Research Center >> August 2009

E-NEWS: Design Test Increases Click Rate by 213%
How you can zero in on this target audience.
from AICPA Custom Media Solutions.

The AICPA Insiders’ signature content includes Video Snacks — short “How-to” and advice videos for professional development. There is an anchor link in every newsletter to the landing page of these videos, which continue to receive a fair number of clicks per issue. However, the ENL team was exploring options for a newsletter redesign and wanted to have a screenshot of a new video within the E-Newsletter to test the popularity of the format as well as the effectiveness of this design in generating clicks.

Around the same time, the first AICPA Leadership Academy had concluded in Chicago. The goal of the Academy is to provide young professionals with personal development and leadership training, while also instilling a commitment to become involved in the profession’s volunteer organizations. The AICPA multimedia team created a video that featured AICPA CEO Barry Melancon and AICPA Chairman Ernie Almonte speaking about the importance of the Academy to the profession. The video also included interviews of the actual candidates chosen to take part in the Academy. This video was a perfect fit for the AICPA Career Insider, whose readers include job seekers who are potential candidates for the Academy and hiring executives who can recruit graduates of the Academy.

The July issue of the AICPA Career Insider had a screenshot of this video in lieu of the regular Tall Vertical Banner position.

Results

The video screenshot received 213 percent more clicks than even recent popular banners in that position. The clicks were more than what a sponsored tall button or a jumbo banner in the same position would receive and were almost 10 percent of the total number of clicks for that issue.

Conclusion

The E-Newsletter team concluded that video remains a popular format for our readers and that a video screenshot with editorial content would receive a higher number of clicks than a regular advertising banner. We will be testing this format further in the upcoming issues of other E-Newsletters.

With this high success for video within the E-Newsletters, advertisers should consider the various sponsorship options available with AICPA’s Insiders and within the Video Snacks. For more information and metrics, please contact Shreyas Telang.