Interactive Media is very interesting to follow and participate in. Everyone seems to have a view on the value of measurement metrics as the media itself touts itself as the "most measurable", but if you don't agree on what to measure and why it is important than what's the point?
In my estimation, the client determines what is important and that is only found out when you conduct a proper Customer Marketing Profile with them that determines what their goals are. Sure they want to drive sales but they also want to create a pipeline of prospects in the Buyers Awareness Cycle and future Top of Mind Awareness as you remind them that only 1% or less of any audience is in the Buyers Awareness Cycle for any given product or service at any given time. In the above 3 priorities, Conversions would be important to track for sales, click-throughs would be important to track for customers research during the Buyers Awareness Cycle, and View-Throughs would be important as a branding metric to generate Top Of Mind Awareness that 62% of shoppers rely on when they enter a buying cycle for a specific product or service. When you look at the graphic of a "Sales Funnel" in this post, you see two unique models based on what a new study has learned about gathering information in banner ads.
The article "Eyeblaster: Conversions Remain Important Metric" from MediaPost, caught my attention as their definition of a "conversion", or what some would call an "action rate", encompasses all 3 of the above metrics and shortens the process to get a "conversion" as they define it as: "the moment when a consumer exposed to an ad performs a desired action"...
"The new study, "Trends in Conversions," relies on data representing more than 2,000 campaigns that ran in 2008, as well as nearly 30 billion impressions. It shows how marketers can effectively boost direct-response performance by capturing data directly from banner ads, compared with sending the consumer to the Web site to collect information.
Key findings from the report reveal that capturing data remains the key to improving performances in marketing campaigns across many industries and forms of digital media. From standard advertising to search, the marketing funnel identifies how marketers can increase the effectiveness of campaigns by capturing the data and putting it to good use.
"Many clients are focused on click-through rates, but we found conversion rates are higher," said Amit Rahav, VP of marketing at research firm Eyeblaster, emphasizing that the elimination of steps can drive higher direct-response rates. "If your objective is to collect leads to target consumers at another time with specific offers, conversions inside the banner are much better."