Generating Website Traffic

By Johanna S. Ilfeld, Russell S. Winer

Digital/Online

"It would be a costly mistake for Internet companies to rely solely on online advertising ...to build awareness and generate traffic."

Source:  Journal of Advertising Research, September/October 2002, 42(5), pgs. 49-61.

Type of Promotional Material/Activity Tested: The effect of online and offline advertising in building awareness, site visits and generating traffic. A cross-section of 88 Internet companies including search engines (e.g., Yahoo, Ask Jeeves), specialized interest sites (e.g., Mapquest, CNN, Motley Fool), retail e-commerce (e.g., barnesandnoble.com, drugstore.com) and B2B e-commerce sites were studied.

Sample Population: A unique data set from September 1999 was combined from several Internet monitoring sources including a brand equity study (random sample of 6,700 respondents) and consumer Internet user data supplied by Jupiter Media Metrix (now called comScore, with over 2 million participants).
Study Method:  Predictive modeling

Metrics:

Independent variables: 
 

• Offline and online advertising
   

Dependent variables:

• Consumer awareness
• Brand equity (consumer preferences, likings)
• Site visits

Top Line Results:

• Word-of-mouth and “offline” advertising (magazines, newspapers, billboards, radio, and TV) proved the most significant factors in building consumer awareness and generating website visits to Internet companies.
  
  
• Online advertising dollars spent by Internet companies, to quickly build a brand image and impressions, do not translate into site traffic and sales. Instead, advertising dollars are better spent on offline marketing efforts -- magazines, newspapers, billboards, radio, TV, and public relations campaigns -- which were shown to grow site awareness and increase site traffic.

 

Take Away: The study’s findings highlight the importance of allocating “offline” advertising dollars to build awareness and generate traffic. It would be a costly mistake for Internet companies to rely solely on online advertising for this effect.

Complexity rating of the original source:  2
(Complex statistical analysis scale:  1= none, 2= moderate, 3 = difficult)

This journal article available on a pay-per-view basis from Cambridge University Press (registration required).