Remarketing

15 Tips for Successful Remarketing with Google Analytics and AdWords

Earlier this month, I presented at SES London looking at Remarketing with Google AdWords and Google Analytics. Part of my presentation looked at top tips that advertisers should consider and pay attention to when they are running a remarketing campaign to help get the best results.

1)      Only run one piece of code, preferably Google Analytics

When remarketing was launched, the only way to implement it was via Google AdWords. A different piece of code had to be added to various pages of a site in order to build lists.  This was a very time consuming and messy method of adding the code, as such, Google then released a further update which allowed advertisers to make a simple change to their Google Analytics code which goes across every page of a site.

Many advertisers did this but left the AdWords remarketing code in place on the site alongside the Analytics code. It is important to only to run with one type of code and as Google Analytics allows for the most flexibility, I would always recommend that advertisers use the Google Analytics code over the Google AdWords code.

2)      Update Privacy Policy to include cookie information

When commencing a remarketing campaign strategy, advertisers must ensure that they add a section to their Privacy Policy highlighting how cookies will be used. If you are using the Google Analytics remarketing code, it is important to explain to visitors how Google AdWords, Google Analytics and DoubleClick cookies are used.

The screenshot below shows an example of how this should be laid out and communicated.

 

3)      Select the right profile in Google Analytics

When creating a remarketing list in Google Analytics, the first thing you are asked is to select the profile that you want the remarketing list attributed to. If you don't have a profile set up in Google Analytics that excludes visits to your site from your internal IP, I would recommend that you do this.  You need to be able to see how much actual traffic your website generates from outside your organisation.

When it comes to building a remarketing list, there is no point following your employees round with adverts as they are:

• Never going to convert
• Going to drive wasted impressions

Based on this, when you select the profile to allocate your remarketing list too, it is recommended that you select the profile which does not contain visits from your internal IP.

 

4)      Get a naming strategy in place

Before you start building remarketing lists, it is important to get a naming strategy in place as once you have created and named a list, this can't be changed in the future. If you are only creating a few lists, this will not cause you any problems but if you are looking to create multiple targeted lists, you will want to name them in a way that is clear to understand what the list contains for future use.

5)      Set your membership duration to 540 days

The default membership duration for a visitor remaining in a remarketing list is 30 days. This is fine if you have a website that generates thousands of visitors a month but if you don't drive this much traffic and leave the default membership duration, you will build a list and lose people out of the list every 30 days.

Google Analytics allow you to change the membership duration to set it to a maximum of 540 days. I would recommend that you change the duration to 540 days to allow the list to grow and maintain people to remarket to.

There will be occasions when you want the list number reduced. For example, if you want to record all the people that viewed a certain area of your site during a two week period you could set the membership duration to 14 days and activate the list at the time you want to start collecting data.

6)      Get at least 100 people in your list before you start

In order to commence a remarketing campaign, your list needs to contain at least 100 people. The sooner you get the code on your site, the sooner you will be able to start building your lists. Even if you don't want to kick start the campaign straight away, lists take time to grow so getting the code implemented will give you a head start.

7)      Build custom combination lists in Google AdWords

Custom combination lists are used by advertisers to de-dupe one list from another. For example, you may have two lists; one that contains all visitors that come into your site and another that contains all the people that have converted. You would use a custom combination list to target all visitors that have not yet converted on your website.

Although you can build these types of lists in Google Analytics, my recommendation is to do this using Google AdWords. They are much easier to create and once running, it is easy to see how many people you have in your list.

8)      Entice visitors back to your site using targeted ads

If you want to pull visitors who have left your site, back into your site, the easiest way to do this is by creating eye catching adverts that are relevant to the visitor.

The screenshot below shows different types of adverts, each with a call to action or offer. I particularly like the example from Virgin Experience Days, where I visited their site and left and within a couple of minutes the advert below was following me enticing me back into the site to purchase with an offer.

 

9)      Create multiple campaigns for each desired goal

One of the common mistakes people make when commencing remarketing is to only create one campaign in Google AdWords that contains multiple ad groups.

Best practice is to create multiple campaigns, one campaign for each of your desired goals. By doing this, you will find your campaigns a lot easier to manage and have a clearer understanding of what is working and what is not.

10)      Expect to see a low CTR but high Conversion Rate

Typically with remarketing and display campaigns, advertisers see a very low Click through Rate (CTR) as ads are shown on websites where people aren't necessarily searching for a product or service. When people are searching on Google, they are actively looking for answers to questions or are looking to buy so the CTR is often much higher.

With your remarketing campaign, don't be alarmed if you do have a low CTR.

When you are looking at the conversions and Conversion Rate from your remarketing campaign, the number of conversions reported can sometimes look low. If this is the case, switch on the column that shows you how many View-through conversions you have had as this gives you a accurate reflection of how many people have seen your ad prior to converting.

 

11)      Send ads to dedicated and well optimised landing pages

As with any PPC campaign, sending the traffic to the most relevant landing page on your site is going to help your conversions. Depending on how much traffic your campaign generates and how targeted the list is, it may also be worth considering creating dedicated landing pages to help boost the conversion rate further.

One example of this would be if you were running a Valentine's Day remarketing campaign. Rather than driving traffic to a generic landing page, creating one specifically mentioning Valentine's Day and referencing your campaign should help to improve the performance and results of the campaign.

12)      Continuously refine sites showing your ads

One of the benefits of remarketing with Google AdWords is you can see the sites that your ads are being shown on. You can use this data to continuously refine where Google are placing your ads as you will find that some sites work much better than others.

In order to see this data, navigate to the Display Network tab within your campaign in Google AdWords and then select the sub-tab for Placements. You will then be able to expand on your Managed Placements and Automatic Placements.

If you have not set up a Managed Placement campaign yet, Google will be determining which sites to show your ads on. You should use the Automatic Placement list to find sites that work well for you and add them into a Managed Placement campaign but also find the sites that don't work for you and add them to your site exclusion list.

By continuously refining the sites and moving good sites into a Managed Placement campaign, you will:

• Find the management of your account much easier
• Get better results from your campaign
• Limit wasted spend as you will be showing ads on sites that work for you

13)      Update Frequency Capping in Google AdWords

Frequency Capping is often forgotten as it is hidden away within the AdWords settings but it is very important to remember this when you are running a remarketing campaign. You need to set this so that people don't see your ads continuously throughout the day. How often you want them to see your ads is up to you and this will vary from industry to industry.

A safe bet for me is to limit the frequency to three times per day.

14)      Watch any traffic drops if using the default GA code

Some industries have reported up to a 50% drop in reported traffic in Google Analytics after they make the change to the Google Analytics code to start remarketing. The reason for this is that the Google Analytics remarketing code uses the DoubleClick javascript. People that use that have ad blocking software installed on their computers will automatically not trigger the code so the traffic will not be recorded in Google Analytics.

Andre Scholten has written an excellent blog post on this which looks at two solutions for this so I am not going to re-hash this information. He recommends Solution 2 as the best option but Solution 1 is also worth reviewing.

15)      Get the code added to your site today

Finally, if you haven't got the remarketing code on your site yet, get it on there today! Making the change to the code (using one of the options listed in point 14) is not time consuming and you can get it implemented very quickly.

Implementing the code doesn't mean you need to start creating remarketing campaigns but the sooner you have the code on the site, the sooner you can start building lists so they can grow in size.

Remember what I said in point six? You need at least 100 people in a list before you can even begin remarketing so the sooner you get the code on and get some lists built, the sooner they can start gathering data!

Happy remarketing! If you have any questions or any other tips you want to share, please leave a comment in the section below.

YCombinator success rates

http://www.businessinsider.com/startup-odds-of-success-2013-5#ixzz2V5fDO1Nd

DEAR ENTREPRENEURS: Here's How Bad Your Odds Of Success Are

Everyone knows that starting companies — and investing in startups — is a risky way to earn a living.

But few people appreciate just how risky it is.

Thanks to a recent tweet from Paul Graham, the founder of "startup school" Y Combinator, we now have a better idea.

Graham says that 37 of the 511 companies that have gone through the Y Combinator program over the past 5 years have either sold for, or are now worth, more than $40 million.

Most entrepreneurs would probably view creating a company worth more than $40 million as a success (unless the company raised more capital than that). And, on its face, the "37 companies" number seems relatively impressive.

In fact, however, the number tells a scary and depressing story.

This number suggests that a startling 93% of the companies that get accepted by Y Combinator eventually fail.

(Not all companies that sell for less than $40 million are "failures," obviously. Assuming a company hasn't raised much capital, a sale between $5 million and $40 million could be considered a success. But a high percentage of Y Combinator companies likely end up being worth zero. And for companies that are hand-picked by very smart investors, the 93%-below-$40 million rate is still surprisingly low). 

A company accepted by Y Combinator, therefore, has less than a 1-in-10 chance of being a big success.

More alarmingly, the companies accepted by Y Combinator are only a tiny fraction of the companies that apply.

Some have estimated that Y Combinator's acceptance rate is 3-5%.

If we use the 5% rate, we can estimate that Y Combinator has received about 10,000 applications for the ~500 companies it has chosen over the years.

Assuming Y Combinator has even a modest ability to pick winners, therefore, the odds that a company applying to Y Combinator will be a success are significantly lower than the odds of success of the companies accepted into the program.

If only 37 of the companies that have applied to Y Combinator over the years have succeeded, this is a staggeringly low 0.4% success rate.

Put differently, only one in every 200 companies that applies to Y Combinator will succeed.

The reality is that Y Combinator probably misses a few winners, so the actual odds are probably slightly higher.

But in case any entrepreneur or angel investor is deluding themselves into thinking that startups are an easy way to cash in, they might want to think again.

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/lessons-from-growth-hackers/

13 Critically Important Lessons from Over 50 Growth Hackers

I've had the incredible privilege of interviewing over 50 of the most-gifted growth hackers working today. People like Neil Patel, the co-founder of KISSmetrics; Ivan Kirigin, who helped Dropbox grow 12x; Elliot Shmukler, who helped LinkedIn grow from 20m-200m users; and of course, Josh Elman, who led growth at Twitter during its period of massive expansion. After spending countless hours conversing with the geniuses of growth, here are 13 things I've learned:

1. Retention trumps acquisition

It's a rookie mistake to focus on customer acquisition instead of customer retention, especially early in a startup's life. It's exciting to get new traffic and acquire new users, but the primary purpose of your first visitors is to inform you of the holes in your funnel.

Early visitors exist for one reason, and one reason only – to show you how broken your website really is. Until you are successfully learning from, and retaining, those visitors, you are not ready to drive a lot of new people to your product. Leaky buckets don't need more water, they need their holes fixed.

2. Growth favors the agnostic

Growth is like the proverbial skinning of a cat – there are a million ways to do it. Proud entrepreneurs arbitrarily decide that certain methods of growth are more pure than others (i.e., they like viral loops over PPC). The problem is that different startups need to use different growth mechanisms because of their product and team DNA. If you disallow certain growth channels based on emotion, then your chances of reaching scale are greatly diminished.

3. Customer development is cheating

A large part of lean methodology is customer development: the activity of talking to your market and your users before you actually build something. If you do this well, it will feel like cheating, because people will disclose the path to their heart.

Kevin Mitnick was a famous hacker (a real hacker, who did jail time), and he preferred social engineering over digital invasion to execute his hacks. Maybe we should follow his lead. Talk to people instead of banging on a keyboard. It's a shortcut to growth because you'll be building something people actually want.

4. Data-informed is better than data-driven

Data is good. But there's a catch. Data should inform our decisions. It shouldn't be our master, dictating our every move. The greatest asset of any startup is the profound ability of the humans who are involved. When people are willing to be "informed" by data, they can create something special. When people are "driven" by data, they begin thinking like machines and making decisions that do not appeal to carbon-based organisms.

5. Deep growth can't be hacked

You can do things to drive traffic. You can do things to retain users. You can do things to hack growth at a surface level, but deep growth cannot be manipulated. Great products – the ones that are woven into the fabric of our lives and become habits and addictions – tap into something buried within the human psyche. Twitter-esque, Facebook-esque, and LinkedIn-esque growth cannot be hacked. There is something deeper at play.

6. Destroy cognitive overhead

Product complexity is a killer. Users crave things that take less time and have fewer steps and features. However, we overlook cognitive overhead as a primary source of friction. David Demaree defines cognitive overhead as "how many logical connections or jumps your brain has to make in order to understand or contextualize the thing you're looking at." Growth hackers make products that are easily understood beyond a niche tech crowd.

7. There is one metric that matters

Now that we can track everything, we want to focus on everything. But for any startup, there usually is one metric that matters at any given time. The problem is that this metric is different depending on what your startup does and the stage of development it's in. Read Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz to uncover the one metric that matters for your business. Otherwise, you'll be optimizing in vain.

8. Metrics don't tell you what to do

The shortcoming of metrics is their inability to tell you what to do. For instance, an A/B test doesn't provide you with A and B. You, the creator, the founder, the entrepreneur, must come up with A and B. The test simply tells you which of the two options you've created is better. This holds for all of data. It's just numbers. For every hour spent staring at dashboards and reports, spend 2 hours brainstorming and ideating.

9. Growth is not rocket science

Growth can seem mysterious and hidden, a tool to be wielded by only the Silicon Valley elite. In reality, growth is within the grasp of mortals. Growth is a mixture of good people, the good data they use, the good decisions they make, and the good advice they receive. Growth is part common sense, part creativity, part hustle, and sometimes, part luck. Growth is improbable, but always possible.

10. Language is everything

Startups usually are concerned with design, and rightly so, but it is hard to overstate the effects of our language on consumer adoption. Play with words. Rearrange them. Change them. Make them sell, make them express, make them do the work they must do. Language is humanity's oldest, and possibly best, growth hack. The right words, in the right order, at the right time, can do wonders.

11. Correlation is good, but causality is better

Data shows us when things are correlated. When A goes up and to the right, so does B. These are good insights to accumulate. But there is something even more powerful – causation. A and B both happen in tandem, but does A cause B? Does B cause A? Does C cause both A and B? Once you see correlations, then you must run experiments to uncover the causal relationships. Correlation gives you insights. Causation gives you power.

12. It's the product, stupid

In the final assessment, growth hacking, when deployed in the service of a bad product, is a waste of life. Sorry, it needs to be said that bluntly. Engineering growth for something meaningful and important is a noble cause. Pushing a lazy idea, with lazy execution, is not worthy of your energy. Your results won't be lasting no matter what your charts look like in the short term. Time breaks all hockey sticks that are not owned by great products.

13. Start a local growth hacking group

The difficulty in learning how to grow a startup is that you have exposure to only the project you're working on. If you start a local meeting of growth engineers, then you will be able to learn from their trials, their context, and their insights. You'll be exposed to different size budgets, different markets, etc., all from the sidelines, taking notes on the failures and successes they share.

About the Author: Bronson Taylor is the co-founder of Growth Hacker TV, where the experts on startup growth reveal their secrets.

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Girişimcilerin sosyal oyunlardan çıkarabilecekleri dersler

Ümit Öncel | 14 Haziran 2013 | 3 Yorum

Bundan belki 5 yıl öncenin oyuncuları ile bugünün oyuncuları arasında çok büyük farklar var. Oyun sektörü o zamanlarda da çok büyüktü fakat çok daha dar bir kitleye hitap ediyordu. Özellikle sosyal ağların büyük etkisi sayesinde artık oyun oynamak kolaylaştı ve daha önceden oyuncu olarak tanımlanmayan çok geniş bir kitle oyun oynamaya ve daha önemlisi oyunlara para harcamaya başladı.

Aradan geçen zamanda taşların da yerine oturması ile birlikte daha olgunlaşan sosyal oyun sektöründen sadece geleneksel oyun sektörünün değil, aslında tüm girişimcilerin çıkartabilecekleri dersler var. Sosyal oyunların iş modelleri oyun dışındaki alanlarda aktif olan pek çok girişimci için gözden kaçırılmaması gereken detaylar barındırıyor. Özellikle de sosyal oyunların temel direği denilebilecek bedava ekonomisine uygun yapıdaki girişimler için sosyal oyunlar adeta bir eğitim kaynağı.

Diğer yandan girişimcilerin sosyal oyunlardan çıkartabilecekleri dersler sadece iş modelleri ile sınırlı değil. İşte her girişimcinin sosyal oyunlarla ilgili dikkate alması gereken bazı önemli noktalar…

Bedava ekonomisi

Sosyal oyunların bu kadar geniş kitlelere ulaşabilmesinin altında bedava ekonomisi yatırıyor. Oyuncuların yaklaşık yüzde 1 ile yüzde 3 arasındaki bir kesimi oyunlar için para harcarken, geri kalan kesim hiçbir ücret ödemeden oyunu oynamaya devam edebiliyor. Eğer siz de bedava ekonomisini kendi ürününüze uyarlamayı başarabilirseniz her biri potansiyel birer müşteriye dönüşme ihtimalini barındıran geniş bir kitleyi yakınınızda tutabilirsiniz.

Ölçek ekonomisi

Bedava ekonomisinin başarılı bir şekilde işleyebilmesi için girişiminizin ölçeklendirilebilir, yani çok sayıda kullanıcıya aynı hizmeti verebilmek için çok az ek yatırım gerektirebiliyor olması gerekir. Aksi taktirde bedava seçeneğini tercih eden kullanıcılar bir süre sonra sizin için karşılanması imkansız ekonomik yüklerin ortaya çıkmasına neden olabilir.

Çeşitli para harcama seçenekleri

Ürününüz için ödeme yapacak olan müşterilere para harcayabilecekleri ne kadar fazla imkan sunarsanız, geri dönüşü de o oranda yüksek olacaktır. Farklı fiyat ve özelliklere sahip paketler sunmak sık başvurulan bir yöntem ama sosyal oyunlar bize bu konuda daha da esnek olunabileceğini gösterdi. Ürününüzün temel özelliklerinin dışında sadece görünümünü, temasını değiştirmek için bile ödeme yapmayı tercih edebilecek kullanıcılar olduğunu unutmayın. Bu yüzden ürünün temel işlevini bozmadan, kullanıcıların daha farklı neler isteyebileceğini ön görmeye ve bunlar içerisinden hangilerinin ek bir ücret karşılığında sunulabileceğini değerlendirin.

Kullanıcılarınızı yakından tanıyın

Çeşitli para harcama seçenekleri sunarken ürünün temel özelliklerinden fazlasını isteyen kullanıcılar olduğunu ayırt edebiliyor olmanız gerekli. Bunun için de kullanıcılarınızı yakından tanımanız ve onların beklentilerini iyi anlıyor olmanız şart. Ürünün standart paketlerinden fazlasını isteyenlerin bu arzularının arkasında yatan motivasyonlarını tanımlaya çalışın. Bu sayede müşterinin olası farklı beklentilerini ayırt edebilir ve benzer motivasyonlara sahip faklı kullanıcılara da ulaşabilirsiniz.

Basitlik

Eğer bedava ekonomisini kendi girişiminize uyarlamak istiyorsanız bu amaçla geniş kitlelere erişmeniz gerektiğini, bunun yolunun da her seviyeden kullanıcıya hitap edebilecek bir ürüne sahip olduğunu unutmamanız gerekiyor. Ürününüzün kullanımını ne kadar basit olursa, öğrenme eğrisi ne kadar düşük olursa o randa daha kabalık bir kullanıcı kitlesine ulaşmanız da kolaylaşacaktır.

Harcanabilir krediler oluşturun

Sosyal oyunlara para harcayan kitlenin oyunun ilk dakikalarında ödeme yaptıkları neredeyse hiç görülmemiştir. Oyuncular para harcamaya ancak belli bir süre sonra yönelmeye başlarlar. Bunun nedenlerinden biri oyunların bedava algısını güçlendirmek için ilk aşamalarda kullanıcıya zengin oyun kaynakları sunmasıdır. Zaman içerisinde kaynaklar tükenmeye başlayınca oyuncu için daha hızlı ilerlemenin tek yolu para harcamak haline gelir. Eğer bu model girişiminizin yapısına uygunsa değerlendirmenizde fayda olabilir. Önce kullanıcılarınıza sistemi rahatlıkla kullanabilecekleri belli kaynaklar (kredi, puan vs) verin. Sistemi beğenen kullanıcıların bir kısmı kaynaklar tükenince yenisini satın almayı tercih edeceklerdir.

Zaman geçirmelerini sağlayın

Sosyal oyunlarda oyuncuların ilk dakikalardan itibaren para harcamaya başlamamalarının bir nedeni de, henüz oyuna kendilerini o derecede kaptırmamış olmalarıdır. Aynı şeyin sizin girişiminiz için de geçerli olabileceğini hatırlamaya çalışın. Kullanıcıların siteniz veya uygulamanızda ne kadar uzun süre zaman geçirmelerini sağlayabilirseniz, nihayetinde onların kullandıkları servis ile duygusal bağ kurup, gönül rahatlığı ile ödeme yapmaları için gerekli zemin de oluşturulmuş olur.

Sürekli yenilik

Fakat sınırlı özelliklere sahip olan bir sistem üzerinde kullanıcıların uzun süreler geçirmesini sağlamak çok da kolay değildir. O yüzden sık sık ürününüze yenilikler eklemek, hem kullanıcılarınıza sunduğunuz imkanların artması, hem de sisteme karşı olan ilgilerini canlı tutmak için etkili bir yöntem olacaktır.

Bu yukarıda saymaya çalıştığım özelliklerin tamamını birden kendi oyun dışı girişiminizde uygulamanız mümkün olmayabilir. Fakat bedava ekonomisini kullanmaya uygun bir iş modeliniz varsa, bu maddeler arasından en azından bir kaçının sizin için de faydalı olacağını umuyorum.

Bu arada tabi ki siz de konuyla ilgili görüşlerinizi yorumlarda paylaşabilirsiniz…

How startup funding works

http://i2.wp.com/fundersandfounders.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/how-startup-funding-works-infographic.png

SEO infographic - 200 Ranking Factors

http://www.marketingtechblog.com/200-ranking-factors-google-algorithm/

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Persona

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasontravis/sets/72157603258446753/

Google SEO ranking factors

marketing

1. create awareness
2. try new channels
3. teach and make customer use the product
4. measure engagement
5. measure lifetime value
6. measure generated revenue and cost of the channel
7. if step six looks impressive, digg that channel more.
8. if step six looks not satisfying, return step two.

13 Critically Important Lessons from Over 50 Growth Hackers

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Usability checklist | Userium | Catch common usability problems before user testing.

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> http://userium.com/?utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=bufferc462e
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Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: Why VCs look for 10X returns - What you need to know when pitching a VC firm

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Your Startup’s 10 Most Important Metrics | tomasz by Tomasz Tunguz

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> http://tomtunguz.com/your-startups-10-most-important-metrics/
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Your Startup’s 10 Most Important Metrics | tomasz by Tomasz Tunguz

http://tomtunguz.com/your-startups-10-most-important-metrics/


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10 20 30

I call this ratio 30/10/10 and so many services that we see exhibit it within a few percentage points here and there. Here's how it works:

30% of the registered users or number of downloads (if its a mobile app) will use the service each month

10% of the registered users or number of downloads (if its a mobile app) will use the service each day

the max number of concurrent users of a real-time service will be 10% of the number of daily users