March 19, 2015 at 09:06Without cuts. The third month in Russia: regular results of the month
The third month of cashback service in Russia has gone unnoticed (past reports here and here ), and traditionally we share the results. This month we were tested for fault tolerance, but more on that below.
1. Attendance
20 519 unique visitors , 24 679 visits, 66 286 views. 50% increase from last month. 97.5% new visitors. 684 unique per day.
For three months: 47 322 visitors, 60 561 visits, 184 955 views.
2. Registration of
2472 registered users. The average number of new users per day is 26. Last month growth is 45%.
Referrals 530 and an increase of 15%.
3. Shopping
From 399 purchases, we have grown to 595 purchases in quantitative terms. This is an average of 7 purchases per day. The growth was 49%.
4. Turnover
Increased to 1.280 million, by 14%.
5. Promotion channels -
We tried for the first time to post a paid article on lifehacker.ru. Not to say that we received a very large number of registrations from there, 70 registrations and only 3 purchases, the placement price did not beat off exactly. Somehow with free methods, we manage to advance better.
5.1 Contextual advertising
Works and for it we want to use a / b-tests to increase conversion.
5.2. Social networks
Group in VKgrew from 1888 to 6376 and this happened without any ads. We regularly get our share of registrations and a very decent share of purchases from there.
5.3. SEO
More than 2 times in a month increased the database of search queries.
5.4. Publications and blogs
There are not enough hands, so we are trying to make at least one publication in two weeks. Here are the last ones:
- about the impact of cashback services on sales
- about the role of referrals
6. Analytics
Analyzed the purchase of referrals. And it turned out that referrals make up 21% of users who generate 11% of sales. Given that this is free traffic, it is a very promising sales channel. Here is another article, in which we described in more detail our strategy for working with referrals.
7. Answers to frequently asked questions.
This is a new section where we plan to give answers to frequently asked questions.
Question : Why use the cashback service if many credit cards give their cashback from purchases?
Answer: You can use both of them and get double cashback: from a card and from 2000 online stores in CloverR.
8. Fails
8.1. We were late with the action of traveling to Vienna. We
planned to launch before the start of all the holidays, but it turned out late in the evening of February 14.
8.2. Amazon refused to cooperate
We did, did integration with Amazon, but it turned out that it is not yet possible for us to get conditions with a cashback. Roughly speaking, they need more significant indicators than now. Therefore, we will most likely launch Amazon, but only instead of cashback we will give other buns.
8.3. Money for mailchimp ran out.
We left the free tariff plan for mailchimp, which is responsible for mailing with us. As a result, while throwing money, while restarting the newsletter again, several weeks passed during which our users were without the newsletter.
8.4. Load testing
This is not a hack at all, but someone just ordered a load testing from home.wpm.neustar.bizthat put the site for a while. It happened on a day off, so we had to quickly put off household chores to resolve this issue. The site simply stopped opening and for some time it took us just to figure out what was the matter, after which we banned the annoying IP. No, no, these are not malicious attacks at all, but rather a friendly bell about what you need to think about security and fault tolerance.
8.5. UWSGI broke down
Again almost 2 hours of inactivity.
8.6. We didn’t track the registration through the social network.
We found a bug that did not track the registration through the social network. With registrations and users, everything was fine, but our analytics was incomplete.
8.7. Many users with adblock
Probably about 40% of users have Adblock or another ad blocker installed. This thing, along with sharp advertising, also cuts affiliate referral links and spoils the tracking mechanism. As a result, the purchase passes, but the online store does not know that the purchase comes from us and accordingly does not consider it necessary to pay cashback. Although this is written in the rules for us, but we realized that not all of these rules are read, so we added a warning window when switching to the online store, which freezes until the client disconnects Adblock.
8.8. Contests
Launched a contest with free travel to Viennabut somehow it doesn’t work much. The idea is that a registered user can write a letter with kind words to a dear person, share this on social networks and participate in the draw of a trip to Vienna. We wanted to achieve a viral spread in social networks, but it did not work out. Either we chose the wrong city, or did the wrong mechanics, or did not pour money into advertising ... If you have any ideas why, then we will listen with pleasure.
9. Pros
9.1. Added registration through Odnoklassniki
Now you can easily register through them and link the account to Odnoklassniki in your profile.
By the way, on classmates in the group we have more than 5000 subscribers. Registrations are in full swing.
9.2. Invited to Netologiya
Netology project invited to participate in one of its training programs and talk about the experience. We chose the course “Startup Startup: From Searching for an Idea to Entering the Market” and another time we’ll talk about what turned out to be useful for the project.
9.3. They started caching.
Or rather, they optimized what was done before. Now everything works much faster.
9.4. Added https for data transfer.
The site itself is still running on http, but the layer associated with the transfer of tokens and other data with external services is already working via https, providing the necessary security. Soon we will demonstrate the extension for the browser and mobile applications. They were ready to buy a license on startssl.com, but the Chinese successfully got a two-year sharefree SSL certificate.
9.5. Engaged in the process of simplifying registration
Should become easier and more optimal. I want to get rid of the second step, which may interfere with users.
9.6. We are considering the implementation of a / b-tests.
We select the modules that are, and look at how to implement them in your product. It is definitely impossible to fully use something external, because we are interested in not just showing the landing page, which easily covers products like western unbounce.com or our lpgenerator.ru, but also tying them to internal logic. For example, to understand what type of test led in the future to more purchases.
9.7. Getting ready to search for investments
Since the economic model has become clear, and now we know how much each user costs, how long it pays off, how much each channel brings and how many channels you can use, we want to speed up the scaling process. To do this, prepare an Executive summary and presentation of the project.
Thanks to the devoted readers and customers of the service! Thank you for the feedback and recommendations on the interfaces and functionality that you send us! New users who are not yet with us can register here !
1. Attendance
20 519 unique visitors , 24 679 visits, 66 286 views. 50% increase from last month. 97.5% new visitors. 684 unique per day.
For three months: 47 322 visitors, 60 561 visits, 184 955 views.
2. Registration of
2472 registered users. The average number of new users per day is 26. Last month growth is 45%.
Referrals 530 and an increase of 15%.
3. Shopping
From 399 purchases, we have grown to 595 purchases in quantitative terms. This is an average of 7 purchases per day. The growth was 49%.
4. Turnover
Increased to 1.280 million, by 14%.
5. Promotion channels -
We tried for the first time to post a paid article on lifehacker.ru. Not to say that we received a very large number of registrations from there, 70 registrations and only 3 purchases, the placement price did not beat off exactly. Somehow with free methods, we manage to advance better.
5.1 Contextual advertising
Works and for it we want to use a / b-tests to increase conversion.
5.2. Social networks
Group in VKgrew from 1888 to 6376 and this happened without any ads. We regularly get our share of registrations and a very decent share of purchases from there.
5.3. SEO
More than 2 times in a month increased the database of search queries.
5.4. Publications and blogs
There are not enough hands, so we are trying to make at least one publication in two weeks. Here are the last ones:
- about the impact of cashback services on sales
- about the role of referrals
6. Analytics
Analyzed the purchase of referrals. And it turned out that referrals make up 21% of users who generate 11% of sales. Given that this is free traffic, it is a very promising sales channel. Here is another article, in which we described in more detail our strategy for working with referrals.
7. Answers to frequently asked questions.
This is a new section where we plan to give answers to frequently asked questions.
Question : Why use the cashback service if many credit cards give their cashback from purchases?
Answer: You can use both of them and get double cashback: from a card and from 2000 online stores in CloverR.
8. Fails
8.1. We were late with the action of traveling to Vienna. We
planned to launch before the start of all the holidays, but it turned out late in the evening of February 14.
8.2. Amazon refused to cooperate
We did, did integration with Amazon, but it turned out that it is not yet possible for us to get conditions with a cashback. Roughly speaking, they need more significant indicators than now. Therefore, we will most likely launch Amazon, but only instead of cashback we will give other buns.
8.3. Money for mailchimp ran out.
We left the free tariff plan for mailchimp, which is responsible for mailing with us. As a result, while throwing money, while restarting the newsletter again, several weeks passed during which our users were without the newsletter.
8.4. Load testing
This is not a hack at all, but someone just ordered a load testing from home.wpm.neustar.bizthat put the site for a while. It happened on a day off, so we had to quickly put off household chores to resolve this issue. The site simply stopped opening and for some time it took us just to figure out what was the matter, after which we banned the annoying IP. No, no, these are not malicious attacks at all, but rather a friendly bell about what you need to think about security and fault tolerance.
8.5. UWSGI broke down
Again almost 2 hours of inactivity.
8.6. We didn’t track the registration through the social network.
We found a bug that did not track the registration through the social network. With registrations and users, everything was fine, but our analytics was incomplete.
8.7. Many users with adblock
Probably about 40% of users have Adblock or another ad blocker installed. This thing, along with sharp advertising, also cuts affiliate referral links and spoils the tracking mechanism. As a result, the purchase passes, but the online store does not know that the purchase comes from us and accordingly does not consider it necessary to pay cashback. Although this is written in the rules for us, but we realized that not all of these rules are read, so we added a warning window when switching to the online store, which freezes until the client disconnects Adblock.
8.8. Contests
Launched a contest with free travel to Viennabut somehow it doesn’t work much. The idea is that a registered user can write a letter with kind words to a dear person, share this on social networks and participate in the draw of a trip to Vienna. We wanted to achieve a viral spread in social networks, but it did not work out. Either we chose the wrong city, or did the wrong mechanics, or did not pour money into advertising ... If you have any ideas why, then we will listen with pleasure.
9. Pros
9.1. Added registration through Odnoklassniki
Now you can easily register through them and link the account to Odnoklassniki in your profile.
By the way, on classmates in the group we have more than 5000 subscribers. Registrations are in full swing.
9.2. Invited to Netologiya
Netology project invited to participate in one of its training programs and talk about the experience. We chose the course “Startup Startup: From Searching for an Idea to Entering the Market” and another time we’ll talk about what turned out to be useful for the project.
9.3. They started caching.
Or rather, they optimized what was done before. Now everything works much faster.
9.4. Added https for data transfer.
The site itself is still running on http, but the layer associated with the transfer of tokens and other data with external services is already working via https, providing the necessary security. Soon we will demonstrate the extension for the browser and mobile applications. They were ready to buy a license on startssl.com, but the Chinese successfully got a two-year sharefree SSL certificate.
9.5. Engaged in the process of simplifying registration
Should become easier and more optimal. I want to get rid of the second step, which may interfere with users.
9.6. We are considering the implementation of a / b-tests.
We select the modules that are, and look at how to implement them in your product. It is definitely impossible to fully use something external, because we are interested in not just showing the landing page, which easily covers products like western unbounce.com or our lpgenerator.ru, but also tying them to internal logic. For example, to understand what type of test led in the future to more purchases.
9.7. Getting ready to search for investments
Since the economic model has become clear, and now we know how much each user costs, how long it pays off, how much each channel brings and how many channels you can use, we want to speed up the scaling process. To do this, prepare an Executive summary and presentation of the project.
Thanks to the devoted readers and customers of the service! Thank you for the feedback and recommendations on the interfaces and functionality that you send us! New users who are not yet with us can register here !