Download What is Post-View?

POST-VIEW DEBUNKED
What is Post-View?
Post-view is a metric enabling sales attribution where users have seen an ad and gone on to make a
purchase, without clicking on the ad itself. These instances are known as post-impression or postview conversions.
How does it work?
It’s possible to track post-view conversions using the same method as with post-click. When an ad
loads it drops a cookie that will be called up if/when the user goes on to make a purchase. It can
work alongside post-click through the use of two distinct cookies corresponding to an ad load and
click respectively.
Why is post-view such a hotly debated metric?
1. Post-view implies a direct link between seeing an ad and making a purchase, whereas there
might be many reasons that a user goes on to buy something from a site. For example, I might
see an ad for a popular phone which I had already planned to purchase when my current
contract expires. If I go on to ‘convert’ in the next couple of days this will be recorded as a postview sale.
2. It’s possible that ‘post-view’ customers didn’t actually see an ad. It may have been on a site
they were browsing, but for some reason they missed it (although the risk of this occurring is
reduced through the implementation of ‘above the fold’ tagging’; i.e. placing ads only where
they are visible without a user scrolling).
3. And then there’s the wider issue of whether it’s actually human traffic being recorded.
Technology companies like spider.io and Alenty are currently working to reduce non-viewable
(and non-human) ad impressions and clicks.
4. The longer the post-view window the higher the likelihood that the eventual sale is attributable
to more than the view of a single ad impression. Most display publishers understand this and
will try to minimise undue attribution by setting a cookie window that’s in line with the level of
existing brand awareness.
The Argument for Post-View
The main complaint concerning post-view is the fact that these conversions don’t provide a direct
line between an ad impression and a site visit, and relates to the fact that online advertising was
initially hailed as the first step in ‘measurable’ marketing.
The problem with this line of thinking is that it would proceed to dismiss television, radio, OOH and
all other offline forms – which existed as the sum of advertising before the dawn of the internet. We
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POST-VIEW DEBUNKED
know that there is a correlation between the viewing of an ad and increased sales, or Fox would
never be able to unload those $4 million, 30 second Super-bowl commercial slots…
Considering the Click
It’s important when evaluating the post-view metric to
consider on the other hand the efficacy of post-click,
which is often taken for granted despite the fact that
84% of internet users never click on an ad, according to
a 2008 study by Comscore and Starcom MediaVest. The
same study indicated that a small portion of internet
users account for almost all clicks in online
advertisements (8% of users produce 85% of clicks).
Moreover the profiles of these users are quite specific
(according to the IAB, young people aged 25-44 with an
income of less than $40k annually) and do not always
correspond to the advertiser’s target audience.
‘The click-through rate
underestimates the
actual impact that
display advertising has
on the brand’ – Measuring
the Effectiveness of Online Advertising.
Study conducted by PWC for IAB
France and the SRI (2010).
Value Beyond the Click
In 2008, Comscore assessed the impact of online display advertising on consumer behaviour. The
study (“Whither the Click?”) showed that exposure to display advertising campaigns can bring about
material changes in consumer behaviour even in the absence of a click. Comscore’s study identified
the following positive effects of a display advertising campaign, beyond the click.
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Increased Brand Awareness, evidenced through a minimum 38% increase in internet searches for
the advertiser’s brand and a minimum 46% increase in visits to the advertiser’s website (over a
four week period)
Positive Impact on Purchase Intent, evidenced through an average 27% lift in online sales and a
17% increase in instore sales. The IAB’s 2010 study (referenced below) also identified an 11%
increase in the purchase intent of internet users who viewed a sample of four display campaigns
run by advertisers from different industries.
These effects will of course be more or less attributable to display activity depending on the
following factors:
1. Brand awareness at the start of the advertising campaigns (relatively unknown brands will likely
experience significantly improved brand awareness and purchase intent)
2. The duration and reach of the display campaign
3. The purpose and type of the creative message
4. Other concurrent offline and/or online advertising campaigns
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Added Benefits of Post-View Tracking
Because only 16% of internet users will click on an ad, analysing post-view in addition to post-click
conversions gives a much vaster quantity of performance data for optimisation purposes. As Dax
Hamman of eConsultancy points out, ‘view-throughs account for over 90% of site visitors and will be
responsible for over 90% of site views when they get there. In other words, view-through turns out
to be the more reliable metric in the end’.
Resources
http://www.onlinemarketr.com/blog/403/view-through-conversions-fact-or-fiction/
http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/10487-view-through-attribution-exposed
http://www.pwc.se/en_GX/gx/entertainmentmedia/pdf/IAB_SRI_Online_Advertising_Effectiveness_v3.pdf
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