February 13, 2001
Case Study

Streaming Ads Beat Traditional Banners on Click Throughs, Conversions AND Cost Per Acquisition

SUMMARY: No summary available.
CHALLENGE
MeasureCast, a company which measures streaming audience size and demographics for online advertisers, media buyers and broadcasters, needed to recruit a broad panel of 50,000 streaming media users for research purposes. Program Marketing Manager David Giacomini gave us the details.

CAMPAIGN
Giacomini explains, "We were building a broad panel that had to represent the overall streaming media universe, so we couldn't optimize recruiting campaigns. For example, 2% of our panel needed to be over 65, while the average streaming media user skews predominantly younger and male." To get that range, Giacomini needed a broad reach. He says, "We literally advertised on hundreds of sites - individual sites, 24/7, Doubleclick and most major music sites, including the StreamAudio network of 740 radio station sites."

Giacomini tested a wide variety of online ad media including, 200x200 streaming audio/video ads, 468x60 traditional banners, and 250x250 pop-ups. He also tested several different offers, varying from a non-incentized "join a panel and make your opinion count" offer to sweeps for MP3, $1000 cash, a dream vacation and Porsche Boxter giveaways. The specific action desired was to get consumers to register their streaming media players and very basic demographic info (age, gender, zip code, country and home vs. work PC used.)

RESULTS
200x200 streaming audio/video ads achieved higher click through rates, higher conversion rates and the lowest cost per acquisition of any other media by far. The numbers varied between art and offer, but here are some averages:

200x200 streaming audio/video
Average: CTR 9.45% Conversion 14.7% CPA $3.26

250x250 pop-ups
Average: CTR 3.5% Conversion 6.85% CPA $6.61

468x60 traditional banners
Average: CTR .52% Conversion 6.99%% CPA $19.72

The top performing media buy was StreamAudio online radio station network. Giacomini says, "Their Channel Start rich media gateway ads uniquely combined the undivided attention of streaming listeners, a compelling rich media message and the ability to click to our site without losing the radio station's streaming content or disrupting the user experience."

The top performing traditional banner was a free MP3 player offer, which won handily over the Porsche, dream vacation and even $1000 cash. Giacomini says, "People psychologically felt they had a better chance of winning. They'd rather enter a sweeps with 1-100 chances than 1-million chances."

The worst performing banner -- at a lousy $73.09 per registered user -- was the "Help make a difference" banner which appealed to people's (apparently non-existent) altruistic sides.

NOTE: Interested in learning more about online radio station usage? Visit MeasureCast's site to download some free reports that are full of fascinating metrics and demographic details. (For example, even Giacomini was surprised to learn that only 31% of his panel members used their work computers for streaming.)

Also the site features a free weekly Top 25 listing of the most listened to online radio stations. Guess what? This week Jimmy Buffet's Web-only Radio Margaritaville is at #4.

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