Guest comment: Should CPM be abolished?

Is anyone seeing your online ad? Traditional measurements of online advertising, such as CPM or clicks, give no measure on how many eyeballs have seen your ad. 1000 page impressions could translate into 1000 views – or none at all. And with no effective measurement models in place, there’s no way to know. So how can we begin to lower the rate of digital waste? Darren Hamer, Managing Director UK, EyeTrackShop takes a look at why new metrics could provide the solution.

There’s no question that online ad spend is at an all-time high. In 2011, the UK spent £4.4 billion on online advertising alone. This year, that number is expected to top £5 billion. For that much money, you want to be absolutely sure that every pound is being put to good use.
There’s just one important question: is anyone even seeing your ad?
According to comScore, 31% of people aren’t. Buying digital space was recently compared to purchasing ‘billboards where a third of them are at the bottom of the ocean’ by Peter Bonnier, Head of Digital at Bonnier Tidskrifter. Of the UK’s estimated spend on digital ad space this year £1.55 billion will be wasted.
This figure isn’t exactly promising, so why are we making these allowances for digital?
Traditional measurements of online advertising, such as CPM or clicks, give no measure on how many eyeballs have seen your ad. 1000 page impressions could translate into 1000 views – or none at all. And with no effective measurement models in place, there’s no way to know.
So how can we begin to lower the rate of digital waste? Luckily, things may be about to change.
YouTube is just one brand leading the way in the new industry standard of online measurement. They recently commissioned market research company EyeTrackShop to test the visual effectiveness of a McDonalds’ banner ad placed on their site. 30 participants in the McDonalds target market were asked to view the YouTube page for 10 seconds, while their eye movements, responsiveness and attention were tracked by the EyeTrackShop solution.
YouTube page with McDonald’s Advertisement
ets1.jpg
The results showed that 100% of participants saw the McDonalds ad. It was the first place the participants’ eyeballs landed on, and on average they spent 1.85 seconds looking at it before glancing away.
ets2.jpg
100% success for McDonalds, then; not much for anyone else! As the images show, a large portion of the webpage was not even viewed, proving that the placement of ads on a webpage is of the utmost importance. There is simply too much data for the human eye to take everything in.
Luckily for most brands, a YouTube-sized budget is not necessary to undertake this kind of research. EyeTrackShop has overcome the traditional barriers of high research costs and a lengthy turnaround time by eliminating the need for a lab entirely with their new realCPM tool. The solution works by performing market research in the home via the participants’ webcam on their laptop or tablet. This provides real, affordable data taken in a natural environment, and allows for turnaround times of 48 hours.
Essentially, this provides an answer to that all important question: is anyone seeing your ad?
Once we’ve established the number of eyeballs, or lack there of, viewing an ad, we then have to consider whether ad space is worth the money currently being paid. For example, if only 70% of people are viewing your ad, then maybe you should only be paying 70% of the price?
Perhaps CPM is no longer the most effective measure of online advertising after all.
By Darren Hamer
Managing Director UK
EyeTrackShop
EyeTrackShop is launching realCPM, an eyetracking auditing methodology for brands and agencies – www.realCPM.com
@EyeTrackShop_UK

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