02 May 2011

Click this ad. 0.051% do.

The Ad Contrarian tipped me off to this one:

The Click: Brand Marketing's Most Misleading Measure
image… a tiny fraction of people ever click on an ad. In fact, 99% of stable cookies examined never click on an ad … optimization of campaigns to achieve higher CTR may in fact be reducing brand ROI.

So your digital agency says you have to put up a banner or bannerish ad on Facebook (or any social networking site). Media planners suggest an ad network.  If you follow their advice, what percentage of viewers will click on your ad?

Average click-through rate was 0.051 percent … The worst performing ad category on Facebook, per Webtrends, was healthcare, which generated 0.011 percent click-through rates and an average cost-per-click of $1.27.

Or maybe you should just stick with a fan page.

There’s a lot of bad advice out there. I don’t even take my own advice.  It’s only the beginning of May and already I’ve broken my new year’s resolution.