and new brands, Song says marketers should weigh a variety of metrics-–sales, clicks, page visits, and registrations—to rate online campaigns. The proper measurement depends on the campaigns' goal. "If you're trying to drive first-time traffic to your site and you base [success] on sales, you're sunk," says Song. "You can't expect a new user to purchase."
To that list, UC-Berkeley's Winer would add the kinds of age-old metrics—brand awareness, consumer attitude and disposition to buy—that marketers have been measuring for decades with surveys, but have so far been neglected by those running online campaigns. "The people who felt that banner ads were somehow different from other advertising and were going to generate more instantaneous purchase that other media were mistaken," he says.
If that conclusion seems disappointing, look at the bright side: Like the old media it once hoped to obviate, Web advertising is still alive and kicking—assuming you know how to take its pulse.
