Category Archives: split testing explained

Why the wrong banner ad will kill your business

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I buy a LOT of display advertising and so I’m always fascinated to know what gets clicked when it comes to images.
Well thanks to eye tracking software we now know.
It’s not what you think…..
eyetrack

How men look at an H&M ad

Men spend more time looking at the woman, while women read the rest of the ad.

Men spend more time looking at the woman, while women read the rest of the ad.

Notice how the men are not looking at the shoes at all.

Notice how the men are not looking at the shoes at all.

These Sunsilk ads show that just putting a pretty face on a copy isn’t enough. It matters where she’s looking.

These Sunsilk ads show that just putting a pretty face on a copy isn't enough. It matters where she's looking.

This is called “banner blindness,” and shows why publishers and advertisers hate banner ads. People barely even look at them.

This is called "banner blindness," and shows why publishers and advertisers hate banner ads. People barely even look at them.

 

On Google, the top five listings on the page get the majority of eyeballs. The red lines are the “fold” — the point at which you’d have to scroll down.

Yes how often do you here guru’s (AKA people who have never actually run ads online) say aim for position 4….

On Google, the top five listings on the page get the majority of eyeballs. The red lines are the "fold" — the point at which you'd have to scroll down.

 

As you’d probably guess, more eyes are reading the pictures and headlines on this Ad Age page than anything else.

As you'd probably guess, more eyes are reading the pictures and headlines on this Ad Age page than anything else.

Notice how nobody’s looking at Wolf Blitzer, but at rather the center of the frame.

Notice how nobody's looking at Wolf Blitzer, but at rather the center of the frame.

Could we have a heat map post without Facebook? Photos catch the most eyes

Think about what this means for ads on FB…. use a REAL person!

Could we have a heat map post without Facebook? Photos catch the most eyes

Men focus on baseball players’ torso more than women, who look only at the face

Men focus on baseball players' torso more than women, who look only at the face

Even though there’s a large picture of a man’s face on this billboard, more people were looking at the words on the left.

Even though there's a large picture of a man's face on this billboard, more people were looking at the words on the left.

 

Women tend to focus on the face and the torso…

Women tend to focus on the face and the torso...

 

While men (disconcertingly) focus more on the junk than women…

While men focus more on the junk than women...

 

So what did you think?
It sure does add a whole new dimension to running banner ads don’t you think? Now to find some pictures of guys with big willy’s to advertise those biz op offers too 😉
Neil

Are Boys Better More Likable Than Girls?

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Using Facebook to end sibling rivalry…

Boys Vs Girls - Who Wins?

As part of our ongoing experiments I’ve set up some new facebook fanpages and I’ve been split testing the pictures not only in the ads but also on the fan page itself.

For the main part pictures on the fan page had no effect at all (something else does, will reveal all another time) BUT one thing that was interesting was that it seems that women are more inclined to click “like” if it is to do with their son than their daughter.

but

the same thing does not follow for men, men were equally as likely to click like for their sons or daughters.

What does this mean?

Well if you’re selling to parents you’re better off using imagery
of sons rather than daughters.

What about if you’re not selling to parents?

Here’s a tip, use facebook to test ads BEFORE you use them in
your marketing (website, print media etc) this way you’ll know
which pictures work best, headlines and offers.

The tests are cheap to do and the results remove a lot of the
guesswork and bias that we have when we put products and
campaigns together.

Give it a shot 🙂

Neil

P.S I’ve been doing a ton of writing lately about mindset and
personal transformations over at my other blog

www.neilasher.biz

If you like that sort of thing check it out 🙂

steal this

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I remember at school it was naughty to copy, it got you into trouble.

Then at university if you copied it was called plagiarism and they’d kick you out if uni

Now in business, copying is good!

“If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.”

Reinventing the wheel is for inventors, entrepreneurs see what’s working and adapt.

Here’s a great example:

This week we have been split testing images for our home page at kidz 5 a day.

We used Google web site optimizer and set up a very simple 4 way test with 4 different images

I copied various other websites for ideas and sent some traffic to the experiment.

Our winner with a 22% improvement in conversions is…..

Kidz 5 A Day

 

This is the old one:

Buy Kidz 5 A day

Buy Kidz 5 A day

Here’s where I copied the idea from

http://www.proactiv.co.uk/?

I love proactive, it’s owned by guthy renkar and BTW that single business does $200 mill a year… not bad huh.

Anyway

Look at what other people are doing in your industry, look at what other industries do and copy ideas.

It works!

And saves a ton of time.

(nb you MUST test ideas other wise you’re pi**ing in the dark)

22% improvement!

Think about that for a second.

22% MORE money for testing something.

“Genius Borrows nobly.” Emerson

Porridge anyone?

Neil

P.S I love wine 🙂 2 very cool things re wine:

1. Drayton Bird who is a genius has a client (naked wines) who is going to be huge in the wine industry

2. you can get £50 of wine for free from them (and see Draytons awesome marketing) here

http://www.list.co.uk/offer/224-free-50-voucher-for-naked-wines/