Real targeting is seen as the main determining factor for growth in Web advertising according to research released today by Jupiter Communications at its third annual Jupiter Online Advertising Forum.
The new media research company said that the promise of highly targeted advertising is currently not being met, and without real targeting the potential of user interactivity goes largely unrealized, as demonstrated by flattening clickthrough rates, which now hover around one percent.
“The Web has long held this promise of being the ultimate one-to-one
marketing vehicle, but currently sites are often unable to provide
advertisers basic demographic data–age, sex, income–which is
standard supporting evidence for charging higher CPMs in traditional
media,” said Evan Neufeld, practice manager of Online Advertising
Strategies at Jupiter.
“The current crop of deals between ad targeting technology vendors, and major Web sites and other tech players should serve to accelerate the development of targeting, but the time to move was yesterday.”
In spite of the relatively undeveloped state of targeting and the lack of
interaction by Web users, the report advised major marketers to start
spending aggressively now, rather than risk losing market share and
branding opportunity. Jupiter explained that marketers must demand higher
levels of targeting that will result in greater consumer interaction.
Jupiter said its Online Advertising Forum attracts more than 700 marketers and publishers to explore the key issues in the online advertising industry.