Clickthrough rates on web banner advertising actually rise! (But they’re still subterranean.)

The headlines last week were near-breathless, announcing that North American clickthrough rates for web banner advertising are rising!

And that’s true on the face of it: According to a new analysis by advertising management company Sizmek based on billions of online ad impressions, the average engagement (clickthrough) rate on a standard banner ad has actually increased.

It’s risen all the way up to 0.14%.

It means that for a standard banner ad, for every 1,000 times it’s served, 1.4 engagements happen.

Here’s what that also means: Don’t bank your business success on online display advertising.

Of course, there are more ways to advertise online than by using standard banner ads. So-called “rich media” ads – ones that incorporate animation and/or sound – perform substantially better.

But it’s all relative, because “substantially better” in this case means that in North America, achieving an average of 2.1 engagements for every 1,000 times a rich media ad is served.

The situation is even worse than these figures imply, actually. When one considers the incidences when viewers accidentally click through on an ad thanks to an errant mouse or a fat finger, even “one out of a thousand” for engagement isn’t really correct.

The Sizmek analysis found that banner ads in certain industries perform better than those in others. Among the “winners” (if one could characterize it that way) are electronic products, apparel, and other retail advertising.

At the bottom? Automotive, jobs and careers and, ironically, tech and internet advertising.

A glimmer of hope in this continuing saga of hopeless news is in-stream video which, according to the Sizmek study, is generating far higher engagement levels of 1.5% or greater, depending on the degree of interactivity.

But I can’t help but wonder: As the novelty of these newer ad innovations inevitably wears off, won’t we see the same phenomenon occurring over time wherein audiences will become as “blind” to these ads as they are to the standard banner ad today?

As the years roll by and the effectiveness of online banner advertising continues to underwhelm in overwhelming ways, the “drive towards zero” seems to be the relentless theme. I seriously doubt we’re going to see a reversal of that.

One thought on “Clickthrough rates on web banner advertising actually rise! (But they’re still subterranean.)”

There is a gnawing question I keep grappling with. It tortures me by day and robs my sleep at night. And you probably have a sense that this is going to be followed by a less-than-serious question. Wrong. My questionis dead serious and I also mean that seriously. All of it.

The question is: What do clickthrough rates, rising or falling, contribute to the lives of the statistically average person — the one burdened by a mortgage while their employers face them with either accepting lower wages and benefit cuts or losing their job altogether? The single mother who makes whatever she can despite all the obstacles put in her way? The graduate staring down six-digit debt? And on and on.

The answer is as obvious and as serious: Nothin’, nada, nichts or nix.

And the reason is because the same answer is true for almost all advertising. Because all advertising is supposed to make you -–to quote good old Dr. Phil (when he was still good) –- buy stuff you don’t need so that the entity which already has a lot gets more.

It’s how the hierarchy works and must work: Without feed from the base, the top will “starve” down to middle class.

Opinions like this are why my two great-uncles went to the concentration camp in Dachau. I could leave it there, but for sheer fairness, I will add that both, because they knew the town and its surroundings like the back of their hands, were able to escape and “disappear.”

Wolfgang Nebmaier says:

December 8, 2016 at 2:25 am

There is a gnawing question I keep grappling with. It tortures me by day and robs my sleep at night. And you probably have a sense that this is going to be followed by a less-than-serious question. Wrong. My questionis dead serious and I also mean that seriously. All of it.

The question is: What do clickthrough rates, rising or falling, contribute to the lives of the statistically average person — the one burdened by a mortgage while their employers face them with either accepting lower wages and benefit cuts or losing their job altogether? The single mother who makes whatever she can despite all the obstacles put in her way? The graduate staring down six-digit debt? And on and on.

The answer is as obvious and as serious: Nothin’, nada, nichts or nix.

And the reason is because the same answer is true for almost all advertising. Because all advertising is supposed to make you -–to quote good old Dr. Phil (when he was still good) –- buy stuff you don’t need so that the entity which already has a lot gets more.

It’s how the hierarchy works and must work: Without feed from the base, the top will “starve” down to middle class.

Opinions like this are why my two great-uncles went to the concentration camp in Dachau. I could leave it there, but for sheer fairness, I will add that both, because they knew the town and its surroundings like the back of their hands, were able to escape and “disappear.”