Doug Schumacher revisits the issue of ad-website pairing, now with the added tool of a pop-up survey to assess consumers' reactions.
There's been a lot of discussion recently about consistency between an online campaign's advertising and the site experience. I find this interesting because the general idea that there should be synchronicity between the two seems obvious, and yet there's also room for interesting subtleties to take place.
To explain where I'm going, consider the possible differences that could exist between a banner and its corresponding site experience. Thinking broadly, there are three primary ways a landing page and banner can differ. (Anyone with additional scenarios, please email them. This is open source marketing, after all.)
- Message differences
- Brand differences
- Thematic differences
Let's look at each of these.
Message differences: What is the ad about, and does the site or landing page form a logical connection to that message? This can be as blunt as making sure that an ad offering a promotion, product or price backs up the offer on the landing page. It's a direct link to what's likely the primary reason the person clicked. On a loftier branding level, it could encompass more experience-based reinforcement. If the ad says that the company it represents has the easiest to use software, does their landing page or site seem easy to use upon arrival? I feel the need for this level of synchronicity is pretty clear, and for the most part online marketers already practice it.
Brand differences: Differences in fonts, color palette, design style and perhaps even logos -- naturally, certain campaigns or promotions may take liberties with fonts or the color palette, but in general, most marketers are pretty savvy about keeping the brand style under one roof.
Thematic differences: Iconography, promotional themes and other campaign-focused references that may fall outside the above two differences. This could be iconic references used in an ad (like Travelocity's gnome), a spokesperson, a visual style distinct from the brand, or even specific textual connections to the ad. Of the three, this one leaves the most open to interpretation. Ads have always employed a wider range of graphic styles and imagery than what corporations will use for their other communications, the justification being that ads operate in a more demanding environment than most corporate communications. The web creates a more mixed experience, though. Online, someone can easily go from an ad to a product brochure to the CEO's bio, if they want to, because it's all there. The big question then is, Does creating a closer connection across the online corporate communication points improve the user's experience?
Testing Strategy
Our testing strategy is to try and determine if a more closely connected experience between the ad and the site will generate a more positive experience for visitors responding to the ad. More specifically, we're going to do this based solely on imagery.
From my experience, this approach is relevant to how a lot of companies handle landing page development. Landing pages are often templates that can accommodate easy text changes. Many times, graphic treatments on landing pages will be generic. Hopefully, this test will shed light on whether a more customized approach to landing page development is worth the additional effort.
Recently I was discussing this testing approach with Brad Berens, iMedia's executive editor, whose academic background is in this sort of thing. Brad explained that a social or cognitive scientist would call this a test of schema-driven cognitive processing versus data-driven processing. A landing page with visuals that closely correlate to the ad prompts schema-driven processing because it asks the visitor to recognize the style rather than figure out a new style for the first time. A landing page with little visual correlation makes the visitor do more cognitive work, and this is data-driven processing. Schema-driven processing involves recognition, and recognition is easier on the human mind than seeing something for the first time.
In online marketing, we speak of the need for ad and site continuity to reassure the visitor that they're in the right place. Confusion, even if for a brief moment, is disconcerting and can damage campaign performance.
So I think it's clear how the concept of schema-driven processing is connected to how online marketers try to make a cohesive experience from ad to site.
Our goal is then to try to quantify the effect of this tighter communication in a way that we can easily understand, and then apply the results.
Testing Construct
In establishing this test, we'll be showing the same ad to two different groups of people. The ad has very strong iconic imagery that can easily be recognized on the site as being connected to the campaign. Group A will arrive at the site and see visual references like what they saw in the ad. Group B will see a site that doesn't have anything in common with the theme or imagery from the ad, outside of the product.
The ad we're using for this is our Rasputin ad, which you may be familiar with from past tests. We're using this ad because it features a highly distinct image, which gives us a graphic theme to reflect on the site-side of the experience. Group A visitors to the site will also see 'endorsements' by Abe Lincoln, and Che Guevara, as well as more Rasputin imagery.
If you look above to the right, you can see the Rasputin ad, as well as two Rasputin site pages and two standard site pages.
We're then going to survey those visitors on the second page of their visit with a five-question pop-up form. The questions on the pop-up form are as follows:
- Does this site offer what you were expecting? (Yes/No radio button)
- How interested are you in buying this product?
- Not at all interested
- Not very interested
- Neither interested nor uninterested
- Somewhat interested
- Extremely interested
- What do you expect to pay for a 12.5 oz bottle of Sugarshots?
- $9.99
- $7.99
- $5.99
- $3.99
- Please enter a word that you think describes Sugarshots. (A text box)
- How do you intend to use Sugarshots?
- Non-alcoholic beverage
- Alcoholic drink
- Food
- Other
- It's not for me
This survey is designed to address product interest, purchase intent, optimal price point and brand association issues. By then comparing the results from our two groups of visitors, we hope to discover whether having the cohesive ad/site experience has altered visitor attitudes.
The technology and methodology we're using to do this is from Offermatica, who worked with us on a previous Sugarshots test on optimizing site content. Offermatica President Jamie Roche will also be contributing to the analysis in Thursday's article.
Goals and Objectives
As mentioned earlier, our goal with this test is to try to determine if a more closely connected experience between the ad and the site will generate a more positive experience for visitors responding to the ad.
In a previous test we tested this between two ads, one that reflected the site experience, and one that didn't. We evaluated performance on how thoroughly viewers visited the site, and their purchase intent, based on a visit to the purchase page to learn pricing information. In that test, we didn't find that having a more cohesive campaign experience improved performance.
This time, we're using a single ad, but varying the site experience, and evaluating the impact with a survey instead of site metrics. It should be an interesting alternative view on the same topic.
Will Rasputin take over the entire site, or is he simply a pitchman out on the front lines of the campaign? We'll find out Thursday.
Doug Schumacher is the president of Basement, Inc.