it's worthwhile."

In fact, clients are demanding services that help them better allocate their buying across different media and measure the aggregate impact. "Our customers are pushing us to provide that crossover impact," says Charles Buchwalter, VP of media research at Ad Relevance, an online ad-tracking service.

They want to know whether Web advertising drives traffic to a TV show or to the second of a three-part series in a weekly magazine, or whether a four-color spread in The New York Times boosts traffic and transactions at the Web site. Such answers typically would come from members of focus groups who are asked what prompted them to go a site, to turn on a TV show, or to buy a magazine. "As this industry matures, marketers no longer look at online as being the savior, but just another part of their media mix," Buchwalter says.

And that sort of maturity may start to obviate the attract-addict-convert marketing mentality. Online-ad-industry professionals are trying to address larger marketing issues such as how to get customers to make return visits to Web sites or how to use the Web to build stronger relationships with customers. They also want to figure out how to get customers to do something more than just browse the site--such as make a purchase.

Like any new market, time will be the key that unlocks the numerous unknowns. "Many clients view this as an investment in time and learning so that they'll be able to measure and build on the resulting data," says OgilvyOne's Broussard. "They'd like to know more, better and faster, but these things take time. There's no catch-all solution."

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Illustration by JD King

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