At a masterclass run by Econsultancy last week, consultant Russell Gould stated that consumers who have seen display ads are 54 per cent more likely to search for a brand, despite Specific Media's Ian Dowd claiming only 16 per cent of people actually click them.

 

Picking up on the comments in the Econsultancy blog, Meghan Keane suggested they indicate it would not be wise for companies to ignore such forms of marketing and just stick with search advertising, even though this "may have the most proven business model".

 

"Businesses that ignore other areas and methods of increasing sales online do so at their own peril," she remarked.

 

The statements were made a month after a survey by Econsultancy and RedEye hinted that organisations are failing to achieve their potential when it comes to conversion rates because they are not modifying their procedures adequately.

 

Not carrying out regular tests of websites and not splitting customer bases into different segments were identified as being among the most common reasons for weak performance.