I attended the ad:tech Digital Marketing event in London back in September and sat in on an intriguing presentation by ComScore about online banner advertising and how more and more people are clicking on less and less of them. In fact, only 8% of Internet users account for 85% of all clicks according to their study. Compared to search engine marketing (SEM), click-through on banner ads seem pitiful and almost a waste of resources and money. But wait. Before you decide to kill your banner ad campaign, consider this: using just click-through to measure the performance of your banner ad campaign is a mistake. Here’s why. The vast majority of Internet users do not click on banners, but are still very active on search and they’re buying. The most interesting finding from ComScore’s research is that banner ads generate a significant lift in search activity among users exposed to banner ad campaigns, regardless of whether they clicked on the ad or not.

The table below shows the results of ComScore’s study which tested a control group of users not exposed to a banner ad campaign against a test group of users exposed to it across various industry verticals. In all cases, there was an increase in search activity by the test group, in one vertical as high as 77%. The overall average lift being 46%.

It makes sense when you think about it. I see myself behaving similarly. I seldom click on banner ads, but many times I have later gone to Google to search for a brand name or offer from an ad I was exposed to earlier – as I try to recall it. In this common scenario, the banner ad would have no value if it was measured by click through alone. Yet, in reality it entirely influenced the final search activity, which is often assigned all the value as the “last click” to the site. This study gives enough reason to reassess how you value banner advertising and the impact it has on your overall advertising campaign… beyond the click.