THE WORLD WIDE WEB AS AN ADVERTISING MEDIUM:TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF CONVERSIONEFFICIENCYThis paper discusses the role of the World Wide Web as an advertising medium and its position in the marketing communication mix. It introduces a conceptual framework for measuring the efficiency of a Web site. Efficiency indexes are defined for five Web advertising communication activities, and an overall measure of Web site efficiency measure is presented...The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, perhaps significantly, in the influential business press (e.g., Verity and Hof, 1994; Tetzeli, 1994; Anthes, 1994; The Economist, 1995; U.S. News and World Report, 1995) and popular culture (e.g., Rolling Stone's 48-page coverage in the November 1995 issue). Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) appear in many advertisements, and Business Week devotes a page to listing the URLs of its advertisers.Reporting on the Web is currently fascinating to general readers, and listing URLs is helpful to consumers. Serious advertising and marketing practitioners, and academics, however, are by now aware that more systematic research is required to reveal the true nature of commerce on the Web. This is true particularly from the perspective of the Web in marketing communication and especially so for the Web as an advertisingThe authors wish to acknowledge the very helpful comments of George Zinkhan and Judy Zaichkowsky.medium or tool. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the Web as a phenomenon of the late 20th century; then we explore the Web as an advertising medium, using established theoretical models of consumer and industrial buying behavior; finally, we develop a model of Web conversion efficiency—its power to move the customer from being a passive Internet surfer to an interactive user of the medium.The Internet and the World Wide WebCyberspace, or to give it its less cliched name, the Internet (the net) is a new medium based on broadcasting and publishing. However, unlike traditional broadcast media, it facilitates two-way communication between actors; unlike most personal selling (telesales being the obvious exception), itis not physically face-to-face, but neither is it time-bound. The mediumpossesses what Blattberg and Deighton (1991) have termed interactivity: it has the facility for individuals and orga-THE WWW AS AN ADVERTISING MEDIUMnizations to communicate directly with one another regardless of distance or time. The Web, a hypermedia information storage system based on the Internet, links resources around the world. Browser software allows highlighted words or icons, called hyperlinks to display text, video, graphics, and sound on a local computer screen, no matter where the resource is physically located. The Web has introduced a much broader audience to the net. Furthermore, it allows anyone (organization or individual) to have a 24-hour-a-day presence on the Internet.The Web offers marketers and advertisers the ability to make available full-color virtual catalogues, provide on-screen order forms, and to elicit customer feedback either quantitatively (on-line structured surveys) or qualitatively (open-ended email). Organizations, both large (e.g., Reebok) and small (e.g., Magic Petals, a kiddies' fashion outlet in South Africa) as well as individuals (e.g., Paula's Web Page) located in countries ranging from Australia to Zambia have set up Web sites—cyberspace locations for net surfers to land on, visit, explore, and with which they can interact.The Web is not a transient phenomenon. It warrants serious attention by advertising academics and practitioners. Statistics support this, although one astute observer recommends strongly that all estimates be made in pencil only, as the growth is so rapid (Denison, 1995). No communication medium or electronic technology, not even fax or personal computers, has ever grownas quickly. According to The Economist July 1, 1995):· In 1994 the Net doubled in size, as it has done every year since 1988, and now reaches ~5 million host computers, each of which may connect several users. - The Web has grown almost 20 fold. In just 18 months, users have created more than three million multimedia pages of information, entertainment, and advertising. Thirty million users of the Web now (early estimate 1996) is not unreasonable. The Web is growing at about 50 percent per month, with the number of sites doubling every 53 days. The number of Web servers (computers providing Web sites) is now more than 30,000 worldwide.Many things make this interesting from both marketing and advertising perspectives, and the following factors make the medium unique:· The customer generally has to find the marketer rather than vice versa and to a greater extent than is the case with most other media.· Initial presence on the medium is:· Relatively easy and inexpensive to establish.· International by definition.· Compared to other media, the Web provides a more or less level playing field for all participants. By this we mean:· Access opportunities are essentially equal for all players, regardless of size.· Share of voice is essentially uniform—no player can drown out others. - The marketing communication cost structure is altered if the Web is seen asan advertising medium. Initial setup costs are so low to present minimal or nonexistent barriers to entry. Adver44 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH ANUARY/FEBRUARY1996tisers and media owners will have to seriously consider the communication implications of a medium where variable costs (the cost of reaching individual contacts) tend to zero.The Web Site as an 1Electronic Trade Showand a Virtual Flea MarketWhile most advertising academics and practitioners might be starting to think about, and even acknowledge the importance of a Web site as a marketing communication tool, to date little systematic research has been conducted into the nature and effectiveness of this medium. Most of the work done so far has been of a descriptive nature—"what the medium is" (e.g., Ellsworth and Ellsworth, 1995; Verity and Hof, 1994), using such surrogate measures as the size of the Web audience to indicate its potential (e.g., Glossbrenner and Glossbrenner, 1995; Ellsworth and Ellsworth, 1995; The Economist, 1995; Denison, 1995). While these endeavors might add to our general understanding, they do not address more specific issues of concern, such as the communication