In the past few years, CTR for Standard Banners has been steadily declining. The good news is that in 2010 it seems to have stabilized, according to new data.
In its recently released Global Benchmark Report, MediaMind Research analysed billions of impressions to help advertisers make the most of their Standard Banner campaigns.
The report contains detailed performance benchmarks for all popular formats for six regions and 50 countries.
The Report, titled “Standard Banners –Non-Standard Results” shows that global Clickthrough Rate (CTR) stopped declining in 2009 and 2010 and remained fixed at around 0.09%.
MediaMind research shows that CTR has been declining over the past decade, with a large decline of 18%, during the financial crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
The study reveals that paradoxically, one of the main reasons for the drop in CTR is the success of online display advertising; the increase in the number of online ad impressions outpaced users’ rise in clicks, which resulted in lower CTR.
The study 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 new findings are an encouraging sign for advertisers,” said Gal Trifon, CEO and co-Founder at MediaMind. “Although CTR is only a partial measure of online success, the leveling of CTR shows that online advertising has reached a level of maturity and that advertisers have become more sophisticated in luring users’ interest.”
The research also identified some simple solutions for advertisers to improve their campaign performance. Some of these steps include focusing on targeted content such as games, weather, technology and travel, instead of general environments like social networks.
Furthermore, advertisers should also utilize larger standard banners to increase visibility. The study also shows that creative optimization algorithms boost CTR and conversions. In addition, advertisers may also improve performance by retargeting users who are underexposed to campaigns.
The full study is available here.