Re: ONLINE-ADS>> banner ad click-through study

JefHampton_at_aol.com
Mon, 28 Apr 1997 16:35:08 -0400 (EDT)

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>> The researchers found that ads next to the right scroll bar (in
>> the lower right hand corner of the first screen) outperformed
>> top of the page ads by 228%. ...

>Cause and effect, however, may not be quite what the researchers
think.

I would suggest another reason for the observed results: the fine motor
skills required to use a scroll bar, particularly while reading the material
on the page. For example, I sometimes accidentally click on the Netscape
mail icon while trying to scroll down (pulling up the mail client, which is
very annoying.) I suspect that similar misplaced clicks are responsible for
at least a portion of the observed increases.

Also, it seems to me that there is an extra variable in this study for which
there was no real control: banner size. Given the design of the experiment,
it would be just as logical to conclude that small "square" banners
outperformed large rectangular banners. Although this may seem
counter-intuitive, neither conclusion is valid becuase we can not determine
which variable is responsible for the differences in performance. Banner
size might have accounted for the entire difference. Placement might have
accounted for the entire difference. Or it might be some combination. There
is no way to determine the true cause.

Jeff Hampton

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