Conversely a single page sales letter or ‘squeeze’ page (a page that asks for your name and email address in report for some information) probably want to focus on getting more page views and are not concerned about the time on the site.

Not only are most ads on news sites not geared towards direct response, unfortunately there’s a lot of scorched earth that made people reluctant to click-through on ads. At one time, there were unpleasant surprises that greeted people who clicked-through on ads (e.g., pop-ups, back-key disabled, etc.) that caused people to regret clicking on an ad. As a byproduct, about the only people clicking on ads are adolescent males. That doesn’t mean that an impression wasn’t made…it simply means there aren’t click-throughs.

On top of that, usually online ad dollars come from print or broadcast where there’s no notion of a “click-through”. Consequently, it holds an online ad to a much higher standard than other ad types. How many people pull over and call a business from an ad they heard on the radio? About the same # that click on online ads that aren’t direct response oriented.