This is a fact, it's interesting - but it's only an acorn, a false indicator used to scare you about online advertising today. Let's look at all the acorns we have out there today. While banners represent the most widely used and understood online advertising vehicle, this workhorse is the lowest common denominator among a wealth of online advertising possibilities. Rich media applications, relevant content sponsorships and other more robust vehicles allow marketers to capture data, customize content and present interactive panoramas to engage and motivate their audience. Click rates among these vehicles are much stronger than banner ads, but also declining in the increasingly cluttered online advertising landscape.
Advertising clutter has a deleterious impact on almost every campaign.
But, if you factor current click rates into your ROI calculations and negotiate well, you can still emerge with a successful campaign built around targeted, tested placements - including intelligent banners. Click rates do not tell the most important story of online advertising - unless your advertising goal is to stimulate website traffic alone. Conversions cannot, however, be captured with click statistics. With online advertising you have the power to influence both click and conversion rates through intelligent targeting, diligent optimization, kick-ass creative executions and effective messaging. You will never know, however, how effective your campaign is unless you set goals, capture data and measure against those goals.