A small percentage of web surfers with an unusual gusto for clicking online ads are distorting the perceived success of advertising campaigns, according to a recent study.
“Heavy clickers” represent just 6 percent of the online population but account for 50 percent of all the clicks on display ads, like banners and pop-ups. Sixty eight percent of the participants, all U.S. residents, tracked in the study didn’t click on a single ad.
“This study demonstrates that click performance is the wrong measure for the effectiveness of brand-building campaigns,” said Erin Hunter, executive vice president at comScore, in a statement.
The frequency that ads are clicked on, or click-through rate, is an easy behavior to track and quantify and has been one of the most common ways for marketers to measure the success of online advertising campaigns. This study suggests that different measurements should be used.
The report did not propose alternatives. But Grant Prentice, of media agency Starcom, which collaborated on the study, said in a statement that his company has become more reliant on directly measuring shifts in consumers’ attitudes about brands by polling them after they’ve been exposed to ads. The company also looks closely at how often ads generate sales and not just when they garner clicks.
Online researcher comScore, Starcom, and behavioral targeting network TACODA collaborated on the research study, the results of which were announced on Tuesday.
The study found that heavy clickers skew towards users aged 25 to 44 who come from households with incomes under $40,000. These same people spend a lot of time at online gambling, job searching, and gaming sites.