Measurable Media Means it Gets Taken Away Faster
Long time blog readers will know that I am a proponent of a theory that rather than online advertising being ‘insulated’ from an overall recession it instead will be a leading indicator and affected first.
What I mean by that is that because online advertising is so direct-response based (100% of search plus roughly two-thirds of display), then if performance deteriorates then advertisers will reduce bids and pricing. They wont go altogether but they’ll spend less.
Here is yet more evidence from an offline parallel:
“2007 showed a sharp decline in mortgage and home equity offers mailed to Americans, according to new findings from Mintel Comperemedia. Lenders sent approximately 2.6 billion direct mail pieces during the year, down nearly a third (30%) from the 3.7 billion sent to consumers in 2006.”
Direct Mail is a nearly $65bn business in the US (more than three times the size of the total online ad industry) and financial services are the leading category.
