What was interesting right off the bat was the difference in performance between the test targeting high schoolers and the test targeting parents. The parent campaign had much better results, with 69 clicks over the weekend compared to the mere 9 by high schoolers. There was also a big difference in the A/B testing results between the two demographics. The high schooler test had a clear winner, the ad with the “good” title received a 200% better CTR than the ad with the “bad” title. While of course this statistic sounds amazing, it was really only a difference of 5 clicks, again proving how easy it is to manipulate data into small tidbits without providing the more important context behind the data.

The campaign targeting parents, while more successful overall, did not have a clear winner between the two titles. There was only a .02% difference in CTR between the two ads, with the higher CTR belonging to the ad with the “bad” title. The only piece of data that was somewhat significant was the cost per result between the two ads, and again that data lies in favor of the “bad” title.

Way too often we get caught up on trivial guidelines of what we should and shouldn’t be doing. We lose focus on what really matters. Especially in marketing. Companies like HubSpot are in the business of making content. They’re constantly putting out lists and statistics trying to influence us, and they’re good at it. They are the kings of inbound marketing, so of course they use inbound principles when doing their own marketing. Their main way of marketing themselves is through their articles, which mention their own products with multiple calls to action throughout, which is contradictory in and of itself. With every article they get you to read, they get another opportunity to sell themselves. Therefore, the more articles they write, the more potential customers they reach. Oftentimes they take fairly similar articles and change up the title to try to reach even more people, and get another chance. 

So, the next time you read an article or report, make sure you really think about what it’s saying and look for the context behind it. Back to the HubSpot example, their research used blogs from over 100,000 different sites, with a wide range of subjects and target audiences. There were a lot more variables in the data than the titles of the blogs, making much of the research unreliable. But the way they present their data makes it look pretty and easy, and in the world of unknowns in marketing, it is nice to have a “known” statistic to rely on. It is a lot easier to be confident in the work you are doing if there is a fact or statistic that backs it. So, the more data we have to back our ideas and our work, the better we feel. Even if that data isn’t completely accurate.

What it comes down to is this: don’t buy into everything you see online. Think critically. Do more research. Follow your gut. Whether the original stat I found about odd vs even numbers is correct, I am still unsure. What I am sure of is that a blog post can be successful, as long as it has a title.