The joy of the Westcountry

[bunn]

I am running an advert for reconditioned Agas. Specifically, I am running 2 adverts, with very similar wording.

One ad includes the line : "Lovingly refurbished in Devon"

The other is otherwise identical, but replaces that line with the rather more clinical: "Refurbished by specialists"

The first ad has a respectable clickthrough rate of 3.55%, but the second has a woeful rate of just 0.89% (ie, only a very tiny percentage of people who had that ad displayed in their search results decided to click on it).

I cannot tell accurately where searchers come from (see previous post about geographical inexactitude of online systems) but I don't *think* they are all from Devon. Google thinks most of them are from London. So unless Google is totally screwed on geographic sensing (which is possible) for some reason far more people like their cookers to be 'Lovingly refurbished in Devon'.

I expected the first line to do better as it feels 'warmer', but such a margin is quite striking.

Comments

[tovaglia.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I wouldn't go for the "refurbished by specialists" either. All that means is that the Agas are refurbished by people who refurbish Agas! Anyone can claim to be a specialist - esp in today's NHS - most people with "specialist" in their job title (specialist registrars, specialist nurses) aren't actually on the specialist register!

[chainmailmaiden]

I suppose the "Lovingly refurbished in Devon" might make people think of cosy country kitchens and that sort of thing, which is presumably the feel they want for their kitchen if they're going for an Aga. Specialists might sound a bit too clinical for them, though I would prefer the thought of someone who knew what they were doing messing around with it's bits & pieces. On the other hand, it doesn't stated that they are specialists in Aga restoration, they might be bee-keeping specialists :-)

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

But is it the "Devon" or the "lovingly" that makes the difference? You really need to run an advert that says "lovingly refurbished in Clacton-on-sea", or something, and test the response. You could do hundreds of them, to draw up a league table of trustworthy place-names - at least when to their trustworthiness in lovingly refurbishing Agas. Refrigerators might yield a completely different response.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

You are too good at this ;-)

I am actually running a couple of ads now with and without 'lovingly' and 'devon'.

[(Anonymous)]

I applaud your scientific spirit! I reckon both will have an effect -- "lovingly" is definitely reassuring, but so is "Devon" as LoA says.
- Neuromancer

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It's faux-scientific rather than scientific really, because there are so many other factors - for example, maybe people feel more enthusiastic about 'devon' in late August/early Sept than they do once autumn has properly set in. Or viceversa.

But despite this, I feel that it's probably one of the most measurable forms of impact of writing.

[tena524.livejournal.com]

But when all is said & done, can they actually buy an refurbished Aga?

;-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The crux of the question!

Yes they can, but not online. They are apparently rather individual things not well suited to ecommerce, where the final step involves much consultation on the correct type and installation. My job is to get people to the site who will be readily convinced to make phonecalls and emails when they get there.

Annoyingly, the whole thing becomes pretty much untrackable at that point.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

... as the client will rarely be convinced to keep detailed 'how did you hear' records, and even if he does, the enquirer will usually not be able to describe exactly what he did to get to the website in enough detail to be sure of what's working.

Still, it beats telly and magazine ad response measurement hands down.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was thinking the same thing, that the other obvious variation was the 'lovingly', which I suspect has a deep unconscious pull. The other thing I thought was that, if there were no other references to Britain/UK in either version, one thing 'Devon' does is situate the advert as relevant to someone in this country who wants an AGA. I know I tend to assume that the ads I see eg at the top of my Gmail are more likely to be for US than UK sites, just because of the demographic weight - but actually, I don't know if this is true; Google might be targetting geographically better than I assume. A 'localising' word like Devon might well stand out and make me notice the ad? (Of course, if the whole ad starts off "WANT A BRITISH AGA?" my theory is worthless ;-))