When we partner with brands, we do everything we can to ensure that we’re hitting goals and helping them to get the most from their prospecting efforts as possible. Like other companies in our position, we want to be an extension of our partners’ marketing teams and, in short, build a relationship that goes beyond a single campaign.
For us, delivering maximum results means looking at a number of factors to help us meet and surpass client KPIs. Like most companies, this is where our Account Management team comes into play. The challenge? Not every account is the same. There are different market conditions, various amounts of data, vertical performance differences, etc. But especially when a brand initially partners with us, there are a number of things that we look at to get an idea of how much and how quickly they can scale. These include:
— Product Offering
— Conversion Rate
— Budget
— Amount of Applicable Data
Although there are never guarantees either way, especially if someone is new to the Hive, these indicators give our Account Management team a place to start and in turn, help them to form a baseline.
After an account has passed an initial ramping period, become a bit more established, and is ready to grow even more, our AM team has a number of additional tools they utilize to kick the campaign into high gear. These include:
— Additional Geo Targets: Expanding into other geographic locations to broaden the pool of in-market shoppers.
— Premium Campaigns: More expensive media buys that include sought after publishing sites and guarantee ad placement on those sites.
— Layering Additional Campaigns and Segments: For example, new and complementary data categories.
— Frequency: How often we serve our ads to in-market shoppers.
— Bid: Min/max dollar amount for ad placement.
— Day Parting: When we serve our ads to in-market shoppers.
— Recency: Number of days since a shopper was actively searching for a product/service.
We also utilize creative testing in order to gain valuable data on which ads are performing the best. For example, we’ve done A/B tests with an offer vs without one, different images, various CTAs, etc. In the past, this has helped to determine which ads garner the highest CTR and conversion rates while figuring out, most importantly, the most adequate tool for driving in-market shoppers to a site.
Of course we’d love to say that we’ve never had an instance where our customers didn’t see the results that they wanted. While this isn’t the case the majority of the time, there have definitely been a few instances where our performance hasn’t aligned perfectly with expectations. Usually if this has occurred, it’s been due to one of the following:
— Data Match Limitations: Especially if we're working with a site that has a more ambiguously targeted product or service (in other words, one that may or may not be a match for a variety of our data categories), honing in on exactly the shoppers that will convert can be a challenge. This can be for a number of reasons, including consumers not taking to a brand or product offering in execution as well as hypothesized through the use of demographics.
— Time Limitations: Understandably, there are times that brands want to increase their number of conversions and/or site traffic almost instantaneously. While we can usually work with each individual brand to attain lift, if it’s based on a limited time period, going from “zero to 60” can often prove to be a huge obstacle.
— Unoptimized Site: If a client is looking for increased conversions, we can drive traffic to their site all day long. But if a retail site isn’t optimized for shoppers, this often will still result in a lower conversion rate than a brand is hoping for. Providing an awesome browsing/shopping experience for users is key.
Every account that we touch has its own individual history and metrics. As such, the approach that we take to growth and optimization is determined on a customized basis, depending on the factors within each individual account. The fact is, goals and business plans change. But by communicating consistently with each customer, thinking outside-the-box and focusing on what works, we ensure that we’re giving our clients the ammo they need to help maximize growth.
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