I wanted to share a presentation I gave last week.
Most people feel that it’s an “either/or” thing when it comes to picking DR vs. brand. I’d argue that it’s an “and” thing.
Let me know what you think below.
The Overflow Effect – How My Client Doubled their Revenues from their Facebook Ads
Imagine a scenario where all you’re doing is running Facebook ads, let’s say a video ad in particular. And you’re not running much of any other media – no search, no affiliates, not up on Amazon. Whether you think you’re killing it or just can’t seem to crack the code, here’s something you need to know:
You may be giving up more than 50% of the sales you could (should) be generating.
Why? Because just like we experienced when I was overseeing TV media at Beachbody, there’s a spillover effect (sometimes massive) from platforms, especially ones using video, to, well, everywhere else. Consumers don’t all immediately purchase. Some go do research of their own on Google and Bing, others go looking for promo codes to see if they can find the best deal, and some just go to Amazon because they are loyalists.
Let me cut to the chase as simply and quickly as possible – if you’re running any sort of volume on Facebook (video or otherwise) or on YouTube or on TV, you have to, have to, have to run, at the very least, the following:
- Paid search ads on Google and Bing for your brand terms & trademark terms, including misspellings of both, as well as any buzz phrases or USP’s you include in the marketing (think, P90X’s “Get ripped in 90 days”)
Too many people underestimate Bing. Sure it’s much smaller than Google, but it’s still bigger than zero, takes very little to manage it, and usually has a very high ROI.
And if you don’t those revenues or margin, do you mind if I take them? Didn’t think so. All those little’s will add up. That’s how you win.
- Affiliate channels – whether you’re set up thru networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare or otherwise, get going with your affiliate program. Especially if you have a physical product, do as much as possible to get connected with the top affiliate networks – they’re the ones who can and do drive more than 70% of the traffic – Ebates, ShopAtHome, RetailMeNot, Offers.com, Savings.com, etc.
- Amazon – I’ll keep saying this until I’m blue in the face. if you have a physical product, you need to be up on Amazon. Assuming you want to make more money. Yes, absolutely, it’ll cannibalize some of your sales. But a very small percentage of them, so little relative to the incremental revenues you’ll get that you won’t stress about it. There are a ton of folks out there who are Amazon buyers only. And correct, you don’t own the customer. But would you rather have fewer sales or more sales?
To illustrate the ripple (sometimes called a “halo” effect, which frankly I can’t stand), let me show you some stats from a campaign I managed for a client.
We scaled from $100 a day to $12K per day in 2+ weeks on Facebook, drove 17 million video views, 30,000 shares, 10,000 comments and 125,000 total engagements. In 8 weeks, we generated over $500K of revenue on roughly $190K of media spend, which for this campaign was better than goal. The only reason we pushed like this was because we saw the ROI. (As you look at the chart below, the reason for the precipitous decline is that we ran out of inventory – yes, a major bummer. But we are finally back up and seeing similar performance numbers, after a huge break.)
Here’s what I think is particularly notable in this graph: at the peak, Facebook represented 80%+ of the media dollars spent for this product (the blue line), but less than 50% of the revenues generated from the campaign, when measuring last (or really even first) click attribution. The blue column is Facebook-attributed revenues vs. the organ column which are revenues attributed to another channel.
Put another way, we spent the vast majority of the media dollars on Facebook, but got the majority of the orders through non-Facebook channels. So had we not been on Google, Bing, and set up with affiliates, we would have given up more than half our revenues. In this case, we actually didn’t own the product on Amazon, and that represented another 20% of revenues.
I’m a big believer of appropriately attributing orders back to trackable media, but in this case, because we knew what the baseline was prior to the Facebook media blasting off, it was very clear that the lift in Google, Bing and affiliate traffic was the direct result of the Facebook media. Had we not looked holistically at all media and revenues sources, we would have also miscalculated the real value of that Facebook media.
Frankly, I’m amazed more people aren’t talking about this effect. I’ve mentioned this at a few events I’ve spoken at in the past couple months, and I’ve literally seen people leave the room afterwards to tell their traffic folks to make sure any gaps they had are plugged.
Whether you’ve dismissed or ignored these older channels, at the least, get the basics in places. (I’m not talking about long-tail non brand terms. I’m talking about keywords like your brand. Very targeted, highly qualified traffic.)
And like I said earlier, if you don’t want the margin dollars from Bing (or anywhere else for that matter), give me a ring. But something tells me you want to keep all of it. So make sure your campaigns are set up to do so.
If you have additional insights you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them below.
Don’t make these two mistakes when doing competitive research
Learning and modelling off of your competitors is something everyone should be doing.
Whether you are new to a field or a long-time player, anyone can benefit from seeing what others are doing, if only to spur some new ideas.
(Note, modelling and learning is different than flat-out plagiarism. There’s a fine line between “not reinventing the wheel” and copying word-for-word. Don’t be afraid to use others as a model, but just bring your own creativity or persona to it.)
For purposes of this article, I’m going to assume the business is a digital marketer, but the lessons apply everywhere.
What most people do when they conduct competitive research is that they go through someone else’s funnel in the same way that they assume a “normal” buyer would. They want to see what the buying experience is. And so they go and buy the product or service.
Totally makes sense and is logical. You’ll see some of the steps, see what types of offers they are making, and what the experience is of receiving the product or service.
But if that is all you are doing – essentially buying once from a competitor, the first time around – you’re missing out on additional valuable information.
In particular, here are 2 items to add:
- Don’t buy.
At least not right away.
It sounds really simple, but go thru the sales process, but don’t actually buy anything. In doing so, and this is assuming the marketer is at least halfway decent, you’ll start to see retargeting ads all over the web. Pay attention to what they look like, where they appear, what types of messaging and offers they include.
Also, again assuming the marketer has some level of sophistication, they will have a different set of emails that they send to buyers vs. non-buyers. And so by only buying, you miss out on all those non-buyer emails. Given that 95% of people who hit your site won’t convert, your ability to remarket to them is crucial. Most people only focus on banner / Facebook retargeting ads, but forget about email (on multiple levels). So go thru a competitor’s funnel and make sure you submit an email address. Then give it a week or two to see what you get hit with.
(Quick note, the easiest way to know which emails are for buyers and non-buyers is to use a feature in Gmail most people aren’t aware of. By simply adding “+” and whatever words you want, you essentially have an infinite number of email addresses to use, all hitting your inbox. For example, if your email is bob@gmail.com, then you can use bob+amazonbuyer@gmail.com and bob+amazonnonbuyer@gmail.com as your email addresses and those will all go to the same place. Then just set up a custom filter and custom label. The emails will end up with tags that will help you identify them quicker than seeing what the actual email address was as each email comes in).
By the way, this approach of not buying can easily be applied in the offline world. See what a sales rep does after you say no. How do they try to overcome objections? When do they call you back? Do they send emails. Clearly, there’s a lot more variability by sales rep in most companies, and it’s much costlier – both for you and for the other party – so much so that you may not want to do it. (Not to mention getting on someone’s list and receiving an email is much cheaper than having a sales rep call you back – I prefer not to do the latter, but you have to make your own decisions.)
My point is that research is research – it’s just the process and media that might be a bit different.
- Remember that the marketer might be testing something new.
Good marketers know that they need to be testing all the time. Unfortunately, you can’t know whether you’re in a test cell or in a control version of someone’s funnel. As such, you may be in an experience that they are testing out – buyer or non-buyer – and so need to keep a healthy sense of paranoia as you’re doing competitive research. You might even need to go thru it a couple times (as a buyer and non-buyer, depending on how good you think they are).
The reality is that you shouldn’t accept and immediately implement anyone’s funnel. You don’t know their business model inside and out. They may be optimizing for revenues, for breakeven, or for a metric that means nothing to you. Who knows? So that paranoia should be in place even if you knew for certain you were in a control experience. The point is to see some new things and then figure out how you might want to test for your business.
Neither one of these strategies is rocket science. Behave like a buyer as well as a non-buyer. You’re not looking for the info about a data set of 1. You’re looking for what the 100s and 1,000s of visitors to your site do. And then just be slightly paranoid because you be part of a test your competitor is running. Be thoughtful and careful about trusting that what you experience is actually working.
Just as you read books from folks you admire, to learn from the experience and wisdom, so too should you do what you can to learn from those around you in the marketplace.
What mistakes have you made or have you seen others make? Leave a comment below.
“Talk to My Supervisor”
Those might be some of the most frustrating words you can hear.
Usually because whatever you’ve said to elicit that comment wasn’t a point of praise. I can almost guarantee it was a criticism or a complaint. Think about it – would someone ever tell you to talk to their supervisor if it was something positive? Of course not.
And whether it was those exact words, or something similar, it’s likely that everyone has heard those unbelievably frustrating words at some point.
They wreak of bureaucracy, of governmental inefficiency. Honestly, they sound like something you’d hear at the DMV (note to the DMV: please don’t make me stand in an (even) longer line just for typing those words…even though they are likely true).
But what is it about those words that drives us crazy?
- Whether we are polite or rude, when we are unhappy about our situation, we want someone to take action. To say something to help. Heck, we just want someone to *pretend* like they care or are doing something. “Talk to my supervisor” doesn’t even humor us for just how apathetic and inactive it shows us the other person is.
- Said supervisor is rarely around. They are usually “in the back over there” or dealing with another annoyed individual so you’ll have to wait your turn. And even then, on the off chance you actually encounter the supervisor, you realize that the supervisor has no ability to do anything anyways.
- And that is where you realize that it’s not the individual, but rather the organization or system you are stuck in. That place has no accountability. That role is reserved for the “they” – and no one really knows who “they” is (or is it “are”?). The entities where these painful words are uttered are bastions of bureaucracy, inefficiency, and pain for the consumer.
- Most annoyingly, usually the person saying those words has spoken them countless times before. It’s almost like the words roll off their tongue. As if they are so resigned to their lot, as if they just don’t want to hear it anymore. As if I should be questioning why I even opened my mouth.
Here’s the kicker. The attitude and culture of “talk to my supervisor” isn’t reserved for government offices. It happens every day in companies, but just under a different expression:
“That’s what I was told was decided at the meeting a couple weeks ago.” (passive voice intentional)
“I got an email that said we shouldn’t be doing things outside the box.”
“What do you mean?” Followed by utter silence
And my all-time favorite:
“The CEO said to do it.”
It’s no wonder that the number one characteristic that top managers are hiring for is pro-activeness. Because it doesn’t show up that often. But also because of what it reflects:
-Someone actually thinking (I could just stop here, but I’ll go on)
-Not waiting to be told what to do
-Some semblance of leadership skill (note that is not the same thing as management skill)
-A desire to make a positive impact (assuming the idea is halfway reasonable)
-An action-orientation
-Presumably the right amount of impatience
Certainly there’s plenty of discussion to be had why the lack of initiative is so prevalent in companies. This, despite that companies typically operate more efficiently than government entities. People don’t like to stir the pot or draw attention to themselves, laziness, or politics.
And those cultural norms need to be addressed.
In particular, because this type of behavior is probably present in your organization, far beyond whatever level you think it exists today. And I’d posit that it’s more costly than certain failed strategic initiatives because it lives each day in the organization and is impossible to be compartmentalized.
But it has to get rooted out if you want to have a great organization. Which could include doing one or more of the following:
-Creating a culture of accountability – where single individuals hold accountability for key areas of a business (nothing is worse for getting something done than having 2 or more people supposedly assigned to it)
-Building a coalition, if you will, of people who will marshall the cause of change and proactivity
-Taking a stand for what you do and don’t accept. And that often happens in the moment, when either because of time or even social etiquette, it is more difficult to take action.
-Making changes to staff when the desired behaviors aren’t displayed.
-Figuring out what your version “Undercover Boss” is. (By the way, I love that show because of how it gets regular employees to put their guard down, so you see who they really are, both negative and positive.)
So yes, we all go crazy when we hear those almost-insulting words of “Talk to my supervisor.” But let’s also not be so delusional to think that that culture and thinking is confined to wherever you associate it.
Unfortunately, it’s everywhere. And any organization that wants to be considered “great” has to take proactive steps (there’s that word again) to eliminate, or at least minimize the apathy, lack of leadership, and an overall sense of “it’s not my responsibility” in your organization.
And if you need any additional further motivation, just imagine if one of your employees said their version of “Talk to my supervisor” to your customers…
How to Add Value When You Know Nothing
If you’re struggling with how to add value at your company, then at every meeting you go to, be the person who takes notes and sends them out to everyone who was at the meeting. Be sure to include what specific decisions were made, what the next steps are, and most importantly, who the single person who is accountable for any follow-up items. And if you’re unclear about any of these, most likely someone (or everyone) else is as well. Don’t let the meeting end without asking (translation: demanding) for clarification.
And then here is the kicker, check back after the appropriate period of time to see if what was supposed to happen afterwards actually did happen.
There is are an immeasurable number of meetings that happen each day where the ball gets dropped because a) people weren’t clear about who was supposed to do what; and b) people just didn’t get done what they were supposed to do.
So there you go – you can know nothing about a business and can still add massive value.
By the way, if you don’t have someone in your org or in specific meetings who is assigned to do this (whether you, a project manager, note taker, assistant, intern, chief of staff, or your spouse), it might be one of the highest ROI roles you can fill. And as you can tell, they don’t even know about your business to be effective in this role.
But watch out, they may start to learn your business and who gets stuff done – better than anyone else. You might even need to find a new role (gasp!) for them as you learn what more they can do.
Luckily, the next person you have to hire to replace them doesn’t need to know much about your business to be effective…
Your Business Metrics Are Not High-School (or even College) Math
So stop behaving like they are.
Quick story – when I was interviewing for investment banking jobs coming out of college, people used to say to me that I must be good with numbers because I was a math major at MIT.
I was amused because by senior year my math classes actually had very few numbers – it was primarily variables, equations and proofs. But far be it for me to let people’s assumptions at what I was studying in college and what they thought I was good at get in the way of their advancing me in their process. (I got 1 job out of all those interviews in ‘94/’95, a nasty environment, but it only takes one…)
Let’s be honest, though. Looking at a marketing report or doing the type of math that’s required to run a business isn’t the type of math I did, or really that most people did, in college. I’d even argue that it’s barely senior year high school math – whether you were in Calculus, Geometry or Algebra II.
I also know that just mentioning those classes is probably causing a nasty emotional reaction in some of you right now.
And that looking at your marketing metrics is eliciting that same emotional reaction. But it’s not remotely the same thing. And so you shouldn’t be limiting yourselves.
For example, if you see that last week’s visitor count to your website was 20K and this week’s is 15K, are you really tapping into college-level math to know that something has changed and that you probably want to understand why? Or when you look at a report and see that you’re selling 1,000 units a week and that you have 2,000 in stock, that you better have a shipment on the way. Or make a phone call pretty quickly. Or plan on stopping selling in short order.
Now if you want to talk about critical reasoning skills and what to do with those results, that’s not math skills. That’s business sensibility. And why in that last example, I suggested a few possible courses of action – each business and individual has to come up with that list and then pick their best decision.
And so perhaps setting up data warehouses or running analyses in Excel takes some level of technical skill – how much is truly math or not, let’s not argue about.
But I continue to be amazed at how many people shy away from even asking for metrics and get intimidated by looking at business reports.
If you want to track your business results, you can hire a tech person to help set up your systems. If you want to look at pretty reports, there are tools like Tableau or Domo that can integrate with your platforms to make it easier to view your information. There are even companies like Fully Accountable that can help you interpret your data. And sure, if you want to dig in to more sophisticated analyses – such as knowing how to track your offline media to online orders, there are companies like Conversion Logic, which are tackling this more complex problem.
But fundamentally, the output of these reports doesn’t require the quant skills that I hear too many people feel like they do.
You certainly don’t have to be skilled in the technical aspects of getting these reports done – despite my MIT education, I don’t know much about building data warehouses. But that doesn’t preclude me from working with an IT department to describe what kinds of information I want to see. And while my own focus is now in helping folks interpret their data (whether quantitative or qualitative) to find their highest leverage opportunities, one of my personal missions is to ease people’s anxiety when it comes to asking for and looking at metrics in the first place.
Just like the fact that the Internet is here to stay and that every company has to have a presence on the Interwebs or face severe consequences, marketing is continuing to move towards being increasingly quantitative.
Whether it’s a new skill you need to develop, a mindset shift, or finally deciding that you just have to make it happen, the longer you delay, the more at risk you are putting your business. Clearly, this Is not to say that metrics will guarantee success. More that those not looking at them, and not taking advantage of information about their business, are putting themselves at a severe disadvantage.
So if you need that kick in the butt, then get over yourself. You’re not in high school anymore. We all want to be cool, sure. But being successful is a lot more likely to make you cool than not doing so. And using your business metrics is one of the greatest factors these days to increasing your likelihood of success.
