Banners vs. Links

The other day I linked to a review of What Sticks, which analyzes what works in advertising. The book's authors conclude that online ad banners work better than most people think.

Today Scoble offers a sweeping generalization on the relative value of banners and ad text links, and suggests that there's a direct relationship Google/Yahoo! ad media and their respective stock prices. Of course, ad media are part of their business models, but it's a long leap to the conclusion that 1) ad media = stock market price, and 2) the market rationally values the effect of ad media on the business. Nonetheless, Scoble concludes that ad banners (Yahoo!) don't generate sales as effectively as text ads (Google), so Yahoo's stock is more volatile than Google's. That's his opinion, but I'd like to see something more to back it up. An anecdote about discretionary versus non-discretionary ad spending doesn't make the case, though.

Scoble does make a comment that is, at least conceptually, on the money: "Google is the new Yellow Pages." Replace "Google" with "search" and the statement would be even more accurate. Google's only the new Yellow Pages as long as they keep their eye on the ball and maintain their search leadership.


Technorati Tags: yellow+pages, google, search, banner