Online advertising’s effect on purchase intent and sales
Posted on August 2, 2012
Millward Brown have been in the business of measuring changes in brand metrics from exposure to online advertising for quite a few years. They emphasise that marketers should be measuring (brand) online advertising not by the humble click through rate, but by a change in brand metrics.
This isn’t a new argument and one that I do agree with.
Purchase Intent is a metric that I use on a daily basis when working on digital strategy and planning for FMCG (CPG) brands. However, how many of those people that said they intended to purchase went on to actually do so?
50-70% of people follow through on their purchase intent after seeing online advertising.
I was pretty pleased that I found this stat, it’s one that I’d looking for for years! This informs and supports my estimates in ROI models.
However, my joy was short lived. Millward Brown go on to say that over the last three years, 39% of online advertising has in fact had a negative effect on purchase intent:
This is pretty bad! 39% of online advertising isn’t having little or no effect….it’s having a NEGATIVE effect! We, as an industry, need to change that. We need to start producing better ads. Helpfully, Millward Brown give some tips for doing this:
Oh, and consider using video ads…
