Courtesy of WSJ reporter Suzanne Vranica..
The old adage in advertising—that half the money is wasted but no one
knows which half—turns out to be as true for the digital world as it
ever was for traditional media.
An astounding 54% of online display ads shown in "thousands" of campaigns measured by comScore Inc.
between May of 2012 and February of this year weren't seen by anyone, according to a study completed last month.
Don't
confuse "weren't seen" with "ignored." These ads simply weren't seen,
the result of technical glitches, user habits and fraud.
The finding implies that billions of
marketing dollars are being poured down a digital drain. Last year, $14
billion was spent on online display advertising, estimates eMarketer,
40% of all online ad spending.
Advertisers can blame both technical snafus and more nefarious
factors for ads going nowhere. Technical issues include ads being
displayed on part of a browser not open on a computer screen—such as
when an ad appears at the bottom of the screen and surfers don't scroll
down. Another problem: Some ads load so slowly that the Web surfer
switches off before the ad comes up, says comScore.
And then there is fraud. A significant
number of display-ad "impressions" often paid for by marketers are
based on fake traffic. Malicious software makes a website think a person
is actually on a page and ads are served up to that fake visitor. In
other scams, ads show up on several Web pages but they are hidden behind
a window on a website that is the size of a pencil point, according to
comScore.
For the full article, please visit the WallStreet Journal via this link
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