The headline read “You Are More Likely to Survive a Plane Crash Than Click a Banner Ad."

Being a media professional and an online advertising evangelist, I immediately began to freak out! Where did that stat come from? How could that possibly be? And if banner ads are so annoying to visitors and useless for advertisers, why did the website that hosted this article have banner ads on it? After reviewing the article, it became fairly obvious that the “facts” didn’t add up, and was actually authored by a company looking to promote an online advertising method that utilizes CAPTCHA authentications, which is a competitor of banner advertising. Regardless of the underlying motive of the article, what is obvious to me is the author and many advertisers do not really understand online display advertising—or as it is more commonly known—banner advertising.

The article above, along with many advertisers, mistakenly focuses solely on clicks. Yes, clicks are a performance metric to monitor but they are far from the only metric that matters. The importance of clicks is reflective of the goal of the entire campaign. For example, direct response campaigns need to rely more on clicks. However, many B2B advertising campaigns are not direct response, but are more focused on building brand awareness for products or services. In order to build awareness and also generate relevant traffic, the ads must reach the target audience. Connecting to the right audience is vital for any advertiser regardless of channel, otherwise it will be ignored by or irritate the viewer.

The true challenge for advertisers is not simply earning clicks, but reaching and engaging with the target audience. This is especially true for B2B advertisers, who often need to find proverbial needles in haystacks—like architects who specify products for healthcare facilities, or machine builders in the food and packaging industries. Reaching these niche B2B audiences with online display ads can be challenging, and usually results in selecting websites based solely on subject matter. The good news is the recent emergence of B2B ad networks are successfully using technologies that previously were exclusively focused on B2C. B2B specific ad networks target individuals based on employment factors, allowing B2B advertisers to deliver specialized messages to the targeted individual regardless of where the individual may be online.

B2B targeting technologies can be combined with rich media, which encourages ad engagement without needing to click through. Rich media can deliver content like videos, surveys, dealer locators, etc. within the actual ad format. This changes the focus from measuring clicks to measuring engagement. 

Neal Mohan, Google's VP of Display Advertising discusses using technology in the best interest of the user.

So, yes, clicks are important, but connecting with the right audience not only improves the chances of earning the click, but decreases the chances of being ignored. I’d love to hear about your experience with online ads. Have you seen any online ads that were highly engaging and/or targeted specifically to you?