banner ads you cannot click...

When I first started working in the area of online marketing, I was quickly made aware of and forced to join the 'banner ad's don't work' movement. I was working with search marketers who were committed to educating me in the ways of the new breed of online marketing geek. Maximizing online media ROI was the goal.

These guys had the low down on the hard numbers that proved beyond all doubt that, when purchased on a CPM basis, banner ads quickly become too expensive as a traffic acquisition tactic. More importantly, even when a banner campaign drove an acceptable level of traffic, it was typically very un-targeted traffic that was far less likely to take a specific desired action.

Therefore- banner ads purchased on a CPM basis provide a relatively low ROI when compared to other more targeted online media tactics (SEM, email, affiliate marketing etc...). You can only successfully interrupt people a certain number of people with fancy creative as they read the daily rag online. The ones that you can interrupt and get a click from probably aren't thinking about your product or service.

So what the hell are KFC thinking when they choose to run banner ads on the herald that you cannot click? On one hand I almost admire the fact that by doing this, they seem to have given into the fact that banner ads don't supply a good CTR. On the other hand I'm thinking, they have completely missed the point of online marketing- Engagement.

KFC- the internet is not a big magazine. If by chance I want to interact with your brand via some expensive interruptive media tactic- you had better let me.

Un-clickable banner ads? I just don't get it........?

Comments

[MG]

I'm just surprised that KFC are running ads on the Herald at all. Their cost per thousand impressions for this brand execution must be high, compared to Trade Me's Tab & Tower at less than 60c per 1000 impressions ;-)

Perhaps they were given the spots - little value meaning little effort?

More seriously, non-clickable spots can be logical ...

Trade Me has been running a non-clickable ad for Visa through the Pay Now optional payment pages - as product promotion to increase preference of their credit card product without interupting the payment process. A different version of the ad is then clickable after payment completion. Very clever and well-considered.

[James]

Hey Michael,

Thanks for the comment. The visa strategy of using non-clickable display ads in the conversion funnel sounds interesting. Definitely a better use of this tactic than the KFC attempt on the herald.....

james
half-geek.com