Can you tell how many users have really seen your campaign?


Each time an online advertisement is seen by a user, a cookie is placed on the user’s computer. Advertisers then count the total number of cookies placed in order to determine the number of unique users exposed to a campaign. However, after a user deletes his or her cookie, a new cookie is placed in his/her browser and therefore the user is incorrectly over-counted again as a new, unique user.



This edition of the global benchmarks serves as a guide to measuring and planning accurate audience reach using the new ‘Adjusted Unique’ metric developed by MediaMind. ‘Adjusted Unique’ is a breakthrough in online measurement that adjusts for cookie deletion and was accredited as IAB compliant for measuring Audience Reach by the MRC.


In addition, MediaMind’s benchmarks provide detailed ad performance averages by industry vertical, ad format and ad size in over 50 counties. The benchmarks cover Click Through Rate, Dwell, Interactions, Expansions and Video Metrics.

To download the full report, click here.

In a crowded online advertising world, getting your product noticed may seem like an uphill battle. Therefore, it is important to notice when your climb loses its momentum. So how long can you ‘ride’ the same campaign, and when should you make a change?
To see how campaigns fare after their launch, MediaMind Research analyzed the performance of hundreds of campaigns through the first three months of the each campaign’s lifetime. The premise was that an average campaign length is three months and that this period of time is long enough to assess any trends in the performance curve.
The analysis examined the performance of hundreds of Rich Media campaigns, which started during Q3 and Q4 2010. For each campaign, MediaMind looked at the performance during the first three months of the campaign.

Performance was measured using Dwell Rate and Average Dwell Time, engagement metrics that measure the interest of users in the content of the banner. Dwell Rate measures the numbers of users that intentionally engaged with the banner and Average Dwell Duration measures how long they stay engaged.

Surprisingly, campaigns can go on for quite a long time without losing effectiveness. The results show that both Dwell Rate and Dwell Time remained pretty similar throughout the three months that were examined. Nevertheless, the first month showed a slightly higher Dwell Rate than the results during the second and third months. Dwell Average Duration, on the other hand, was 6 seconds higher in the second month, as compared to the first month, and maintained most of its lift during the third month.

It appears that advertisers do not need to worry about campaign and creative fatigue. Results remain relatively steady throughout the three months that were examined, contrary to conventional wisdom that campaigns lose momentum soon after their launch.

Furthermore, there seems to be no rule of thumb on what should be the optimal campaign length. Each advertiser can make his own judgment that should take into consideration the audience, campaign objectives and budget. Most importantly, it’s not the campaign duration, but the sophistication. Great creatives can go a long way, and keep users engaged for a long time… even three months.

Video of infographic poster outlining best practices for online financial advertising based on research recently released by MediaMind.

Click here to download the research.

MediaMind’s new research on display advertising “Financial Services: Making Smart Investments in Online Advertising” offers striking evidence as to why it is important to target users with the right offer the first time around. According to the findings, users are about 30% more likely to convert at the first exposure as compared to additional exposures.

This indicates that users make up their minds pretty early on if an offer is relevant for them or not. If users did not act after the first exposure, the likelihood of them acting after additional exposures is significantly reduced. As there is only one chance to take advantage of a first impression, financial services advertisers should make sure that they serve the most successful and most impactful ad with the right offer to users the first time.

Technology can help. Automatic creative optimization uses historic data in order to predict which creative will be most impactful, and can then serve that exact ad. This way, advertisers can make sure that they get the most out of every impression.

The research also shows that the more dynamic and visible ad formats do a better job of attracting users’ eyes from the publishers’ mostly textual content to the ad, and thus increase effectiveness. For example, Rich Media in financial ads more than triples Click Through Rate and increases Conversion Rate, while video boosts CTR by 300% and increases Conversion Rate by 21%.

The research includes insights and advice to help financial services advertisers increase the effectiveness of their campaigns, in addition to detailed performance benchmarks by region and country.
To download the research, click here.



Ariel Geifman | Principal Analyst

Data visualization is one of those tools that today’s marketers need in order to quickly gather insights and make decisions. Data visualization is the last step in the process of transforming bits into knowledge. It is the result of the amazing alchemy process of our digital age.

We rely on reports and data to make decisions for the future and if we fail to represent the data properly we could end up making the wrong decision or missing out on a great opportunity. Also data visualizations can help us understand complex problems in a more familiar, easier way to digest.

These tools are also presenting the data with context that support and complement the actual data points we are visualizing.

Let me illustrate with an example. One of my favorite data visualizations artists (yes it is a bit of an art!) is David McCandless. He and his partner Stefanie Posavec recently won a contest to change the way we look at a blood test results. The contest was organized by Wired magazine.

Here is the original:





Here is their inspired re-design:





The difference is night and day. On the second report it took me all of two seconds to realize that I need to exercise more and go on a diet!


When we look at the advertising industry and the reports we present today, we often do not present the data in an optimal manner.  As in the blood test example, we collect a wealth of data, which if combined together can lead to real learning and media optimization. It is our responsibility (and also my job!) to transform how we present the data to our clients.

Data Visualization is not a “nice to have” or a “cool/wow thing” it is a fundamental tool to understand and digest a wealth of complicated, connected information. It can make all the difference between a strategy’s success and its failure. 



Pablo Cohan | Manager, Product Planning and Data enthusiastic