Friday, May 11, 2007

Static Ads Lead to Pitiful Click Throughs

Click through rates continue to plummet, falling below 2 per thousand, according to European ad network ADTECH AG. That's down from .22 percent in December, according to MediaPost.

Click throughs are falling for two reasons -- ad saturation and consumers who are ingesting more video, so static ads are failing to catch their attention. Publishers looking for any means possible to increase revenue are overloading their sites with AdWords and banner ads in the hopes of drawing a few stray clicks to generate cash. But the more ads per page, the lower the yield per ad.

Also, with video becoming an increasingly important part of the web experience, text and static image ads aren't able to rise above the noise. The study showed that video ad click through rates are nearly 5 percent, a stark contrast to their inert cousins. As the web becomes more of a TV-like experience, shouldn't the ads emulate broadcast as well?

I nominate Apple's ubiquitous PC-comparison ads as the best of the banners. The quality of the TV spots are so good, you are tempted to click on the online ads just to see what they come up with next. Any other catch your fancy?

Posted By John Gartner at 12:11 PM
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