Andrew Douglas B2B journalist, turned PR man, specializing in new media.

Canadians are online but ad spend isn’t

Canada has one of the highest broadband penetration rates in the world and this National Post article says 70% of Canadians watch videos online.

I don't doubt it. I haven't watched TV in weeks and yet my wife and I haven't missed episodes of our favourite TV shows -- The Office and House. We watched them on the Global TV web site. They bank all the episodes and you can watch them on demand. It's handy and efficient -- and cheap.

But the shows are virtually ad free.

Much of my media consumption has moved online. And yet the ad dollars are not following suit. The world has changed but the ad spend hasn't.

Why? No one really knows how to interpret the numbers they're being presented from ad sales. Whether it's unique visitors, page views, or any other number, we're not used to dealing with such concrete (and often small) numbers. Knowing EXACTLY how many people see and act on your ad, by clicking it, is almost too precise. The numbers are often tiny as compared to the tens of thousands that see a print ad and they need a lot of background before they're understood.

Everyone was comfortable that print circulation was a good number -- even if we all flip past ads with nary a glance when reading the newspaper.

More from the Post article:

"From an advertisers perspective, there's not a good measurement system in place that gives you confidence that if you shift those dollars [online], you're still going to reach your goals," said Elisa Steele, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Yahoo.

"Most advertisers that we talk to really want to shift their spend, but to take that risk is a hard thing to do. They've got their formulas. They know how to measure it, they know how to bring in that next sale. Some of that movement is literally due to fear. It's an unknown"