Re: Acceptable Click Thru Rate
CHRISTIE BROWN WROTE:
> In my class (yes, I am a card-carrying genuine MBA
> advertising professor), you'd better have a good reason
> for predicting higher than the average.
My response:
Well, I'm a card carrying MBA and have real-life direct
marketing experience, and I disagree with everyone. (So
there!) Seriously, though, you need to be very careful
when people start talking about averages. "Average
response to direct mail" or "average click-through" are
silly numbers if they are lumping the click through on
a "Click here and you could win $1 Million" on a portal
with the click through on a a b-to-b ad on a highly
specialized industry-specific site.
And this ignores whether the mysterious average is even
good. I've done direct mail campaigns where I got 15%
response and was content -- because it was what I
expected -- but not thrilled. I've been thrilled with
2% because knowing the list and offer and our goals, I
was expecting and would have been happy with 1%.
If you are going after the same audience repeatedly,
the only way to make really good predictions is to test
everything you do and build up some experience. Run the
same ad on different sites (or send the same piece to
different lists). Segment your list and send different
creative with the same offer, or different offers with
the same creative. It is work, but it will give you a
lot of insight into how your target market behaves.
--John Whiteside
john.whiteside_at_cwusa.com
Received on Tue Feb 01 2000 - 15:31:03 CST
