IAB urges ‘clickhead’ advertisers to review their strategy for measuring campaigns
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today called on brands to stop using click-through-rates to measure the effectiveness of online adverts.
In a light-hearted letter to hundreds of advertisers, the IAB called out brands for becoming “clickheads” by relying too heavily on so-called vanity metrics.
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The message comes as part of a campaign to highlight the failings of measurement in digital advertising and to encourage brands to explore alternative metrics.
IAB chief marketing officer James Chandler said: “Advertisers increasingly rely on click-through-rates to justify their marketing spend to the chief financial officer, but it’s not a reliable metric for effectiveness and only tells half the story.”
“That’s why our message to the industry today is simple: don’t be a clickhead,” he added.
The tongue-in-cheek campaign comes as the trade body launches its own measurement toolkit outlining the best practices for measuring digital advertising.
The IAB said the guide outlines various approaches to measuring campaigns and explains how they can fit together to form an overall strategy.
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Chief digital officer Tim Elkington said: “Advertisers are faced with growing complexity and an increasing number of methodologies for ad measurement.
“Our guide seeks to address this by focusing on how to measure advertising effectiveness and business outcomes across different media channels.”