Performance Marketing for Startups by Frank Ravanelli

Performance Marketing for Startups

@ Gibraltar Startup Meetup

Frank Ravanelli

frank@ravanelli.com

• Internet marketing since 1995

• Affiliate marketing since 1999

• In eGaming since 2002

• Managed affiliate programs for European eGaming and Fintech, plus US Saas and eCommerce

• I have been an affiliate myself for long time, plus I have been a senior manager for eGaming companies

• I understand opportunities and challenges from both points of view

TODAY WE DISCUSS…

• Performance Marketing: what is it? How to

use it – as a VC or Entrepreneur – to test

and optimize your business, products,

funnels

• Affiliate Marketing: what is it? How to use it

to grow your sales and/or monetize your

user-base

• Check-list for success

• Q&A

WE WILL DISCUSS

PERFORMANCE MARKETING

Performance Marketing is a model of

marketing, where you pay only if an

agreed result is achieved.

WE WILL DISCUSS

Performance Marketing models include:

Revenue sharing: a percentage on the

sales generated

CPA: a flat amount for each sale

CPL: a flat amount for each lead (name,

surname, contact info of a potential

Customer)

CPC: a flat amount for each click

CPV: a flat amount for each time your

site is shown to a visitor

WE WILL DISCUSS

Advantages of Performance Marketing:

Flexible

Scalable

Fairly fast to implement, pause, restart

A/B testable

WE WILL DISCUSS

Examples: is this Performance Marketing?

WE WILL DISCUSS

It depends:

If you pay a fixed upfront fee to get the

space, no matter your ROI, it is not

Performance Marketing

If you use a way to track the sales you

get from this ad, for example by using a

unique phone number connected to the

ad, and pay only for results, then it is

Performance Marketing

WE WILL DISCUSS

Responsibilities which come with

Performance Marketing:

Reliable tracking: reward each and

every valid commissionable action

Clear message: what’s in for

Customers?

Clear goals: what do you want to

achieve?

Fraud prevention/detection: pay only for

bona-fide actions

WE WILL DISCUSS

As a VC or an Entrepreneur, you can use

Performance Marketing to:

Test products

Test business models and prices

Test marketing messages/page layouts

You can do this before you scale up,

allowing you to find the best converting

approaches before investing more

WE WILL DISCUSS

Products:

Before you invest more, see if there is a

market for the products

Quantify cost to acquire each Customer

Get feedback from Customers

WE WILL DISCUSS

Business models:

Have a paid version on the HP

Promote free trials

Promote freemiums

Promote discounted versions

Promote upsells at a better value

Internet users can share urls, so make

sure the different pages make sense

WE WILL DISCUSS

Marketing messages and layouts:

Focus on benefits

Focus on features

Test different page lengths etc.

WE WILL DISCUSS

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL WITH

PERFORMANCE MARKETING

Different traffic sources, different mindsets:

• PPC: ready now

• PPV: interruption-marketing

• Mobile: UI is king

Create Optimized Funnels • Organic: home-page plus opt-in popup

• PPC: static, signup landing page

• PPV: catchy title, video, simplified signup

• Mobile: simplified forms, call-in option

Organic: Home-Page plus Opt-In Popup

PPC: Static, Signup Landing Page

PPV: Catchy Title, Video, Simplified Signup

Business Intelligence to Select Your PM Partners • MajesticSEO

• SEMRush

• LinkdEx

PPV and Retargeting: Real-Time Optimization • What is PPV?

• Understand the demographics of your target

audience

• Understand the demographics of each PPV network

• Get a test-budget

• Use PPV with automatic target optimization, using pixels

• Use PPV to track visitors who visited competitors/specific brokers

AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate Marketing is a form of

performance marketing. You recruit

affiliates, who promote your

products/services on revenue share, CPA

or CPL.

WE WILL DISCUSS

Different rewards, different value of the traffic:

• Revenue-sharing: it usually bring high-quality Customers. The interest of the affiliate is aligned with yours

• CPA: it brings Customers. The affiliate may be focused more on the number of sales, than on the amount of each sale

• CPL: choose your affiliates wisely. Their interest is to bring you leads, fast

How is the affiliate ecosystem?

• With affiliate marketing, affiliates are paid on

performances

• However, some major affiliates may ask for a

placement fee, or prepaid amountbehalf,

Affiliate Networks:

• Provide tracking and have existing affiliates

• Take care of payments

Tracking solutions:

• Provide tracking, but have no existing affiliates

• CPA networks: they have their own

affiliates, specialized in CPA programs

• Sub-affiliate networks: they have their

own sub-affiliates. They act as a

“commission aggregator”, offering many

networks and program to their sub-

affiliates

• Coupon sites: they offer coupons/deals

to their visitors

• Loyalty sites: they offer points/cashbacks

to their users

• Major content sites: they want to

monetize their traffic with relevant

campaigns

• Magazines: they want to monetize their

traffic with relevant campaigns

An alternative way: Master Affiliations

Bitcoin: exponential change in affiliate marketing

• Programs promoting Bitcoin services

• Programs paying in Bitcoins

• Each transaction becomes commissionable

• A revolution in affiliate marketing, which hasn’t

expressed its magnitude yet

Affiliate marketing: a two-way street

• Use AM to promote your products/services

• Monetize your existing user-base, by presenting to them products/services for which you are rewarded as an affiliate

CHECK-LIST

Be ready for success: funnels

Tap into new traffic sources

Retain the users

Monetize the traffic/users

Add new revenue streams

Check-List for your Startup success with PM:

Q&A