广告效果论英雄，杂志网络都一样

    多年以来我们一致认为，在线广告与传统广告之间有着质的差别；然而有没有这样一种可能，其实它的效果在大多数时候与印刷广告相差无几？

    如果近期一项新研究的结果可信的话，那么上述问题的答案或许是肯定的。分析机构RapidBlue最近得出结论称，谷歌（Google）关键字广告的效果可以增加零售店的访问量。RapidBlue在赫尔辛基的零售店安装了传感器，匿名监控消费者的行为，前后共研究了约4,800名购物者。研究显示，关键字广告增加了“实体零售店访问量和顾客停留的时间，提高幅度达到了两位数。”

    研究本身并没有得出什么很重要的结论（它其实只是RapidBlue为传感器产品采取的一种营销手段），但这项研究再次证明，“线上搜索/线下采购”（市场营销公司将这种行为称为“ROPO”）的现象确实存在，广告商可以充分利用消费者的这种行为。这意味着，点击率或成交量等指标远没有过去想象的那么重要，至少对于实体零售店来说确实如此。

    今年早些时候，波士顿咨询公司（Boston Consulting）的一项研究发现，2010年，G-20国家的消费者通过“ROPO”方式购物产生的开销约为1.3万亿美元。约翰•科伊特赛在VentureBeat网站上写道：如果RapidBlue公司的研究结果准确无误，它将“彻底颠覆在线广告行业跟踪投资成本与回报的传统方式。”虽然这种说法有些夸大，但对于部分零售商而言，互联网和杂志在某些方面的作用或许真的相差无几。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    After years thinking of online advertising as qualitatively different from regular advertising, could it be that it often works similarly to print advertising?

    Possibly, if the results of a new study are to be believed. Analytics firm RapidBlue hasdetermined that Google (GOOG) AdWords campaigns tend to increase visits to retail stores. The company, which places sensors in shops to anonymously monitor customer behavior, studied about 4,800 shoppers in Helsinki. The study showed AdWords campaigns increase "both brick-and-mortar retail [visits] and visitor dwell times by double-digit figures," the firm says.

    By itself, the study doesn't prove much (it's basically a marketing tool for RapidBlue's sensor product), but it adds to a growing pile of evidence that "research online/purchase offline" ("ROPO," marketers call it) is a real phenomenon, and that advertisers can take big advantage of it. This means that click-through rates, or counts of completed transactions, are perhaps less important metrics than had been thought, at least for brick-and-mortar retailers.

    A study earlier this year by Boston Consulting found that consumers in the G-20 countries spent about $1.3 trillion on goods in 2010 via "ROPO" shopping.

    If the results of the RapidBlue study are accurate, they "could upend the way the online advertising industry traditionally tracks costs and measures return on investment," writes John Koetsier at VentureBeat. That might be overstating the case, but it's possible that thinking of the Internet as being sort of the same as, say, a magazine might prove useful to some retailers.