FT begins cost-per-hour advertising

The Financial Times announced Monday the launch of a new digital advertising metric called cost per hour.

Working with Chartbeat on the new time-based system, the FT is able to increase marketing effectiveness by measure not just whether an ad is seen or not, but for how long.

The measurement, initially offered in a limited pilot last fall, allows advertisers to reach a global audience with greater brand impact than through impressions alone. It follows successful trials on FT.com with 10 clients including BP, iShares and IBM, generating over $1 million in total incremental revenue.

Tests have proven not only a significant uplift in brand recognition and association among readers, but it also ensures 100 percent viewability of five seconds or more for clients. The FT can report on how long each impression has been viewed, and the total duration of exposure across the campaign.

“For the nearly three decades of commercial Internet history, advertising has derived its value from one measure: how many people click on an ad,” said Dominic Good, FT’s advertising sales director, in a statement. “Low viewability scores and questions about advertising placement and fraud have increased the need for better measurement and transparency to demonstrate the actual outcome an advertiser is seeking.

“While CPM values every impression the same, CPH uses time to measure value. The FT has shown through extensive testing that brand familiarity and recollection among readers increases significantly the longer an ad is in view. Adverts seen for five seconds or more on FT.com show up to 50 percent higher brand recall and familiarity than ads that are visible for a shorter period of time.”

Read more here.