I was just over at Live Alchemy reading a very interesting post about effective adverts. I contacted Andrew to ask whether it would be alright for me to post his article here, and just a few minutes later, I received confirmation. Thank-you Andrew.

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Here are two ads that we have been running on Google Adwords. Guess which one receives more clicks:

The .COM advert has been viewed 125 times, and nobody has clicked on it. The .CO.ZA advert has been viewed 73 times, and 4 people have clicked on it. The only difference is in the URL at the bottom - one displays YuppieChef.com, and one displays YuppieChef.co.za (both addresses go to the same place).

200 people is not a huge test-group, but if the trend continues it raises an interesting question about what our branding and marketing strategy should be. Until now we have been pushing the .com version of YuppieChef because we feel it looks more professional and allows us to expand internationally in time. However, for now our market is entirely South African, and this little test seems to suggest that South Africans would rather visit a .co.za website if they are looking for stuff to buy. Perhaps they have been disappointed too many times after looking at a lovely international website and then finding that delivery to South Africa is not available or too expensive.

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I found this article extremely interesting, and it actually added to something I was thinking about the other day. With this huge web interesting in South Africa at the moment, there is definitely an increase in supporting local websites. I must admit, I would have clicked on the .co.za advert above as well. I commented on Andrews blog saying that I would assume it has to do with one of two things:

1. Readers feel that visiting a local website is more ‘reachable’, in other words, if there was something to purchase or the need to contact the person authoring the advert arrival website, it would be far easier than an international comparison.
2. Bandwidth reasons, we all know the costs involved with South African bandwidth, and if an account has been soft capped, local websites are still an option.

I will do a follow up with Live Alchemy, to find out whether they have more information in a couple weeks, and report back here with the results. Thanks again Andrew, for letting me post your article.