You mentioned above, “Unfortunately, the seductiveness of web statistics has driven many people to discount the impact of marketing through multiple channels.”

That is definitely a true statement. The whole measurement of the last-clicked ad gets 100% of the conversion credit was the only kind of measurement that online advertisers had. But that type of measurement is now changing for the better. Lots of companies that provide online campaign measurement metrics are shifting their focus to developing improved multi-channel tracking capabilities.

There's lots of talk out there in the industry about attribution measurement. Becuase of this new shift, I think we'll see an uptick in adoption of display as more advertisers will be able to see that their display efforts are driving click lift and conversions for their search efforts.

Matt Lillig
Yahoo! Analytics

The proliferation of content and the ability to drive audience to many different sites has created a huge amount of inventory, and that has helped to drive down the cost of advertising, on the web and then in other media.

Ultimately, the challenge for the marketer is to drive business activity at a lower cost than before. Unfortunately, the seductiveness of web statistics has driven many people to discount the impact of marketing through multiple channels.

The dichotomy has always been that online is the “measurable” medium whereas billboard / TV / radio was not. These various data points above prove that in many cases – it's really not, but it doesn't lessen the value of having online display ads as a portion of an advertiser's media mix. The combination of a good visual ad paired with websites that reach a target audience that's in line with advertiser's needs will have a positive branding impact for them.

You mentioned above, “Unfortunately, the seductiveness of web statistics has driven many people to discount the impact of marketing through multiple channels.”

That is definitely a true statement. The whole measurement of the last-clicked ad gets 100% of the conversion credit was the only kind of measurement that online advertisers had. But that type of measurement is now changing for the better. Lots of companies that provide online campaign measurement metrics are shifting their focus to developing improved multi-channel tracking capabilities.

There's lots of talk out there in the industry about attribution measurement. Becuase of this new shift, I think we'll see an uptick in adoption of display as more advertisers will be able to see that their display efforts are driving click lift and conversions for their search efforts.

Matt Lillig
Yahoo! Analytics

The proliferation of content and the ability to drive audience to many different sites has created a huge amount of inventory, and that has helped to drive down the cost of advertising, on the web and then in other media.

Ultimately, the challenge for the marketer is to drive business activity at a lower cost than before. Unfortunately, the seductiveness of web statistics has driven many people to discount the impact of marketing through multiple channels.

The dichotomy has always been that online is the “measurable” medium whereas billboard / TV / radio was not. These various data points above prove that in many cases – it's really not, but it doesn't lessen the value of having online display ads as a portion of an advertiser's media mix. The combination of a good visual ad paired with websites that reach a target audience that's in line with advertiser's needs will have a positive branding impact for them.