Say what?! Why some advertisers should pay per view.

The Journal of Consumer Research has come up with an interesting study featured on Ars Technica on one of the hottest debat topics on display media: should you ever pay per view (CPM) and why? My answer has always been: yes, you should, if you correspond to a well-defined advertiser profile. And, no way, you should definitely pay per click (CPC) or even only pay for other kind of actions (CPA) if you are not that kind of advertiser.

Rest assured, with this kind of double-sided answer, I'm not trying to be diplomatic at all. The fact is that just like exposure is a valuable good for pure brand advertising in the traditional media, so has online exposure a real added value for this kind of advertising objectives, like for example for a desired increase in brand awareness, a goal to deepen the brand knowledge among its target audience, or a plan to reposition a brand, and so on. This study proves that point, which doesn't prohibit these CPM advertisers of course to pursue other marketing goals at another point (like building a community database or driving online sales) and choose for CPC or CPA campaigns at that point in time.

In a nutshell the scientific study done by Xiang Fang of the Spears School of Business at the Oklahoma State University shows that repeated exposure to a product via banner ads generates a positive feeling towards that product, that would be viewed neutrally otherwise. The study underscore that repetition is the key to generate a positive effect, so that it helps the customer to remember the product and as result assert positive attributes to it. Minimal exposure does not do the trick according to the study, which in my view calls for a continuous investment in online presence.

The study also points out that these effects will not stay active until the moment of purchase for those products where the purchase is preceded by a serious process of evaluation. For high-risk purchases, or high-involvement products, the process of consideration and comparison will likely undo any of the positive assertions that resulted from a repeated exposure to a certain brand. In my opinion, one can imagine that the positive feeling that is generated by repeated exposure around the product or brand at least increases the chance to (be considered to) be included in the consumer's shortlist.