Measuring brand effectiveness with clicks reminds me of so many other well-known fallacies: Home prices will always continue to skyrocket, nuclear energy is relatively safe, and one can quit smoking in a day. Likewise, advertisers seem to keep convincing themselves that clicks are a good measure of online branding. Unfortunately, when brand advertisers only focus on this metric, they are actually stifling creativity and harming their own brand. The emphasis on clicks has created ads that serve more as street signs to direct users to their site, instead of encompassing an overall memorable experience.

Advertising agencies do what they are paid to do, and if you pay them to deliver clicks, that’s what you are going to get. Why bother with creativity, witty copy, glaring images, and innovative formats, when you can get clicks by just placing cheap standard banners at high volume on long tail placements?

During a recent conversation with our friends at NPD (the company, incidentally, where I began my career), they shared with us an interesting bit of Internet history. Many of you may not be aware that back in the mid 90’s, NPD measured Internet audiences through a business unit known as PC Meter. PC Meter would eventually become Media Metrix, whose U.S. business was acquired by comScore in 2001.