2019 is around the corner, and it’s time to prepare the next year’s marketing stack. After my workshop at App Promotion Summit last week, I’m going to show you how to build your marketing automation stack with no engineering required. Lets make the first quarter of 2019 an impactable quarter for your future automation.
Let’s dive in.
1. Prepare your data and set your golden event
Collecting your data in one place helps you better understand what needs to be done. This infrastructure will also be used in later stages to build your marketing automation. Why set a golden event? Because it helps you understand your efforts better. Having one to three golden events will help you prove a concept or ignore it.
Why? Saving data in one place and setting golden events helps you focus on the important things.
2. Start using visualization tool and leave Excel behind
I constantly restate my no Excel policy for a reason. You shouldn’t waste your time on collecting data on a horrible pivot table with vlookup. Instead, use visualization, and base it on your golden event to immediately know what’s not working and be able to fix it.
Why? In later stages, this mindset will help you build your marketing automation stack and easily give the computer control over your decision.
3. Develop a system based on your golden event to change bids
For now, you can use this system locally on your computer on a campaign or adgroup level. Make sure it easily calculates whether you need to increase or decrease the bid and by how much.
Why? Allow yourself to set your mind into the same optimization process your machine will later adopt. Test it on yourself. Prove it’s working, and then apply it on your machine.
4. Start using name conventions that mean something to you
When setting up your campaign, name your campaign in a way where it’s easy to tell what it is. Is it a reach or reattribution campaign? Is it aimed at a specific audience or widely targeting? Is it a test or control campaign? This will help you learn what campaigns work best. Same goes to your creatives. Give them names that easily identify its elements to later break your campaigns into small parts.
Why? It’s all about data. The more metadata you have on your campaign, the more you’ll be able to do with it. Teach yourself what works and what doesn’t and adjust accordingly.
5. Budget allocation tool
Build a simple tool that tracks your golden events in the last 14-30 days. Evaluate the partner who creates the biggest impact and create a share of your total budget on this channel. When setting up your weekly or monthly budget, base your budget around creating the most impact.
Why? This allows you to make decisions based on performance rather than on feelings.
You can start applying these five simple rules in Q1 of 2019. Still not convinced? Come to my workshop with App Promotion Summit (APS) on February 28, in Berlin. Signup here: https://apppromotionsummit.com/LIVE/DATA-BERLIN/
Want to have my full marketing stack from the App Promotion Summit? Click on the link below to register and download the PDF. Hang it on your office and use it to set your targets.
