Marketing experimentation

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Marketing experimentation is a research method which can be defined as "the act of conducting such an investigation or test". [1] It is testing a market that is segmented to discover new opportunities for organisations. [2] By controlling conditions in an experiment, organisations will record and make decisions based on consumer behaviour. Marketing experimentation is commonly used to find the best method for maximizing revenues [3] [4] through the acquisition of new customers. For example; two groups of customers are exposed to different advertising (test). How did consumers react to advertising compared to the other group? (measurable). Did the advertising increase sales for each group? (result).

Contents

Characteristics

There are three characteristics which are the make-up of a market experimentation: [5]

To gain an accurate result from experiments, the experimenter must consider outside factors that could affect the dependent variable. Continuing from the advertising example above; did sales increase because of a festive seasons at that particular time. [5]

Applied application

In marketing email marketing is popular [2] it is more targeted and there are many testable features such as font, colour and pictures. By tailoring emails it gives the experimenter control over conditions. For example; promoting discounts to experimental subjects via email. [7]

It is here the experimenter has control and sets conditions by sending one tailored email to one age group (subject A). The experimenter will send another tailored email to an older age group (subject B) offering the same promotion with a different presentation. The experiment so far is exposing group A and B to different advertising messages.

There are many measurable outcomes, a few are as follows:

Comparing the effects the experiment had on subject A and subject B will give the organisation more of an understanding of how these subjects have reacted when they received the email (if there was one) and their purchasing behaviour. The experimenter may wish to change the conditions of the test to measure the different outcomes. [8]

A/B Testing and Multivariate Testing

Two ways to perform a marketing experiment are A/B testing (also known as split testing), and multivariate testing. In an A/B test, you compare two versions of marketing collateral against each other and determine which one performs better. For example, you might compare the open rates for two email subject lines. Usually, the test will be performed on a subset of your entire population, and the results are then used to make a decision on how to market to the rest of the population. [9] In the email example, you might test two subject lines on 20% of your contact database. If one subject line results in significantly more people opening the email than the other, then that subject line is the winner of the test. The next logical step is to use that subject line to send the remaining email messages to the rest of the contacts in your database.

In a multivariate test, you would run an experiment that produces differences in more than one variable on the desired outcome. For example, you might run a multivariate test on a website landing page, in order to determine which version produces the highest percentage of people landing on the page who complete an email registration form. Some of the variables that you include could be two (2) versions of headlines, three (3) versions of page content, and four (4) versions of the call-to-action that compels users to complete the form. In this case, the total number of combinations would be 2x3x4 = 24 total combinations of headlines, content, and calls-to-action. The winner of the test is the best combination of all of the variables. Because of the nature of a multivariate test, it requires much more data than a simpler A/B test for statistical significance.[ citation needed ]

Digital marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the active practice of improving aspects of your website so that commercial search engines (such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo) can find and display your Web pages in the results when they’re relevant to a searcher’s query as stated by Digital.gov part of the U.S. General Services Administration. [10] Marketing related decisions are no longer guided just by hypothesis and past experience. Influential marketing ideas are now determined by analytics and big data. [11] By utilizing past data and predictive analytics, businesses can now generate better return on investment and provide insights that can lead to effective business strategies and decisions within an organization as stated by Forbes. [12] Organic search results are a large component of a business’ performance on its site. It is also used to more effectively create a buyer funnel and achieve a greater percentage of conversions and engagement. As Digital.gov explains, “Improving your SEO will allow users to find your great content not only on Google, but on your site, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and other sites as well.” [13]

Marketing farms

In online marketing, link farms are used to increase traffic by linking several web pages to another page, in order to drive up oncoming traffic from these other pages. The black-hat version of this service will do more harm than good, and is devastatingly efficient due to its numerous deployment options. They are easy to spot because they don’t have any information that is useful. They are generally a bunch of random links on a page that will take you to different places on the web. [14] Because search engines are interested in helping people find what they are looking for on the web, it is easy to see why they look down on link farms. If a search engine has too many link farms in its index, people will become annoyed when trying to find useful information, and they will eventually begin looking for other search engines to use. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Experiment</span> Scientific procedure performed to validate a hypothesis

An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Experiments vary greatly in goal and scale but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results. There also exist natural experimental studies.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than direct traffic or paid traffic. Unpaid traffic may originate from different kinds of searches, including image search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. Online advertising includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, many types of display advertising, and mobile advertising. Advertisements are increasingly being delivered via automated software systems operating across multiple websites, media services and platforms, known as programmatic advertising.

Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action.

Click-through rate (CTR) is the ratio of clicks on a specific link to the number of times a page, email, or advertisement is shown. It is commonly used to measure the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular website, as well as the effectiveness of email campaigns.

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings and increase the Call to action (CTA) on the website.

In online marketing, a landing page, sometimes known as a "lead capture page", "single property page", "static page", "squeeze page" or a "destination page", is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result, marketing promotion, marketing email or an online advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertisement, search result or link. Landing pages are used for lead generation. The actions that a visitor takes on a landing page are what determine an advertiser's conversion rate. A landing page may be part of a microsite or a single page within an organization's main web site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Advertising media selection</span>

Advertising media selection is the process of choosing the most efficient media for an advertising campaign. To evaluate media efficiency, planners consider a range of factors including: the required coverage and number of exposures in a target audience; the relative cost of the media advertising and the media environment. Media planning may also involve buying media space. Media planners require an intricate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the main media options. The media industry is dynamic - new advertising media options are constantly emerging. Digital and social media are changing the way that consumers use media and are also influencing how consumers acquire product information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conversion rate optimization</span> Concept in digital marketing

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of users or website visitors to take a desired action.

Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of a number of outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, service brand or event. Types of social media involved include RSS feeds, social news, bookmarking sites, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, video sharing websites, and blogging sites. SMO is similar to search engine optimization (SEO) in that the goal is to generate web traffic and increase awareness for a website. SMO's focal point is on gaining organic links to social media content. In contrast, SEO's core is about reaching the top of the search engine hierarchy. In general, social media optimization refers to optimizing a website and its content to encourage more users to use and share links to the website across social media and networking sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A/B testing</span> Experiment methodology

A/B testing is a user experience research method. A/B tests consist of a randomized experiment that usually involves two variants, although the concept can be also extended to multiple variants of the same variable. It includes application of statistical hypothesis testing or "two-sample hypothesis testing" as used in the field of statistics. A/B testing is a way to compare multiple versions of a single variable, for example by testing a subject's response to variant A against variant B, and determining which of the variants is more effective.

In Internet marketing, search advertising is a method of placing online advertisements on web pages that show results from search engine queries. Through the same search-engine advertising services, ads can also be placed on Web pages with other published content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital marketing</span> Marketing of products or services using digital technologies or digital tools

Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. It has significantly transformed the way brands and businesses utilize technology for marketing since the 1990s and 2000s. As digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life, and as people increasingly used digital devices instead of visiting physical shops, digital marketing campaigns have become prevalent, employing combinations of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e-books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace. Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones, callbacks, and on-hold mobile ringtones. The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates digital marketing from online marketing.

In marketing, multivariate testing or multi-variable testing techniques apply statistical hypothesis testing on multi-variable systems, typically consumers on websites. Techniques of multivariate statistics are used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geotargeting</span> Website content based on a visitors location

In geomarketing and internet marketing, geotargeting is the method of delivering different content to visitors based on their geolocation. This includes country, region/state, city, metro code/zip code, organization, IP address, ISP, or other criteria. A common usage of geotargeting is found in online advertising, as well as internet television with sites such as iPlayer and Hulu. In these circumstances, content is often restricted to users geolocated in specific countries; this approach serves as a means of implementing digital rights management. Use of proxy servers and virtual private networks may give a false location.

Search analytics is the use of search data to investigate particular interactions among Web searchers, the search engine, or the content during searching episodes. The resulting analysis and aggregation of search engine statistics can be used in search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). In other words, search analytics helps website owners understand and improve their performance on search engines based on the outcome. For example, identifying highly valuable site visitors or understanding user intent. Search analytics includes search volume trends and analysis, reverse searching, keyword monitoring, search result and advertisement history, advertisement spending statistics, website comparisons, affiliate marketing statistics, multivariate ad testing, etc.

Ad text optimization (ATO) is the process of improving the performance of a text Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertisement on search engines by improving its Click Through Rate (CTR) performance both in terms of volume and quality of response, that is “more buyers, less browsers”. ATO is an element of Search engine optimization, where the subject is discussed in greater detail.

Content writing services is a category of work that first surfaced in the early 1990s, due to an exponential rise in online activities. Content writing services are firms, companies or group of writers that provide services such as blog writing for websites, web content writing, marketing material content, white papers, research articles, proof reading services, infographic content, social media content, press releases, product descriptions, copywriting services, proofreading and editing and many more.

As of 2010, the largest internet enterprises in China were Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba followed by Soso, Sogou, Bing, and Yahoo. In March 2010, Google which had been in the list from 2000, was forced to pull out from China because of a heated dispute with the Chinese Government regarding the censoring of search engine results.

Lead validation is the process by which sales leads generated by internet marketing campaigns are separated from other types of conversions. Lead validation is crucial for effective internet marketing management; without it, companies can neither accurately evaluate the results of, nor efficiently improve, their SEO, PPC, display advertising, email, content marketing and social media campaigns.

References

  1. ↑ "Definition of "experiment" | Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
  2. 1 2 McDonnell, Elia (18 September 2012). "Marketing Experiments: From the Basics to the Cutting Edge". YouTube. Wharton Analytics. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  3. ↑ "Marketing Research Design". 8 July 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "What is experiment? Definition and meaning" . Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  5. 1 2 Tilley, Paul (7 November 2014). "0:29 / 24:53 Unit 7: MR2300 - Marketing Research - Primary Research: Experiments". YouTube. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Keller, Godfrey (July 1999). "MARKET EXPERIMENTATION IN A DYNAMIC DIFFERENTIATED-GOODS DUOPOLY" (PDF). Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  7. ↑ "Marketing Research Design". Slide Share. 8 July 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  8. ↑ "Methodology | Marketing Experiments" . Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  9. ↑ McFarland, Colin (2012-08-17). Experiment!: Website conversion rate optimization with A/B and multivariate testing. New Riders. ISBN   978-0-13-304008-1.
  10. ↑ "The Debate Over Search Engine Optimization". Blue Crest Media. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  11. ↑ "Elevating Businesses with Expert Marketing Solutions" . Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  12. ↑ "Understanding Digital Marketing And Website Traffic". White Noise Digital. 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  13. ↑ "Why Your Business Needs SEO". Golden Gate SEO. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
  14. ↑ Ashton, Robert (2014). "Farming Market Research Reports & Industry Analysis". DanI.
  15. ↑ "SEO and Key Terms You Need to Know". Adelseo. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
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