The results confirm that viewing banner ads increases both brand awareness and a prospect's propensity to convert. These findings are the first in a series of reports that will be introduced by Avenue A's Digital Marketing Insights program. In a pilot study with a leading online and offline marketer, Avenue A proved that banner ads are effective in driving desired consumer activities. Because both the control group and test groups were randomly selected, it is valid to assume that Company X's offline campaigns and other promotions had the same impact on both groups. The difference in behavior, therefore, can be directly attributed to the online campaign.
Marketers use a variety of metrics to track the effectiveness of Web advertising.
With the TrueLift testing methodology used in the pilot study, Avenue A evaluated the results of the client's advertising campaign compared to what would have happened if they did not run an online advertising campaign at all. Using this methodology, Avenue A compared the results of a test group with those from a control group. This applies a principle that is central to standard scientific research to the world of web advertising. The Digital Marketing Insights program is a series of publications by Avenue A's senior marketing analysts that demonstrates what works in digital marketing. The findings are derived using Avenue A's proprietary technology and its knowledgebase of anonymous data from managing more than 50,000 campaigns.