Traditionally, online ad performance figures are rather poor. Typically, less than one percent of Web surfers click on display ads and many ad spenders can’t decided on how ad impressions are measured.
Now, a start-up Moat has launched a new engagement currency called “No Clicks Campaign.” The heat map-focused analytics service that seeks to eliminate engagement rates measured in clicks altogether.
This is based around the theory that direct marketers care about click-throughs and brand marketers do not. As a sort of compromise, Moat says they will track “mouse hovering” over an ad, which the company believes serves as a proxy for attention.
“Most of us don’t click on ads, but we certainly notice them,” said Moat co-CEO and co-founder Jonah Goodhart. “There are studies that show we look where we move our mouse. You have to, otherwise you’re not moving it.”
Their recent study of 100 million impressions found that 0.1 percent of users clicked, 10 percent moused over the ad, and 3 percent dragged their mouse over the ad for what they declared a meaningful amount of time. This “heat-mapping” technology aggregates and visualizes where users have moused over an ad and for how long, and moat claims the data helps advertisers better understand which parts of their ad users engaged with, and how intensely.
Moat started out as an ad search engine, allowing agencies and clients to Google the placement of display ads and brands to find where they’ve advertised and where their competitors are buying Web real estate. Now the company offers a full suite of analytics centered on its heat-mapping technology, with clients like Microsoft, Kodak, and BlackBerry. “Everyone in the display ecosystem is using this engine,” Goodhart said.
Source: AdWeek
