Jun. 28, 2007

A closer analyzis at the Atlas Institute's "How Overlap Impacts Reach, Frequency and Conversions" study reveals that the widely-held myth that the very last click consumers make on a site is the most important may be totally unfounded.

Conducted in the first quarter of this year, Atlas's new survey reveals that, typically, U.S. consumers were more likely to convert after viewing ads on multiple Web sites. This data suggests that sales conversions should be attributed to a full set of impressions and/or clicks, rather than just the single one that preceded the conversion itself.

Overall, about 66 percent of Internet consumers who eventually bought a product or took a responsive action were reached by ads across multiple portal sites before converting.

In fact, 90 percent who converted were reached by placements other than the last ad seen.

Additionally, a little over 86 percent of ads which led to a responsive action were also seen on multiple placements.

A previous Atlas study called "The Combined Impact of Search and Display Advertising" originally suggested that sponsored search and display advertising together provided a 22 percent higher conversion rate over search alone.

As can be expected, multiple placements are not right for every campaign, and they are not always easy to make.

A year ago, a study by WebAdvantage.net found that almost eighty percent of experienced online video ad buyers were very or somewhat concerned about sizing ads for multiple placements.

Source: eMarketer