How to measure online activities?
Post-view is all about brand awareness. When a user sees a banner somewhere online, and doesn't click on it, but still reaches the destination landing page later on in the future, then it means this particular user has a very good association with the brand - writes Paap Peterson, the head of Estonian branch of Gemius and an industry expert.
The online advertising industry grows day by day. There are new and different solutions from regular flash and gif banners to more complicated video and special layout solutions. There are so many different choices within the online ad spaces that one might need some help from the experts. In print media, it's all clear and obvious - the advertisement is exactly where you want it to be for everyone to see. Internet ads are also, of course, for everyone to see, but the competition for users' attention is very tough. So, in consideration with what was said before - how do you measure your activities online?
Ad impression and clicking on the ad are two very important indicators when it comes to measuring campaigns. The number of impressions is primarily used by media planners. This way they are able to justify their choice of ad spaces. Clicks, on the other hand, indicate how much traffic reaches the landing page. Click doesn't automatically equal a purchase. There might occur a situation, where a user doesn't click on an ad, but later on they end up on the advertiser's website anyway. This is called a post-view visit.
One needs to note, that a channel that once seemed ineffective, might turn out to be quite the opposite. This simply means that some of the ad placements that produce many clicks might in the long run bring very few conversions.
Gemius Estonia looked into named matter and analyzed 173 campaigns from July until December 2014 in Estonia. We came to some very interesting conclusions. It appears, that visitors, who reached the page post-view spent 27 per cent more time on the page than the ones who came there post-click; even though the proportion of the visitors on the site was 54 per cent post click and 46 per cent post-view. The post-view lot made 44 per cent more page views than post-click visitors.
This is why we can with all certainty tell that one can't prove an ad to be ineffective just by the shortage of click numbers. They will prove to be effective, it just takes time until the post-view users reach a landing page. Post-view is all about brand awareness. When a user sees a banner somewhere online, and doesn't click on it, but still reaches the destination landing page later on in the future, then it means this particular user has a very good association with the brand. All in all our research means that the efficiency of the ad equals brand awareness + ad impression not necessarily click + a good visual (or a particular product).
Quite a similar behaviour can be detected amongst the television audience concerning ads. There is a possibility to order a custom report from a media house, which will have exact ad airing times. Now, their results should be compared to the web analytics results. One would be able to see a peak in the web analytics right after the TV ad has aired. This phenomena appears due to multi screening, which enables users to react to the ad very quickly (and visit a website mentioned in the ad). Gemius has concluded, that TV ads are still very influential, at least what's concerning brand awareness. It must be kept in mind that the purchase journey is not a direct one; user makes many stops in between. This is where the actual meaning of the post-view reappeares - one sees the ad and acts accordingly within a certain time frame.
Measuring ad campaigns is getting more complex and solid as we speak. This also means that the behaviour of the internet audience is always changing and in turn, we need new analytical tools. The question is - do you have a partner in the digital world that can meet all your needs?
