People who click on an ad to arrive at a website (clickthroughs) are fewer and farther between than people who see an ad, don't click on it, but visit the site at a later date (viewthroughs).
But, while marketers today agree that clickthrough visitors should be shown copy that reinforces the ad, viewthroughs still land on home pages that have no relevant messages tying back to the ad the visitor originally saw.
In other words, clickthroughs generally get their own landing page, or at least a targeted page within a website, that repeats the message from the ad. Viewthroughs, after seeing an ad and then wandering off through the internet for hours or days, arrive at the site at a later time to see a home page devoid of any reminder of the ad that may have (even if subliminally) piqued their interest in the first place.
We ran two experiments to show what we mean. (To see the full-size image, click on the image.)
1. Toyota
A recent ad, the “All New 2007 Toyota Camry,�? was run on MSN. The tagline said, “When a car becomes more,�? and a box declaring “Build yours now at Toyota.com�? invited us to click through to a page titled “Camry Discovery Center.�?
When we did, we saw a page that included copy beginning: “When a car becomes more, it surprises you at every turn.�? It also included a button to “Build And Price Your Camry.�?
The Camry, the tagline, and the “Build and price...�? elements all reinforced the ad on MSN.
But when we surfed the internet for awhile and then visited Toyota.com by typing in the URL, we did not get the benefit of the branding reinforcement. Nowhere on the home page was a Camry, no mention was made of “When a car becomes more,�? and, while there was a button to “Build and price your Toyota,�? nothing calls it out from the rest of the page.
2. Verizon
Verizon ran an ad on CNN for Verizon Online DSL, which proclaimed, “Last chance for high speed at this low price. Now as low as $14.95/month for up to 768K. Get your first month FREE.�?
The landing page stated clearly, “Verizon Online DSL,�? and included the same offer: “High speed internet at dial-up prices, starting at $14.95/month. Order online today and get your first month FREE.�?
But the Verizon homepage, predictably, includes no offer and only mentions DSL peripherally.
Why, then, do clickthroughs get a higher priority than viewthroughs, even though viewthroughs happen far more often?
You might argue that a visitor simply having been served a Verizon ad in the past doesn’t necessarily mean that the ad is the reason he visited the Verizon site. He may have typed in the Verizon URL because he has a Verizon account and needs customer service. Or he saw a TV ad, or discussed the company with a friend.
On the other hand, visitors who type in a company’s URL leave little else for a company to latch onto when it comes to what brought the visitor, unlike visitors who arrive via an ad, an email, or a search engine. Those origins give companies an indicator as to what the visitor is interested in, allowing the company to offer the visitor relevant content.
So for companies who constantly balance the brand frame (which helps visitors understand who you are) with relevance (offering what a visitor wants when he wants it), the indicating factor of a viewthrough can be a godsend. Offer those viewthroughs a reinforcement of the message from the ad which they previously viewed (and which may have had some impact on their visiting) and you stand a good chance of increasing relevance and brand trust among those visitors.