Comments on: Dear ClassesUSA, Please fire your Marketing Director. Thanks.

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:38:32 +0000

I’ll tell you one ClassesUSA ad that I hate with a passion. It’s the one with a girl dressed in superhero like clothing. And it has this photo shopped black girl’s head on it and she just had the most creepy looking, shit eating grin on her face.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:19:47 +0000

As a longtime marketer in this industry (on the lead gen side), I appreciate this post. WTF indeed, though I think you might be overlooking or misinterpreting some things in the evaluation of these ads. 1) They’re not affiliate-generated. These ads are straight from ClassesUSA (John). 2) The purchase (or lead) intent of a consumer who actually clicks on one of these craptastic ads when it appears entirely consumer-irrelevant at the ad level has to be quite high after the user comes to a landing page that actually explains and details the information request. If I’m a betting man (and I am), these ads are among the highest-converting sources (lead to enroll) that ClassesUSA utilizes. If your overall quality has been dropping from ClassesUSA, it’s not from these ads but from other sources of traffic. My guess is you’re falling victim to the obnoxious, albeit notorious level of lead source blending that happens in this industry – - or you know, “transparency”. You’re being sold one thing and being delivered something else.

To your original point though, yes ClassesUSA, WTF? Even if these ads are effective, they piss off the even slightly-sophisticated Web user. As a consumer, I hate that they work for you. As a marketer, I respect you. Damnit.

By: Wendell

Wendell — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:07:05 +0000

When ever I see one of these adds, I think my computer is getting spammed. Its true that the ads don’t make any damn sence, and if they want to be serious, they should at least make one that a person would like instead of this crap. I just scanned my computer for malware because of these!

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 18 May 2011 19:50:20 +0000

They even photo-shopped a random middle-aged woman’s face onto the cartoon body and now they took it and made a cartoon version of that and put it back on. Just f’ing bizarre. I almost want to see what would happen if they did a TV ad, but I’d be too scared to watch. If only it was possible for anyone who clicked on those on purpose to be shot in the face.

By: Benji Leal

Benji Leal — Sat, 14 May 2011 15:12:50 +0000

As a man I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I ABSOLUTELY hate their bouncing woman ads!!! What the heck?!?

By: Weird Stock Photography | Photography for the Awesome-minded!

Weird Stock Photography | Photography for the Awesome-minded! — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 03:18:38 +0000

[...] You think this guy look familiar? He is! You may have seen him in the horrible Lower My Bills advertising [...]

By: john n

john n — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:14:55 +0000

that makes sense that the lead quality would be junk. affiliates will usually get thrown off an offer for the bad traffic, but I guess can make some quick money in the short term with some “shock” ads before the advertiser evaluates the quality.

also, obama jesus ad is really funny.

By: Christa Watson

Christa Watson — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:38:36 +0000

Actually John, I’m glad you asked! I DO happen to know how these ads in fact perform since I am (or my company is) a client of ClassesUSA. While you are looking at the CTR of the affiliate in terms of actual clicks and leads/conversions, you do not have insight into the quality of leads these types of ads are bringing. Ultimately, the affiliate gets paid on each conversion, therefore ugly ads may in fact = more money for them… in the short term. Long term, if the end customer sees a drop in quality or massive amounts of unqualified leads, they will either A) demand the directory to turn off this source or B) stop using this directory source altogether.

In my case, we have significantly reduced, if not altogether shut off ClassesUSA lead flow over the past 3 years due to such poorly qualified leads. So what was once an opportunity is no longer available. It has forced us, with good reason, to focus on internal search efforts to make sure we are representing our Universities the way they wish to be, and not with ridiculous, albeit conversion crazy ads.

By: john n

john n — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:49:38 +0000

To all those complaining about the poor marketing job done on these ads… have you ever tested their actual performance? perhaps they are actually HIGHLY profitable for the advertisers. Most likely these are all affiliate-generated ads not done directly by ClassesUSA themselves.

Great article on why “ugly” ads actually work: http://www.mrgreen.am/affiliate-marketing/the-ugly-truth/

By: Dawn

Dawn — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:50:34 +0000

HAHA!! I thought maybe I was the only one that noticed these and thought WTF? Seriously?! Who puts this stuff on the web? I’m assuming they randonly assign a picture to the ad, but seriously – get some normal pictures! I love the one with the constipated looking old mom with the title “single moms get 10,000 to go back to school!” HAHA WTF?