Connecting the Dots / An Agency Blog

Last-Click Attribution Bites the Dust

It’s sad, but true. The age of the “Click” and its cousin CTR (click through rate) is over. For 10+ years, almost since the advent of online advertising, the click has been the anchor metric of online campaigns. As several recent studies have shown, the click can no longer be cast as the hero.

What we’ve learned with the drop-off in click activity is that last-click attribution is a poor way to measure the value of display campaigns. Attribution is a wordy way of saying, “Who generated the sale? lead? conversion?” With every new study on display, global click-through rates continue to decline and the ad unit suffers another reputation hit. I’ll put my Obama hat on here so there is no misunderstanding. ‘Let me be clear. Exclusive examination of the click-through rate and its connected goals will lead you astray. You may credit campaigns when credit isn’t due. You might even fault your media planners or your creative agency without realizing that you’re looking at the wrong data.’

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Engine has designed and developed a Catfish rich media unit for TELUS TV. The catfish unit is a leaderboard-like unit, designed to consistently sit at the bottom of the browser. It’s a relatively subtle ad that doesn’t interrupt the visitor experience; obvious, but not intrusive. We like the “always on” quality of the ad. TELUS likes the modular nature of the catfish; lots of room to chat about the cool features of their television product. So far, the unit has been in heavy rotation on CTV – the first of its kind ever trafficked by the CTVGlobemedia property and TELUS’ media buyer, Media Experts.

Lots of “Firsts” for everyone – TELUS, CTV and Media Experts. We think there’s a bright future for these kind of ads – rich media units that coax interaction rather than demand it. With the current frenzied focus on social media, any content (ad or otherwise) that invites interaction is increasing its chances of success. It’s a giant, opt-in world of short form conversations that even banner ads need to respect. Check that – especially banner ads.

For the past few years, Engine Digital has worked in collaboration with our client-side counterparts on the continued evolution of the TELUS Online Annual Report. And while this behemoth of a project has never failed to result in late nights of production and coding and a general ‘all hands on deck’ approach to team management, we need to hand it to our team for always delivering a solid final product.

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