Well, The morning after it has all wrapped up and I sit back and reflect on my experience of the campaign, this time not refreshing my web page every minute to see if we had attracted more people to our ad!
It has been an enjoyable three weeks. Our work as a team has been very professional and I have very much enjoyed working with Anastasia and Diana. We were successful from the very first week. After our first day of campaigning, we knew the changes that needed to be made, and this was evident by our first week results of 514 clicks. This result made us the benchmark for other teams, and I think our results acted as a motivation for other teams to try and catch us. After making the big changes in the first week, and making the most of the ANZAC day public holiday, we re-configured our budget to maintain a consistent level of obtaining on average 100 clicks per day.
Our goal after the first week was to bring our CTR over 1.0% and reach 2,000 clicks. we achieved 1,990 clicks with a CTR of 1.07% only to fall short due to our budget constraints. We tried some late changes to achieve the clicks, but just fell short in the end.
Our campaign has produced some amazing publicity for the dog's home, which is a very important factor for this organisation. We conducted a radio interview for ECU radio, made the SCA website news page, and then made headlines on the homepage of the ECU website.
If we have produced even one adoption from this campaign then I can say that we can class it as successful. One dog adopted is one kennel that becomes free at the home, which in turn makes room for one dog that would inevitably lose its life without a spot at the refuge.
By increasing awareness of the home, we have provided people with the knowledge of the existence of the refuge. Even if they do not act immediately by adopting a dog today or tomorrow, they will now have it in their mind when they are ready to have a dog in their life. Without this awareness they would most likely go straight to a pet store or dog breeder, and not go down and see the beautiful dogs at the home.
Adopting a dog is not like purchasing a jumper, or choosing where to eat. It is a big decision. Our true conversion rates can not be established by going through the documents at the refuge for the three week campaign. Our campaign, along with the publicity in which it has received will hopefully provide further conversions in the weeks/months to follow.
For me, this is not the end. I will front up at the home this week and the next to provide the doggies with some human TLC to give them the best opportunity possible of finding an adoption family. They are locked in their concrete kennel 23.5 hours a day, so it is understandable when they are a little grumpy or jumpy! It is sometimes sad to see how they live at the refuge, but you just remind yourself that in the home, they are fed daily, receive all their medical needs, and live a far better life than they were most likely living before they became residents of the home.
Thanks to everybody who has been involved with this campaign, especially Professor Ling for his professionalism and unlimited support.
And remember, if you are ever in a situation where you are lucky enough to have a dog come in to your life, think of the refuge and come and find the next addition to your family!
AJM
