Thinking Like an Optimizer

Jennifer Ruffner

What is Virality?

1 person gets > 1 person to take a viral action

If I register for a site, I get more than 1 person to

register

If I share a link, I get more than 1 person to reshare

How do you measure virality?X: percentage of users who invite (via invitation, feed, & notification)

Y: average number of invites sent

Z: average acceptance rate

If X * Y * Z>1

you have a Positive Viral Loop (Snowball Effect)

Examples

Inviting someone to join the site e.g.: 4.8% * 18.83 *15% = 0.13 (low viral factor)

Mafia Wars app: 40% * 15 *22% = 1.32 (super high viral factor) Courtesy of 6waves

XConversion Rate

Percentage of invited users who

register

YEngagement

RatePercentage of

users who invite at least one

friend

ZInvitation RateAverage number

of invites sent per user

Viral Growth

Cumulative Installs

•Week 1: 20,000

•Week 2: 270,000

•Week 3: 1,400,000

•Week 4: 3,700,000

•Week 5: 5,000,000

Courtesy of:

Alex Onsager

Joachim De Lombaert

Ed Baker

It’s All in the Details

Menu Optimization

Quiz

1

2

3

4

Placement

4

Flow

1

2

3

4

Organization

Entrees

Pricing

1. $11.99

2. 12

3. twelve Increases the spending by 8.15% per person

Avoid Embarassment

Market Price

Vino

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638925101858707.html

2nd cheapest bottle of wine

has a high margin.

Translation

Apply to Top Flows

Increasing Conversion

Users Entering

Flow

- Increase Entry Points- Increase social outreach

- Make it dead simple- Hold their hand- Reward them

Users Completing

Flow

Introduce social learning throughout these flows to teach the user how to use the site

First Impressions – Subject lines

Goal 1: Get people to open the email

- Optimize the sender

- Optimize the subject

Subject Line and Email Body Test Checklist

Theme Tests

Statement Type Declarative, Imperative, Interrogative, Conditional

Sentence Tense Past, Present, Future

Persuasiveness Light vs. Heavy

Wildcards !! … ;)

Email Body ContentGoal 2: Get people to click on the email

- Optimize the body

(language, layout, images)

- Optimize the call to action

Email Body Content

Body Content

Email Body Content

MySpace Examples

Lots of teams are optimizing

App Recommendation Test and Results

CREATIVE: Template with 3 app recommendations outperformed template with 1 app recommendation by

409% CTO, and marginally outperformed template with 2 app recommendations by 4% CTO

Dating Email Test 2 and Results

EMAIL SUBJECT: Subject line B outperformed Subject Line A by 86% open rates

DAYS LAPSED: Users lapsed 15-22 days outperformed users lapsed 7-14, 23-29 or 30-37 days by an

average of 43% CTR and 42% open rates

VS

Subject Line B: Subject Line A:

VS15-22 Days 7-14 Days 23-29 Days 30-37 DaysVSVS

Appendix

RegistrationGoal 3: Get the user to complete registration

- Minimize user effort

- Reduce Distraction

Registration

Registration