Tip Sheet: 3 characteristics that drive high clicks

In an oft-cited 2011 study, Solve Media discovered how much more likely internet users are to do even the most statistically unlikely of things than click on an intrusive online advertisement. The advertising consulting company studied statistics of behaviour and world events, concluding that people were:

• 87.8 times more likely to apply to Harvard and get in
• 112.50 times more likely to sign up for and complete Navy Seal training
• 279.64 times more likely to climb Mount Everest
• 475.28 times more likely to survive a plane crash.

In an industry that celebrates the single digit click-through rates (CTR) regardless of ad spend and product category, marketers need to adopt optimization tactics to get the most out of their campaigns. After implementing open rate best practices, advertisers and agencies need to implement visualization best practices that encourage target audience to click through towards a landing page.

1. Capture attention and build trust through familiarity

According to Jenifer Ooi, the creative director at Lion & Lion, creatives struggle to deliver results when products lack an existing awareness, making promotion on their side much harder.

“In recent work with FWD Vietnam, we achieved great results with an early funnel ad aimed at capturing registrations,” she says.

In this example, her team built confidence and drove CTR through a recognizable face in Vietnam, in this case, Tóc Tiên. “Alongside Tóc Tiên, an exotic parrot was included to reinforce FWD brand DNA of ‘living in the moment’,” she says.

To be relatable to the key target audience, illustrations of urban Vietnamese culture such as pho, milk tea, drip coffee, gadgets, as well as cultural landmarks in Vietnam, were used to create an exciting, joyous and youthful visual image.

“A fun, witty and conversational ad copy that speaks the brand DNA; each banner ad created speaks about living the carefree life when you are protected by FWD as if spoken by Tóc Tiên herself,” Ooi adds.

In designing the ad, Ooi’s team also considered the placement of the ad to stand out from the cluttered products and promotion banners within tiki.vn, while at the same time, taking into consideration branding constraints of both Tiki and FWD. With the different phases of the campaign, simple and direct calls to action (CTA) were used to create urgency and consistently drive better CTR.

“Overall, the combination of these elements helped us achieve nearly 50,000 signups within the first week—surpassing both our and clients expectations,” Ooi adds.

2. A/B test the CTA combined with a promotion

In an earlier Tip Sheet, we covered best practices around growing email open rates. When it comes to CTR, the latest wave of best practices measures the number of click as a percentage of the number of email opens. And so advertisers and agencies look at click to open rate (CTOR) as a measure of effectiveness.

Fave Indonesia achieved a 30% CTOR by using GetResponse. According to Mellissa Lee, the head of GetResponse in Malaysia, the campaign achieved this by segmenting its content between genders, including customer ratings on the deals being offered as a means of price anchoring, and by A/B testing a CTA.

Last month, luxury fashion jewellery producer Carat achieved a return on ad spend of 35:1, the highest ever recorded for the brand. To achieve, they hired Lion & Lion to use a classic combination of a top-selling product visual and an appealing promotion.

3. Employ list hygiene

Often the most effective solution is the simplest one, which is why few advertisers and agencies apply it. Most email marketing service providers automatically help customers remove all of the emails that have bounced or unsubscribed, reducing hard and soft bounces.

As the audiences are qualified based on prior actions, the open rate and CTR inevitably will be higher than the industry average.

iMoney Malaysia achieved a CTOR of 20% by employing contextual content marketing to source qualified leads, which is essential for list hygiene, while highlighting clear CTA buttons for users to find out more.