MediaPost: Doubleclick Signs Host Of New Customers

There seems to be a conversion marketing awakening. First, Overture decided so many companies were asking for ROI info that they bought a web analytics firm and rolled out their own offering. Now, DoubleClick announced that their new combined analytics package is being snapped up by a host of new customers.

The PR department must have had the thesaurus handy. Four new clients are mentioned in the release. I guess nowadays four is considered a "host" of customers - not like in olden times. The King James Bible (rife with hosts) uses the term referring to a host of soldiers that "lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels [were] without number, as the sand by the sea."

I fear the word seems to have lost its sense of emphasis over time. (At left, a "host" of potential DoubleClick clients.)

In any case, finally marketers are realizing web marketing isn't only about the media but what happens after the click. Retail stores figured this out ages ago. Let's hope that online marketers get the message fast. Certainly with paid search, no marketer can afford to keep paying for higher and higher-priced clicks without optimizing the back end.