Can you tell how many users have really seen your campaign?


Each time an online advertisement is seen by a user, a cookie is placed on the user’s computer. Advertisers then count the total number of cookies placed in order to determine the number of unique users exposed to a campaign. However, after a user deletes his or her cookie, a new cookie is placed in his/her browser and therefore the user is incorrectly over-counted again as a new, unique user.



This edition of the global benchmarks serves as a guide to measuring and planning accurate audience reach using the new ‘Adjusted Unique’ metric developed by MediaMind. ‘Adjusted Unique’ is a breakthrough in online measurement that adjusts for cookie deletion and was accredited as IAB compliant for measuring Audience Reach by the MRC.


In addition, MediaMind’s benchmarks provide detailed ad performance averages by industry vertical, ad format and ad size in over 50 counties. The benchmarks cover Click Through Rate, Dwell, Interactions, Expansions and Video Metrics.

To download the full report, click here.

MediaMind’s new research on display advertising “Financial Services: Making Smart Investments in Online Advertising” offers striking evidence as to why it is important to target users with the right offer the first time around. According to the findings, users are about 30% more likely to convert at the first exposure as compared to additional exposures.

This indicates that users make up their minds pretty early on if an offer is relevant for them or not. If users did not act after the first exposure, the likelihood of them acting after additional exposures is significantly reduced. As there is only one chance to take advantage of a first impression, financial services advertisers should make sure that they serve the most successful and most impactful ad with the right offer to users the first time.

Technology can help. Automatic creative optimization uses historic data in order to predict which creative will be most impactful, and can then serve that exact ad. This way, advertisers can make sure that they get the most out of every impression.

The research also shows that the more dynamic and visible ad formats do a better job of attracting users’ eyes from the publishers’ mostly textual content to the ad, and thus increase effectiveness. For example, Rich Media in financial ads more than triples Click Through Rate and increases Conversion Rate, while video boosts CTR by 300% and increases Conversion Rate by 21%.

The research includes insights and advice to help financial services advertisers increase the effectiveness of their campaigns, in addition to detailed performance benchmarks by region and country.
To download the research, click here.



Ariel Geifman | Principal Analyst

eMarketer: US online ad spend will continue with a double digit growth and keep grabbing share from traditional media; Display ad spending will grow faster than search spending

After surpassing newspaper ad spending in 2010, online advertising growth doesn’t seem to be reaching a plateau anytime soon, according to a new report by eMarketer “US Ad Spending: Online Outshines Other Media”. eMarketer’s analysts project that US online ad spending will increase from $25.8 billion in 2010 to $40.5 in 2014. With a double digit annual growth, online advertising share of total advertising spending is expected to rise from 15.3% in 2010 to 20.5% in 2011.

According to the report, the growth in online advertising is driven by three factors. First, advertisers see online advertising as recession proof, since it carries lower risk and it is “more of a ‘sure thing’ than most traditional media.” Second, the huge growth in video inventory will increase spend among large brands. Third, self service ways to buy media, specifically display, will attract small and medium businesses.
While the growth of search is projected to continue, eMarketer also expect online display advertising spending to outpace search. The good news is that the report estimates that much of the additional display budgets are going to come out of dollars that are new to online, rather than cannibalize other online segments.

The fastest growing segment in online advertising is video, which is expected to grow by 42% on average every year until 2014. eMarketer expects video’s share out of total online spending to grow from 5.5% in 2010 to 14.1% in 2014.

Overall, eMarketer estimates that most online advertising spending remains aimed at direct response, rather than branding campaigns. However, this is gradually changing with the increase in reach and availability of online video advertising that presents a suitable alternative for brand advertisers.

Since its adoption after the Second World War, TV has reigned supreme, dominating users’ time spent, and attracting advertising dollars. Now, for the first time, users are spending more time online, than in front of their tube. New research by Forrester shows that in 2010, Americans spent 13 weekly hours online, in addition to spending slightly less than 13 hours watching TV—almost 4 hours daily between the two.


One of the interesting findings of the Forrester research is that the increase in time spent online is not coming at the expense of TV. In fact, time spent watching TV has remained more or less the same over the past five years, while time spent online grew by 121%.


As the length of the day remained exactly the same in the past five years, something has to give. Forrester’s analysts found that the losers are the usual suspects—Newspapers, magazines and radio. Time spent reading newspapers declined by 26%, time spent on magazines declined by 18% and time spent listening to the radio declined by 15%.


Nevertheless, the rise of online seems not as the story of the decline of other media, but a story of transformation, where TV, paper and terrestrial radio are becoming bits and bytes. For example, 33% of online users spend at least some time watching video online. With sites like Hulu and services like Netflix gaining more ground, the Internet may be just another way to watch TV.


Ariel Geifman | Principal Analyst

In its new Global Benchmark Report, MediaMind explores data showing that one of the major contributors to the decline in CTR for Standard Banners in recent years was the near financial meltdown following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. In fact, average global CTR declined from 0.11% in July ‘08 to 0.09% in October ’08. The good news is that in 2010, this downward trend has stopped at 0.09%.


Paradoxically, one of the major underlying reasons for the decline in CTR is the success of online display advertising and the exponential increase in the number of banners that users are exposed to. MediaMind found that users who are exposed to relatively few ads are more likely to have a high CTR as compared to users who are exposed to a high number of ads. The decline in CTR happens even though in absolute terms, users who are exposed to a high number of ads click more.


In addition to uncovering the root causes for the decline in CTR, the report includes recommendations that can help every advertiser to buck the trend. MediaMind’s research team has identified four easy steps that can boost the performance of every Standard Banner. In addition, the report contains detailed performance benchmarks for six regions and 50 countries broken down further by vertical and ad format.


Download the MediaMind Global Benchmarks Report to get all of the tips and tricks on delivering the best performance with Standard Banners.

Ariel Geifman | Principal Analyst, MediaMind Research