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why throwing a picture of your ebook at the top can lower conversions

by shawnlebrun
6 replies
If you take a look at this pic....



The man who ran the ad, Melvin Powers, reported ad A pulled three to one over ad B.

He thought the newspaper format in ad A helped, but also a single word on the cover of the book title may have been a deterrent to order (hypnosis)

So, as a marketer, you never know what may help or hurt response.

In most of my tests, including the ebook cover at the top of my site usually lowered conversions. Not always, but surely most of the time.

So, looking more like editorial content and not like you're trying to sell something can often convert better.

Not only that, but testing different formats and layouts is a must.
#conversions #ebook #lower #picture #throwing #top
  • Profile picture of the author Marvin Johnston
    Interesting. Do you know if he tried the same two column layout without the picture, or the four column layout with a picture?

    It looks like he changed a number of things for the two column ad including the headline layout, size of the headline, number of columns, font size of the body copy, and the actual ad size. Was he doing multivariate testing?

    Marvin
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  • Profile picture of the author scrofford
    Originally Posted by shawnlebrun View Post

    If you take a look at this pic....



    The man who ran the ad, Melvin Powers, reported ad A pulled three to one over ad B.

    He thought the newspaper format in ad A helped, but also a single word on the cover of the book title may have been a deterrent to order (hypnosis)

    So, as a marketer, you never know what may help or hurt response.

    In most of my tests, including the ebook cover at the top of my site usually lowered conversions. Not always, but surely most of the time.

    So, looking more like editorial content and not like you're trying to sell something can often convert better.

    Not only that, but testing different formats and layouts is a must.
    I've read the something similar somewhere before from someone else, though I would think it's something that would need to be tested depending on the market and product you're selling.
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  • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
    Originally Posted by shawnlebrun View Post

    If you take a look at this pic....



    The man who ran the ad, Melvin Powers, reported ad A pulled three to one over ad B.

    He thought the newspaper format in ad A helped, but also a single word on the cover of the book title may have been a deterrent to order (hypnosis)

    So, as a marketer, you never know what may help or hurt response.

    In most of my tests, including the ebook cover at the top of my site usually lowered conversions. Not always, but surely most of the time.

    So, looking more like editorial content and not like you're trying to sell something can often convert better.

    Not only that, but testing different formats and layouts is a must.
    You know...that's really interesting. Without putting any thought into it, I was immediately more interested in the ad on the left.

    I'm going to make a few tweaks to my own landing pages this weekend and see if there's a difference in conversions.
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  • Profile picture of the author ThomasOMalley
    I agree with testing but test what counts: your offer, headline, deck copy, first few paragraphs of copy, P.S. different formats, etc.

    P.S. Melvin Powers has some great swipe file material in his Mail Order and Classified Ads books.
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  • Profile picture of the author serryjw
    Originally Posted by shawnlebrun View Post

    If you take a look at this pic....



    The man who ran the ad, Melvin Powers, reported ad A pulled three to one over ad B.

    He thought the newspaper format in ad A helped, but also a single word on the cover of the book title may have been a deterrent to order (hypnosis)

    So, as a marketer, you never know what may help or hurt response.

    In most of my tests, including the ebook cover at the top of my site usually lowered conversions. Not always, but surely most of the time.

    So, looking more like editorial content and not like you're trying to sell something can often convert better.

    Not only that, but testing different formats and layouts is a must.
    You mentioned ebook. Do you know if Amazon Kindle ebooks allow for a/b testing?
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