There's a bunch of issues with this post. He points out AT&T's one ad had a 78% CTR, and then labels HotWired's entire site CTR at 78% CTR (he assumes that they didn't have other ads after ATT and that all their ads have a 78% CTR)
And then he compares it to the FB CTR of 0.05%
0.05% is not accurate. It's likely what you'll hit if you have no idea what you're doing, or just don't care because you're an agency advertising a clueless big brand. But it's not that hard to hit a 1-3% CTR on FB now -- especially with the newsfeed ads. Even using standard IAB display it's not too difficult to hit a 1-2% CTR.
Last, the 78% CTR is suspect. I wouldn't just believe it blindly. It does make sense that it would be high (I.e. 20-30%) given that people weren't used to banner ads at the time. Additionally, it's a Trick to Click ad that would never be Approved today. And I've even tried out of curiosity, and it was immediately slapped by reviewers ("I bet you can't click your mouse right here")
"But it's not that hard to hit a 1-3% CTR on FB now -- especially with the newsfeed ads."
Facebook introduced newsfeed ads in 2012, and this article might (?) date from as far back as 2011, going by the statistics and dates cited in it. I might be wrong about that, but I do know it's an older article. Andrew doesn't date these blog posts, but I remember reading this article years ago.
Ok, good catch. :) I'll own up to the embarrassment I deserve right now.
Even still, the point stands: the article was published before newsfeed ads debuted (in June '12), and certainly before their use became commonplace enough to establish benchmark CTRs.
And then he compares it to the FB CTR of 0.05%
0.05% is not accurate. It's likely what you'll hit if you have no idea what you're doing, or just don't care because you're an agency advertising a clueless big brand. But it's not that hard to hit a 1-3% CTR on FB now -- especially with the newsfeed ads. Even using standard IAB display it's not too difficult to hit a 1-2% CTR.
Last, the 78% CTR is suspect. I wouldn't just believe it blindly. It does make sense that it would be high (I.e. 20-30%) given that people weren't used to banner ads at the time. Additionally, it's a Trick to Click ad that would never be Approved today. And I've even tried out of curiosity, and it was immediately slapped by reviewers ("I bet you can't click your mouse right here")