A recent paper from Casale Media titled “The link between ad placement & performance” aimed to test the hypothesis that “not all impressions are created equal.” It did this by examining the effect of three ad placement variables — page positioning, view order and frequency – on campaign performance.
According to Casale Media, ads displayed above the fold are almost seven times more effective at generating a click than ads displayed below the fold. Ads delivered above the fold notched a click index score (calculated as (number of clicks/number of impressions) x 10000) of 17.9 and an action index score (calculated as (number of actions/number of impressions) x 10000) of 9.5. Ads delivered below the fold got a click index score of 2.6 and an action index score of 1.4.
“These results support the findings of numerous studies based on eye tracking data, according to which users spend the vast majority of their time looking at information positioned within a page’s initially viewable area,” according to the report.
When examining view order of impressions, the study found that ads in the first and second view order tiers got a click index score of 32 and an action index score of 20.3. Meanwhile, ads in the third through sixth tiers got scores of 12 and 4.7, respectively. Ads in the seventh through 14th tiers got scores of 9.5 and 2.6, respectively.
“This data suggests quite clearly that as users are exposed to more and more ads within their browsing session, those ads become less and less effective at capturing the user’s attention, to the point of oblivion (a.k.a. banner blindness),” the report noted.
Casale Media also found that ads shown five times or more got a click index score of 174.4 and an action index score of 92.5. Ads shown four times or fewer got scores of 14.7 and 6.4, respectively.
While reaching a degree of familiarity with users is essential, the report warns that too much frequency can be counterproductive, and that “frequency capping” mechanisms should be used to limit the number of times an ad is delivered to a particular user. Casale Media also notes that “frequency optimization” can be used to determine the best cap for a specific campaign.
The report closes by pointing to three environmental factors that may waste impressions:
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clutter: an excessive number of ads on a page, which reduces share of voice
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engaging content_ if users are immersed in their experience (with a photo gallery, for example), they may be more likely to ignore advertising
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auto-refresh: sites that automatically refresh may deliver ads to a user’s screen while he/she is away from their browser
“The wisdom to gain from this study is that the basic requirement of getting an advertising message in front of eyeballs should not be taken for granted: Without delivery above-the-fold, early session placement and frequency optimization, campaign performance will suffer,” according to Casale Media.
Source:
http://casalemedia.com/files/Casale-Ad-Visibility-Report-FINAL.pdf
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