Case Study(s) relating to Online Advertising

Summary: Product samples can give your customers a taste of what you offer and encourage them to come back to buy. But once you have a sample program that's generating sales, how can you drive conversions even higher?

Read how an online retailer simplified an existing sampling program that was converting at a 40% rate, and got 15% more website visitors to requests product samples. Also, find out why you should be careful which products you select for sampling. continue...

Summary: Consumers are watching their spending, which means marketers must find creative ways to appeal to cost-conscious buyers without hurting their own bottom lines. One marketing team found a solution in the work of a behavioral economist.

Read how they adapted a psychological experiment about the impact of arbitrary price benchmarks on a consumer’s spending habits. They created a "budget" shopping guide that included useful tips on assembling an inexpensive party, but featured a total price point higher than the typical customer’s party spending. The result: a 35% increase in average order value. continue...

Summary: Targeting online forums is great way to build brand awareness and buzz for your products. And the strategy doesn't always require the heavy lifting of actively managing conversations and posts.

See how a tire manufacturer helped build consumer demand by promoting a giveaway offer across several online forums. Clickthrough rates to the landing pages were as high as 83%, and sales began climbing steadily following the campaign. continue...

Summary: This year’s marketing mantra has been about doing more with less. See how a marketing team built a content library and generated new leads through a user-generated video contest.

The carefully-designed contest called on consumers to create brand-focused videos and recruit peers to vote on a winner. This resulted in hundreds of submitted videos and more than 17,000 registered voters primed for future outreach. Includes 11 creative samples for inspiration. continue...

Summary: Your media partners can pull a lot of weight when it’s time to raise awareness for an event. Some will put up ads to your website; others will write a blog post with a link; what’s even more effective is pushing tickets directly from their sites.

Find out how an event marketer sold more than 10% of her tickets though advertising partners by creating an interactive ad. Includes creative samples and lessons learned. continue...

Summary: Are you a marketer for a U.S.-based company that has worldwide dealers yet barely a Web presence? Then this Case Study on lead generation is for you.

Basement Systems has maintained triple-digit growth in leads generated from its SEO and PPC campaigns over the past two years. The 10 steps they take. continue...

Summary: Running a multivariate test on banner advertising -- instead of relying on industry research -- can prove to be a valuable optimization practice before launching a campaign.

See how a wireless telephone provider tested 36 ad combinations to lift clickthroughs more than 50%. Includes tests on banner ad size, copy and creative ... plus results. continue...

Summary: Many marketers turn to humor when they’re looking to jumpstart a campaign. Some efforts work, most don’t, especially in the business-to-business world.

Discover what one company in the humorless document storage and data protection industry did to stand out from the crowd: an Internet video effort with English straight-man John Cleese. They've had more than 1 million downloads.

Includes a five-part strategy, results and a very funny creative sample. continue...

Summary: We never thought we'd report on a banner campaign that beat email -- but that's exactly what McAfee's new test campaign has done (with a 10.9% response rate.) Ok, it's not exactly a standard banner, but it is certainly an inspirational campaign (and it wasn't insanely expensive.) Plus, the best part is McAfee got killer data on post-view activity. Turns out 85% of campaign conversions happened up to 90 days *after* otherwise untouched prospects saw the banners. Makes you consider adjusting your online ad ROI assumptions, doesn't it? continue...

Summary: Although you may be enjoying this winter's unusually balmy weather, consider the unhappy fate of ski resort marketers. In response, Killington Resort has been running an all-out integrated media attack, including rich media continue...