Am I ready for growing online? This is the first question that should come to mind for every company leader before taking the first steps towards a market-based growth. László Szabó – co-founder of performance marketing agency, Growww Digital – held a presentation about the best online growth practices at Evolution 2017.

High demand and the ability to monetise. These two aspects create the core of a business’ online growth. Their simultaneous presence is essential for a quick growth in the market. For instance, a website dealing with diamonds can realise only a low demand for their goods, however, their profit on one single purchase can be relatively high. On the other hand, a website that provides lyrics may have many visitors, but it seems to be a difficult task to monetise any of them. In the case of low search volume and demand, high monetisation will not be enough to keep going. This also applies to the other pole: If you face high demand, but you are unable to monetise properly, you will be having a hard time going further.

1. Try out the newest innovations and tools

Given the favourable conditions mentioned above, it still does matter how we want to grow. Experimentation is our aid. Taking advantage of new solutions or methods before our competitors would do, can give us a nice leeway. There is a huge benefit in this kind of approach. Target audiences are hardly, or not immune to new techniques, channels or methods for a short time, so during this period, you can achieve out of ordinary results. László also presented a very recent innovation that has put incredible results on the table. With the help of Facebook’s new automated creative optimisation capability, they were able to test and optimise multiple variations of advertisements. By uploading a few pictures and ad-texts, we get combinations of complete ads generated by Facebook that we can test on micro audiences and optimise them if necessary. It is advised though to use the system on large audiences so the algorithm can optimise the ads, therefore it is able to bring pretty outstanding results. The number of subscriptions for Bónusz Brigád’s newsletter has increased by more than 400% compared to the results of the past few weeks, thanks to this innovative method. Click through rate (CTR) has been doubled while cost per click (CPC) has halved.

The opportunity is open to you too however it is only available via certain Facebook PMDs, like ROI Hunter for the time being. Based on our previous experiences, this new advertising technique may become available as a native Facebook function next 3-6 month, which gives you a competitive edge if you start now.

2. Automate what you can

In the year of 2017, knowing the benefits of automation is quite common. Automated marketing processes are not for taking jobs away, it is for the purpose of saving time for more important things such as planning and strategy creating instead of doing repetitive and boring tasks. Following this idea, Growww Digital has boosted Otthondepo.hu’s turnover by 293% in a couple months using a self-developed Google Ads automation software called ROIminer.

3. Seize your competitor’s spoils

László highlighted that knowing your competitors is a vital factor.

“Let’s collect as much information about our competitors as we can, so we will have more space to act on the online battleground.”

One of the most known competitor-related online techniques is bidding on competitors’ names in Google Ads. This is indeed a well-tried method however not the only one. With regards to the Display Network, László shared some useful tips as well:

• We can appear on competitor’s Youtube videos via advertisements
• …or we can target their newsletter subscribers by Gmail ads
• If there is an AdSense zone available on the competitor’s site, we can raid that too
• We are able to target their Facebook followers, thus we can create valuable audiences

4. Strategy before tactics

Besides tactical elements, the strategic approach is essential. In this context, László presented the See-Think-Do-Care framework of Avinash Kaushik. He added that there are two fundamental options for online growth:

• by WIT
• by POWER

The first one is about extending campaigns, while the second one is done by raising the bids on paid advertising channels. Once we reach the extents of our campaigns, the only way that remains is through power which has its own limits as well. The See-Think-Do-Care framework provides a viable solution to that problem.

• We have all the available target audiences in the SEE segment
• In the THINK segment, we have those audiences that are reachable and might need our goods/services in the near future
• The DO segment involves those who need our goods/services right now
• …while in the CARE segment, we record our loyal and returning customers

Let’s see a simple example: We sell Nike shoes. Those who see our shoes in the streets are in the See category. In the Think segment, we have those who are in the state of considering of buying them soon. The Do segment involves those who need a pair of Nike shoes right now, and are actively looking for them. While in the Care segment, we have those who had already bought shoes from us, so there is a possibility that they become loyal and returning customers. (It is advised to treat them good too)

When we speak about online marketing and performance marketing especially, almost everyone sees the world through the “Do” glasses, waiting for instant conversions. This is not a problem itself, but we have to take into consideration that different audiences of different segments can be reached by diverse tools and goals. It is insufficient to “catch” customers only in the moment of purchasing.

Since we cannot always sell our products upon the first contact with the customer, the goals of the ads shouldn’t be measured or about conversions either. More like “reach” or “assisted conversions” as suitable KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

In the Do segment, however, our normative metrics should be about the return of our ad spends (ROAS), or actual turnover.

Long story short: Do not expect a fish to climb trees. In other words, for each campaign goals, we need to use different evaluation systems.

+1. Create our own tactical book!

As a final thought, László advised his audience to create their own tactical book. Don’t be afraid to test out several channels and tools in our market because the creation of personalised tactics is what makes a business unique and truly successful in online marketing.