Online Display Advertising ROI Effectiveness

According to this chart published by Marketing Sherpa, Online display advertising gets the best ROI.

"The key takeaway for advertisers is that the context in which an ad is served is at least as important as the ad itself. It’s no different than traditional direct marketing; the list is the most important variable in a successful campaign.

An impression is wasted if the consumer is not in the proper state of mind, or simply does not fall into the group of people who would have reason to consider the offer. From an ROI perspective, eliminating wasted impressions, then making a good impression by serving up great advertising, is consistently the best option for advertisers."

The 6% of Internet that can make you rich beyond your wildest dreams

A new research study by SVM Group shows some very interesting statistics regarding the Internet population that generates a big percentage of overall clicks.

According to the study, only 6% of Internet users are responsible for generating 50% of "all display ad clicks." Interestingly enough, this 6% doesn't represent general Internet population. Most of the users represented in this population are from 25-44 age group and have household income of less than $40,000.

Could this be the reason for Google admitting the troubles they are having with being able to monetize on social networks such as MySpace?

What implications does this have as far as the click fraud issue is concerned?

If a majority of 50% of these clicks is made by those with household income of less than $40K, are they just clicking on ads for curiosity? Should the advertisers be paying for their curiosity?

Is Google's smart pricing justified then? Google slaps publishers with smart pricing when it determines that clicks generated on the publisher's site aren't resulting in conversions on the advertiser's site. This is what Google says about Smart Pricing (also see facts about smart pricing):

...if our data shows that a click is less likely to turn into business results (e.g. online sale, registration, phone call, newsletter sign-up), we may reduce the price you pay for that click. You may notice a reduction in the cost of clicks from content sites.

One site getting hit with smart pricing can affect all sites in the network of the publisher. It seems that if these statistics are in fact true, most sites will run the risk of being smart priced.

Google tests Ajax AdSense Ads

Today, I noticed something very interesting on my MySQL blog. Google has started using AJAX functionality in their AdSense ad units.

Notice the two blue arrows on bottom-left? Clicking on these buttons does an in-page refresh of ads so you can see more Google's ads. An excellent addition from publisher's point of view. However, as far as I am concerned, Google's attempt will be of no use to me. Are they serious? Do I browse so I can go from site to site clicking on these buttons to keep seeing an endless supply of ads just so Google can make more money.

So, let me ask you a question. Do you think you will be clicking on these buttons the next time you see them? Will they help publishers monetize better?