Cost models for online ads are based on clicks — the more click-throughs, the more revenue becauses of (presumably) the more impact of the ads.
But some new studies indicate that online ads can have significant implicit impact on memory — retention of words and images and associations that may only come into play later, and without any immediate click-throughs.
Explicit memory involves facts learned through conscious interaction, while implicit memory involves unconscious retention. Explicitly remembered information includes ad slogans, product benefits, and website addresses. In contrast, implicit memory might only come into play when external stimuli trigger concepts. For instance, a consumer might only recall a brand of toothpaste from a television ad when he or she discovers it while browsing in a store. Or the consumer might develop an unconscious affinity for a certain brand despite not knowing specific facts about it.
Subjects who paid attention to a banner advertisement were more likely than those who didn’t to recall whole words and facts from the ad — facts stored in explicit memory. All ads had the same level of impact in the unconscious explicit memory, however, whether or not they’d been clicked.
All of which makes me glad that I run Adblock Plus in Firefox …