Prescott Shibles - B2B Internet Marketing and Media Insight

Ads viewable entirely above the fold are seen 60% of the time while those below the fold are only seen 25% of the time, according to a recent Eyetools/Marketing Sherpa study. Armed with this data, Steve Rubel estimates that a billion online advertising dollars are wasted.

This data, if verifiable, makes the case for some serious corrective action. It adds more fuel to the fire for the argument against skyscraper ads. You'll notice that all new Penton redesigns avoid use of the skyscraper. This was done because of the poor click-thru rate. However, knowing that it's difficult to get a skyscraper 100% above the fold, it seems that the branding value of that position is noticeably worse.

The other question I'm asking myself is, "Should publishers reduce rates on ads below the fold? There are a lot of sites using below the fold ad units, but are they priced 40% lower than ad units above the fold? And what about run-of-site campaigns that might be delivered into an above-the-fold position some times and a below-the-fold position other times? How can an advertiser know the value that they are getting when you can't tell them how many impressions of each ad position they are going to get.

I wonder if any publishers are thinking of other ways to address this problem on behalf of their clients?