Re: online targeting

From: Larry Schopfer <lschopfer_at_growthspurts.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 10:47:32 -0600 (CST)

Let me clear up a few points relating to our little (and I
mean little) test of targeting vs. non-targeting.

First of all, in response to Joe Bartling's observation that
we never acknowledged his assistance with our experiment:
He's right. We deliberately chose not to because we didn't
see his form of advertising (non-targeted) as any more
successful than targeting. In fact, as many have stated in
this debate, we could make a case that it was less
successful.

However, that was our INITIAL feeling. As this debate has
progressed, and especially after Joe's recent insightful
observations about the spurious benefits of traffic, we have
changed our opinion! He sums it up by saying:


> I would argue that visitors become prospects, prospects become
> customers, and customers make purchases resulting in sales.

Thanks, Joe, for donating valuable ADSDAQ impressions to our
experiment and then helping to explain what REALLY happened!

I have a few other observations about the results of this
test:

1. The quantities involved were probably too small to come
to any conclusive answer. We knew this was probably true
going in, but what the heck? At the very least, it created
a nice debate!

2. The low click thru rates were most certainly because of
our creative. However, after the first 2 campaigns (Burst,
BabyCenter), we could have modified our creative for the
ADSDAQ campaign (as Joe suggested). We chose not to in the
interest of conducting apples-to- apples research.

3. We have come to realize that the low conversion rate was
also our fault. Maybe this helps explain why there was a
lower conversion rate for non-targeted visitors. A
non-targeted visitor was not out there looking for our type
of site (baby related). When they got to our site, we did a
poor job of explaining exactly what the site was about. A
targeted visitor that was just at BabyCenter may have picked
up on it quicker since they might have been looking for this
type of site. Any thoughts?

Larry Schopfer
GrowthSpurts.Com, LLC


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Received on Thu Mar 04 1999 - 11:43:24 CST