The Power Law of Ad Clicking

Fascinating bit of research from ComScore, as reported on MediPost:

....the number of people who click on display ads in a month has fallen from 32% of Internet users in July 2007 to only 16% in March 2009, with an even smaller core of people (representing 8% of the Internet user base) accounting for 85% of all clicks.

In other words, any stats from Ad Clickers are picking up a tiny minority of real activity on the Web. Now, we have felt for a while that Display Ads are massively undervalued (on a whole raft of measures) simply because one couldn't measure them as easily (we first advanced this thesis in our major report on Online Advertising in 2007 and have kept to that view). Seems like Comscore is coming to similar conclusions:

....comScore is advocating looking beyond the click because other comScore research has shown that online display ads generate significant lift in trademark search, online and offline sales, and brand-site visitation across all verticals, among those internet users who were exposed to the online ad campaigns - whether they clicked on the ad or not. These results, compiled in comScore's influential "Whither the Click?" white paper, were reported in the June 2009 issue of the Journal of Advertising Research.

and

"a click earns no revenue and creates no brand equity... online advertising (is) certainly not to generate clicks... (but) to visit website, seek more information, purchase a product, become a lead, keep brand top of mind... "

Will we see the Rebirth of Display Ads in 2010?