What are the average click through rates for banners, skyscrapers, etc?

Click through rates can vary dramatically on the basis of a wide range of variables. For this reason it is difficult to identify a single average click-through rate. Over time ad server companies may have accumulated data that can offer this kind of information. You could contact the ad server company that is running your campaign directly to help answer this question.

What is the average open rate for email advertising?

The Direct Marketing Association produces an email benchmarking report that they charge non-members for.

What is the average cost per thousand (CPM) for banners, etc?

As CPMs can vary so much it is relatively meaningless to talk in terms of an average. However, you can get a good idea from looking at the advertising sections of online media owners, many of these carry details of their ratecards, e.g. Orange

Online sales networks sell display advertising across networks of hundreds, if not thousands, of different websites and might also be able to give a good idea of the range of CPMs to be expected. Some of these companies are IAB members.

Can you tell me what the standard formats are for online display advertising?

The IAB has designed a package of standard advertising formats, called the Universal Advertising Package, to ease the trading and execution of online media.

IAB Europe also carries out a lot work establishing common standards for the online advertising industry.

What are the rules and regulations around advertising to children / junk food advertising / gambling advertising online?

There is far less regulation of online advertising than other, more established, media like television. However, as more and more people are using the internet it is likely that there will be more and more regulation introduced. The Advertising Standards Association and the Committee of Advertising Practice can provide details of relevant regulations and are happy to provide consultation in this area.

What are the regulations about website accessibility?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) offers guidelines about meeting website accessibility standards through its Web Accessibility Initiative.

How can I earn advertising revenue from my website?

There are a number of ways that advertising revenue can be generated from your website – these can be broadly categorised as search, display and affiliate advertising.

Search – You can carry search advertising on your site through arrangements like Google AdSense. Google place relevant search advertising on your site and you earn a share of revenues when people click through on the links.

Display – You can earn revenues from carrying display advertising on your website in the form of banners, skyscrapers, etc. This normally earns revenue on the basis of how many people view the adverts and is sold at a cost per thousand people, or cost per mille (CPM) as it is known for online. Whilst you could try and sell the advertising yourself, it would probably be easier and more productive to become part of a sales network. These companies sell advertising inventory on behalf of a network of many websites in exchange for a share of the revenue. This makes the process easier for both advertisers and site owners. Some of these companies are IAB members.

Affiliate – Affiliate advertising works by rewarding media owners for referrals to other companies with products or services to sell. Payments are made on a Cost per Action (CPA) basis rather than CPM. For example, a financial advice website might carry advertising for an insurance company. If visitors to the site click through and go on to buy insurance then the media owner would be rewarded either with a fixed fee or percentage share of the value of the sale. There are companies known as affiliate networks that act as middlemen between media owners and retailers to help facilitate these arrangements. A number of them are members of the IAB

Where can I find a list of the most visited websites?

Audience measurement companies like Nielsen NetRatings and comScore provide this kind of information. Nielsen offer some basic data for free on their website

What is the size of the online advertising market?

According to the IAB/PwC Online Adspend Study, the online advertising market in the UK was worth £2,812.6m in 2007, leaping 38% year-on-year. In this period, online took a 15.3% share of all UK advertising, up 3.9 points from 2006 (11.4%). You can download the full research from the Knowledge Bank.

Do you have any forecasts for online advertising revenue?

PricewaterhouseCoopers have produced forecasts for online adspend in the UK as part of their Global Media Outlook report.

2008 3,599.87
2009 4,299.94
2010 4,900.01
2011 5,400.07

These are produced independently of the study we conduct in partnership with PwC and underestimate the market slightly. There are other sources for forecasts, Zenith Optimedia for instance, but they all tend to underestimate the phenomenal rate at which the market has grown.

Do you have any research that illustrates the brand building effect of online advertising?

There are many case studies to be found in our Case Study that illustrate how the internet has been used to build brands.

The IAB has also conducted a study looking into the effect of the internet in driving brand engagement.

Can you tell me more about data protection / copyright / ecommerce legislation?

The website, www.out-law.com, is a useful resource with a lot of legal advice for the online industry.

Do you have any information about online adspend in other countries?

You can find information about online adspend in the USA from IAB US. IAB Europe has collated topline adspend figures from some of the main countries around Europe.

How many people use the internet around the world?

You can find online population estimates for different countries on this website - www.internetworldstats.com

Do you have any research showing how the internet is consumed with other media?

The IAB conducted a study in partnership with the RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau) looking at the relationship between radio and online consumption. An overview of the study can be downloaded from the Knowledge Bank. A more in depth presentation of the results is also available to members.

There is more information about how people consume the internet with other media in the Mediascope Europe study from the EIAA

Can I protect my brand name and trademarks in search?

Companies should be vigilant of any illegal uses of their brands or trademarks online. The major search engines have strict trademark protection policies on brand specific keywords and generally an advertiser who refers to another company's trademark in a search must be using that trademark fairly on their website.

For information on Google's trademark policy visit their site