Headshot or Not?

Published on January 5, 2010

Tags: Marketing Analytics, Marketing Smarter, Testing

We've written before about Anne Holland's addictive Which Test Won?—a site where readers compare marketing pieces from actual A/B tests and vote for the one they would guess is more effective. Often, visitors get it right. But in a recent comparison of two banner ads, they got it profoundly wrong.

Both banners used identical copy to invite a highly qualified audience to sign up for a free webinar. Version A had a left-side button and included a headshot of Dennis Kruger, a German analytics and testing expert likely to be recognized by some responders; Version B featured a right-side button and no image.

Three-fourths of Holland's readers chose Version A as the likely winner. But, writes Holland, "Version B—with a right-side button, sans headshot—boosted on-demand webinar sign-ups by 65%."

She emphasizes the importance of measuring results based on the banner's goal of sign-ups—not simply by the number of clickthroughs. "Never judge a banner test only by clickthroughs; as demonstrated here, what really matters is the conversion activity downstream after the click."

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Comments

by GregPC Tue Jan 5, 2010 via web
In out avatar-driven online environment, a person's face is still their best identifier. It may be true that the site will perform (by some metrics) better without a headshot; but adding one will make the content more readily associated with its creator/author/owner. And that has value as well.
by Intuitive Results? Tue Jan 5, 2010 via web
I'm not sure I can go along with this analyzation. What if the respondants were just too lazy to click left of screen with their right-handed mouses?
by Tim Sun Jan 10, 2010 via web
Headshot or button position? So two things were changed (headshot vs. no headshot, and button left vs. button right). Why single one out as "the reason" if the two variables weren't tested independently?
by Intuitive Results? Tue Jan 12, 2010 via web
Exactly.
by thecynicalmarketer Wed Jan 13, 2010 via web
What was missing from the original experiment was the element of control. In truth, this experiment could have been testing any of the following; placement of the button within the banner, the total number of elements in the banner (what I call the clutter-factor), use of a headshot or not, or the title of the presenter (maybe people don’t trust a CEO to give a technical presentation). see http://bit.ly/8KKwvW for more