The FINANCIAL -- LONDON, U.K. comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), one of the leaders in measuring the digital world, today announced the release of a report entitled “How Online Advertising Works: Whither the Click in Europe?” that highlights the latent view-through impact of online advertising based on numerous advertising effectiveness studies conducted across European markets.

The report, based on results from nearly 20 studies conducted by comScore in Europe, revealed that those exposed to online ad campaigns in Europe were 72 percent more likely to visit the advertiser’s website and 94 percent more likely to conduct a trademark search query on the advertiser’s brand, compared to a control group of similar Internet users who were not exposed to the campaigns. These results were observed despite minimal clicks on the ads in the various campaigns.

“The results of these initial ad effectiveness studies we’ve conducted in Europe are rather provocative,” said Mike Shaw, comScore Director of Marketing Solutions. “They not only demonstrate a clear view-through value of online ads independent of Internet users clicking on the ads, but the resulting lifts in behaviour substantially outperform what we’ve seen in the U.S.”

By comparison, comScore has observed an average lift of 49 percent in site visitation and 40 percent in trademark search queries across hundreds of ad effectiveness studies conducted in the U.S. The higher ad response in Europe could be explained by a number of factors -- such as differences in online ad clutter, differences in creative executions or differences in consumer response to advertising stimuli -- yet is still interesting to note and augers well for the future of the European online advertising industry.

Latent Impact of Online Ad Exposures in Europe

The study also highlighted the latent effect of online display ad exposure in Europe, with results indicating a sustained lift in behaviour in the weeks following initial exposure to an online ad. While the lift was strongest in the first week after initial campaign exposure, the lift in subsequent weeks declined by only a small amount. Specifically, the lift in advertiser site visitation among the campaign-exposed group was 99 percent the first week, but remained above 70 percent for weeks 1-3. The lift in trademark search queries experienced even less attrition, falling from 91 percent during the first week to 81 percent during weeks 1-3.

“These results help illustrate how online advertising works. Despite the long-held obsession with using clicks to measure campaign performance – which reflect only the immediate impact of an ad -- the comScore studies demonstrate that the Internet is clearly effective as a latent brand-building medium,” added Mr. Shaw. “Europeans appear to be particularly receptive to online advertising, and whether it’s due to better creative, less ad clutter, or greater receptivity to online ads, the implication for brand advertisers is clear: ignore online as a brand-building channel at your own peril.”

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