Presented by:
Angie Pascale
Copywriter & Marketing/PR Coordinator
Brainy Days: Lateralization & Website
Optimization
Background
• Westwood College, along with Redstone College and Westwood College Online, are a system of higher education
institutions powered by Denver-based Alta College, Inc.
• 19 campuses in six states, six schools, numerous degree programs, 17 online degree programs
• Location3 Media has been managing Westwood’s paid search for over five years
• During that time, we have created tons of landing pages for the campuses, schools and degree programs for all three
colleges
Objective
• After five years, we’d optimized nearly every aspect of PPC campaigns, all were performing well
• Next logical step was to focus on landing pages
• Due to the many landing pages, creating a GWO test for each was an extremely daunting task
• Instead, we focused on the degree program landing pages only
• Increasing conversions is always the ultimate goal, but we wanted to really learn
something about the users and take a creative, psychological approach
Contact Forms
• Why are contact forms always located on the right side of the page?
• In English, we read from left to right
• Approximately 90-95% of individuals are right-handed and prefer performing
activities with or on their right side
• What about the lefties?
• If the right side of the body is controlled by the left side of the brain, does that mean 90-
95% of people are left-brained?
• What could this mean for landing page design?
Hypothesis
• Lateralization of brain function (i.e., right-brained or left-brained)
dictates which side of the page a user prefers to complete a form
on
• Brain lateralization of users can be determined by degree program
they are interested in
• Right-brain degree programs will perform better with form on left
side; left-brain degree programs will perform better with form on
right side
GWO Experiment
• We conducted A/B split tests using original page with contact form on the right versus new page with contact form on the
left
• Created new version for all 56 degree program pages
Original Landing Page New Version of Landing Page
Brain Lateralization
Left-brained Traits
Logical, detail-oriented, practical
Responds to verbal instructions
Planned and structured
Prefers established, certain information
Sees cause and effect
Right-brained Traits
Artistic, visually-oriented, risk-taking
Responds to demonstrated instruction
Fluid and spontaneous
Prefers elusive, uncertain information
Sees correspondences and resemblances; analogical
Source: Bastable, S. B. (2002). Nurse as educator: Principles of teaching and learning nursing
practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Brain Lateralization & Career Choice
• These characteristics help define an individual’s career goals:
Right-brained
Interested in literature and Humanities; become
entrepreneurs, athletes, sales executives, artists,
musicians and craftsmen.
Left-brained
Interested in math and science; become lawyers,
accountants, engineers and scientists.
Brain Lateralization & Career Choice
Left-brained Degree Programs
Right-brained Degree Programs
Criminal Justice Game Art
MBA Marketing & Sales
Airframe and Powerplant Construction
HVAC Interior Design
Healthcare Management Graphic Design
Paralegal Fashion Merchandising
ISS
Game Software
E-business Management
• We associated each Westwood degree program with a dominant hemisphere of the brain
Results
Degree Program Winning Form Side Confirmed Hypothesis?
Criminal Justice Right
MBA Left
Airframe and Powerplant Right
HVAC Left
Game Art Right
Construction Left
Marketing & Sales Right
Conclusions
• Although a compelling experiment, we did not find a conclusive link between contact form location and brain lateralization.
Reasons for the discrepancies:
• Too many outside variables
• Those seriously interested in the program would complete the form regardless of its location
• Brain lateralization simply has no connection to online conversion activity
• Experiment was based on a hypothesis created by right-brained individuals!
Conclusions
• We did, however, succeed in optimizing Westwood’s many degree program landing pages:
• Average 39.7% conversion rate improvement
• 83.1% conversion rate improvement for HVAC page
• Winning form location has been applied to all landing page designs since
If you would like a copy of this presentation, please provide a business card or contact me:
Angie Pascale
720.881.8528
To view online case study, visit:
www.searchenginemarketingstrategy.com/wwcs
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