Rich Media; how can it improve your advertising results and more importantly what is its effect on your target audience? These are important questions for every brand, marketer and publisher. It’s no surprise that our customers frequently ask for Click Through Rates (CTR), Engagement Rates (ER), Interactions Rates (IR) or the Visibility of an ad.
Since we have a broad variety of clients, we can collect a big pile of reporting data which will give us a good representation of the entire advertising market. For this reason, we published the first Rich Media Formats Benchmark in the last quarter of 2017 and due to positive reactions we decided an updated version with reporting data collected in the first quarter of 2018 was in place. In this benchmark we will address a number of interesting rates and interpret what they will mean for your advertising strategy.
The rates will provide a good and realistic representation of the market, but it’s always important to keep differences between the banners (e.g. video/no video) in mind. Equally important is checking which numbers are the best indicators for the goal you are trying to reach with your campaign. In 2012 for example, research by comScore* already revealed that there is a stronger correlation between the engagement rate and purchase conversion than the correlation between CTR and purchase conversion. We shouldn’t focus too much on the CTR and try to be open minded about what we need to aim for to reach our set goals.
What do the rates say?
The chart below shows that the high visibility scores immediately stand out. According to the IAB standards an ad is only visible when the viewer sees it for at least 50% during 1 second. In reality it’s hard to measure the real visibility, because skins are created for large screens and therefore not completely visible on a smaller screen. Due to the high visibility rates and with the IAB standards in mind, we can say that the Rich Media sizes below are a good tool to create/increase brand awareness and to get the attention of your viewers.
| Type of Rich Media | CTR | Engagement Rate | User Interaction Rate | Visibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| APTO (Automated Page TakeOver) | 1.12% | 2.18% | 24.54% | 74.40% |
| Interscroller | 0.78% | 1.09% | 2.01% | 51.78% |
| Mobile Interscroller | 0.84% | 1.15% | 1.73% | 53.49% |
| Billboard | 0.87% | 2.63% | 9.20% | 70.45% |
| Leaderboard | 1.99% | 5.39% | 8.60% | 81.41% |
| Floorad | 0.56% | 24.03% | 35.91% | 93.79% |
| 300/320x250 MWeb | 1.09% | 15.79% | 16.28% | 63.59% |
| 320x50/100 MWeb | 0.18% | 0.18% | 0.27% | 61.55% |
You’ll notice that the results for APTO and Floorad stand out in this chart. Both sizes show high rates at all the indicators measured. The numbers show that the APTO generates slightly more clicks, while a Floorad is better for engagement, interaction and visibility goals. Based on the rates above we can conclude that both an APTO and Floorad are excellent Rich Media formats to achieve brand awareness and brand recall.
Interscrollers
For the interscrollers a distinction was made between mobile and desktop, but the results show little to no difference between the two devices. Striking is the high visibility rate, while the engagement- and interaction rate falls behind. These rates can be explained by the fact that most interscrollers show a lot of information (mostly videos are added), so viewers don’t need to click through to get the information they need/want.
Leaderboard and Billboard
Finally you can see that both the Leaderboard and Billboard have a high visibility rate. Both formats are placed at the top of a page, which makes them stand out right away. Because the formats are seen easily, marketers can use them to inform consumers about new promotions or brands.
Another interesting result is the high CTR of Leaderboards, which makes this format a good fit when combined with a call to action button to increase the conversion.
Do you want to know more about our formats or Weborama as a company? Take a look in our showcase or get in touch with us.
*ComScore article: https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2012/4/For-Display-Ads-Being-Seen-Matters-More-than-Being-Clicked?cs_edgescape_cc=NL
