Foster Parents Plan Tests Four Very Different Online Ads to Gain $396 Donors: Results & Samples

CHALLENGE: If you're charity, testing online ads can be a nail
biting proposition .... because you simply can't afford to lose any
money.

"We're very much accountable," says Tara Christie, Foster Parents
Plan (Canada) Internet Development Project Manager. "80% of our
revenues goes directly to our programs." So, Foster Parents
carefully relied on what was proven to work - direct postal mail and
direct response television.

But, by late 2002, they noticed that a significant number of offline
campaign-driven donors were signing up at the site instead of
calling or mailing. Order processing costs were so much lower
online, without any dip in conversions, that Foster Parents Plan's
in-bound call center began promoting the site as the best resource
for questions.

It only made sense to test online ads in 2003.

But, could a banner campaign have the same powerful impact that an
offline campaign can? Plus, Foster Parents Plan isn't a low-ticket
impulse buy. It's a $396 annual investment.

Getting clicks is hard enough, how can you make them convert to a
long-term giving relationship?

CAMPAIGN: The answer is by carefully eking out your budget with a
series of tests, tweaks, and more tests. The team carefully tested
four main online ad concepts over 18 months, each test building on
what they learned from the last. (Link to samples at end of story.)
Each test also relied on best practices in landing pages, focusing
the visitor on a single course of action -- read the bulleted copy
and start filling out a donor application on the same page. There
were no extraneous links or information.

Test #1. "Hungry Child" Static Banner
This creative was instantly familiar to anyone who's ever seen an
offline Foster Parents Plan ad. It features a photo of a child, a
short list of statistics, a short list of Plan benefits, and a large
call action, 'Click here to sponsor a child today.'
The large 425x600 banner was static - no moving parts, no changing
panels, no interactivity beyond the click link. Plus the creative
team only used shades of blue, no other colors, which gave it a
stark, simple feeling.

Test #2. Text Links
For an even more straight-forward message, the team ran text-only
links on a variety of Canadian portals and search engines that said
simply, "Sponsor a child today".

They hoped text-ads would work because surfers' eyes are drawn to
text instead of color-blocks; text-ads can be an inexpensive media
buy; and, the marketplace presumably already knew enough about the
brand so the right prospects would click without further ado.

Test #3. "Happy Woman" Lottery Interactive Banner
And now for something completely different... the team decided to
try a highly engaging, interactive banner. Instead of focusing on a
sad, needy child, this would focus on the sense of joy you can get
from becoming an involved donor.

This 443x556 banner featured an exuberant photo of a grinning
20-something blonde. Tabs down the right side read:
- Did she win a lottery?
- Did she fulfill a dream?
- Did she win an award?
Click here to find out
The landing page, also featuring a photo of the smiling woman,
started out: "She helped a child in need. And for that she deserves
to win the lottery and a whole lot more

Test #4. "Joe Traveler" Interactive Banner
This 443x556 banner also featured a quiz about a donor, but this
time the donor was a fairly gender-neutral cartoon character named
"Joe". The creative read:

"What's in Joe's bag? You decide. Through Foster Parents Plan, Joe
has recently sponsored a little boy named Salifou who lives in Togo,
West Africa. Joe is planning to visit Salifou and is wondering what
to pack."

The viewer could click on three items from a list of seven including
a camera, a motorcycle, crayons, and anti-malaria pills. Each one
plopped itself into the bag as the viewer clicked.

The landing page started out by showing the viewer "Here's what you
put in Joe's bag!" and congratulated him or her on a good choice.
Then the copy segued into brief information about the Plan, and
featured an interactive form to begin the sponsorship process.

RESULTS: Despite their initial concerns, Foster Parents Plan learned
successful online ads could generate new donors at a 50% lower cost
per donor than DRTV could.

The hungry child static banner was a consistent winner, plus, it has
unusually long legs.

Christie explains, "It was steady throughout the entire campaign. It
stayed at .15% clickthroughs and .9% conversion to donor rates. It
didn't matter how many impressions we threw at it or how long we ran
it. It was a true control and we still run it from time to time."

Much to everyone's surprise the text links bombed with very poor
clickthrough and no conversion. Brief words alone couldn't move the
click for this particular offer. More information and some type of
emotional involvement was needed, either with a child photo or
interactivity.

The happy woman campaign generated an insane number of clicks --
averaging at 2%. But conversions were a dreadful .03%.

"When you started looking at what you were spending at the end of
the day, it didn't work out. It was triple the cost of DRTV" says
Christie. "We learned you need to set things up as much as possible,
give people enough information before the click. That's why the
control works and this didn't. It's obvious, there's nothing hidden
there."

The Joe Traveler ad, designed as a mid-way point between the stark
control and the interactive happy woman, did extremely well ... for
about two weeks.

Christie explains, "The first week it did actually reach 2%
clickthroughs. Then it flattened out to .92% and died pretty quickly
after that. Conversions were consistent at .2% We determined that 10
days is the optimal period of time for these ads."

So, the team will continue to develop and run new interactive ideas
during 10-day periods in 2004, interspersed with the control.

Also, as we've heard from other online advertisers, Foster Parents
Plan discovered online email portals are a great place to run ads.
The highest performing placement was invariably the spot on the last
page an email user saw as they left email. Which makes sense, that
user is more available to click at the perfect moment in between
activities.

Useful links related to this article:
Samples of the three test banners, plus landing pages:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/fpp/ad.html
Delvinia Interactive, Inc., the agency who handled creative and
online media buying for Foster Parents Plan
http://www.delvinia.com
Allard-Johnson, the charity's traditional media agency
http://www.allard-johnson.com
Foster Parents Plan (Canada)
http://www.fosterparentsplan.ca