2009 Year-in-Review Benchmarks A DoubleClick Report
Table of Contents
Executive Summary.......................................................2 Static Image and Flash Benchmarks.......................3 Rich Media Ad Benchmarks........................................5 Benchmarks Comparison 2008 vs. 2009.............14 Worldwide Overall Performance Norms..................16
White Paper | DoubleCilck
2009 Year-in-Review Benchmarks About DoubleClick
Google’s DoubleClick products provide ad management and ad serving solutions to companies that buy, create or sell online advertising. The world’s top marketers, publishers, ad networks and agencies use DoubleClick products as the foundation for their online advertising businesses. With deep expertise in ad serving, media planning, search management, rich media, video and mobile, our DoubleClick products help customers execute their digital media strategy more effectively. ™
For more information visit: www.doubleclick.com
The DoubleClick Benchmarks Report is a free report of industry benchmarks that helps advertisers, agencies, and publishers evaluate the performance of online display advertising campaigns in the U.S., relative to industry norms. DoubleClick benchmarks are derived from a robust data set of metrics across DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA), based on rigorous methodology with input from the Advertising Research Foundation. This data set includes hundreds of advertisers, thousands of campaigns, and tens of billions of ad impressions. Data shown here represent activity of a wide range of ad formats for DFA advertisers in the United States unless otherwise indicated. For all benchmarks provided in this report, the data are from January 2009 to December 2009. Executive Summary Overall U.S. campaign performance norms for 2009 across DoubleClick image, Flash, and rich media campaigns are as follows: Click-through Rate (CTR)
0.10%
Video Complete Rate
50%
Interaction Rate
2.54%
Average Display Time
34.6 secs
Average Interaction Time
9.0 secs
Average Expanding Time
4.7 secs
Expansion Rate
2.8%
Key Observations: Ad size correlates with clicks and interaction rates. As in previous years, we have observed that ad size is somewhat correlated with click-through rate. This is also true with interaction rates except for one anomaly – the ad size that has the highest interaction rate overall is the square pop-under (250x250), although it’s important to note this size is one of the least common creative sizes served through DFA. Static ads and flash ad click-through rates remained relatively stable from 2008 to 2009. In 2009, static ads perform slightly better than flash ads in terms of clickthroughs when you compare them by creative size. However when you compare them by industry vertical there was virtually no difference in click-through rates between static and flash ads. This suggests that differences in click-through rates between flash and static ads are due more to ad vertical rather than format. We also observed that expansion rates declined from 2008 to 2009 while overall interaction rates increased in 2009. DFA Impressions by Creative Type Data on the distribution of impressions by type of creative format was a popular request in response to last year’s benchmarks report so we included this information in the report this year. Note that as with other benchmarks in this report, this data reflects impressions served through the DoubleClick for Advertisers platform.
2
2009 DFA Impressions Image 20%
Rich Media In-page 5% Rich Media Expanding 2% Rich Media Video 2% Rich Media In-page Video 2% Flash 69% Source: DoubleClick Benchmarks, U.S. DFA campaigns, January – December 2009
Static Image Ads and Flash Ads Benchmarks Overall Click-Through Rate (CTR) Static Ads
0.10%
Flash Ads
0.09%
Figure 1: Click-through Rate by Creative Sizes for Static Image and Flash Ads 0.09% 0.10%
Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
0.19%
Vertical Rectangle: 240x400
0.28%
0.05% 0.06%
Verical Banner: 120x240
0.16%
Square Pop-Up: 250x250
0.23%
0.07% 0.10% 0.09% 0.11% 0.10% 0.12% 0.08% 0.09% 0.09% 0.14%
Skyscraper: 120x600 Rectangle: 180x150 Medium Rectangle: 300x250 Leaderboard: 728x90 Large Rectangle: 336x280
0.18% 0.17%
Half Page Ad: 300x600 0.06% 0.06% 0.05% 0.08% 0.05% 0.06%
Half Banner: 234x60 Full Banner: 468x60 3:1 Rectangle: 300x100 0
0.05
0.10
0.15
Flash click-through rate%
0.20
0.25
Static click-through rate%
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, a cross section of major ad sizes only, January – December 2009 3
0.30
Figure 2: Click-Through Rate for Static Image and Flash Ads by Industry Vertical 0.15% 0.14%
Auto 0.10%
Brands
0.12% 0.08% 0.09% 0.07% 0.10% 0.09% 0.10% 0.06% 0.07% 0.10% 0.11% 0.08% 0.11% 0.09% 0.12% 0.06% 0.07% 0.08% 0.09% 0.08% 0.11%
B2B Classified and Local CPG Financial Services Media/Entertainment Retail Tech Telecom Travel Wellness 0
0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 Flash click-through rate%
0.10 0.12 0.14 0.16 Static click-through rate%
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, a cross section of major industry verticals only, January – December 2009
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Rich Media Ad Benchmarks • • • • • •
Preface: A Primer on Evaluating Rich Media Ad Metrics Overall Rich Media Performance Norms Click-through Rate Interaction Rate and Expansion Rate Average Display Time, Interaction Time, and Expanding Time Video Complete Rate
Preface: A Primer on Evaluating Rich Media Ad Metrics A rich media ad unit can inspire a range of responses from users — not every click in a rich media unit produces a click-through. When a viewer clicks on a rich media unit, a number of outcomes are possible, including expanding the unit, playing a video or otherwise interacting with the unit. The call-to-action for a viewer to click-through competes with all other possible forms of interaction within the unit. As a result, click-through rates can be lower for rich media than for other forms of online advertising where the clickthrough is the only form of user interaction. The objective of rich media ads isn’t always to drive clicks — they are often used to provide users with an experience within the ad itself. Therefore, engagement metrics such as interaction rates, interactions times, video completion, and expansions are important measures of the success of such ads. Also keep in mind that conversion activity can happen within the ad unit itself: A click could result in the user downloading a report from the ad unit, signing up for more information through a form on the ad unit, locating a product by zip code, or playing a video within the ad unit. Advertisers should consider the goals of the campaign at hand, and evaluate the performance of their campaigns based on the most relevant rich media ad metric. Overall Rich Media Performance Norms Click-through Rate (CTR)
0.10%
Video Complete Rate
50%
Interaction Rate
2.5%
Average Display Time
34.6 secs
Average Interaction Time
8.9 secs
Average Expanding Time
4.7 secs
Expansion Rate
2.8%
Key Observations Differences between non-video and video for rich media in-page ads in terms of interaction rate were not considerably different (see figure 7), except for the large rectangle where video outperformed non-video by a large margin (4.0% vs. 2.7% respectively). In-page video click-through rate was down for half-page ad size, from 0.3% in 2008 down to 0.1% in 2009. The other ads sizes remained relatively the same from year to year. In contrast to the 2008 benchmarks where we saw video outperform non-video ads across the board, we observed that in 2009 non-video rich media expanding ads performed better than video ads both in terms of interaction and expansion rates. (Figures 14 and 15). Video completes for rich media in-page went down a little over 6% from 2008 to 2009 from 62.3% in in 2008 to 56.3% in 2009 (see page 13). Compared to 2008 benchmarks we found that in 2009 more people interacted with and expanded rich media ads but the time they spent interacting, expanding or finishing a video ad has declined from 2008. Increases in overall rich media metrics – 2008 to 2009 • Rich media average display time increased from 32.1 secs to 34.6 secs • Rich media click-through rate went up from 0.09% to 0.11% • Rich media interaction rate rose from 2.1% to 2.5% • Rich media expansion rate rose from 2.5% to 2.8% 5
Declines in overall rich media metrics – 2008 to 2009 • Average interaction time from 10.3 secs to 9.0 secs • Video complete rate from 54.5% to 50.0% • Average expanding time from 6.5 secs to 4.7 secs Click-through Rate by DoubleClick Rich Media Format Video exhibits higher click-through rates than non-video for both in-page as well as expanding rich media formats. Figure 3: Click-through Rate by DoubleClick Rich Media Format 0.14 0.12 0.10
0.1 1%
0.10%
0.10%
DoubleClick Rich Media Expanding (Non-video)
DoubleClick Rich Media Expanding (Video)
0.11%
0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0.00 DoubleClick Rich Media In-page (Non-video)
DoubleClick Rich Media In-page (Video)
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media in-page and expanding formats only, January – December 2009
Click-through Rate (CTR) by Creative Size for in-page and Expanding DoubleClick Rich Media Formats Figure 4: DoubleClick Rich Media in-page Click-through Rate for video and non-video 0.10% 0.12%
Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
0.13% 0.11%
Skyscraper: 120x600
0.36%
Rectangle: 180x150 0.12% 0.14%
Medium Rectangle: 300x250
0.06% 0.08%
Leaderboard: 728x90
0.12% 0.09%
Large Rectangle: 336x280
0.11%
Half Page Ad: 300x600 Full Banner: 468x60
0.20%
0.05% 0
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40
Video click-through rate%
Non-video click-through rate%
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media in-page format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
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Figure 5: DoubleClick Rich Media Expandable Click-through Rate for video and non-video 0.11% 0.09%
Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
0.10% 0.07%
Skyscraper: 120x600
0.12% 0.12%
Medium Rectangle: 300x250 0.08% 0.08%
Leaderboard: 728x90
0.15% 0.13%
Large Rectangle: 336x280
0.18%
Half Page Ad: 300x600 0
0.05
0.10
0.15
Video click-through rate%
0.22%
0.20
0.25
Non-video%
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media expanding format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
Interaction and Expansion Rates Non-video rich media expanding ads have both a higher expansion rate and a higher interaction rate compared to video ads and in-page non-video ads. Figure 6: Interaction Rate and Expansion Rate by DoubleClick Rich Media Format 5.00 4.50
3.99%
4.00 3.50
3.08%
3.00 2.50
3.09% 2.56%
2.27%
2.21%
2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00 DoubleClick Rich Media In-page (Non-video)
DoubleClick Rich Media Expanding (Non-video)
Interaction Rate %
DoubleClick Rich Media In-page (Video)
DoubleClick Rich Media Expanding (Video)
Expansion Rate %
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media in page and expanding formats only, January – December 2009
7
Interaction Rate by Creative Size Figure 7: DoubleClick Rich Media in-page Interaction Rate for video and non-video 2.4% 2.3%
Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
1.9% 1.7%
Skyscraper: 120x600 1.2%
Rectangle: 180x150
2.8% 2.5%
Medium Rectangle: 300x250 1.7% 1.8%
Leaderboard: 728x90 Large Rectangle: 336x280
4.0%
2.7%
4.1% 4.5%
Half Page Ad: 300x600 Full Banner: 468x60
0.7% 0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Video interaction rate %
3.5
4
4.5
5
Non-video interaction rate %
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media in-page format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
Interaction Rate and Expansion Rate by Creative Size Figure 8: DoubleClick Rich Media Expandable Interaction Rate for video and non-video 2.9% 2.9%
Wide Skyscraper: 160x600 1.3%
Skyscraper: 120x600 Medium Rectangle: 300x250
2.9% 3.4% 2.7%
Leaderboard: 728x90 Large Rectangle: 336x280
4.5%
3.9% 4.0%
5.2% 4.6%
Half Page Ad: 300x600 0
2.0
4.0
Video interaction rate %
6.0
6.9% 8.0
Non-video interaction rate %
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media expanding format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
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Figure 9: DoubleClick Rich Media Expandable Expansion Rate for video and non-video 1.8%
Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
2.4% 2.3%
Skyscraper: 120x600
2.1%
Medium Rectangle: 300x250 Leaderboard: 728x90 Large Rectangle: 336x280
3.0% 2.8% 3.5% 2.9%
4.3%
1.3%
Half Page Ad: 300x600 0
2.0
1.0
3.0
4.0
Video Expansion Rate %
5.0
Non-video Expansion Rate %
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media expanding format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
Figure 10: Click-through Rate by Industry Vertical for DoubleClick Rich Media Format Auto
0.15%
B2B
0.08%
CPG
0.09%
Financial Services
0.06%
Media/Entertainment
0.10%
Retail
0.09%
Tech
0.10%
Telecom
0.07%
Travel
0.08%
Wellness
0.09% 0
0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
0.12 0.14 0.16
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media formats only, a cross section of major industry verticals only, January – December 2009
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Figure 11: Interaction Rate, and Expansion Rate by Industry Vertical for DoubleClick Rich Media Format 2.0% 2.2%
Auto B2B
8.4%
6.3% 3.5% 3.1% 3.5% 2.9%
CPG Financial Services 1.7%
Media/Entertainment
2.7% 2.4% 3.0% 3.5% 2.5% 2.9% 2.4% 2.4% 2.5% 3.4% 3.8%
Retail Tech Telecom Travel Wellness 0
4.0
2.0
Expansion Rate %
6.0
8.0
10.0
Interaction Rate%
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media formats only, a cross section of major industry verticals only, January – December 2009
Figure 12: Average Display Time (secs), Interaction Time (secs), and Expanding Time (secs) by DoubleClick Rich Media Format 45.00 40.00
38.37
35.24
35.00
32.62
30.92
30.00 25.00 20.00 15.00 10.00
10.12
10.8 4.24
5.00
6.16
3.56
8.05
0.00 DoubleClick Rich Media In-page (Non-video)
DoubleClick Rich Media Expanding (Non-video)
DoubleClick Rich Media In-page (Video)
DoubleClick Rich Media Expanding (Video)
Average Interaction Time Average Display Time Average Expanding Time
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media expanding format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
10
Average Display Time, Interaction Time, and Expanding Time by Creative Size and Rich Media Format Figure 13: DoubleClick Rich Media in-page Average Display Time (secs) for video and non-video Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
36.6 33.8
Skyscraper: 120x600
35.4 36.6 29.0
Rectangle: 180x150
37.9 34.9
Medium Rectangle: 300x250
40.3 36.2
Leaderboard: 728x90
53.2 54.8
Large Rectangle: 336x280 41.3 38.4
Half Page Ad: 300x600 Full Banner: 468x60
35.3 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
(secs)
Video Average Display Time Non-video Average Display Time Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media in-page format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
Figure 14: DoubleClick Rich Media in-page Average Interaction Time (secs) for Video and non-video Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
9.7
11.1
10.5 10.5
Skyscraper: 120x600 5.2
Rectangle: 180x150
10.5 10.3
Medium Rectangle: 300x250 Leaderboard: 728x90
11.8
10.2
11.9 13.1
Large Rectangle: 336x280 Half Page Ad: 300x600
11.4
Full Banner: 468x60
14.2
10.5 0
5
10
15
(secs)
Video Average Interaction Time Non-video Average Interaction Time Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media expanding format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
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Figure 15: DoubleClick Rich Media Expandable non-video Average Display Time (secs), Expanding Time (secs), and Interaction Time (secs) 5.3 4.6
Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
29.6
5.3 6.6
Skyscraper: 120x600 Medium Rectangle: 300x250
4.7 4.0
Leaderboard: 728x90
3.2 2.6%
Large Rectangle: 336x280
4.3 5.4
Half Page Ad: 300x600
3.2 0
30.5 32.4 34.0 45.3
7.6 53.2 10
20
30
40
50
60
(secs)
Average Interaction Time Average Expanding Time Average Display Time Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media expanding format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
Figure 16: DoubleClick Rich Media Expandable Video Average Display Time (secs), Expanding Time (secs), and Interaction Time (secs) 6.1
Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
9.5
Skyscraper: 120x600
6.5
Medium Rectangle: 300x250
6.8 7.8 5.0
Leaderboard: 728x90
0
30.8 32.4
9.3
8.5
Half Page Ad: 300x600
28.9
7.8
5.7
Large Rectangle: 336x280
27.6
51.1
11.9
10
29.4 20
30
40
50
60
(secs)
Average Interaction Time Average Expanding Time Average Display Time Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media expanding format only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
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Video Complete Rate DoubleClick Rich Media Expanding
38.5
DoubleClick Rich Media in-page
56.3%
Figure 17: Video Complete Rate for DoubleClick Rich Media in-page (Video) and Expandable (Video) by Creative Size 40.0%
Wide Skyscraper: 160x600
60.8%
34.4%
Skyscraper: 120x600
66.8%
40.2%
Medium Rectangle: 300x250
54.7%
35.1%
Leaderboard: 728x90
59.7%
37.5%
Large Rectangle: 336x280
61.8%
42.3% 39.8%
Half Page Ad: 300x600 20
0
40
60
80
Expandable Video Complete Rate % In-page Video Complete Rate % Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media in-page and expanding formats only, a cross section of standard ad sizes only, January – December 2009
Figure 18: Video Complete Rate by Industry Vertical Auto
61.5%
B2B
34.1%
CPG
48.8%
Financial Services
46.2%
Media/Entertainment
35.9%
Retail
21.2%
Tech
56.0%
Telecom
46.7%
Travel
42.0%
Wellness
23.1% 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, U.S. advertisers, DoubleClick Rich Media video format only, a cross section of major verticals only, January – December 2009
13
U.S. Benchmarks Comparison – 2008 vs. 2009 Figure 19: Overall Click-through Rates by Month for 2008 and 2009 0.14 0.12 0.10 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0.00 Month
1
2
2008
0.12%
0.11%
0.10% 0.10% 0.10% 0.09% 0.10%
2009
0.12%
0.11%
0.10% 0.09% 0.09% 0.09% 0.10% 0.09% 0.09% 0.09% 0.09% 0.09%
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
0.10% 0.09% 0.09% 0.09% 0.09%
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers U.S. campaigns, January 2008 – December 2009
Click-through rates tend to spike in January, possibly due to shoppers responding to post-holiday sales. Otherwise, click-through rates overall tend to be consistent throughout the rest of year and similar to click-through rates in 2008.
Figure 20: Overall Interaction Rates by Month for 2008 and 2009 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0.00 Month 2008
1
2
3
4 1.84%
5
6
1.77% 1.66%
7
8
9
10
11
12
1.81% 2.44% 2.38% 2.43% 2.35% 2.31%
2009 2.96% 2.90% 2.79% 2.72% 2.52% 2.57% 2.60%
2.53% 2.32% 2.29% 2.28% 2.27%
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers campaigns, April 2008 – December 2009. In February 2008, DoubleClick upgraded the methodology for counting interaction impressions and interaction times; benchmark data is available using this methodology beginning April 2008.
Interaction rates have increased considerably in Q2 of 2009 year over year. They are stable across years in the second half of the year.
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Figure 21: Overall Expansion Rates by Month for 2008 and 2009 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00 Month
1
2
3
4
2008
1.85%
1.95%
1.89%
1.64%
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
1.96% 2.03% 2.37% 3.57% 3.49% 3.48% 3.38% 3.39%
2009 3.48% 3.64% 3.47% 3.04% 2.78% 2.89% 2.71%
2.80% 2.27% 1.97% 2.20% 2.14%
Expansion rates were generally declining from 2008 to 2009 but by the end of 2009, they were coming back to their levels in early 2008.
Figure 22: Overall Interaction Time (secs) by Month for 2008 and 2009 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Month
1
2
3
2008 2009
8.1
8.0
8.2
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
11.6
11.9
11.9
11.2
9.2
9.3
9.1
9.1
9.2
(secs)
8.5
8.9
8.7
9.2
9.3
9.5
9.7
9.5
9.7
(secs)
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers campaigns, April 2008 – December 2009. In February 2008, DoubleClick upgraded the methodology for counting interaction impressions and interaction times; benchmark data is available using this methodology beginning April 2008.
While overall interaction times were declining month to month in 2008, we saw a steady increase in overall interaction times in 2009.
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Worldwide Overall Performance Norms Figure 23: Overall Worldwide Click-Through Rates across Static Image, Flash and Rich Media Formats Region
Overall Click-Through Rate
North America Canada
0.09%
United States
0.10%
EMEA Austria
0.11%
Belgium
0.13%
Denmark
0.12%
Finland
0.05%
France
0.12%
Germany
0.11%
Greece
0.17%
Ireland
0.10%
Italy
0.10%
Luxembourg
0.09%
Netherlands
0.14%
Norway
0.11%
Spain
0.12%
Sweden
0.08%
Switzerland
0.12%
United Arab Emirates
0.18%
United Kingdom
0.07%
JAPAC Australia
0.07%
China
0.12%
Hong Kong
0.17%
India
0.18%
Malaysia
0.30%
Singapore
0.19%
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, a cross section of regions, January – December 2009
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Figure 24: DoubleClick Rich Media Metrics Across a Cross-Section of Regions Country
Interaction Rate (%)
Expansion Rate (%)
Video Complete Rate (%)
Average Interaction Time (secs)
Average Expanding Time (secs)
Average Display Time (secs)
Canada
5.3%
6.4%
66.9%
6.6
4.4
47.1
United States
2.5%
2.8%
50.0%
9.0
4.7
34.6
7.4%
39.6%
7.1
North America
EMEA Belgium
2.7%
France
3.9%
7.7
Germany
2.9%
Ireland
2.2%
6.4%
55.6%
Italy
3.5%
7.1%
Luxembourg
2.1%
5.9%
Netherlands
4.5%
7.3%
United Kingdom
2.3%
5.1%
31.1 5.6
8.6
27.6 33.3
10. 5
5.1
37.4
52.1%
7.5
6.8
36.1
39.5%
9.1
7.5
32. 6
7.5
5.8
34.9
9.6
5.8
35.2
53.1%
JAPAC China
3.0%
7.1
Hong Kong
6.0%
10.9%
Singapore
7.9%
9.2%
17.4%
15.5
7.1
7.0
12.8
6.5
3.2
30.3
Source: DoubleClick for Advertisers, a cross section of regions with statistically significant rich media metrics, January – December 2009
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Appendix Appendix A: About the Source Data DoubleClick has built a robust software tool to analyze online advertising campaign activity across its DART ad serving platform. Presently, the tool reports click-through rates, interaction rates, interaction times, expansion rates, expansion times and video complete rates for ads for thousands of advertisers using the DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA) and DoubleClick Rich Media platforms. These data are carefully normalized to reflect industry norms to the best of our ability. The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) was consulted on the design of this tool and advised on aspects of its methodological design, including the use of medians instead of mean averages for the calculation of the benchmark metrics noted above. Data shown here represent activity of a wide range of ad formats for DFA advertisers in the United States unless otherwise indicated. The majority of data are from January 2009 to December 2009. The dataset used for the DoubleClick benchmarks reports of the activity of thousands of DFA advertisers that have been categorized by industry and country geography. Industry categories are defined by the sub-categories they represent. To make category assignments, each DFA advertiser is assigned to a single industry sub-category. Subcategory assignments then roll-up into category assignments. For example, the Media and Entertainment industry category is a roll-up of advertiser data from seventeen subcategories, including Music, Movies, Sports, Arts and others. To ensure statistical soundness as well as client confidentiality, minimums have been applied to the data sets that can be reported on: at least four advertisers and four DART networks must be represented for any metric to be reported at any dimension of the data (e.g., by creative size, by time period).
Appendix B: Definition of Interaction Rate and Interactions Interaction Rate: The ratio of DoubleClick Rich Media ad interactions to the number of rich media ad impressions displayed. This number is reached using the following calculation:
Interactions + Rich Media Impressions
Interactions: The number of times users interacted with a DoubleClick Rich Media ad. An interaction is uniquely counted only once per impression. Interactions are captured when the user does one or more of the following: • • • •
Mouses over the ad for 1 continuous second Clicks an Exit link Makes the ad display in Full Screen mode Expands the ad
Appendix C: Definition of Average Interaction Time Average Interaction Time: The average amount of time, in seconds, that a user interacts with a DoubleClick Rich Media ad. Time from multiple interactions with an ad during a single ad view are aggregated.
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Appendix D: Definition of Expansion Rate Expansion Rate: Expansion rate is calculated by dividing Expansions by DoubleClick Rich Media Expanding ad impressions. Expansions are counted when a user expands the ad by either rolling over the ad or by clicking on it and the ad reaches its expanded state. An expansion is counted only once per impression
Appendix E: Definition of Average Expanding Time Average Expanding Time: The average length of time, in seconds, that an expanding ad is viewed in its expanded state. Time from multiple expansions during a single ad view are aggregated. Timer starts when the ad reaches the expanded state and stops when it collapses. Any expansion time that exceeds four minutes is capped. This extended expansion time can occur, for example, when a user opens an expanding ad on his or her browser, then steps away for an hour without collapsing the ad or closing the browser. The capping rule helps prevent skewed results.
Appendix F: Measuring Video Completes The video complete rate is calculated by the following formula and definitions:
Video Completes + Video Plays
Video Completes: The number of times a video played to its completion. For example, the number of times a 15-second video plays for its full 15 seconds. Video Plays: The number of impressions where a video started to play.
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