1) What does an advertiser want? Sales, leads, brand awareness?
Marvel was essentially a large search engine that had decided to follow the alternative
advertising model: contextual, or pay-per-click, banner advertising. Under these terms,
advertisers paid website owners only when visitors actually “clicked” on an advertisement
to learn more about an advertised product. The key metric to measuring this kind of online
advertising campaign was the click-through rate (CTR), measured as the number of clicks
divided by the number of ad impressions delivered. Advertisers considered website
click-throughs (and telephone calls to a call center generated by a newspaper
advertisement) to be the equivalent of customers interested in potentially making a
purchase.
late 2006, some advertisers began to ask other sites to charge only for click-through “sales
leads” like Marvel did. One drawback to this popular revenue model: reports of increasing
“click fraud.” Advertisers’ competitors were fraudulently clicking on advertisements to
drive up advertising costs.
pay $3.33 for each click-through. Granted, we’re not averse to getting impressions—
anytime that anyone sees your logo, your slogan, and your product’s name, you are
theoretically doing your brand some good. But here at Windham, click-throughs are really
what matter.
solution for them. One worrisome fact is that Baker underestimates the genuine value that
our impressions deliver to an advertiser. Visitors to MedNet see those ads in the context of
a trusted and helpful site—a neighborhood of family friends, really—and even if they
don’t buy right away, they are left with a positive impression of the advertiser and its
products.”
“You’re getting a lot more from MedNet’s audience than Marvel gives you,” said Yates.
“Your ads appear on a page with trusted medical information, our audience is attracted to
your products,and we have reason to believe that our advertising partnership adds to your
bottom line.” “Mahria,” Bishop jumped in, “Marvel has provided click-throughs. But those
are just opportunities to get your information in front of a person, not actual sales. What’s
a click-through worth if it produces no sale? We believe that the Marvel audience is not
nearly as lucrative to
n general an advertiser wants to promote its products by drawing potential customers to
pay attention to its advertisements in public media. Normally the advertiser wants a whole
package of benefits, for example improving sales, market share and brand awareness, but it
depends. It is also possible that sometimes an advertiser only focuses on short-term goals
like increasing sales and productivity. Increasing market share and improving brand
