According to the most recent research, as reported by Marketing Sherpa, the average click through rate for banner ads on web sites is about .21% or 2.1 clicks per 1000. Not a very stellar performance, but still marketers spend about $5 billion a year on banner ads.
 
I wanted to see how Facebook compared to these banner ads click trough rates. I had to rely on my own experience creating and posting ads for clients. Of course, any ad response depends on the offer, so I will give averages. My experience shows that Facebook generates an average click through rate of .51%, over double that of Banners and a respectable response.

Google is considered the gold standard of online advertising and rightfully so because it makes a lot of gold for Google. Again, I used my own experience to determine an average click through rate. That average is 1%. That’s 5 times what banner ads do. Wow maybe it is the gold standard.

Wait maybe Google is not the gold standard.  I have a surprise for you. There is a new media that is blowing away all of these ad formats. It is WiFi. C-Channel has a network of retailers in Atlanta set up as free Wifi hotspots. When a customer accesses the web from these locations (which can include adjacent stores and public spaces) they are presented with a C-Channel Screen that includes a write-up about the location and ads from other C-channel hotspots. These ads are clickable. 

The average click through rate for C-channels free Wifi is 2.2%. That is twice as good as Google, 4 times the rate of Facebook and 10 times the rate of the banner ad.

It’s time to consider Wifi marketing and advertising. If Google is the gold standard, C-Channel Free Wifi is the Diamond standard.