Dive Brief:

• An ad study from Nielsen and xAd proves that click-through holds little value as a metrics for display ads and mobile display ads. 
• According the the study of 200 million impressions across 12 brands and 80 campaigns, CTR is “completely unrelated, or even negatively correlated, to the other measures capturing metrics such as calls, directions and store visits."
• The research showed that lower CTRs are often associated with higher offline in-store visitation rates. 

Dive Insight:

Despite its lackluster performance—underscored in this study —many marketers seem tied to the CTR metrics. There are a few reasons for this: One, it's one of the easiest things to measure and gives concrete numbers. Two, the alternatives are hard to come by and a bit more difficult to quantify, especially for mobile.