New Jupiter online advertising research reveals that marketers who begin measuring the value of online branding will find a significant increase in the ROI of their digital marketing initiatives. According to a Jupiter Executive Survey, however, only 15 percent of marketers are conducting formal online branding measurement -- while the majority continue to favor direct response metrics, including click-rate (60 percent) and cost per conversion (75 percent).

"Jupiter case study data show that the actual number of customers driven to Web sites by online advertising is greatly underestimated by traditional click-rate metrics. Furthermore, when brand advertising programs generate synergy across all marketing channels, that number can grow significantly beyond what can be tracked," said Rudy Grahn, analyst, Jupiter Media Metrix.

Key findings and forward-looking analysis from the latest Jupiter online advertising research include the following:

• According to Jupiter analysts, marketers who are looking to correlate ad spend with an increase in traffic are taking the wrong approach. In fact, Jupiter case studies show that while online advertising is more effective than marketers believe, it is still secondary to other factors in driving traffic to Web sites. Online advertising only contributes to 17 percent of the traffic to a Web site, while seasonality and an increase in Internet adoption contribute to 46 percent and 37 percent of the growth, respectively.
• Jupiter analysts suggest that marketers can measure branding value by correlating behavioral data (including individual user click-streams, repeated surfing patterns and aggregate user behavior) with the flights of specific ads. While there are not yet standards for determining this correlation, marketers have begun experimenting with calculating the relationship between aggregate spend and the corresponding volume of users' behavior such as hits on store locator pages, information requests and hits on phone-ordering information pages.

"Although much of the talk about the 'new economy' has been debunked, the old dogs still have new tricks to learn," Grahn said. "What is learned in online branding may not set completely new rules for marketers ultimately; but it will offer lessons wise marketers will heed."

More details can be found at the Jupiter Media Metrix Web site.