Strategies for explosive growth

PPC Growth Hacking/Cheating

Academy (UK)

#PPCGrowthHacking #SPWK

750 GA questions answered

WelcomePhil PearcePPC and Analytics ExpertFreelancer@philpearcephil@precisionppc.mewww.linkedin.com/in/philpearce

Fun fact, I`m an Identical Twin...

”I successfully cloned myself to increase my productivity” ;)

Agenda

1. Traditional PPC model2. What is Growth Hacking + Examples3. What is PPC growth hacking + Examples4. Learnings & Cross industry examples5. So… Apply it to my Website6. Take aways 7. Resources

What is PPC Growth?

Adwords Marketing

Conversion Data

Sales Growth

Classic model 1. Create new marketing campaign.2. If CPA data is within target threshold = then growth achieved3. Then Increase marketing.Repeat above steps, until threshold reached.

Repeat until CPA threshold reached

And… needs to be Scalable, Repeatable and Sustainable.

What is Growth Hacking for PPC?

AdwordsMarketing

Product Data Growth Hacking

Note: “Product” could be value-proposition or incentives

So…

2x Conversions = 4x CPA! (not sustainable)

PPC is limited by CPA curve

Although… ~free assists sales growth…

• When creating a GA custom Multi Channel funnel report, be aware that Landing page & Google Organic KW not available (i.e not easy to separate Brand/Non-Brand SEO for above example).

But… PPC growth for start-ups is expensive!

Rapid growth using PPC, that is that sustainable?

Yes, its possible…

super affiliate with 90% ppc and active for 5+years

• I`ve done it before!

But…• You need to achieve Product Market Fit before

starting a growth campaign.• Will anyone by your Product?• If you stopped trading would 40%+ users complain?

Link to Product Market Fit test: http://survey.io/

Ok… So you have passed Product market fit test/interview.

Now what?…

Jump into Growth Hacking?Growth hacking is a set of tactics adopted by startups which leverage creativity, analytical data & viral marketing to sell products and gain exposure. Growth hackers focus on “low-cost“, “high impact” alternatives to traditional marketing.

They utilise techniques such as SEO, content marketing, online PR, email marketing, web analytics & CRO testing. Ref : wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hacking

What is Growth Hack-er?

A growth hacker is a person whose true north is GROWTH.

EVERYTHING they do is scrutinised by its potential impact on scalable growth.

Great growth hackers can come from: • Engineering/Development• Sales backgrounds• or Analytics backgrounds

How do you know when you find one?

The key is they MUST have the ability to 1. take responsibility for growth2. have an entrepreneurial drive 3. be regimented about the process of prioritising

ideas (their own and others in the company)4. then quickly test & refine these ideas… to find a sustainable hack.

www.startup-marketing.com/where-are-all-the-growth-hackers/

What could you do with just €100 (not thousands) to achieve growth?

Lastly resourcefulness!

PPC Growth Hacking Ideas…1. Standard Adwords $1 * 100 clicks?

2. Open 2 Adwords accounts $50*2 + $150 credits

3. Trending News phrases with Don’t Click this Advert Campaign = 100 clicks, but 10,000 impressions & PR story.http://www.icrossing.co.uk/ann-summers-case-studyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVU60NRuOJoIt leverages the Changes in the Algo for New advertisers in first 2weeks

Other ideasAsk users to create ads for you…Task: Tell a Joke using 25 characters + 70 characters.

Humour Examples : Super Vacuum Cleaners Your Dirty Language is the Only thing it cant Clean!supervacuumcleaners.com/super-vacuum-cleaners

Task: Write a poem using 25 characters + 70 characters.100 Advert poems = 0 Clicks, but 10,000 PR visits – Write your own poem, show to 100 of people.

PPC Algo

http://bit.ly/ppc-algo-v3

Growth Hacking examples• Hotmail – P.S. I love you• AirB&B – Made a Craigslist api.• Drobbox – Refer a friend• Facebook – Exclusive network appeal• Twitter – follow celebrities

Read more examples:http://www.slideshare.net/mattangriffel/growth-hacking

And… needs to be Scalable, Repeatable and Sustainable.

What is Growth Hacking for PPC?

AdwordsMarketing

Product Data Growth Hacking

Note: “Product” could be value-proposition or incentives

What is PPC growth…… And is`nt “growth at low cost CPA”

in mature markets impossible?

No, not impossible but really hard!

Compare and Save example1. Reverse Economies of scale due to CPA tiers

2. BPF: Google +3% kickback +5%growth kicker

3. Regulation preventing Direct Players writing good ads (e.g must mention APR variable)

4. User confusion – 1st Advert not clear it was paid (compare to now).

5. Display URL that had Call-to-action within it (save-here-now.com)

6. Very high CTR on generic terms

7. Obsession over one metric: CTR (no conversion tracking in early days)

8. Algo that rewarded volume with lower cpc (e.g CTR 50% weighting)

But it would never work now :(

1. Explosive growth

2. Position 1 became cheaper than position4! (This is due to CTR factoring, and t the time position preference)

3. Exceeded all CPA tiers.

4. Also built strong relations with Direct providers, offering state of the market reports, to add value.

Compare and Save example continued…

But it would never work now :(

Due to reduced ppc CTR on SERPand all-time KW level QS decay

Luck / Improvisation / Flexibility

Weapon of Choice

PPC Toolshttp://bit.ly/spwk-list-ppc-tools

Importance of a Great Team

[Image of MI team]MeanDeveloper

Creative Marketer Hot

Data Scientist

Tea boy & Product Specialist

But… its like music – some of the best tunes are mixes of other peoples work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson%27s_Thriller

Product Idea

• Bid by Quality score (for Charities using Google Grants)

• Hack might be “prove to donators that Fund well spent”

Have you Heard of “Battleships”?”

Growth Hacking a PPC tool…

Growth Hacking a PPC tool…

Download CTR battleships http://bit.ly/battleshipsctr

And… needs to be Scalable, Repeatable and Sustainable.

Growth Hacking a PPC tool…

AdwordsMarketing

(capture/test initial lead)

Product(Variation on

QS grader)

Adwords API Data

Growth Hacking

Same product but different UI/Landing page - value proposition tweaked and made fun / viral… e.g every one likes to show off :)

Growth Hacking a PPC tool…

Winner must tweet winning strategy #ctrbattleships

Or take a photo them holding the Prize! #ctrbattleships

Download CTR battleships http://bit.ly/battleshipsctr

Also… Test hacks internally & see if they win.

[Image of the A team]

Learn from failed Hacks

VacuumCleaners4u.com (1999)“Free vs Fast postage example”

InkinaBlink.com (1999)SEO link buying penalties (e.g. RapGenius)

Account level Tests/Hacks{Param2}

Article by Chad Somerville

Click Fraud Tool – I built(using 3rd party call data & mathematics)

This equates to:• 39% of Spend over

60 refunded • 3% over 18month

log duration.

Equates to:Download template here:Bit.ly/clickrefundtemplate

Its not entirely Google Fault…

No Click2Call Conversion Data (CallMetrics) = Increase in Invalid Clicks

But client unable to enable CallMetrics

No inbound API for submitting structure data to Google, and no gclid lookup.

The Catch22: Disclaimer

Auto campaigns(Free version of SpeedPPC that I built)

http://bit.ly/ad-mutation-tool (MS access)

PPC growth hack to test

Search from mobile

Lead capture via QR code – invoke vCard

SMS to Win.

App download via Paid search

PPC Growth Hacking/Cheating

Your mission should you choose to accept it…

So… Apply it to my Website

Not so easy… Hack needs to be customised to fix business.

Quesitons

Resources

e.g. Growth Hacker TV (join)

Don’t Hang around then!

Don’t share this PPC video…

bit.ly/ppc-rap (Turn up sound)

GTM dev guide:bit.ly/gtmdevguide

And join GTM community on Google+bit.ly/gtmcommunity

Report Automation (Require Adwords API key)Gazel for Excel using Free trial.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZYOuxgCzWQ