The importance of performance indicators should not detract from the desire to be creative in internet advertising campaigns, according to Microsoft.

Mel Carson, an adCenter community manager for the operating system giant, said that in the current economic climate, results are everything to marketers.

Metrics, analytics and reporting now dominate the thinking of those backing internet advertising campaigns, he wrote on Microsoft's adCenter Analytics Blog.

However, if creative talent sees the trend for increased accountability as a bad thing, they are wrong.

There is still plenty of room for imagination and flair alongside the tracking tools, but the design team need to be business focused, Mr Carson explained.

"It's important to be creative when dreaming up a new campaign and it's also crucial to set out from the start what you are trying to achieve and how you'll measure that success," he concluded.

The advice came after internet advertising optimisation business PubMatic published statistics indicating that the cost of display advertising online decreased across all sizes of websites during the final quarter of 2008.

However, some industry sectors showed signs of recovery, with prices rising in the sports, gaming, music and technology segments. 

Living Streams comment:  We believe that there is no conflict - you need both creativity and analytical ability.  This combination is the bedrock of chartered engineers.