Key Insights:

• Digital Advertising will continue to grow while traditional media spend shrinks, eventually overtaking traditional
• Clicks are a poor proxy for measuring digital
• Digital impressions have a profound offline and online impact on intent, sales and dollar value
• Quality of impression, with emphasis on time (reach & frequency) is a superior measurement over clicks

In September, UK Digital Ad spending overtook TV for the first time representing approx $2.8B  of spend in the first half of 2009.   By comparison, the US market spent $10.9B but its share accounted for less than 20% of traditional media spend overall.

Proportion aside, growth forecasts predict Digital spend in the US will represent over 31% of overall advertising spend within 3 years, whereas traditional will shrink 15%.

Who's clicking?

With digital media taking a significant, if not lead role in advertising, how does the prevalent "click" measurement hold up?  Not terribly well.

From June 2007 to August 2009,  the volume of people who click shrank from 32% to 16% - and is expected to continue its deterioration.  More importantly, those that do  click, are comprised of no-to-low income people under 24, hardly the audience most brands are seeking.

The Impression Effect

Clicks clearly aren't the answer as it represents a small portion of the audience, and typically one that doesn't convert into sales.

A recent study found an interesting answer to the question. Where clicks failed to register as a proxy for sales, post-impression behavior indicated a profound impact upon sales, both online and offline.

The presence of ad's in the form of display and search combined lifted sales an average +27%, and lifted traffic at least +46% over a four week period.

When search and display ad's were coordinated, offline sales lifted up to 52% with a staggering 119% increase in dollar value.   Online numbers were even better;  173% increase in sales lifted 124% in dollar value.

When you consider the data, measuring clicks is like trying to tell if a shirt fits by counting the number of buttons on it.  

What To Measure

So, what is the answer? Most research suggests that the longer a person is exposed to an ad, the more effective it will be— until the point of diminishing returns. The future of digital measures has more to do with depth of impression (time, reach, frequency) than clicks or views alone.

Rather than simply counting the number of impressions served, the appropriate measure becomes quality (reach, time, frequency) of an impression. Using this method, you can even reduce placement by focusing on impressions that offer a quality level that may be counted as true impressions over focusing on total volume.  Utilizing real-time segmentation and coordinated digital planning, campaigns can deliver far reaching, impactful impressions to the right audience.

In light of the rapidly changing advertising landscape, it's imperative to understand the full impact of impressions, and shape your campaigns to drive your end-goals, not just rack up clicks and impressions.

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