
Display Advertising Works, But It Works Differently Than Search - terpua
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/12/display-adverti.html
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netcan
This may be true, but it misses a general point that relates to the first
paragraph. Separate the world into two types of good ads: the ones you can see
working & the ones a PHD can see working.

A pretty girl soliciting people outside your restaurant vs an ad in the paper;
Search vs banners.

That's not new. That's always been the case. But online, the latter had
massive failings & the former had a lot of success. This is in contrast to the
experience of the other big media's experiences.

For most advertisers the nespaper ad/banner is voodoo. If the average ROI is
outstanding, then they might punt. But the other type, the search ad/tourist
tout is measurable & reliable & understandable.

So in bad times you lose confidence in the things you can't see. The voodoo
looses out. But you probably don't fire the tourist tout until things get
really bad. Theoretically, for mega brands with mega budgets to do focus
groups & hire PHDs to test the effects of their ads over years, there is no
difference qualitative between a tourist tout & sponsoring a tennis player. I
don't really know, but I think that the theory doesn't pan out. Even campaigns
in the 10 of $Ms are really reading these kinds of studies, following 'best
practices' & guessing. My evidence for this is that their ad budgets go down
in bad times & up in good times.

BTW, it runs both ways. Good times make companies spend more on 'brand'
advertising. Most Search campaigns are always linked to returns somehow &
those don't change that as much as group psychology.

So 'brand' advertising is susceptible to bubbles & crashes.

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stanley
The study backs the type of impact we have seen on many of our campaigns.

What's missing, however, is the technology for accurately measuring the
various data over a long timespan.

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DenisM
For once a nugget or real research amidst marketing voodoo. Good stuff.

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fredwilson
yeah, but they could really do a lot more with this work, like look at how
targeting impacts lift, or how frequency and duration impact it. there's still
so much to be learned about online advertising. a lot of the comments to the
post are great.

