Get the facts about Online Advertising…
These terms and definitions are commonly used in relation to web site measurement and particularly in regard to internet advertising.
GENERAL TERMINOLOGY
Hits
“Hits” are probably the most misinterpreted and misleading metric for website success.
Here are the facts:
- The number of hits does not equal the number page views OR the number of people visiting a website. Professional web sites quote “Unique Visitors” as it is a much more meaningful metric.
- A single web site page is made up of a number of individual files which register as ‘hits’ on the server. These files can be anything from images, html documents, java script files or style sheets etc.
- This means that 1 page contains many ‘hits’. For example – 20 pictures on a single page generates 20 hits (as registered on the server). The page has been viewed just once – not 20 times (as one may be originally lead to believe).
- A website quoting hundreds of thousands of Hits per month is simply looking to make the site look more popular than it actually is. Unique Visitors and to some degree, Page Views are more truthful representations of a sites popularity.
For the above reasons, Yacht and Boat prefer to quote Unique Visitors and Page Views and rather than Hits. Our goal is to provide our users and advertisers with accurate reporting and real measurements. The term Hits is neither a helpful nor accurate measurement.
Page Views
Page views (also known as page impressions) refer to the number of times visitors view specific pages. Page Views are still a commonly displayed metric amongst webs sites but is a rather unsophisticated measurement.
Visits
Visits are the number of times the site is accessed or “visited”. Visits are also known as User Sessions. One visitor can have many visits to your site.
Unique Visitors
The term “Unique Visitors” should not to be confused with Visits. Unique Visitors refers to the number of individuals that have accessed the site. One Unique Visitor may visit the site many times (adding to the number of Visits) but is still counted as one Unique Visitor.
Some Examples
A typical example of the site measurement “tree” could be as follows:
Hits = 10,000,000
Page Views = 1,000,000
Visits = 100,000
Unique Visitors = 50,000
From these figures it can be determined that:
50,000 individuals made 100,000 visits to the site (an average of 2 visits per individual).
These individuals viewed 1 million pages, which is an average of 20 pages per individual or 10 pages per visit.
Each page had a average of 10 images (divide the hits by the page views)
BANNER AD TERMINOLOGY
Banner Ads
A graphic image typically placed on an ‘editorial content’ page linking to the advertiser’s page. Standard banner ad sizes are (in pixels): 468 x 60 (full size) other standard types of banners can be viewed at the Interactive Advertising Bureau
Ad Views (also known as Ad Impressions)
Number of times an internet advertisement is seen by web site visitors. Anytime you see a banner, that is classified as an impression.
Ad Clicks
Number of times users click on an internet advertisement (ie banner, tower, skyscraper, button or text link).
For example a Banner Ad may be “viewed” or seen 10,000 times and will be actually clicked on 10 times. This represents a “Click through rate” of 0.1% which is considered to be the industry average for banner advertising.
Some important points…
Banner advertising is not just about generating “click throughs” (although this is an important factor) which will depend on how effective your message/call-to-action is on the banner.
Banner advertising is generally considered a more affordable and effective way to promote brand awareness when compared with print media. For example, a Banner Ad may be viewed 10,000 times and a printed Ad might be viewed in a magazine by the same amount of readers. However, the printed Ad will cost ten (or more) times more than the online Banner Ad.
Banner advertising should be seen for what it is, a part of your overall advertising strategy. The most effective banner advertisements are run as part of a structured campaign designed to meet your pre-determined marketing objectives.
This is the reason Yacht and Boat offer a variety of advertising campaigns to suit different objectives and budgets. If you would like us to customise a campaign to meet your requirements please CONTACT US