Anything less isn't success. Clickthrough, in other words, is meaningless to direct response advertisers and most have abandoned the metric. But while direct marketers have ditched clickthrough, many brand-oriented advertisers still use it. Let's first draw a distinction between brand and direct response advertising. Simply put, direct response and branding go about achieving the same goal in a different manner.
Direct response focuses on getting someone to buy the product now .
Brand advertising focuses on getting the consumer to buy the product the next time they have an opportunity to buy. The use of clickthrough is symptomatic of brand advertisers losing sight of the nature of the product they are marketing. The art of the brand advertiser works by building and enhancing key perceptions and relationships with the consumer such that the next time the consumer reaches out to buy the product, they are more likely to consider their brand. Why anyone believed that a successful branding ad would garner clicks is beyond me. Looking for clicks on a general brand advertisement represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how brand advertising works.