Online advertising has a significant impact on response over time, a study has found.
DoubleClick conducted a study with Continental Airlines and found that online advertising can and should be measured by immediate response (clickthrough) ad response over time (view-through) and that the post-impression impact of online advertising outweighs the post-click impact.
The post-impression conversion activity, which means users saw an ad but did not click on it, then later did the activity designated as a conversion, is a view-through and usually is measured for one month following the impression being viewed. The validity of view-through has been questioned: DoubleClick in its study explores whether a consumer who sees an ad online on but does not click on it can later be directly attributed to seeing that ad online.
Individuals were exposed to either test or control ads during a February Continental Airlines online campaign. Over the 30-day period, 67.5 percent of the view-through registration and sales were attributable to the online creative. The impact of delayed response on email registrations dropped by 50 percent after one day, and sales transactions rose by 3 percent during the same period. The study says the difference between these two events is due to the fact that there is a longer decision process when it comes to buying airlines tickets.
The number of impressions and site/placement were identified as significant factors with indirect response to online advertising. Impressions were the most important.
"The indirect response study we did with DoubleClick proves to us what we have long believed -- that the impact of online advertising pays dividends over time," says Colleen Aranda, manager of interactive marketing of Continental Airlines. "The view-through is a significant and real metric for measuring campaign performance, and we're thrilled that with the results of our ad campaign and the associated in-direct response study."
"Both DoubleClick's second quarter ad serving data, and the study with Continental Airlines confirm the idea that online advertising, just like advertising in all other media, has both direct and in-direct response potential," says Doug Knopper, senior vice president and general manager, ad management at DoubleClick. "As advertisers start to take greater advantage of online advertising solutions at their disposal, like advanced targeting or high-impact rich media, we should only see even stronger performance from the medium."
