Online Ads: Clicking for Quality

A race is on to develop “new and improved” ways to track Web surfers’ behaviors, far beyond the standard click counts and page views that track what ads readers viewed and clicked on. And this race, according to writers Stephen Baker and Jessi Hempel, in their article ”Wiser About The Web” in the March 27th Business Week, could “roil the internet advertising industry.” How so?

First, Baker and Hempel say that advertisers are finding new ways to group consumers by age, Zip Code and reading habits –  and even mouse-movement habits – while some firms, such as DoubleClick, allow for tracking of up to 50 different metrics, while yet another, TACODA Systems, plans to wire a test group of surfers with brain scanners to see what is really registering in their minds as they surf and view ads.

This move for more data is driven in part by technology advances and resulting behavioral targeting abilities, as well as a predicted shift in marketing dollars to display ads from search-engine advertising. The article states that ad execs predict that as display banner ads and videos could outpace search-engine advertising this year, marketing executives now are “hungry for new measurements.”

Second, in addition to getting better marketing performance measures on their visitors and customers, Baker and Hempel assert that the data captured can also provide buyers of ads a much deeper understanding of the Internet players themselves: which firms assemble the best picture of customer behavior, and which ones fall short – which could result in a “flight to quality” in Internet advertising.

Consequently, Baker and Hempel say that experts predict the advent of an exclusive online elite – sites that manage not only to bring in faithful customers but also to entice them –  with a combination of trust, high quality, and smart promotions –  to share their data (not unlike the bricks and mortar supermarket loyalty card).

In ending, Baker and Hempel acknowledge that it has always been the goal of advertisers to “work inside our minds … to get their message in.” As the article points out, now the key is to “measure the responses and gauge what happens next.” Stay tuned.