Natural Born Clickers - Your audience does not click on ads!

Coming from the iMedia Brand Summit, a few GREAT quotes that are very much in line with the theme of my blog:

If Not The Click, Then What?
“A click means nothing. A click earns no revenue and creates no brand equity. Your online advertising has some goal –and it’s surely not to generate clicks. You want people to visit your website, seek more information, purchase a product, become a lead, keep your brand top of mind, learn something new, feel differently, etc. Regardless of whether they clicked an ad or not, the key is to determine how that ad unit influenced a consumer to think, feel, or do something they wouldn’t have done otherwise.

”John Lowell, SVP Director, Research & Analytics, Starcom

"By measuring the last ad seen or clicked by a converter, they focus entirely on a brief time span at the bottom of the funnel. Evaluating only a single point of advertising contact oversimplifies the delivery and performance of any media channel"

Microsoft’s Atlas Institute

Ad-exposed non-clickers account for the vast majority of Internet users = 85% of all online users.

Ad Spend Forecasting

Over the many years that I have been in online advertising, most everyone wants to know the big question. "Is online ad spending going to increase, decrease, or remain even?" There are several companies who forecast ad spend, and eMarketer is one of the most watched. Here's their latest:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?Ne=1040&N=685&No=19&R=1007756&xsrc=article_head_sitesearchx

I think that their prediction of a 10% bounce in 2010 is a fair estimate. I always get a little cynical about their longer term predictions, and they have forecasted some hefty growth from $22 Billion in 2009 to $36 billion in 2014. That's phenomenal growth of 64% in 4 years - Wow!, and really?

I'm always a glass half full type person, but I think there's a lot of potential of error in this number. The economy is in a slow, slow, slow growth phase right now, and the companies who need to spend the $36 billion need to be in good shape to support... right!

I generally look at the DJIA as a great indicator of quarterly or annual growth. It's the best current and slightly forward looking economic indicator. If you were to ask anyone on Wall Street what the DJIA will close at in 2014, they would pretty much laugh, and say "of course higher than today".

That said, I am very bullish for online advertising as people spend more and more time on the web. It's likely one of the most efficient mediums for transmitting a message. Super advanced targeting, ability to respond immediately with exact measurement, ability to influence larger purchase decisions like autos and enterprise technology, and relatively cheap.

So, even though I feel that eMarketer is being a little irresponsible with their predictions of growth, in general I fully agree that we should see very strong growth in our industry for years to come.