advanced growth hacking for startups - 4 big conundrums

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Getting to traction

Advanced growth hacking for startups!

!

4 conundrums

@nilanp

How much should I burn ?

What are your scaling levers ?

How do I deal with competition ?

How do I build a product with acquisition built in ?

@nilanp!Introductions…

Lets start…

How much should I burn ?

The rocket internet model

Strong intent SEM!SEO

foundation!!

Display!Move to LTV

model!Broader SEM

and SEO!

TV!Offline!

Multichannel attribution!

!

Discussion points

1. Do you agree with the model ? Have you explicitly followed it ?!

2. The big downside of the model is that it doesn’t drive customer centricity - which can impact repeat rates and a path to profitability!

How much should I burn ?

3 models!

Burn transactions!

Burn Life Time Value (LTV)!

Burn equity!

Discussion point

1. Which model do you employ ?!2. How much do you burn and why ?!3. Burning LifeTime Value is much more difficult that

it sounds, modelling LTV on sparse data is hard, modelling cash-flow is hard. Do you model Life Time Revenue ? or Life Time Contribution ?!

4. What are the leading indicators of LTV that you track ?!

5. What is the right data architecture to do progressively evolve this ?

What are your scaling levers ?

What are your scaling levers ?

Improve!conversion!

rate

Improve!margin

Grow supply

Launch new

markets

Launch new

channels

Optimise channel

performance

Discussion points1. Almost always in every business I’ve been involved in the single

biggest driver of growth within a market has been supply - do you agree (Businesses normally find a couple of scaling channels - and optimise them (e.g. SEO and SEM) - then focus on acquiring supply to grow within a market)? !

2. If this is the case - how do you separate this from marketing driven growth ? How do you explicitly make this clear within the business KPIs ?!

3. How do you prioritise a dev queue over market expansion, supply growth, new channel testing and optimisation ?!

4. I used to say that a performance marketing powered business grew at the rate it grew conversion rate - but these days I see conversion rate as an optimisation and a competitive benchmark of your product - not a scaling lever of growth - do you agree ?

Dealing with competition

Cost per acquisition

Lifetime Value

CPA

LTV

CPA

competition

LTV

competition

CPA

conversion growth

repeat growth

LTV

CPArepeat growth

conversion growth

LTV

competition

competition

Discussion points1. Do you agree ? That CPA and LTV are the most

competitive metrics within the business ?!2. Do you agree that conversion rate and repeat rate

demonstrate how better your product offering is vs the competition?!

3. What other metrics do you track to understand how good your competitors product is ?!

How to build a product with acquisition built in

Some examples of products with acquisition built in

Products with acquisition built in

Channel Product

SEO LinkedIn

Virality Facebook, LinkedIn

SEM booking.com

Social AirBnB

Recently I’ve realised that your product and traffic are

linked in a more fundamental way

There is a symbiotic relationship between product

and traffic

Not only in landing pages, but also in conversion rate optimisation and product

If grow an audience from SEM, your product will iterate

towards converting high intent commoditised traffic

If grow an audience from facebook, social validation

throughout your product will be key

Traffic and product teams cannot be siloed

Discussion points1. There is a symbiotic relationship between product and

traffic!2. If you explicitly set your self the goal of increasing

conversion rate, or revenue per customer, this will be highly dependent on the traffic stream you have built the business on!

3. This stretches beyond landing page optimisation to the core product - the products that sell, and the UX you need to develop to sell them is dependent on - hence separating traffic from product is not a good idea !

Beyond the rocket internet model

The future of growth

2 steps

1. Build a great product

2. Encourage your customers to find more customers

Building a viral loop

Building a viral loop

Customers find customers

Conversion to sign up

Conversion to repeat / premium

The levers of viral driven business:!!

1. Viral mechanics!2. NPS

Discussion points

1. Is this ever really an option ? Or only a route for category leaders ?!

2. How do you layer this on post launch ? Who has done this ?!

3. What is the direction this pushes product in - does it support the same ends as performance marketing ?

Discussion points

In closing…

How much should I burn ?

What are your scaling levers ?

Dealing with competition

How to build a product with acquisition built in

Thank you !

@nilanp