actinic
online marketing blog
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
How effectively do banners reinforce search advertising?
Microsoft released some research recently that seems to promote the value of banner advertising when combined with search.
http://advertising.microsoft.com/uk/advertising-case-studies-display-search-together-more-effective-finance-uk
The research, conducted with comScore for a leading high street bank, compared the effectiveness of banner advertising and search advertising when used separately and in combination. Search advertising proved twice as effective as banners. But the combination of banner and search was three times more effective than search advertising alone, and seven times more effective than a banner ad without search advertising.
The results no doubt leave MSN's ad sales team rubbing their hands with glee, but they need to be treated with great caution, for several reasons.
1) The adverts were specifically for financial services, and there is no guarantee that the same results would be repeated in other sectors
2) Microsoft only has about a 3% share of the UK search market. The market leader, Google, does not accept banner advertising. So the results are only relevant to a tiny minority of traffic
3) Both banner and search advertising were on Microsoft's own sites - so the results cannot be applied to banner and search advertising generically
4) The advertising was conducted by a recognised household brand, and would undoubtedly have been much less effective for a smaller, less well-known business
All in all, most companies will - and probably should - take the results with a huge pinch of salt.
# posted by Actinic @ 3:47 AM 
