Atlas Institute Releases Study of Online Marketing Drop-Off Rates; Study Shows That Industries With High Consideration Items Average an 80 Percent Consumer Drop-Off Rate.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2001

Avenue A, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVEA)--a digital marketing services and technology company--today announced the latest report from the Atlas Institute, part of its new Atlas DMT operating unit.

The report examines the online advertising industry's consumer drop-off phenomenon, demonstrating that consumer drop-off rates are linked to product consideration. The study shows industries that specialize in higher-ticket items, such as financial services and computer electronics, have higher average consumer drop-off rates when compared to other industries.

During a four-month pilot study, the Atlas Institute analyzed drop-off data from 26 advertisers within various industries. To determine drop-off rates, the Institute looked at the percentage of people who made it to the final step of the purchase or registration process on a web site without ultimately buying or registering for the product or service. For example, if 100 visitors to an e-commerce site arrived at the final checkout page where payment or personal information was required, but only 20 people made it to the confirmation page, the drop-off rate was 80 percent.

The Institute found that consumer drop-off rates were linked to the cost of the product under consideration. Web sites that averaged transactions greater than 500 dollars were considered to have high product consideration and exhibited the highest drop-off rates, generally greater than 80 percent. Web sites with low product consideration or transactions that averaged 100 dollars or less, typically displayed drop-off rates lower than 40 percent.

Data was then categorized by industry, so advertisers could use the information to compare their web site's drop-off rates to the benchmark rates of their industry category. The industries were divided into three categories:

    Industries with less than a 30 percent drop-off rate:
         Sports and Recreation Content
         Food and Drink Content

    Industries with a 30 to 70 percent drop-off rate:
         General Content
         Family Content
         Health and Beauty

    Industries with a 70 percent or greater drop-off rate:
         Financial
         Computers and Electronics
         Apparel and Accessories
         General Shopping and Auction
         Entertainment Content
         Travel

Young Bean Song, director of the Atlas Institute, recommends that businesses with a higher drop-off rate than their industry standard take steps to identify and address barriers that may be impacting a consumer's willingness to complete a transaction.

"Drop-off rates provide yet more evidence that advertisers can not base their campaign effectiveness on click-through rates alone," said Song. "It's critical for a company to understand the importance of tracking a user's activity not only from the advertisements to first impression, but throughout the sales process. By doing so, an advertiser has the necessary data to optimize their sales process, thereby significantly increasing their chances of closing the sale and contributing to their company's bottom line."

About the Atlas Institute

The Atlas Institute is the research and education arm of Atlas DMT, a provider of digital marketing management systems and an operating unit of Avenue A, Inc. The Institute publishes Digital Marketing Insights, a series of publications by Atlas DMT's senior marketing analysts and digital marketing experts that help our customers improve their digital marketing effectiveness. Many of these findings are also made available to the digital marketing industry at large. Each Digital Marketing Insight report is designed to help marketers more successfully build value with their customers, throughout the customer lifecycle: from awareness to acquisition and from retention to growth. Atlas Institute also provides education in digital marketing to Atlas DMT customers and partners.

About Avenue A, Inc.

Avenue A, Inc., the digital marketing services and technology company, was founded in 1997 to help marketers acquire, retain and grow customers across all digital media. Through its two operating units--Avenue A, a provider of digital marketing services, and the new Atlas DMT unit, a provider of digital marketing management solutions--Avenue A, Inc. has the capabilities to touch and bring value to every interaction in the digital marketplace. The company is based in Seattle and operates offices in New York, Chicago and London. Avenue A, Inc. also offers digital marketing services through iballs, a wholly owned subsidiary based in New York. Avenue A, Inc. and iballs adhere to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC. These principles are designed to ensure Internet user privacy. Please visit www.avenuea.com to learn more.