“Analytics are extremely important for any business, if you can’t measure it, did it really happen?”

The Problem

Most people I know use Google Analytics to track all their visitors behavior and referrals. You can do some amazing things in this platform, track where people drop off in funnels and everything people do when they get to your site. However there is one HUGE problem I came across when I wanted to start tracking actual conversions.

Delayed Purchase

With anyone who offers a freemium model or offers a preview before they purchase there is no way to link a person who signs-up and the details in the analytics platform to get things such as referral source. Google Analytics actually prohibits this behavior and explicitly tells you that you can not link personally identifiable information to its analytics information.

People who sign up to Binkd might not purchase for 2 weeks. Telling me how many converted into sign-ups, then looking at how many convert from sign-ups to paid customers is not enough for me. I want to track exactly which campaign generated revenue, so I can run it again and again. This way I can run multiple advertising strategies at the same time and not get confusing statistics from people who sign-up from other sources.

What Did I Do?

Developed my own. Not an entire analytics platform, I still use Google Analytics, but just enough to track referral source and landing pages where possible. (Not all pages or browsers pass the referral source and not all browsers are set-up to accept cookies, which is what my new tracking code uses)

I did what they call pixel tracking. Load a small 1×1 px transparent gif that is loaded off another website and tracks the referral source and landing page in a cookie. If they sign-up, I store this information with the user.

I also created a tracking code as a query string “?campaign_id=x” that is appended to any link I use to do paid campaigns and this is detected and recorded in my database. As a result, here is a quick example of a few quick and dirty Google campaigns I ran, taking note I also added an additional cost of $10 per contest as overhead to get the true ROI based on profit.

As you can see the ROI was in the negative. The values also took a while to increase as purchases came in 1-2 weeks after they signed up.

Results

I can now see EXACTLY how my campaigns performed in monetary value and I successfully account for the variance in user behavior from the different places they signed up. This also successfully tracks sign ups and purchases from PR work that isn’t a paid campaign. As such Binkd now has the information to successfully track marketing campaigns.

Update: More advanced analytics software such as KISSMetrics.com and Improvely.com can track users and provide metrics that are very useful to start-ups.

The amount of people using mobile devices for browsing the web or using an app is growing on a daily basis. However many people haven’t yet started advertising on mobile.

Looking at this graph you can see the advertising spend is highly disproportionate.

Creating Mobile Ready Content

Before you advertise on mobile networks you must have mobile ready content available. This means a website optimized for mobile viewers.

Optimizing your mobile site goes beyond choosing a website that looks good on a mobile device. A page on a mobile site needs to have 1 purpose and show 1 item at a time. Your website today may have many calls to action, navigation, social buttons, social widgets, comments, etc. However you don’t have the screen space to do this. Your content needs to include your heading, appropriately sized images, your words then a call to action in that order from top to bottom (as a rough example).

The Binkd blog is not mobile optimized (yet) and here you can clearly see the results from people viewing on a mobile device. They come and they leave.

Creating The Advertisement?

You may be thinking you just need to create a banner or image to put on various networks but this isn’t the case. The screen on mobile devices is just too small to effectively utilize this type of advertising.

“The most effective way to advertise on mobile is to create a story”

On a mobile device you have the users full attention on that small screen space. Your goal needs to be clear and you have room to tell a short story.

You have 3 ways to advertise

1. Content Story

You can create an article or video purely for giving the reader some valuable information then giving them a call to action at the end. The article or video can also let them know a little bit more about your business while giving away valuable information.

2. Social Story

The most common example of this is a sponsored story on Facebook. It shows an action that has been taken by a friend in relation to a business. It is a small story of what your friend has done. It’s highly relevant and appears among other content you are reading but doesn’t disrupt the flow.

3. Image / Video

The most annoying and least effective way is to have an image pop over the screen with the advertisement that you can then skip, or a video play before the video you actually wanted to watch can start.

Where To Advertise

There are many places to advertise on mobile devices. Below I have listed many of the ways I have come across.

Facebook Sponsored Stories (https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=213208552035450&ref=bc)

Twitter advertising (https://business.twitter.com/en/advertise/start/)

Content on StumbleUpon, targeted at mobile devices (http://www.stumbleupon.com/pd/)

Google Ads for mobile (http://www.google.com/ads/mobile/ )

In App Branding. Normally reserved for large budgets, getting branded items in mobile games can be effective.

Independent Mobile Advertisement Networks such as InMobi (http://www.inmobi.com/products/mobile-advertising/)

If you know of any other ways to advertise on mobile devices, please let us know in the comments.

Now before we start going, I have control of what my brand looks like, how I convey my message and complete control over how it can be used, that is true to an extent. Ultimately however your customers (as a whole) decide what your brand really means to them and your target audience.

1. Your Brand Is Public And Anyone Can Add To It

A brand consists of many visuals, ideas, actions and information combined together to create your brand. How people perceive this combination is your brand. It is your responsibility to build these areas to help define your brand.

Your brand however is there to do 1 thing, build trust, encourage people to interact, engage and eventually purchase from you. Brands are complex, and you might be able to control an aspect of it but in the end, your customers reactions build your brand.

You are only but an authority of your brand, you act on its behalf but it is in the public domain and ultimately it’s perception is controlled by the public.

2. Actions Define Your Brand

Moving on to the part of your brand which you can control, is the actions in which it takes. Actions define who you are. Actions a brand takes defines who it is. No matter what spin you put on that, people always see the actions and always know who a brand really is.

When you are about to perform an action based on your brand, say, send out a message, be it on Facebook or a blog, think of what reactions it will have, create your content aimed to give off the desired perception and reaction.

The most important piece here is you need to perform actions that empower customers to further your brand.

3. Reactions Build Your Brand

How people react to your brand is your brand to them. What people do after they hear, see or touch your brand is what builds it.

Customers can create far more content on your business than you can on yourself. They create reviews, they talk to their friends about it and who do you think they are going to believe, their friends or your company message? Your action has created a reaction, you need to define your actions to create desired reactions.

In the end your brand is mostly made up of the engagement, reactions and actions of your customers in response to the messages you send out. Give great customer service, go out of your way for a customer, give them something fun and engaging that they want to share.

Example 1: A Negative Reaction

McDonald’s are great on social media but that still doesn’t stop their actions having the appropriate reactions. McDonald’s doesn’t have a track record of being the healthiest company so when their Twitter campaign of #Mcdstories came out people starting sharing their stories.

Example 2: A Positive Reaction

Zappo’s have a company ethos of exceptional service and they deliver on it. As such, people’s reactions reflect their actions and build upon the companies great reputation.

Daily deals or group buying sites are designed to offer products and services at a heavily reduced price. The merchant (business owner) offers a product or service for around 30%-90% off in order to get new customers. You may have heard the horror stories of the poor small business owner losing out because of the big evil companies such as Groupon. While the media loves to sensationalize everything, it is never the daily deals, or group buying sites that are doing over businesses, it is small business owners making poor marketing and business decisions and looking for someone to blame. These sites can be a fantastic way to gain new customers, however it isn’t right for every business.

To make sure a daily deals site will be good for business you need to understand these points:

1. You are unlikely to make a profit on the deal

The deal is a form of advertising and it will cost you. Don’t expect to make any money on the deal, it’s purpose is to show your business to new customers and get the to try things out in the hopes of repeat business.

2. If your business has a low repeat customer rate, do not do a daily deal

Daily deals are there to get customers and turn them into repeat customers. If you have a very high customer turn over rate, don’t do it as you will just give a bunch of people a discounted product and you will never see them again.

3. Have a marketing and follow-up plan

You need to have a marketing and followup system, tested and proven before undertaking this form of advertising. You need to know that once you have these people’s details and they have tried your products you can effectively market to them and turn a high percentage into repeat and loyal customers. This also implies you have a great product and service that people will tell others about. If not, work on that first.

4. The ROI must be made on the deal, the profit is made later

And by ROI I mean return OF investment. Your return ON investment comes later. You should ensure you cover costs on the deal. Make sure that your deal is above or at least at cost for your product or service. This way if the deal does do well but repeat customers don’t happen then you will at least have not lost any money. Provided your costs are right, this is actually the safest form of advertising around, with no loss of money if things don’t work out. Take into account that most daily deal sites take a 50% cut in revenue of your deal. This standard was set mainly by Groupon.

It is the repeat customers that will make you money, so you need to be patient, this advertising method is for long-term results, not short-term. Stick with other marketing methods if you require quicker results.

5. Make sure you can wear the costs

Most daily deal site will not pay you for 30 days after the deal is done. You need to make sure you have the cash flow to cover the costs, while you wait for payment. This is where setting a maximum amount of people who can redeem the deal comes in handy. Get the number you can wear for 30-60 days (taking into account they will most likely send you a cheque via mail then you have to wait for it to clear) and set that as your maximum. The horror stories you hear are when large volumes of customers buy from a store and the store is unable to hold that kind of cost for such a long period of time.

6. Set the fine print

Most business deals only go south if they had poorly defined terms. Make sure you clearly define what is being offered. The deal is purchased on another site than your own so remember to include every detail necessary such as refund policies, warranties and the exact product or service they will receive. Also mention any additional charges they may incur such as shipping. If all of this is clearly displayed and defined you will get far less complaints and returns.

7. Craft a great advertisement on a great network

The deal is an advertisement. You need to make sure it attracts the right kind of customers and that occurs by what you are selling and where you are advertising. You will get many bargain hunters that will come in for the good deal and leave again. This is even more true with larger sites like Groupon. They are now that many smaller niche sites that it may be best looking for one in your niche and attached to a blog or community. If the deals are for a community you are less likely to have bargain hunters.