Live From DMA09: Clicks Aren't The Web Metric to Watch

"Clickers"—a.k.a. folks who click on at least one online display ad per month—are a dying breed, which means clicks aren't the Web metric you should be using, according to Gian Fulgoni, chairman and co-founder of comScore.

About 50% fewer Internet users click on ads today than in July 2007, which means 8% of all Internet users account for 85% of all clicks, said Fulgoni, speaking at DMA09 in San Diego on Sunday.

Of course, banner advertising does have branding value; 1 in 5 user who click on an ad go on to conduct a search about the advertiser, and 1 in 3 visit the brand's Web site directly.

"Do post-buy analysis to make sure that the campaign was executed as planned," Fulgoni advised, noting that marketers need to be particularly careful about judging a campaign's result when it comes to cookies.

When a consumer deletes a cookie, they're counted as a new customer when they go back to that site again. About 30% of consumers delete cookies, and many do it up to five times per month, he said, noting that deletion has increased 20% in the last two years.

Deletion and not accounting for it properly can lead to a 2.5 times overstatement of number of unique visitors, reach and frequency, said Fulgoni, adding that the incoming IP address isn't a solution either, as the average U.S. computer has six different IP addresses. "If we don't know what we're delivering, how can we evaluate what is a good media plan and what isn't?"

Fulgoni said the economy has reached bottom but is going sideways, not up. There's no evidence of consumer spending growth, and we won't see it soon.

"And I tend to be optimistic by nature," he added with a laugh.

This is evidenced by the fact that a massive amount of Americans—about five in 10—are spending less on non-essential items. ComScore research shows that people earning under $60,000 annually are spending 65% less, those earning between $50,000-$99,000 are spending 50% less and those earning over $100,000, 47% less.

Still, Fulgoni doesn't see the big picture as all doom and gloom.

"Online advertising and e-commerce will emerge in a stronger position when the economy improves," he said.