It’s an ongoing debate: just what influence does digital communication create beyond clicks? Well the short answer is a lot. It contributes the following:  subsequent search visits (product and brand terms),  subsequent direct site visits (over the short and long term), visits to retail premises in the case of retailers, visits to attractions in the case of leisure destinations and shifts in brand and product reputation in the case of branding messages and content.

Recent research from iProspect / Forrester (May 2009) supports this view. It reveals that of those who viewed online ads on an ad funded web site,  only 31% actually clicked, but a further 48% either searched for the product in a search engine or subsequently visited the site via a direct browser visit. A further 9% reported that they investigated further through social media or message boards.

Readers who run online campaigns will observe that few online campaigns generate click through rates as high as 31%, in fact, most display campaigns generate click rates of about 1% of that, i.e  0.31% or less.  If we factor down the other responses by a similar level, then we get to 0.27% performing a direct search and 0.21% visiting the advertising site directly through their browser.  Whilst these numbers may appear low, it does indicate that responses are many and varied and exceed the response counted as clicks alone.

I’d argue that when it comes to branding effects, such as awareness, attribution and considerations scores,  the numbers may be higher than the figures above suggest.  The problem is that we have not fully understood how to quantify these additional branding effects. There are products able to isolate groups people who are exposed to online communications and, via online surveys, compare their advertising and brand awareness to non-exposed groups, and these can reveal interesting short term results. See some of those here.

But often the changes in awareness and consideration build slowly over time, particularly in products which have to be advertised almost constantly in order to reach comparatively small groups of active buyers. Mobile network O2 springs to mind here.  Whilst much of its online display activity is designed to attract potential buyers to its online shop, there is no doubt that the constant presence of O2’s blue and white imagery on the UK’s top 250 or so web sites helps to maintain and reaffirm its credentials as a player with a big interest in the digital space.  Would we still see O2 that way of we had never seen its distinctive blue online display presence?