I do not know how much I need for marketing

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    Previous parts:
    Part 1. Explosive promotion, target audience and positioning

    The main goal of any promotion is to attract users who will eventually become paying. And in order to understand how to do it and how to do it well, every moment should be covered by metrics.

    Startups are very fond of metrics, because they sound cool and look. It is very good to use the name of the metrics in your speech, because it is solid. If you want to chat with other startups, mentors or investors, then of course you should read the definitions of metrics. The semantic load of the basic well-known metrics such as LTV or CAC carry little, they only say whether everything is fine with you or everything is bad.

    Metrics that measure all indicators related to attracting users should be grouped by channels of attraction. That is why the cost of user engagement (CAC) averaged across all channels makes little sense.
    The main thing you need to know about the channel is its relevance (what percentage of people are potential users) and of course the cost of attracting a user to the site.

    Obviously, you need to look for cheap high-relevant channels and avoid expensive and low-relevant ones.

    How to search for channels


    Well, firstly, there are well-known channels of attraction such as AdWords, Yandex.Direct, advertising on social networks, etc., which give access to almost any type of audience. The remaining channels are searched based on user segmentation . Here you need to brainwash, imagine yourself as a user, where he happens, what he is fond of, and build hypotheses, where to look for them. Perhaps thematically forums, groups of social networks, regional sites, etc. And then think about how to reach them.

    Move consistently, brainstorm, think of any ways how to reach out to clients.

    Attracting users through referral programs and virality is a little apart. This is also a channel of attraction, it also has a cost, but by default it is highly relevant and often quite cheap - that is what you need. Use referral schemes to the maximum, combine them with direct attraction channels.

    How to find out the relevance of a channel


    Channel relevance is the percentage of users that your product may be interested in (and they will at least think about buying) of the total number of channel users. Relevance is a measure of demand. The channel’s relevance is close to the CTR - the percentage of people who clicked on advertising from the total number of ad views. That is, relevance is a bit of a virtual measure of the channel, it is definitely impossible to calculate it when CTR is an absolutely accurate indicator.

    It is worth tracking the percentage of rejection of those who clicked on advertising. If the failure rate is high, i.e. people immediately leave your site, this means that the advertisement misleads them. Obviously, in this case, there are problems with positioning, and the CTR does not display real relevance.

    The CTR may be affected by where and how the advertisement is located, for example, in the footer of the site, not on the main page, etc. At the same time, the location of the ad does not affect the actual relevance of the channel, this should be taken into account. The channel is like a gold mine, the volume of gold does not depend on how to mine it.

    Thus, for the relevance of the channel, you can take the maximum possible CTR for an ad with the correct positioning. Correct positioning is determined by a low failure rate.

    See how users behave on the site, how much time they spend. This gives an understanding of the situation when the user is not at all interested in what you offer. Group these users and define rejection criteria. Usually, everything is connected with a short time on the site, the lack of transitions to other pages, the absence of any action.

    Next, compose an advertisement with positioning on the segment of users that is present in the channel (well, or it seems to you that it is present :)). Take any well-managed tool such as AdWords, Direct, Twitter ads, target your impressions to a similar segment and run a campaign with minimal CPCs (for example, $ 0.05). For high-frequency queries, this of course may not work (or it will take a very long time to wait for your chance). Try to correct the queries to make them more accurate, or change the tool, for example, on Twitter such problems are not observed. Currently Twitter prohibits advertising from Russia due to sanctions, but allows it from Belarus, well, you understand what to do.

    Track failure rates. Change the ad text (positioning) until you achieve minimal rejection. If you don’t know what the rejection rate should be, then focus on 10% (30% is bad, everything above 30% is very bad). You need to change the texts of the ads a little bit at a time (do not change everything at once). Well-known A / B testing is suitable for everyone.

    As a result, you will have tested a good ad positioned on a specific segment of users that is present in the channel of interest. And all that remains to be done is to place an ad for a short period of time in order to collect statistics.

    And of course, it is far from always that this is so simple, provided that it is budgetary. Try to consider any test placement periods for a short period of time or arrange with the owner of the channel for a trial placement. Look for alternative ways of posting (for example, posting copyrighted articles instead of buying banners, posting comments, etc.).

    How to find out the cost of attracting a user in a channel


    A number of channels immediately provide this data (Direct, AdWords). For the rest, the formula is obvious - how much you swelled your resources in money terms divided by the number of clicks to the site. Take into account different indicators - how much it costs to attract to the site, how much it costs to get a registered user, paid, etc.

    It is worth remembering that the cost of engagement can vary greatly from the campaign strategy, this is clearly visible in Yandex.Direct and AdWords. For example, for B2B services, very cheap ads are also likely to work, which are placed at the bottom of the page under the issuance, on other pages and in other unsightly places, because business is used to choosing from alternatives and will first consider all the options. This will allow you to test everything well.

    Start with the smallest budgets and, if necessary, gradually increase them while monitoring conversion, CTR, etc. The budget increase should be reflected in the final indicators.

    Often people forget that the number of their customers is finite. Especially when it comes to B2B and B2G. You must admit, this is such an obvious fact, but it is so cleverly leaving the field of attention. At the same time, there may be so few customers (or customers in the segment) that they or a significant part of them can simply be phoned or made direct contact. Think about it.
    The exhausted channel loses relevance, which you will immediately notice in your metrics.

    To summarize


    1. Separately consider referral programs, give bonuses for customer drives, for posts on social networks, etc.
    2. A referral program and increased virality may be the key to low-budget explosive promotion. If it does not work, it is very likely that something is wrong with the product. If you are sure that referral programs do not suit you, start working with direct referral channels.
    3. Segmentation tells which users you are looking for
    4. By segments - find promotion channels
    5. For each channel and segment, prepare announcements (positioning)
    6. Test positioning using well-managed tools
    7. Using tested ads, test channels
    8. Identify highly relevant channels
    9. Gradually increase budgets in good channels
    10. Keep track of metrics, test, think

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