Marketers Still Unsure of Online Ad ROI

Online retail companies are struggling to understand visitor behaviour and to produce analytics they trust to give them a good picture of ROI, according to new research from Internet marketing and business optimization specialist Coremetrics.

The firm polled more than 100 marketers from large to midsize online retail companies about their ability to track and justify their online ad campaigns. 52% of respondents said they were either not sure, somewhat skeptical or completely unconvinced display advertising and/or Web 2.0 initiatives justify their cost, while 49% said it was somewhat difficult to impossible to justify display advertising and Web 2.0 budgets to their management team - only 7% believe doing so is 'very easy' and 24% very or 'somewhat easy'.

Combination of data from multiple sources appears to make understanding even more difficult: 68% said it was somewhat to very difficult to do so. Each of the above questions was answered by around 120 people.

Coremetrics' Chief Strategy Officer John Squire comments: 'With fewer dollars to spend, marketers are under increasing pressure to measure their online campaigns and justify budgets based on results. At the same time, consumers are taking more time to complete transactions online and are exposed to multiple marketing campaigns before converting.

'What's missing is the ability to understand online visitor behavior and conversion patterns so marketers can make informed, confident decisions about where to allocate their budgets.'

The firm, headquartered in San Mateo, California, is online at www.coremetrics.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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