PixelMEDIA Inc.

As one of the world’s leading not-for-profit genetics research institutions, The Jackson Laboratory maintains a website dedicated to helping non-scientists and the general public understand the impact of the laboratory’s work: Genetics and Your Health. In 2011, the lab asked PixelMEDIA to develop a pilot online campaign to determine if banner advertising would be an effective medium for raising awareness and driving traffic to the website.

Success Factors

Banner advertising on websites that included AARP and WBUR (Boston) would drive traffic to landing pages that featured a series of video interviews with people who had been affected by cancer. The landing pages were designed according to best practices for generating interest and conversions:

A/B testing of banner ads

The Jackson Laboratory wanted to gather data for future campaigns, so PixelMEDIA suggested a round of A/B testing of the banner ads. A/B testing means creating different versions of an ad or landing page and running both during the same time period. For example, out of 20 users, 10 would see ad A and 10 would see ad B. The click-through rate would be tracked to see which ad generated more interest,

Continuity of relevant terms and images

An important goal of the testing was to determine which combination of words and pictures best established and maintained the continuity—or “scent of information”—between the banner ad and the landing page. Maintaining this continuity is critical to helping readers remain focused and confident that they are moving along the right path toward their goals.

A prominent primary call to action

Each landing page included a large call-to-action that included a brief description of the offer, which included an online subscription to The Jackson Laboratory’s magazine, The Search. The strategy was to focus on a single call-to-action (subscribe to the newsletter) but offer several options for doing so: directly from the landing page, from a subscription page, or from the GYH website. The options allowed people gather more information if they wanted to before subscribing.

Solution

One set of banner ads featured pictures of the people behind the personal stories. The other was a set of bold graphic treatments of the headline, without people. The ads would be competing with other ads on the busy websites, so quick message comprehension was important. The Jackson Laboratory team wanted to learn which direction would be more effective for future campaigns, so multiple design and copy treatments were rotated in ad placements and results tracked.

Results

Despite the presence of competing photographic imagery on the target websites, the ads with images of people attracted significantly more click-throughs and generated higher conversion rates. The people ads and the graphic ads used the same copy, but the association between headline and person proved to be the stronger approach. For subsequent phases of the campaign, the graphic-only ads were suspended in favor of the people-based ads.

Tags: case study, Content strategy, google analytics, Search marketing, Social media