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Dating App Algorithms: Optimizing Search for Love

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Dating App Algorithms: Optimizing Search for Love

With nearly 8 billion people in the world, it’s safe to say there’s at least one person out there with whom everyone reading this would have a happy, healthy relationship. Now, that person isn’t the same for all of us—of course, and thankfully! And, depending on how you feel about soulmates, there might not be “the one” at all, rather potentially dozens or more people with whom you’d have a fulfilling relationship if only your paths crossed.

But back to that number—8 billion (8,000,000,000). That is a nine-zero situation that we don’t see spelled out very often. And all those zeros make for a lot of potential relationship heroes to consider.

But we don’t start by considering all 8 billion; we hone in on those folks who seem most likely to be a good match. We start with basic criteria—like age, location, gender and gender preference—and continue refining our options from there.

And if you’re doing your searching and sorting at least in part through ‘the apps’, which the numbers show many of you are, dating app algorithms are instrumental in helping you find someone special.

Table of Contents

 

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Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/24404/most-popular-dating-apps-us/

Algorithms are sets of instructions or rules that help complete a process as those rules intend. No matter how simple or complex the algorithm, or how much or how little data it has to digest to function properly, the basics of how it works are the same.

Algorithms are designed as tools to help in sorting, digesting, and delivering relevant information; it is people who determine the goals the algorithm will help achieve. And despite algorithms in the digital space being regularly eyed with suspicion by many, they are truly intended to improve our search results.

While all dating apps share a foundational commonality—helping foster connections—they also differ in some key ways that might influence their current and future goals. Let’s do some background research on a few of the most popular dating apps to see what we dig up.

 

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If you’ve tried more than one dating app, or are weighing your options, you may find yourself wondering the same thing you wonder when looking for a partner: “Are they really all the same?” This is where it’s important to again consider the goals of that particular platform. Many have the same overarching goal—to connect people to other people they’ll like—but what kind of connections is each best suited for, and why?

You can tell a lot about a dating app by the first impression it makes with its name and slogan; both can provide some level of insight into what the goals of that dating platform are, which helps make sense of what the goals of the algorithm would be.

Remember that “matching” is largely what search functions as a whole are designed for, whether it’s matching searchers with the right information, right services, right answers, or Ms. or Mr. Right.

Let’s do some classic internet detective work to see what we can learn about a few popular apps, diving deepest into Tinder…
 

Tinder Algorithm

Pie chart for US dating app market share in 2021 withTinder, Bumble, and Plenty of Fish in top 3

Source: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/dating-app-market/

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Tinder is among the most popular dating apps thanks largely to its large user base, ease-of-use, and becoming a bit of a household name over the past few years. For many folks, Tinder is synonymous with dating apps the way Band-Aid is synonymous with adhesive bandages. In fact, recent data shared by Statista found that brand awareness of Tinder in the US is 84%, and that 37% of all US dating service users are on the platform.

As we know, the first step in understanding an algorithm is determining its goals. Let’s see what we can learn about who Tinder is, and what their goals, purpose and promise are, straight from the source—Tinder.com.

  • Tinder is the most popular free dating app in the world, and has made more than 55 billion matches to date. They boast millions of single users, and considers themselves “the most diverse dating app”
  •  

  • In your Discovery Settings on Tinder, you can set your sexual orientation, and the age and distance-from-you for the profiles you’ll see on the platform. They use location-based technology to connect you with relevant profiles based on those selections (Source: Tinder FAQs)
  •  

  • Tinder can also be used to foster non-romantic connections, including helping college students make friends at school through TinderU
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  • Tinder believes “everyone deserves the right to be seen and make the first move,” and doesn’t filter by race, religion, education, or height
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  • Tinder isn’t only for those looking for ‘the one’ — ”Some sites, like Hinge and eharmony, are designed for long-term relationships, but on the Tinder app, we’re all about the experience and offer possibilities for whatever it is you’re looking for.”
  •  

  • If you want your answers to specific questions to help you in finding users with similar replies, you can enable the Tinder Vibes feature. You can also add Passions (or Interests) to your profile.
  •  

  • Tinder can also help you in finding more matches by notifying you when a Swipe Surge is underway—a period of high activity on the platform. Once you’ve joined, you can narrow your options by selecting from different categories that let other users know what you’re looking for on Tinder (ie. casual chats, nightlife, etc.)
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  • Tinder is open to evolving to keep up with the changing wants and needs of its users. After all, those who started on the platform in their early twenties may have very different goals in their early thirties, and no platform wants to lose its most loyal users. As recently as December 2022, Tinder added a Relationship Goals feature

 
Now that we’ve unpacked what Tinder is to help in understanding the why behind their algorithm goals, let’s dive deeper into what they’ve shared about how their algorithm works, which bears a lot of similarity to social media platform algorithms.
 

Engagement is a primary factor

Just like the Instagram algorithm better understands what you want to see more of based on your in-app engagement, Tinder can provide you with better potential matches the more you use the app. This includes using “anonymized cues” from photos in tailoring future recommendations, serving up profiles with photos similar to those a user has liked before. Nopes are also considered.

Because there are two people in this equation, the algorithm is working similarly on the flipside, showing your profile to users who have liked other profiles with photos similar to yours. If you start noticing similarities in the profiles you’re shown most often—like all your matches have profiles featuring concert photos or camping photos—your swipe history has likely influenced your results.

But on Tinder, it’s not just measuring your engagement metrics to determine your top interests; they also want to make sure you’re still actively looking. Tinder wants all their users to have an optimal user experience, which is facilitated in part by prioritizing active members.

Translating this to the ecommerce space, they want to make sure they aren’t wasting your time, or annoying you, by directing you to out-of-stock URLs.
 

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Proximity comes into play

When creating a Tinder profile, users provide their gender, gender preferences, age, distance (from potential matches), and current location. These are all fairly standard, but it’s that ‘current location’ where things can get interesting.

In addition to considering your state or city-based location in the potential matches shown, Tinder will go one step further and prioritize profiles that are in the nearest proximity. “Proximity is a key factor; it’s always fun meeting someone in the same neighborhood and that’s why we consider a potential match’s distance from a member’s current location.”

Translating this to the commerce space, they don’t only want to show which stores have the product in-stock ‘near you’ in a broad sense, rather what’s available in the stores closest to you where you can click-and-collect (swipe-and-connect?) ASAP.
 

User-provided data can help refine matches

Many folks like that they can get started swiping on Tinder with just a modest amount of upfront work required, but the more data you give the algorithm to work with, the better your results are going to be. While adding your interests/passions and a detailed lifestyle description are optional, Tinder will consider them in your matches when you provide them.

Tinder also shared some things that aren’t factored into their algorithm, including social status, religion, and ethnicity. They also noted that their much-discussed Elo Score is “old news” that their latest technology doesn’t rely on.
 

Match.com Algorithm

Match.com logoSource: https://www.match.com/

While there are dozens, if not hundreds, of dating sites to choose from today, the one that can be considered the mother of them all is Match. Starting all the way back in 1995 when many folks still relied on newspaper classifieds to find singles in their area, Match.com entered the scene to lay the groundwork for letting the information superhighway (aka internet) provide the path to lasting love.

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Unlike Tinder, Match isn’t simply looking to foster connections; as their name implies, they are looking to help find true matches. They’ll even let you know if you’ve crossed paths with one of your matches in real life. That said, it isn’t as expressly marriage-driven as eHarmony, so may serve as a nice middle ground for folks who want something more than casual, but aren’t rushing nuptials.

So how do they make those matches? As you might expect, your provided information is at the foundation! And as noted by BestCompany, Match offers one of the most comprehensive profiles around—if users take the time to complete theirs. In addition to being able to add information like religion, profession, and whether you have children, Match goes even further giving users the option to submit responses to essay questions. They also let you rank how important something is, noting if it’s essential or just nice-to-have.

The importance of your profile, from Match:

“It contains questions about who you are, where you’re from, the things that interest you, your lifestyle, and your background and values. It also asks you about your ideal match. All of this information helps form a great image of who you are and who you’re looking for. Not only does this help potential matches understand you better, it also helps us provide you with better matches through our unique matching tools.”

 

Bumble Algorithm

Bumble logo

Source: https://bumble.com/

Bumble is unique in that it requires women to make the first messaging move (in heterosexual matches). They note that they prioritize kindness and respect, and similar to Tinder, have sister sites aimed at helping users network or find a new BFF. Like many other popular apps, Bumble is free to use, but offers optional premium features that can help get your profile seen and improve or increase functionality.

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Bumble isn’t as transparent about their algorithm as Tinder, but who you see on the app appears to be largely filter-driven. While filters can be very helpful in narrowing your selection of available options, Bumble notes that over-filtering may leave you with very few profiles that make the cut. Loosening your filters can help in making you matchable with a wider variety of users, but bear in mind you’re losing some precision in the process.

Similar to most dating app algorithms, it is speculated that Bumble is learning what you like and don’t like as you swipe. Just like the information you expressly provide to aid in making matches, including your gender and distance preferences, your swipe activity is another factor for the algorithm to consider. The more intentional you are about the choices you make, the more accurately the algorithm will be able to deliver strong potential matches in the future. This is just another layer of ‘you get out what you put in’; if you want Bumble to better understand who to show you, they need to get to know you first.

On Bumble, regular use of the app isn’t only encouraged, but required for optimal experience. Once a match is made, a message must be sent within 24 hours; if not, the match expires. And after the first message has been sent, another 24-hour timer begins. If a reply isn’t sent within that window, the match expires. Similar to Tinder, this shows us that Bumble prioritizes profile activity so it can ensure users aren’t wasting time crafting messages to inactive users.

Where Bumble differs from Tinder is in what the vast majority of its users are looking for. Whereas Tinder aims to be the dating app destination for users looking for everything from casual connections to something serious, the majority of Bumble users are looking for long-term relationships.

It’s also worth noting that the ‘women message first’ model for heterosexual relationships is a motivating factor in using the app for men and women alike. As Bumble’s infographic shows, 97% of women made that first move and messaged their matches in the past month. And 63% of men reported that “women making the first move” was their reason for choosing Bumble.
 

eharmony Algorithm

Source: https://www.eharmony.com/

Source: https://www.eharmony.com/

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eharmony is a dating app designed for people looking for serious, long-term relationships. In fact, according to eharmony, couples who met through their platform make up 4% of all marriages in the US.

With this goal in mind—helping people who are truly, deeply compatible find one another—eharmony has to ask a lot of questions to make sure they get things right. For casual daters, these types of question lists are often exactly what puts them off a dating site. For those who want to get right to scrolling or swiping, eharmony is not a good match.

Just remember—you get out what you put in, because the algorithm is working with the input you provided in its output. The more relevant information you provide for it to work with, the more tailored to you your results will be. On eharmony, they actually quantify your likelihood of getting along with someone by assigning a Compatibility Score, with 60 being low compatibility, and 140 being the highest compatibility.

Explained by eharmony:

“Each of your matches will display a different eharmony Compatibility Score and, as the name suggests, it’s a simple indicator of how compatible you two are. These scores are based on your similarities and contrasts, as well as the answers you gave to our Compatibility Quiz when you joined eharmony. In the Compatibility section of each match’s profile, you can see what similarities you have, and also potential points of friction.”

Happy to answer a laundry list of questions about who you are, and what’s most important to you, but don’t want to pay a fee? OkCupid is another popular dating site option that relies heavily on provided information to aid in the compatibility measurement process, for free (upgrade options available).

 

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Just because algorithms can help you find love certainly doesn’t mean they’re the only path to happiness. They simply provide a more streamlined, strategic path of possibility that sifts through the wide sea of options, providing a curated, filtered, or otherwise sorted list of choices from which you can weigh pros and cons before ever typing “hello.”

Similarly, most of us have happened upon one or more products in our lives that we didn’t even know we were looking for, but instantly fell in love with. Perhaps it was that perfect gold charm bracelet you stumbled across in a tucked-away jewelry store while on vacation. Or maybe it’s those jeans you grabbed at a store near your office when you forgot you had after-work plans, and they ended up being the most flattering, comfortable jeans you’ve ever owned.

These are moments of luck and serendipity, and they do indeed happen every day! But they don’t make a solid plan for accomplishing your goals, no matter what you’re searching for.

 

 

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Tinder Super Like feature pop-up

Source: https://tinder.com/feature/stand-out

The algorithms that power dating apps will always be running in the background, but many apps offer ways to get your profile seen when it might not have otherwise been algorithmically driven to the top. It’s important to note that these aren’t true algorithm workarounds, rather methods through which you can push to the front of a specific line, often at a price.

Additionally, some features are more simply designed to let you engage more often or heavily within the app, which can naturally improve your chances of securing a date. In a sense, this can be thought of as advertising yourself.

For example: In addition to the additional benefits packed into each of Tinder’s subscription tiers, popular premium features include Boost and Super Like, which Tinder claims will “increase your chances of matching by 3x and have convos that last 70% longer.” Exclusive to Tinder Platinum subscribers is the Priority Like feature, which “puts your profile in front of the people you Like faster.” Similar premium features are available on Match.com, where they’re known as Power-Ups.

 

 

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Not only do some dating apps offer paid services that help users go over the algorithm to an extent, they also make a lot of their money from advertising revenue. As it turns out, love—or at the least the quest thereof—just might be able to pay the bills, after all.
 

Does Match Group have a monopoly on love?

Ad space across many of the most popular dating apps can be purchased from the same place—Match Media Group. That’s because Match Group owns more than a dozen popular apps, and can sell cross-platform advertising options to prospective advertisers for many of them.

“Match Media Group serves as a single point partner for marketers to leverage the aggregated audience, data and insights that result from having millions of global users across Match’s portfolio of dating platforms, including Tinder, OKCupid and Match.com.”

Match Media Group

As for who exactly is cuddled up under this love umbrella, the following are some of the dating apps owned by Match Group…

  • Match.com
  • Tinder
  • OkCupid
  • Hinge
  • PlentyOfFish
  • UPWARD
  • Ship
  • Meetic
  • OurTime
  • …and many more dating companies worldwide

But the Match Group isn’t the only major player on the block. There is no denying their impressive portfolio of apps, and the incredible data they’re able to collect and leverage thanks to the millions of users across their portfolio. But two of the biggest names in the dating app world are missing from their list—Bumble and badoo—both owned by the same parent company.
 

What advertising options are available on dating apps?

Three tinder advertising examples with branded profile cards and quiz

Source: https://www.matchmediagroup.com/

Looking specifically at ad products available from Match Media Group, we find the following options:

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  • Branded Profile Card (Tinder): Brands can create profiles native to the Tinder user experience. When users match with a branded profile, they receive brand custom messaging including offers, promotions, exclusive content, and/or more
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  • Quiz (Tinder): Quizzes can be fully completed within the app, and leverage Tinder’s swipe feature to answer questions, which can be as simple as asking whether they like or dislike something. Following a short series of questions, these users can then share their results across their social media networks if they choose to
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  • Native Video Card (Tinder): Video advertising is only on the rise, and makes a perfect fit for a fast-paced app that appeals to younger users, like Tinder. Tinder video ads can lead folks to external URLs, including your website. These video ads auto-play within the app when users are in discovery mode
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  • Native Display Card (Tinder): Similar to a profile card in design, these ad units allow brands to drive traffic to an external page with one click.
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  • In-App Interstitial (OKCupid): These full screen interstitial ads are shown as users are browsing their matches
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  • Standard/High Impact Units (Match, Meetic, People Media, Plenty of Fish): These are set to target your key demographic, and are available across several platforms

 
Match Media Group notes that interested advertisers can run their campaigns across their full portfolio, or on specific sites, with a minimum investment of $25K+.
 

Advantages of Advertising on Dating Apps

Chart with penetration rate and revenue of dating apps in US, UK, France, Germany, Brazil

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/24165/online-dating-penetration-rate-revenue-selected-countries/

There are perhaps more advertising options available today than ever before—from classic digital advertising avenues to in-store screens, LED billboards, magazines, streaming ads, and far beyond. Each of these has unique goals and purposes, as well as the ability to reach potential customers in different mindsets, different funnel stages, and so forth.

Looking at advertising on dating apps specifically, a few key considerations and benefits come to mind:

  • People on dating apps are already in a comparative state-of-mind. When someone is already actively in the consideration phase, like they would be on a dating app, they are mentally in the right place to be served an ad for a product or service to consider
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  • You can reach Gen Z in droves. The average user age varies from platform to platform, with the most popular free platform—Tinder—being home to a wide audience of Gen Z and young Millennial users. BusinessofApps notes that while Tinder has historically been popular with the 25-and-younger set, its use is increasing with older folks as well. This is due in part to Tinder’s overall increasing popularity, but also because those who have used the app for years are quite simply getting older
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  • Dating apps have a much higher percentage of male users on average. Similar to the average age varying by platform, the percentage of male users compared to female users also naturally varies. That said, looking at the breakdown for a few of the most popular apps, we find that there are significantly more male than female users. According to the above-linked article from BusinessofApps, Tinder’s user base is ~75% male. This could make dating apps an excellent advertising tool for brands whose products or services are largely targeted to men
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  • Your competitors probably aren’t there (yet). The competition for the most eligible singles may be fierce on dating apps, but compared to other digital advertising spaces, it may be easier for your brand to stand out. It’s a unique advertising territory that many brands simply haven’t considered yet, giving those who have an added edge by being early adopters. With an estimated 75 million people in over 190 countries using the Tinder app every month alone, the potential reach is incredible

 

Dating App Advertising Examples

Tinder advertising example for Rescue Matches, matching dogs with users

Source: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/09/22/lovelorn-tinder-users-can-now-feature-shelter-dogs-search-ideal-partner

Tinder recently partnered with rescue shelters across the country to help some very swipeable pooches find their forever home. As if adding a dog to the family isn’t reward enough, it could also help you secure more swipes. A 2021 study by Honest Paws found that profile photos featuring a canine companion may get more positive attention.

From The Drum:

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“The tie-up follows a 2021 survey, conducted by Honest Paws, which found that 70% of singles believe that a dog in their profile pic leads to more matches. This belief is supported by 60% who express themselves to be more willing to date someone holding a dog close.”

Tinder advertising example with Domino’s distributing pizza coupons

Source: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/dominos-pizza-gets-flirty-tinder-valentines-day/1280989

As we’re all aware, it’s important to consider your audience in marketing. And that’s exactly what Domino’s UK did going all the way back to 2014, with an innovative Valentine’s Day Tinder ad campaign. Do you know who orders pizza on Valentine’s Day? Single people! And do you know who wants a coupon for that pizza? Everyone!

 

 
There’s a reason people say your profile is a chance to “sell yourself” because ultimately, you are your own marketing manager on dating apps. Interestingly, when we consider all the information above, it’s hard not to see a dating profile as remarkably similar to a product detail page. And just like a PDP, there are certain elements that can help you in optimizing it for search (and conversion!)
 

Choose your main photo wisely

Your main photo is the first photo potential connections will see, and heavily determines whether they choose to learn more from your other photos and profile content.

Similar to the main photo you choose for a product you’re selling or advertising, you’ll want the photo to be clear/in-focus, eye-catching, and prominently feature an attractive and accurate representation of the available item (in this case, you!), without others in frame.
 

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Let the pictures do some of the talking

While there is room to provide additional information about yourself through text, just as they do with product images, photos can tell a lot of that story for you. Select an assortment of pictures that clearly display your interests, values, hobbies and more. This might mean including a photo with your dog, another of you hiking, another at an amusement park, and another marching at a protest.

These don’t tell the whole story of who you are, but they give some important information before a single word has been read, just like lifestyle photos and infographics on PDPs.
 

Showcase your unique value propositions

It’s hard to argue that honesty is typically the best policy, and in the dating apps landscape, it’s absolutely crucial. Not only can it save you from frustration and disappointment, but it can also save you a lot of time, and help in finding a truly strong match faster.

Just as you would do when considering what distinguishes your particular product from similar products in the same space, think of what unique characteristics about yourself are not only likely to be intriguing, but are also an integral aspect of your personality, values, or lifestyle.
 

Include the most important and relevant information in your profile copy

Want to give dating app algorithms the most information to work with in crafting potential matches that are truly personalized to you? It’s going to take a little work on your part, but it can actually be a great self-reflection session!

Just as you consider what a prospective buyer would want to know about a product before adding to cart, what is most important for a potential suitor to know about you before sending a message? This information might vary depending on the seriousness of connections you’re looking to make, and how important something is for you in a partner. If something is a make-or-break for you, be sure to include it in your profile copy to save everyone time.

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Graphic with three professionals in Connected Commerce, Lifecycle Marketing, and Streaming+

Our research into how dating algorithms function only solidified our suspicions that they function very similarly to the algorithms that impact our daily lives as marketers. After all, the goals of platforms like Google, Facebook, and Tinder aren’t all that different—to help in sorting through an abundance of options to present you with what you are most likely to be interested in based on key preference-determining factors like your provided information, and previous engagement.

Thinking more specifically about marketing and advertising options, we realized that just like people, each has its own set of strengths and skills that make them a solid match for different business goals.

In the spirit of dating profiles and Valentine’s Day being just 2 weeks away, we created Marketing Profiles for three of our services—Connected Commerce, Lifecycle Marketing, and Streaming+. Which one is the most important match for your business?

Graphic reading “Marketing Profile: Connected Commerce"

Name: Connected Commerce

About Me: I’m that holistic free spirit your mother warned you about, who really and truly believes all things are connected! Rather than searching for the path of least resistance, my sights are set on crafting the path of best performance. You might call me the Cartographer of Commerce Success, because I don’t follow a templated map—I draft a custom one every time. I am your 360-degree commerce solution; if people are shopping somewhere, I’m considering how we can make that somewhere work best for you.

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Why Should You Get to Know Me: In the words of Ani DiFranco, “I am 32 flavors and then some.” I am Commerce Media, Commerce Strategy & Ops, Social Commerce, In-Store Commerce, Gaming Commerce, Commerce OTT, Data & Analytics, Creative, and Influencer. A lot of folks think they’re the “total package,” but I really am! I understand that every client journey and customer journey is unique, and that my role is to assure both are properly supported, and strategically accounted for.

Interests: Finding the best path forward, diving into cross-channel capabilities and impact, full-funnel commerce strategies, success

Recent Read: Marketing in 2023: 5 Big Bets for the CMO

Where You’ll Find Me: Come learn more about me at The Commerce Summit on February 15, 2023. (I’ll be the one with a bagful of half-priced Valentine’s Day chocolates I picked up at Rite Aid on the way.) If things go well and we make a real connection (which is kinda my whole thing), we can sync up again a week later for webinar date #2 on February 22, 2023. You can also hit me up here anytime—looking forward to connecting!

Favorite Quote: “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”William James

Graphic reading “Marketing Profile: Lifecycle Marketing”

Name: Lifecycle Marketing

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About Me: I’m the trifecta of hyper-personalized, privacy-compliant communications—email marketing, mobile messaging, and on-site marketing. I work best when all three aspects of who I am are fully-integrated so I can ensure I’m saying the right thing at the right time in the right place to the right person. (Do I really mean that, or do I keep saying “right” so you see me as the “right one” for you? Yes and yes.)

Why Should You Get to Know Me: I am a strong, capable leader that can help power your data and audience strategies in the privacy-by-default future. I’m an empathetic marketing avenue, always aiming to provide shoppers and subscribers with only the most relevant information. I believe in rewarding loyalty, and respecting user permissions and preferences.

Interests: Collecting and leveraging zero-party and privacy-compliant first-party data, building customer loyalty, highly personalized messaging

Recent Read: The 2023 Lifecycle Marketing Guide

Favorite Acronyms: SMS, ESP, CLV

Where You’ll Find Me: On-site, I often literally just pop up! And I usually have a coupon or something equally enticing to offer when I do. But you’ll also find me in your inbox, and in your texts (but only if you opted-in!) You can also reach out here to learn more about why we’d be a great match!

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Graphic reading “Marketing Profile: Streaming+”

Name: Streaming+

About Me: I’m a bit of an advertising force to be reckoned with, with no click-to-close box in sight! In some situations, it can even be said I’m over-the-top. I am an unskippable, scalable, targetable, data-driven dynamo, introducing audiences to new brands and services wherever they get their stream on.

Why Should You Get to Know Me: I’m designed to reach audiences not only where they are today, but where they’ll increasingly be in the future. In the grand scheme of advertising, some folks still see streaming ads as a promising up-and-comer. But the reality is that I’ve fully arrived, and I’m reaching millions of viewers and listeners with relevant, targeted streaming audio and video ads at this very moment. (Bit of a multitasker!)

Interests: Meeting your audience where they are, non-skippable ads, patented measurement technology that connects served impressions to marketing outcomes

Recent Read: The Ultimate Guide to Performance Streaming

Favorite Acronyms: OTT, cTV

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Where You’ll Find Me: On internet-enabled devices near you, including your television, tablet, desktop, and mobile device. Some of the most popular places you can find me are Hulu, Sling TV, and YouTube TV. Reach out today to learn more about how we can make streaming sparks fly!

Favorite Karaoke Duet Song: Islands in the Stream by Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers

Personal Catchphrase: Just livin’ the stream!

 

 

With all this talk about the power of algorithms, and how they’re fueling search results everywhere from Snapchat to Match.com, it’s important to remember that they’re simply tools that play a part in powering what you see—not what you ultimately decide.

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It is still up to you whether you want to go on a date with a person returned in your search results, just like it’s ultimately up to you what product you buy, plumber you call, or restaurant you decide to go to based on your search results. And just like there are algorithms, photos, provided information and more to help you with those other decisions, so is the case in the commerce of love.

As we’ve explored, choosing the right dating app for you requires considering your own goals in using the app, and weighing those against the goals of the apps themselves. So the first step is finding which app is your best match! And at the end of the day, whatever it is you’re looking for online, chances are algorithms are behind those results you see. (Not to be confused with the Al Gore Rhythm.)

Want to learn more about how we can help your brand find true love with new and existing customers across the advertising universe? Reach out today!

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MARKETING

Unlocking Hidden Revenue: The Inbox Retargeting Methodology

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Unlocking Hidden Revenue: The Inbox Retargeting Methodology

Page conversion rates have ALWAYS been a problem. The simple fact is most people don’t convert even on the most optimized pages. 

What’s why traditional retargeting on ad networks has been so dang powerful. While retargeted leads come cheap, they still aren’t free. Worse, you’re back competing against your competition in the ol’ ad auction system.

For the last 6 years, I’ve been using a tactic called Inbox Retargeting to identify who lands on my key pages and directly reach out to them in their inbox.

No more ads. No more auctions. Just a targeted contact that showed they were interested, but didn’t quite take the leap yet.

Before I dive into the “What’s” and “How’s”, this tactic can only be used in the good ol’ US of A. If you aren’t in the states or don’t have clients in the states, you’re out of luck. Sorry!

How It Works

Inbox retargeting doesn’t take a lot of heavy lifting. I’ll share the strategy next but I wanted to start with some of the logistics.

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DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer or coder, so keep that in mind if technical or legal questions pop up.

If you have a website, you have tracking scripts, e.g.,  GA4, the Facebook Pixel, Heatmap software, etc…

To get started with Inbox retargeting, you just need to be able to copy and paste two scripts on your site:

  • A collection script: This fires and tries to identify the visitor

A suppression script: You’d fire this on your conversion confirmation pages, you don’t want people who converted to land in your Inbox Retargeting campaigns.

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The tech works off of a database of contacts in the United States that are eligible for emails, so it’s completely above board with your ESP. However, you’ll want to do a few things before you start treating them like a regular member of your email list.

We initially tested this on one of our paid media campaigns. We already had a really strong campaign that we wanted to squeeze more leads out of…and boy did we.

We were driving traffic from Meta (Facebook for the OGs) to this landing page:

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This page converts at 58%. Yeah, that’s a humble brag…deal with it.

Even with a 58% conversion rate, we’re still missing out on 42% of the traffic we’ve already paid for. That’s kind of a bummer.

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After we added the collection script to the page, they were able to capture a lot more leads. The conversion rate jumped from 58% to a very sweet 87% – that’s a 50% increase!

That was the impact on a single page, that’s when we knew it was time to go bigger.

The Strategy

Most of the tools out there, whether it’s Retention.com or Customers.ai, are going to charge based on the number of contacts. So it can get pretty easy to burn through contact credits if you run the script on every page you manage, your site and your clients’ sites included.

That’s why you’ll want to make sure to select pages that capture intent versus targeting all of your traffic.

ID Key Pages

Here are some of the pages you should consider adding the collection script:

  1. Campaign Landing Pages – If you’re paying to send someone to a page, the referring source piqued their interest. If they didn’t convert, you’d definitely want to follow up.
  2. Product Pages – If someone is viewing this page they’re evaluating a particular product they were interested in.
  3. High Intent/Value Content Pages – This could be your pillar content on your blog pages, podcast pages, or your top level service pages.
  4. Registration Pages – This is a subset of a landing page, but if someone got all the way to a registration or sigh up page, they’re a prime candidate for outreach.
  5. Cart Pages – People abandon carts all the time. If you weren’t able to catch their details during checkout, this is an ideal opportunity.

Effectively it’s any page where you’re pushing a specific action. While the above pages are the pages to choose from, a homepage is acceptable but will require a little more finesse when you follow up.

Map to Email Campaigns

Now that you’ve identified where you’re going to identify leads, you’ll need to map it to your automation tool.

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Most tools have a direct integration with your email service provider, but worst case scenario you may have to pass the data through a no code integration tool like Zapier.

Once you’ve worked out the digital plumbing, you’ll want to follow up based on the page the contact was collected on. Here’s how you should approach follow up:

  1. For Campaign Landing Pages – Give them the specific asset. They were interested in it, you’ve got their contact information, just hand over the goods. This builds good will at the start of the relationship.
  2. Product Pages – Send over the details of the product or product category they were viewing. This could be as simple as a reminder or you could build goodwill with a special offer or coupon.
  3. High Intent/Value Content Pages – Send over some of your best content or freebies that move people to the next phase of the Customer Value Journey.
  4. Registration Pages – Treat these like an “abandoned cart” type of email and get them to take that next step.
  5. Cart Pages – Same as “Registration Pages” but it’s, you know, an actual abandoned cart reminder. Similar to the product pages you could entice them to come back with a deal or coupon.
  6. Homepages – If you do run these on the homepage, you’ll need to do more of a reintroduction then transition to showcasing your best stuff.

Email Structure

The initial message you send needs to have a very specific flow. There are four critical things that need to happen when they open up your Inbox Retargeting message.

First, remind them about who you are and how they know you. This can be as simple as a, “Hey, thanks for stopping by…” message. Have some fun with it.

Next, you need to provide highly specific value based on their browsing intent. If you get this wrong, they’re just going to file your message under SPAM.

After that, you’ve got to set expectations with what they’re getting and now you’ll be communicating with them moving forward.

And Finally, you need to give them an EASY OUT. These campaigns have our highest unsubscribe rate, but that’s because we outright ask people to unsubscribe if they don’t want any additional contact.

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Once you’e gone through this, you treat them like one of your regular subscribers with all your fancy ascension automations, content emails, and promotional emails.

Here are the email stats from one of our PPC Campaigns:

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With an average open rate of 53.87%, we know there’s a base line interest in the deliverable. The click rate is DANG good for messaging visitors who didn’t convert.

Sure the unsubscribe rate is a little high for this campaign, but that is intentional. We push them to opt-out in the first email so we don’t get dinged later with complaints.

The Payoff: An Additional 109k Last Year

I mean, who doesn’t want another cool 100 grand for adding a script to your website and writing a couple of emails? Here’s how the numbers work out:

Last year, we identified 3,714 leads using this method. IMPORTANT: When I was pulling these numbers, I realized we installed the code wrong on some pages and missed out on about another 2k leads…oops!

Our average lead cost was ~$7, so the leads themself were a $26,000 additional value. This alone would be a reason to use the tech.

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BUT JUSTIN, did they convert?!

Yes!

We closed $36,000 in IPPC business from this lead source. For what we spent on those leads we’re looking at a 750% ROAS. Not too shabby.

The rest of the money we made was by selling this service to our clients. Since we run paid ads for clients, this method is a complete no brainer. We ran a pilot program and only offered this to a handful of clients last year, we averaged about 4k/month in sales.

We sold clients the leads at ~$2/lead for some of the niches we work in, that’s a steal. 

If you decide to sell this you need to make sure the client knows these are lower intent leads and will require longer term nurtures. If you follow the email strategy I shared above, you’ll be good to go!

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Protip: Charge for building the follow up sequence! 

So that’s it! If you’re running your own business or are an agency owner, you’ve got to consider Inbox Retargeting. Though, I do have some bad news…

Not to be “Chicken Little” but this is starting to get way more attention, there are services popping out of the woodwork so this will become a table stakes method. So get ahead of this today.

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MARKETING

What’s Media Mix Modeling? [Marketer’s Guide with Examples]

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What’s Media Mix Modeling? [Marketer’s Guide with Examples]

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By Emily Sullivan

Have you ever felt in the dark when it comes to understanding the real impact your marketing dollars are having across multiple channels? 

Determining where and how conversions are occurring is crucial in optimizing your budget to drive the most impact with your marketing budget. Media mix modeling (MMM) is an analytical approach used to gauge the effectiveness of various marketing channels in driving sales and conversions. This method allows us to decipher the true influence of advertising spend across diverse platforms by accounting for a myriad of factors, both within their control (like media channel spend, promotional strategies) and outside their control (such as economic conditions, competitor actions, and seasonal influences).

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One of the key strengths of media mix modeling is its ability to incorporate long-term brand building effects alongside immediate sales impacts, offering a comprehensive view of marketing effectiveness. It helps in identifying which channels are most efficient, how different channels influence each other, and how external factors affect marketing performance.

Media mix modeling is a powerful tool for marketers seeking to optimize their marketing investments. By providing a holistic view of how various factors contribute to sales and conversions, MMM enables data-driven decisions that enhance marketing efficiency and business growth.

In this article, we explore how media mix modeling works, and how businesses can use analytics to drive smarter ad spend decisions.

What Is Media Mix Modeling?

Media mix modeling (MMM) is a type of analysis that measures the impact of media buys across multiple channels, showing the role various elements play in achieving a desired outcome—often a conversion or revenue KPI. With this information, marketing stakeholders are able to make specific adjustments to campaign spend to improve their progress toward reaching a given goal.

Media mix modeling can be used to address common brand marketing questions and pain points, including:

  • Which of our marketing efforts are having the biggest impact on reaching our goals—or, more simply—what’s working?
  • How big of an impact does seasonality have on our marketing performance?
  • How closely is our performance tied to promotional efforts? 
  • Are shifting consumer trends negatively or positively impacting outcomes?
  • Which specific mix of spend allocation drives the highest ROI?
  • How will these channels likely perform in the future based on their optimized spend allocation?

“Media mix modeling is a top-down , privacy resilient approach that evaluates how historical media activity, promotions, pricing, seasonality, and uncontrollable factors—such as economic activity—impact key business outcomes such as sales revenue. MMM is a scientific approach to attribution in the sense that it applies statistical methods to analyze and interpret marketing data, providing a systematic understanding of how different marketing channels contribute to overall business goals in the broader context of the market. The quality of insights derived from MMM heavily depends on the quality and granularity of the data used.”

— Annica Nesty, Group Director of Marketing Science at Tinuiti

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MMM leverages aggregate data, and can measure both online (digital) and offline (traditional) advertising channel performance, including (but not limited to): paid media channels such as social media channels, traditional print advertising, linear TV advertising, and other performance marketing efforts, organic media, operational factors like promotions, external factors like seasonality, economic conditions, outcome KPIs such as sales revenue, new customers, and conversions. 

How Does Media Mix Modeling Work?

The MMM framework is a type of statistical analysis that uses statistical methods and econometric models such as a regression analysis. This econometric model helps analysts determine the strength of relationships between a single dependent variable and an array of independent variables.

Media mix modeling analysis measures the impact of your media spend today, and is also helpful in predicting the future outcome of your marketing investments on a given variable.

Example:

Let’s assume a scenario where our target metric, or dependent variable, is revenue, a critical indicator of business success. We aim to dissect the influence of various marketing initiatives on this revenue. These initiatives, our independent variables, encompass a diverse array of digital advertising campaigns, including those run on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, as well as broader Display and Streaming platforms.

The number of independent variables under scrutiny does not dilute our core objective. The mission is to measure the relationship between the marketing endeavors and the revenue they generate. This involves not only identifying the direct contributions of each campaign to revenue but also understanding the nuanced interplay between them by observing how changing aspects of those independent variables impacts the chosen business outcome

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What can MMM Measure?

When using MMM to assess campaign success, marketers should leverage statistical methods and econometric models to get the most accurate picture possible. Data quality is essential in achieving an accurate media mix analysis, so take any needed time to clean your data before using it in your analysis. 

Key elements an MMM equation can measure include:

  • Base and incremental sales volume impact
  • Channel effectiveness and return on investment
  • Marketing spend saturation

Media Mix Modeling vs. Data-Driven Attribution Modeling

Like media mix modeling, attribution modeling also studies the efficiency of marketing strategies — but there are important differences.

Attribution modeling is a general term that refers to tracking engagement to better understand how specific tactics drive action at the user level. This modeling works well for analyzing specific customer touchpoints, focusing on elements like how a consumer converted, which creative on which channel led to that conversion, and what the expected ROI could be if more ad budget were shifted to that channel. 

Media mix modeling takes a higher-level, more comprehensive picture. This modeling isn’t designed to measure user-level engagement like impressions and clicks, rather its primary function is measuring the impact of an entire touchpoint on specific marketing objectives. 

Data-driven attribution modeling and MMM each have their own set of strengths. It’s not a matter of one being better than the other, rather one being better-suited to different types of marketing analysis. 

For example:

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  • The precision of the data-driven attribution: Let’s assume you want to invest more spend in a social ad campaign during the holiday season. While MMM is an option for determining where to allocate those dollars, data-driven attribution excels in dissecting the intricate customer journey, offering a microscopic view of user interactions. For instance, if you’re keen on understanding the exact value of a single click from your social media campaign, Data-Driven Attribution can illuminate the path. 
  • The holistic perspective of the media mix modeling:  Media mix modeling, can consider the impact of offline actions and initiatives. Unlike the more narrowly focused attribution models, which might overemphasize the first or last touchpoint, MMM assesses the collective impact of all channels over time. This makes it an indispensable tool for strategic planning and long-term investment decisions in your marketing portfolio.

“Attribution modeling is based on a bottom-up approach while media mix modeling takes a top-down approach. Media mix modeling provides a long-term view of the marketing ROI of media activity, while attribution modeling evaluates individual-level activity to provide a short term view of marketing ROI.” 

— Annica Nesty, Group Director of Marketing Science at Tinuiti

Why Does MMM Make Sense for a Post-cookie/Post-IDFA World?

In the post-cookie and post-IDFA landscape, where privacy concerns and regulatory changes limit access to individual user-level data, media mix modeling has become a pivotal analytical tool. MMM’s emphasis on overall marketing spend allocation and its proficiency in establishing cause-and-effect models, address the challenges posed by the diminishing availability of explicit conversion information, providing marketers with a privacy-respecting and insightful approach to navigate the evolving digital advertising ecosystem.

An Example of Media Mix Modeling

With the right media mix model, a business can measure their past marketing performance to improve future ROI by optimizing the allocation of the media budget by channel and/or tactic, including: traditional and digital media channels, promotions, pricing, competitor spend, economic conditions, weather, and more.

Example:

An international ecommerce brand wanted to forecast their second-half of the year and create an optimal media mix to make their marketing dollars work smarter. A combination of client data, marketing data, and machine learning were required to create a powerful, custom media mix model. 

To build the model, the business used 2+ years of digital marketing and revenue data, analyzing it by market, tactic, and day. The data was then used to create model to assess future spend showing how changes in investment across channels could impact revenue and sales.

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The full digital media mix model gave the ecommerce brand a detailed analysis of where to optimize their spend across all digital marketing channels. 

One recommendation was to shift dollars away from social—which historically had been at or near 30%—to paid search. This recommendation came with another layer of insight: The brand realized they were overinvesting in awareness campaigns, and needed to invest more heavily in capturing current demand during the 2nd half of the year.

Results: Working with a robust media mix model, the brand was able to break down how much media spend was needed by each channel in order to achieve the 30% YoY revenue goal they targeted. 

The Benefits & Challenges of Media Mix Modeling

MMM helps you accurately connect all the dots, leveraging (ideally) a wealth of provided data, to understand how disparate aspects of marketing campaigns work together in helping you reach your business goals. 

Benefits of Media Mix Modeling

The benefits of MMM are multifaceted, offering marketers a strategic edge in navigating the intricacies of their advertising efforts. Let’s dive into each benefit in detail… 

Omnichannel Campaigns: MMM excels in providing insights for omnichannel campaigns, allowing marketers to understand and optimize the impact of their initiatives across various channels. This capability is crucial in today’s interconnected digital landscape, where consumers engage with brands through diverse platforms.

Improved Oversight Over Media Spend Impact: MMM provides a comprehensive view of the impact of media spend, enabling marketers to assess the effectiveness of their investments. This improved oversight ensures a clearer understanding of how each component of the media mix contributes to overall campaign success.

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Media Spend Optimization: With MMM, marketers can optimize their media spend by identifying the most impactful channels and touchpoints. This data-driven approach allows for strategic adjustments in budget allocation, ensuring that resources are directed towards the avenues that yield the highest return on ad spend.

Effective Targeting of Audiences: MMM’s analysis helps in refining audience targeting strategies. By understanding which elements of the marketing mix resonate most with specific demographics, marketers can tailor their campaigns to effectively reach and engage their target audience segments.

Forecasting with Certainty: One of MMM’s strengths lies in its ability to forecast results with a high degree of certainty. This forecasting capability empowers marketers to make informed decisions based on predictive analytics, aiding in long-term planning and goal setting.

Reduced Reliance on Personally Identifiable Information (PII): MMM minimizes the reliance on personally identifiable information for analysis. This is especially crucial in an era where privacy concerns are more important than ever. 

Media mix modeling is a comprehensive and powerful tool, offering a range of benefits that contribute to a more effective, data-driven, and privacy-conscious approach to marketing strategy and decision-making. While there are many benefits to MMM, there are challenges as well. Let’s look into common challenges of MMM in our next section.

Challenges of Media Mix Modeling

MMM grows increasingly complex as the media landscape becomes more fragmented, and the customer journey more personalized. Whereas in the past, advertisers may have wanted to measure something as simple as the impact of a print ad in a Cleveland newspaper, today’s consumers are exposed to brands in a wide variety of locations and formats, from a subway transit poster to a Sponsored post on Instagram.

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Working with high-quality data is important in any measurement initiative, but for MMM to work effectively, it also needs a lot of data to build a reliable model. For example, if you wanted your model to consider the performance impact of seasonality, it would ideally need at least three full seasons (three years) of data to consider in its analysis.

This makes media mix modeling a ‘long game’ initiative with infrequent reporting by its nature. Brands and advertisers who are more accustomed to daily or weekly updates may struggle with ‘waiting out’ the analysis.

Because it’s not designed to make considerations based on user-level data, instead providing aggregate insights, media mix modeling offers limited insights on brand impact, personalized targeting, and customer experience. However, advanced models are available that can provide highly granular insights, but traditional MMM provides aggregate insights.

Common Misconceptions About Media Mix Modeling

Media mix modeling, like many other analytics solutions, has also become a marketing buzzword that has generated its fair share of misconceptions.

Here are a few of the most common misconceptions around media mix modeling.

Media Mix Models Are Not Transparent

With large datasets and statistical analysis involved in media mix modeling, the methods behind the technique have been critiqued for their obscurity. If there is no perceived transparency in the process, how does a brand know if its media mix model is really accurate?

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Any organization specializing in media mix modeling should provide a transparent approach, with deliverables such as outlines, milestones, and performance reports. Additionally, you may want to consider partnering with an agency that truly understands how media mix modeling aligns with your needs and expectations. Every business is unique and each media mix model is based on multiple factors.

Media Mix Models Do Not Provide Real-time Data

Today, results are often measured by the timeliness of their delivery, with the current digital marketplace allowing for almost instantaneous real-time data. Media mix models do actually provide compelling real-time marketing insights, perfect for evaluating new campaigns, new competitors, and assessing pricing actions or changes in promotional strategies. 

A powerful partner in media mix modeling will provide sophisticated tools and real-time approaches to satisfy your business performance assessments. Your partner should also be able to provide forecasting, simulation, or AI- and machine-learning-integrated models to suggest future movements. 

Media Mix Modeling is Biased to Offline Channels

Though media mix strategies do integrate and consider offline channels in their approaches, media mix modeling also considers all digital channels — including display, email, paid search, social, and more. Remember—it’s considering your media mix. If that includes ten different channels and you provide enough high-quality data for each, they will all be considered in your marketing mix analysis. 

In fact, as customers have become more intertwined with digital channels, media marketing models have adapted to go even deeper into the analyses provided by those channels’ respective insights to support better budgeting choices and customer segmentation reports. 

Conclusion: MMM Closes the Loop on Marketing Performance

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, MMM’s adaptability to the post-cookie/post-IDFA world positions it as an essential tool for marketers. As businesses seek to connect the dots, leverage data, and make strategic decisions, MMM is a crucial ally in the dynamic realm of mixed media advertising.

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“At Tinuiti, we leverage measurement best practices such as MMM and incrementality to understand media effectiveness, predict future outcomes, create deeper insights, analyzing what-if scenarios to provide recommendations that optimize media performance. This helps brands understand what channels they should be investing in, how they should shift budgets (media mix), creating a high-level view of what channels are driving overall sales and ROI. Our goal here is to deliver growth for our clients by maximizing the return on investment through best in class measurement”

— Annica Nesty, Group Director of Marketing Science at Tinuiti

At Tinuiti, we know, embrace, and utilize MMM. Our Rapid Media Mix Modeling sets a new standard in the market with its exceptional speed, precision, and transparency. 

Our proprietary measurement technology, Bliss Point by Tinuiti, allows us to measure what marketers have previously struggled to measure – the optimal level of investment to maximize impact and efficiency.  But this measurement is not just to go back and validate that we’ve done the right things. This measurement is real-time informing what needs to happen next.

Curious about how we can tailor strategies to hit your unique marketing bliss point, including Rapid Media Mix Modeling? We’re eager to chat. Contact us today for details.

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Email Ready to Send? Make Sure to Tick These Things off First!

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Email Ready to Send? Make Sure to Tick These Things off First!

Designing and developing an email campaign is a complex mechanism; a few things will inevitably escape your attention during the process. So, before you hit that send button, you must draw up a foolproof checklist to ensure every single component in your campaign is in its rightful place. Wondering what an ideal pre-flight checklist looks like? We’ve carefully compiled everything necessary in this blog. Read on to find out!

Subject Line and Pre-header Text

A subject line can make or break your emails. It’s the first thing about your email that reaches the audience, and if it fails to hit the right notes, you’ll have a tough time convincing your subscribers to engage with your emails.

What makes a subject line tick, you ask? Let’s take a look!

  • Your subject line should prioritize an economy of words; this will help you on two accounts- firstly, a crisp and to-the-point subject line increases your probability of catching the reader’s attention. Secondly, longer subject lines run the risk of being clipped on mobile devices, thereby spoiling the subscriber’s user experience. By keeping your subject lines concise, you eliminate this possibility.
  • Ensure your subject line clearly explains what readers can expect upon opening the email. The more guesswork your subject line demands of readers, the less likely they are to open your email.
  • Steer clear of using words that might be considered spammy. With email filters becoming more and more sophisticated, usage of any sort of contentious term in your subject line will result in ISPs flagging your email as spam.
  • Personalize your subject line. In a climate of increasingly crowded email boxes, personalization is one technique you simply can’t afford to overlook.

Besides fine-tuning your subject line, you also need to pay attention to your pre-header text. Building upon the context provided by your subject line, pre-header texts give readers an additional nudge to open their emails. Two crucial things that you must keep in mind while curating your pre-header texts are:

  1. It must exist only as an extension of your subject line; it must not try to introduce any new ideas on its own.
  2. It must be mobile-optimized.

Broken Links

Given that the links embedded in your email eventually facilitate a conversion, it is imperative that you thoroughly evaluate their health prior to delivering your emails. Broken links aren’t just bad for business; they also spoil a subscriber’s user experience.

Here are a few things you must check after embedding a link in your email:

  • This might sound trivial, but do check if the link you have inserted is the one you intended to or not; the only thing perhaps worse than having a broken link is having an irrelevant one.
  • Check that the link is redirecting the user to the desirable destination.
  • If the download of a resource is supposed to be triggered by clicking the link, check if that’s functioning properly; you wouldn’t want subscribers clicking umpteen times on your link only for it to return nothing.

Accessibility

Apart from acing your content and design, you must also work towards making your email campaigns accessible; people making use of assistive technologies must be able to engage with and comprehend your emails in an absolutely hassle-free manner.

Given below are a few measures that will help you make your campaigns accessible to all:

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  • Organize your email content. Break down long paragraphs into small sections of 2-3 lines. Use bullets and subheadings wherever necessary. This will make it easy for assistive technologies such as screen readers to parse through your content.
  • Write descriptive alt texts for the images you’re including. Besides improving accessibility, alt texts also enable search engines to crawl your page more efficiently, thereby boosting your SEO.
  • Use semantic markup; this will help screen readers navigate your emails in a smooth fashion.
  • Try to stick to a single-column layout while designing your email template.

This email from AllTrails is an ideal example of an accessible template.

Inbox Preview

Different email clients render emails differently, even if only slightly. Hence, before sending out your emails, you must preview them across different environments and clients to check if they appear as desired. If you are designing your email for dark mode, too, it becomes that much more important to preview it before delivering.

Wrapping It Up

For your email campaigns to be able to drive maximum impact, they must be free of blemishes of all kinds. We hope the pre-flight checklist we shared above proves to be of help to you when you sit down to create your next campaign.

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