A confusing title for a confounding topic. There’s been a contentious issue in the world of advertising for as long as there has been advertising: what’s the value of someone seeing an ad? Some advertisers outright refuse to acknowledge view-throughs, while others warmly embrace them. During this presentation we’ll look at the validity of the view-through, understanding a little of the mechanics behind them and how we might go about assigning, and perhaps even forecasting, real value to the view-through effect of digital advertising. Nate Wood, Head of International Search for Fresh Egg was one of the speakers at the Biddable World event in January 2014.

1. Biddable World 2014
View Through Conversions – Not Worth The Paper They Aren’t
Printed On?

2. Digital Advertising Evolution
Understanding Where We’ve Come From

3. Advertising is Everywhere

4. Digital Demands Accountability
• Digital marketing sold on the last click
• Last click is now an “old” model, but still predominant
• Attribution difficult & expensive to do properly
• Attribution is very much an all or nothing activity
• Advertisers happy to run PR, Print & TV with an assumed brand
uplift
• For Display additional value is not always obvious

5. View Through Conversions
User Sees Ad,
But Does Not
Click
User Visits Site
Using Another
Channel &
Converts
Ad Platform
Ties Up
Conversion To
Initial
Impression

6. View Through Conversions
• Not to be mistaken with click assisted conversions
• VTCs are essentially an uplift metric
• Primarily associated with Display, but Adwords also has
impressions assists
• Not visible in Google Analytics or most other analytics packages
• Use of ad tracking software such as Doubleclick/Atlas/MediaMind
will show impression assisted conversions across ad channels

7. The VTC Arguments
For
Against
• Brand exposure has a
lingering value
• Display advertising
creates an intent rather
than answering it
• Observable effect from
TV and offline campaigns
• Large brands still engage
in pure branding
advertising
• Banner blindness
• Digital advertising is so
noisy brand effects must
be negligible
• Performance data shows
low engagement
• Unseen impressions
cannot affect the
conversion, but are still
counted

8. Ad Exposure Effects

9. Exposure Increases Affinity
• Mere exposure effect – repeated exposure to something leads to
more favourable reaction
• Study* tested reader reactions to banners in a 5 page article
where the ad was outside the focal area
• Findings were an increased ability to identify the brand
(perceptual fluency)
• Increased fluency = increased positive evaluation of the ad/brand
which can affect subsequent cognitive actions
*An Examination of Different Explanations for the Mere Exposure Effect - Fang, Singh, Ahluwalia, 2007.

10. Exposure Affects Other Channels
Source: The Silent Click: Building Brands Online

11. Exposure Affects Other Channels
Source: The Silent Click: Building Brands Online

12. Exposure Affects Site Engagement
Source: The Silent Click: Building Brands Online

13. Exposure Affects Site Engagement
Source: The Silent Click: Building Brands Online

14. Efficiencies Enhance The Effect
• Improved targeting & audience identification
• RTB purchasing enables granular placement of ads
• Google taking steps to ensure ads only paid for if actually seen
• Can already tell whether an ad position is viewed within the
browser
• Integrated use of advertising channels further increases
effectiveness

15. Forecasting & Measuring VTCs
Needles & Haystacks

16. Forecasting VTC Is Impossible
Creative
Other
marketing
Inventory
VTC
Performance
Season
Immediacy
Budget

17. Measuring VTC
• Need some understanding of previous VTC performance
• Uplift is dependent on activity within other channels
• Identifying uplift is difficult, but not impossible
• Extrapolation & correlation
• Correlation is not necessarily causation, but it’s a start
• Uplift could be in different metrics each time

18. Real Example
• Client running a display campaign between 25th October and 16th
December
• PPC is main driver of traffic, so looking at visitor number is selfserving
• Adwords display campaign, contextual targeting, no demographic
preference, no managed placements
• Adwords reports 357 VTC delivered during period, 486 last click
conversions (uploaded from GA)

19. Real Example

20. Testing VTCs In Your Ad Platform
Testing The Concept

21. Simple A/B Ad Testing
Actual Ad
Secondary, NonBranded Ad
100 Reported VTCs

0 Reported VTCs

22. Conclusion & Takeaways
Thoughts for Future Planning

23. In Conclusion
• VTCs are exactly what TV, Print, Outdoor, PR would like to report
• VTCs aren’t for everyone, but I recommend everyone assesses
them
• Effects can be hard to find, harder to quantify
• Positive and negative testing is recommended

24. Takeaway Suggestions
Keep an open mind
Don’t knee-jerk react – give the effects time
Test, test, and test again – scientific method as much as possible &
don’t stagnate
Look in unexpected places & interrogate the data to find effects
Test your display platform

25. Takeaway Suggestions
Understand brand engagement value
Separate last click, assisted and VTC
Do not be afraid to reject VTCs or to accept them
Get buy-in from everywhere in your business
Always sanity check cost against value

26. Thank You For Listening!
Questions:
@natewood
woodn@freshegg.com

27. Recent Fresh Egg Resources
Essential Guide To Social Advertising http://www.freshegg.co.uk/guide-to-social-media-advertising
Campaign Tagging For Google Analytics http://www.freshegg.co.uk/campaign-tagging-cheatsheet
Widget - Page Performance Metrics http://www.freshegg.co.uk/page-performance-metrics