The Need For Speed

[Andy Black]

The Need For Speed

(Excuse the dry academic look of this post. I do this much better with a flipchart. One day (yeah right) I'll redo this as a video of me with said flipchart.)


# Actual Performance vs Indicators of Performance

Actual performance for your business is likely revenue, cost, profit, ROI.

Some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for paid search are:

• Estimated Impression Pool (available searches)
• Impression Share
• Impressions
• Avg Pos
• Clicks
• CTR
• Conversions
• Conversion Rate
• Average-Life-Time-Value

These are INDICATORS of performance, not ACTUAL performance.



# Metrics vs Dimensions

The numbers gathered above are often called metrics, and calculated metrics.

Dimensions could be product, location, device, network, day of week, hour of day.

You filter or aggregate by dimensions.



# Converting Data into Profit

Use a continuous cycle of improvement:

...and convert Data into $$$ as below:

Observe...

Notice something about the "Measure -> Report -> Analyse -> Act" cycle?

At the Measure step, the results from the previous cycle is the data for the next cycle.

This is VERY important.

Being “data driven” and “results focused” means the same thing.

It’s why they say “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”.

Be damn careful what you measure, because that’s what you’ll be working to improve.

(BTW... I hate the "data driven" mentality. "Data informed" should be more like it.)


Also notice you can’t measure till you’ve taken action. The loop starts by taking action!



Conclusion

Marketing can be seen as a "knowledge based" project.

A common bottleneck is knowledge acquisition.

The way to overcome it is to be agile... both agile in development and agile in marketing.

That means speeding up your iterations... cycling through the loop faster.

LAUNCH AND LEARN

(Just move faster dammit! )​

 

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[Bila]

Great post ... Thanks

 

[Karen]

Great perspective! Totally agree on the importance of agile iterative approach... the level descriptions are spot on! Didn't come across something similar before eventhough I tried to scrum my life

 

[RazorCut]

Conclusion

Marketing can be seen as a "knowledge based" project.

A common bottleneck is knowledge acquisition.

The way to overcome it is to be agile... both agile in development and agile in marketing.

That means speeding up your iterations... cycling through the loop faster.

Amen to that. It's exactly what I concluded in my current business plan yesterday. Need to quadruple the output so I can gain the data faster thus increase the speed of knowledge acquisition.

I need a faster bike.

Thanks @Andy Black

 

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[Spandan]

Thanks for taking the time to find this thread for me, @Andy Black !
This thread clears my perspective.

 

[Timmy C]

Great stuff. Now pinned to my pin board at home.

 

[BlackSuperman]

So something revolutionary happened.

But before I get to it I want to discuss how I got to that point. I watched a video Andy posted about metrics and how they aren't full indicators of results. Whether it's impressions, click-through-rate, or conversions. The real results that matter is calls, leads, sales. Metrics that lead to actual customers and actual profits.

Cool, we all already understand that right? But it still feels like something is missing. So I did something I usually hate to do. Research. (I prefer action over researching any day of the week but we will get to that).

So I went through some of Andy's youtube videos and threads he posts on a forum that I happened to find him on. I went through one of these threads. I read the whole thing. Every response. Took me a good hour. (An hour away from actually doing stuff, but sometimes taking a moment of rest is good).

And you know what? About 90% of the way there, my mind said "Why am I reading this thread? His answers always start with 'I did X which lead to Y.' and that's when it hit me. It doesn't matter how much I research. How much I try to "figure things out". So I closed the tab with the forum thread on it.

Yes I lied, I didn't read the whole thing. But that is the point. I immediately hopped on the Google Ads platform, loaded WAY more keywords. Optimized my current ad groups. I performed actions that I had no idea was going to work. And low and behold impressions increased, clicks started happening, CTR went way up, I got an actual email lead, and then it all hit me like a storm. I did this. I did this through action. I didn't do this through reading. Sure the reading gave me ideas but that's what they were. Ideas. I needed to take the risk. The step forward. Create my own method of figuring out how I can improve my Google Ads Campaign.

And that's when the gears started turning. This is what Andy has been preaching ALL along. Every response he's made, the advice he's provided, every post he created. It was always about - Stop worrying and take action and figure it out. I can give you the fundamentals. But there is no perfect path to lead to the success he has. It comes down to us. Taking action. Measuring that action's results. Adjusting it if need be. And repeating the process.

So my Aha moment? JUST DO IT! (Nike copyright ha)

 

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