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Which ad would you click through?

by Soren Dayton | July 19, 2008 at 3:53 PM
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So I was doing some research for a panel that I am speaking on at RightOnline, and I was curious. So I searched on Google for "obama healthcare" and "mccain healthcare". I was shocked by what I found. First the ads:

 Which of these would you click on? The one that asks you to register at campaign events or get to know someone? Or the one that asks you for money. I bet that Barack Obama's ad has a lot higher click-through.

Now, let's actually click through. Landing pages after the jump.

First, Obama's:

That's a video of Obama looking at you and talking to you. It asks you to "Join us" in a big red button in the middle of the screen. And they are asking you to come to an event, not give money.

Now compare with McCain's site, except that I'm goign to give you the whole page.

 

What's the message of this page? McCain isn't looking at you. There's no message. There's no explanation for why you might give up your email address. McCain is looking at the "Contribute" button, because you know what he is thinking about...

Any guesses which one gets more email addresses? Any idea which advertising strategy gets better ROI? I have a guess...

 

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Comments

Fun and Petty

Submitted by BradleyTank on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 16:17.

Something I like to do whenever I come across an Obama ad is click on it. The reason, Obama's campaign has to pay for that click. I know it's only pennies, but if a lot of conservatives start clicking on his ads, it adds up to a lot of wasted money. I like the idea of Obama paying for me to look at one of his silly ads about how he's the next messiah for America and to join his campaign. Maybe we can start a drive to see how many people we can get to start clicking on his ads. We could really start to racking up millions of dollars in wasted advertising.

I honestly think these Obama ads on the internet are not very effective. I think the conservative movement could do a much better job utilizing the internet, but I can't see these Obama click-through ad-links really doing much. If I was in charge of the McCain campaign, I wouldn't spend too much on these type of ads. I would make more internet "attack" ads, highlighting Obama's policy goals and record, but not "Join the McCain Campaign" ads.

Build the list

Submitted by Sean Hackbarth on Sat, 07/19/2008 - 16:35.

A very important goal of a campaign eCampaign is to gather as many quality e-mail address as possible. With those address the campaigns can drive supporters to act and organize. A campaign has to ask for an e-mail list in order to get them. Obama has done a great job through their messaging to build a huge, powerful list that will be used again and again until Election Day and maybe even beyond.

Old vs New

Submitted by texicali on Sun, 07/20/2008 - 11:19.

The McCain website is awful....it's not "inviting" people inside to get to know the candidate....it's asking for money first.....this is offensive....how do you build an email list,  get people interested in your candidate and participate with your candidate when the front page of the website is so off putting.....they have good, talented people working in the McCain camp for this front page to still be the first thing people see when they click through any ad to get there...a redesign is long past due....this reminds me of  "if you build it they will come"....the McCain camp doesn't get this yet