Communications and Technology Industry Research

Advertising on the internet is inexpensive, effective and confusing. The big, bad world of Internet statistics and trends often misleads companies into taking unwise steps. There are few reliable resources to help with this task.

 

One organization that is held in high regard by the online advertising industry is The Atlas Institute. This organization recently released a study focused on the impact of advertising overlap across Web portals. For this report, the institute looked at leading Web sites like MSN, AOL (News - Alert), Yahoo! and Google, among others.  

 

The study concentrated on the impact for consumers when they see an advertisement highlighting the same brand on multiple portals. The report’s findings are in direct contrast with other industry reports attributing 100 percent of online conversions to the last impression (or last "click") seen.

 

Since customers are more likely to click after seeing the same ad on multiple Web sites, the logic goes, marketers can safely assume that only a full set of impressions and/or clicks will bring them the customers.

 

The study made many significant findings that may have a great impact on the future of Web marketing and online advertising. To start with, it asserted that consumers who see the same ad on two or more Web sites are more likely to click than those who see the ad on a single Web site. The study also states that, rather than the last seen ad, ninety percent of consumers who clicked were persuaded by repeat exposure. Also, two out of every three customers responding to an ad were apparently influenced when they saw the ad across multiple web sites.

 

What this could mean is the fact that online advertisers will have to review their advertising strategy. Instead of concentrating on the last seen ad, marketers may decide to  review all consumer touch-points when determining credit for conversions.

 

This report was based on a study spanning the first quarter of 2007, during which Atlas Institute analyzed media campaigns of 16 advertisers. These campaigns represented a wide spectrum of industries such as retail, manufacturing, and health sectors. The analyses studied five billion ads; 1.7 million online sales transactions, leads and registration conversions; and more than 300 million anonymous users.

 

Previously, Atlas Institute’s study, “The Combined Impact of Search and Display Advertising,” proved the effectiveness of campaigns using a combination of sponsored search and display ads, which seemed to be more effective than search alone. This combination secured a 22 per cent higher conversion rate than sponsored search by itself.

 

Atlas Institute is a division of Atlas, an advertising technology provider, solely dedicated to conducting research about online advertising. The Institute publishes Digital Marketing Insights, a series of publications by the Institute's senior marketing analysts and digital marketing experts. Many of these findings are also made available to the digital marketing industry.

 

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