eCommerce Townhall Ep10: How To Create An Effective Ads Campaign with Arjun of adQuadrant

0:00 – hey guys Jon Tucker here from

0:02 – ecommerce townhall and today i’ve got

0:05 – Arjun from Ad Quadrant so Ad Quadrant is

0:09 – an agency that i would really say is

0:10 – just obsessed uh with performance and

0:13 – data and uh has a really sophisticated

0:15 – way to operate in today’s environment

0:17 – you have to be able to leverage data

0:19 – really really well you have to be

0:21 – bulletproof with your attribution and

0:22 – really be able to track everything to

0:24 – know what’s working and Arjun and his

0:26 – team are really really good at that and

0:27 – so we go into a lot of different things

0:29 – in uh in today’s episode

0:31 – with advertising a lot has changed in

0:33 – the last 12 to 18 months uh and today we

0:36 – we take more of a strategic approach to

0:39 – advertising and look at like deep

0:40 – strategic aspects of running ads

0:43 – successfully not so much like really

0:45 – granular things to like increase your

0:47 – click-through rate here but instead you

0:48 – know looking at the importance of

0:50 – managing multiple platforms right so

0:52 – like not just trying to scale on the

0:54 – back of facebook but being able to

0:56 – leverage you know tick top snap all

0:57 – these other channels uh to be able to uh

1:00 – get traffic from different platforms

1:02 – while also having the experience be

1:04 – solid uh on all those platforms because

1:07 – it’s all different experiences and then

1:09 – accommodating for the entire customer

1:11 – journey also uh so there’s a lot of

1:13 – aspects to this and Arjun is able to

1:15 – kind of walk you through some things

1:16 – that i think you’re not really going to

1:18 – see in uh in other episodes where we go

1:20 – into advertising and so if you are

1:22 – really focused on breaking through your

1:24 – next level of growth especially if

1:26 – you’re at you know maybe that three to

1:27 – five million dollar range and you’re

1:28 – trying to scale hard into the eight

1:30 – figures like well past 10 million i

1:32 – think you’re gonna get a lot of insights

1:33 – that you can use on this episode so dig

1:36 – in let us know if you have any questions

1:38 – and i hope you find this helpful thank

1:39 – you so much

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1:45 – store leaders learn how to scale and

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2:16 – now let’s dive into today’s episode

2:22 – hey guys welcome back to the show uh

2:25 – today i’m super excited because we’re

2:27 – going to dig into

2:28 – really deeper strategic uh strategic

2:31 – aspects of advertising um things you

2:33 – need to think about when it comes to

2:35 – really driving econ growth and having

2:38 – the whole business move forward and so

2:40 – i’m not talking about like hacky

2:41 – facebook tactics or like you know super

2:43 – granular things to do on ads i’m really

2:46 – talking about how to focus

2:47 – all aspects of your business on being

2:50 – able to really fuel growth uh how to

2:52 – make different advertising channels work

2:55 – together so that everything’s uh running

2:57 – really effectively and just in general

2:59 – looking at a more holistic way to make

3:02 – sure that your strategy is on point um

3:04 – advertising now you know it’s mid-2022

3:07 – it’s harder now than it used to be but

3:08 – if you continue to really just level up

3:11 – your approach um and get some of these

3:13 – things right there’s massive massive

3:14 – growth to be had especially with other

3:16 – brands kind of being challenged by

3:17 – what’s going on right now and so today

3:19 – what we did is we brought in uh Arjun

3:21 – from Ad Quadrant and he’s really going

3:23 – to walk us through um what they’re

3:26 – seeing with the brands that they support

3:27 – ad quant quadrant is basically a

3:29 – performance obsessed agency that really

3:32 – focuses on like next level measurement

3:34 – like really sophisticated attribution to

3:37 – basically drive growth for the brands

3:39 – that they’re working with while also

3:40 – making sure things are profitable so you

3:42 – know not really going from the zero to

3:44 – one aspect of advertising but going from

3:46 – the one to a hundred as far as making

3:47 – sure everything’s working together um

3:49 – and just to give you a little context on

3:51 – on where Arjuna’s experience comes from

3:53 – they’ve driven over a billion dollars

3:55 – with a b uh in directly attributable

3:58 – revenue from what they do and so they

4:00 – really know

4:01 – how to succeed in the current ad game

4:02 – and we want to go into some of the kind

4:04 – of strategic things that uh he and the

4:06 – team are seeing so Arjun thank you so

4:07 – much for coming to the show man i

4:09 – appreciate it thanks for having me Jon

4:10 – really appreciate it

4:12 – awesome so i wanted to kind of kick off

4:14 – with a little more of a setting of the

4:17 – stage right so um the last year or so

4:19 – it’s been just a whirlwind for e-com

4:21 – you’ve got ios 14 kicking in you’ve got

4:24 – um you know supply chain adventures

4:26 – you’ve got the macro stuff here at the

4:27 – start of this year so there’s just a lot

4:29 – of things happening i want to get your

4:31 – perspective on what you see as the most

4:34 – important things for ecom stores to be

4:36 – aware of when it comes to advertising

4:38 – when it comes to driving growth like

4:40 – right now like what’s what’s kind of um

4:42 – the most important things that you see

4:43 – that set a frame for this discussion

4:45 – yeah sure so i think it’s uh it’s

4:47 – partially related to advertising and

4:49 – it’s also partially related to the

4:50 – macroeconomic factors that are at hand

4:52 – today on the advertising side it’s no

4:54 – secret that the platforms are moving

4:56 – towards more of a privacy first approach

5:00 – and therefore advertising is not really

5:03 – what it used to be the metrics that you

5:04 – would look at previously or not what

5:05 – they used to be

5:07 – you might find your your row ass being

5:09 – hit hard or if you’re on facebook as an

5:10 – example uh returns aren’t what they used

5:13 – to be so really from from an advertising

5:15 – standpoint specifically it’s really

5:17 – important to start looking at how you

5:19 – can leverage first party data and bring

5:22 – in kind of more sophisticated tools and

5:24 – resources in order to

5:25 – appropriately attribute and track the

5:27 – revenue that’s being generated from

5:29 – which platform now from a macroeconomic

5:32 – standpoint i mean look no secret that

5:34 – the market’s uh not looking too good

5:36 – nowadays in terms of public equities um

5:39 – obviously a lot of uh tech uh stocks and

5:42 – tech sector has been hit pretty hard but

5:44 – from a macro level

5:46 – supply chain is a huge component and uh

5:49 – you know there’s there’s so much uh

5:52 – challenge ahead that’s that’s fairly

5:54 – unknown at this point whether it’s the

5:56 – west coast uh kind of labor union

5:58 – negotiations that are going on right now

6:00 – that are supposed to expire july 1st uh

6:03 – that could result in a defending strike

6:05 – or uh just being sold out of your top

6:07 – selling products and not being able to

6:09 – get them back

6:10 – all of those factors impact not only

6:13 – your business but advertising as a whole

6:16 – in terms of what the future of your

6:17 – business is going to look like on the

6:18 – basis of customer acquisition

6:21 – got it yeah there’s just so many aspects

6:23 – to that um

6:24 – i want to dig into something we talked

6:27 – about before we started recording um

6:29 – around

6:30 – aligning roast targets and targets in

6:33 – general

6:34 – with some of the the more granular

6:36 – aspects in the business so one of the

6:38 – things you talked about is you know your

6:41 – row ass is going to be affected if you

6:42 – have to take ads down because the supply

6:44 – chain is broken right so like it’s not

6:46 – as simple as like let’s just optimize

6:48 – the ads you guys really take a holistic

6:50 – approach and you know look deeply into

6:52 – um the whole stack of the business

6:54 – really walk me through some of those

6:56 – types of things um that some of the more

6:57 – sophisticated brands you guys work with

7:00 – seem to be focused on uh making sure are

7:04 – supporting the ads what are they doing

7:06 – to make sure that um everything in the

7:08 – business

7:09 – is really helping to uh propel their

7:12 – growth forward rather than kind of

7:14 – messing them up on acquisition on on on

7:17 – the growth side

7:18 – yeah great question Jon a lot to unpack

7:20 – there uh

7:23 – first off uh

7:25 – inventory is everything right and you

7:27 – have to have robust demand forecasting

7:30 – in play and the sophisticated brands do

7:33 – a very good job at this whether it’s by

7:35 – leveraging their erp systems or having

7:37 – demand forecasting teams in play

7:40 – that can really recognize when their

7:42 – best best-selling product is going to go

7:44 – out of stock and getting well ahead of

7:46 – it in time the challenge is if your

7:48 – best-selling product goes out of stock

7:51 – and that’s where your your majority of

7:52 – your ad revenue is coming from once that

7:54 – happens and you have to pause that

7:56 – campaign you’re going to lose a lot of

7:57 – signal from the algorithms and in turn

7:59 – it’s going to be really difficult to

8:00 – catch up and you can’t expect which

8:03 – unfortunately some of the kind of up and

8:05 – coming brands expect this but you can’t

8:06 – really expect that products out of stock

8:09 – okay great you’ve got your your runner

8:11 – up that you’re just going to kind of sub

8:12 – in in the meantime while you get

8:13 – inventory well that’s not really how

8:15 – it’s going to work because at the end of

8:16 – the day consumers are coming to your

8:18 – brand and experiencing your brand for

8:20 – something that you might be really well

8:22 – known for so if you’re if you’re sold

8:24 – out of your best-selling sweatshirt

8:25 – you’re going to pivot that over to your

8:27 – hat don’t expect the same return instead

8:29 – you have to really get ahead of those

8:32 – types of mechanisms in play before they

8:35 – kind of come around and bite you in the

8:36 – butt

8:38 – on the flip side leveraging things like

8:40 – email is huge and you know when you’re

8:43 – able to

8:44 – um you know really build out your ad

8:47 – strategy and plug it into a strong uh

8:50 – email back end look at the end of the

8:51 – day

8:52 – um you’re depending on how you’re

8:54 – looking at the real ass calculation

8:56 – email is going to help you enhance your

8:57 – overall metrics given that you’re not

8:58 – having to pay for that consumer multiple

9:01 – times and instead it’s a matter of

9:03 – getting them in your funnel getting them

9:04 – in your data set and leveraging that

9:07 – data to increase the lifetime value of

9:09 – that consumer over the time that you

9:10 – have that relationship with them and

9:12 – same goes for sms of course between

9:13 – email and sms great communication

9:15 – mechanisms that can help you to increase

9:18 – your return on ad spend on the basis of

9:20 – uh what advertising dollars are being

9:22 – allocated towards today

9:24 – got it that that totally makes sense i

9:26 – think on the demand forecasting side too

9:29 – i think this has gotten more challenging

9:30 – uh over the past you know couple

9:32 – quarters because the the supply chain

9:34 – side really throws things off and so i

9:36 – think

9:37 – you know i imagine from brands that that

9:39 – didn’t have to be super good at demand

9:42 – forecasting because it was relatively

9:43 – straightforward order times were

9:45 – relatively clear it was going to get

9:46 – here you knew it was going to get here

9:48 – like when that when those inputs change

9:50 – like you got to have a much more dynamic

9:51 – process i imagine so uh yeah definitely

9:54 – something to pay attention to

9:55 – absolutely and you know one thing to

9:57 – just add even if you have uh

9:59 – let’s say you have a

10:01 – product on hand a ton of inventory for

10:04 – that product and maybe it’s not your

10:06 – best seller well there’s strategies in

10:08 – play where you can still leverage that

10:10 – product to get a different consumer base

10:12 – in that might have a shared demographic

10:14 – with what your best seller is as an

10:16 – example maybe you’re uh a men’s and

10:20 – women’s apparel brand and your best

10:22 – seller is um you know women’s blouse or

10:25 – women’s top of some sort well you’re

10:27 – sold out of that product but then you

10:29 – have another uh you know well selling

10:31 – product on the men’s side you can build

10:34 – strategies around getting that product

10:36 – and the men’s side out there but

10:38 – targeting demographics that are likely

10:40 – an overlap demographic with that female

10:42 – audience so that when that product gets

10:45 – back in stock you’ve now got have got

10:47 – that male audience that you can remarket

10:49 – the female products to you for their

10:50 – wives their spouses or girlfriends or

10:52 – whatever that shared demographic overlap

10:54 – is so there’s ways to do it but it’s all

10:56 – about the creativity and marketing and

10:58 – advertising around how you make sure

11:00 – that you don’t lose market share in

11:03 – times like this i mean from a

11:04 – macroeconomic standpoint this is where

11:07 – the brands that lean in in a big way you

11:09 – can capture market share because there’s

11:11 – some huge opportunities out there yeah

11:13 – absolutely and i think that’s a good

11:15 – example for the listener like that’s

11:16 – what i’m talking about when i when i say

11:17 – you know deep strategic approach like

11:19 – we’re not talking about like let’s let’s

11:21 – figure out how to drive roads let’s

11:23 – we’re talking about basically driving

11:25 – sales on a product we have available

11:26 – that can then be used to push the best

11:29 – seller when we get that uh that supply

11:31 – in and so you’re really looking at the

11:32 – entire business rather than you know

11:34 – just just that aspect um i want to talk

11:37 – through um

11:39 – what we went over about like scaling

11:41 – horizontally

11:43 – basically

11:44 – being able to not rely on just you know

11:46 – individual channels but being able to

11:49 – you know scale across different

11:51 – platforms um you know address people at

11:53 – different parts of the customer journey

11:55 – walk us through kind of how you guys

11:57 – approach that because i i imagine the

11:59 – days of you know get a winning facebook

12:01 – ad running and then do warm traffic like

12:02 – that’s that’s over that ended a long

12:04 – time ago and uh you know again people

12:07 – need to be more sophisticated with their

12:08 – processor how do you guys think through

12:10 – scaling horizontally addressing people

12:12 – at different parts of the customer

12:13 – journey

12:14 – yeah uh

12:16 – wow a lot of conversations on this topic

12:18 – as of the past uh 12 to 18 months and uh

12:21 – you know with the shift in platforms and

12:22 – what’s taking place you’re 100 right

12:24 – Jon you can’t really rely on a single

12:26 – platform to build your brand off of

12:28 – perhaps uh in the early days you can at

12:31 – least get some initial scale but you

12:32 – have to be prepared to diversify to at

12:36 – least cover your key discovery and

12:38 – intent based platforms because when

12:40 – you’re marketing whether you’re on

12:41 – facebook instagram or tick tock or

12:43 – snapchat

12:44 – that’s great that you’re getting in

12:45 – front of those consumers but you have to

12:47 – be able to be front of mind for them

12:49 – when they’re searching for a product or

12:50 – brand or just in general on your other

12:53 – intent based uh platforms to make sure

12:55 – that you’re not losing that customer as

12:58 – they’re on their journey of just quite

13:01 – frankly browsing and scrolling so it’s

13:03 – not um you know i think the days of

13:06 – single channel advertising and it’s a

13:08 – matter of meeting your customer where

13:10 – they are in their journey when they’re

13:13 – in that journey with the right type of

13:15 – ad and communication and messaging to

13:18 – create that compelling emotion for them

13:19 – to transact

13:21 – walk me through kind of an example that

13:22 – comes to mind uh maybe for a client of

13:25 – like what what you saw with them as far

13:27 – as like which platform was right for

13:29 – which stage of the journey and then i

13:30 – think that’ll help us kind of uh dig

13:32 – into some talk around like how to match

13:34 – creative platforms and all that stuff

13:36 – but give us a little more specifics

13:38 – around what what you’ve seen for a brand

13:41 – around which platform to be on and you

13:43 – know how to think about different parts

13:44 – of the journey

13:46 – sure so

13:47 – no secret a lot of facebook advertisers

13:49 – are getting hit hard um on the basis of

13:51 – what happened with ios 14 their spend

13:53 – levels how they’re leveraging data how

13:55 – they’re looking at return on ad spend

13:56 – versus a marketing efficiency ratio etc

13:58 – so there are a lot of conversations

14:00 – about my facebook campaigns aren’t

14:01 – working what do i do about it now

14:04 – it’s not that facebook’s broken per se

14:07 – there’s definitely ways to

14:09 – succeed on facebook today and keep that

14:11 – channel going you just have to make sure

14:13 – that you have the appropriate tactics

14:15 – measurements and tools associated with

14:17 – getting that campaign to perform

14:19 – successfully but that being said there

14:21 – are instances where brands are coming to

14:22 – us and saying hey you know what um i

14:24 – want to move dollars off of facebook

14:26 – entirely because i just can’t get it to

14:28 – recover well at the end of the day

14:30 – facebook is a discovery based platform

14:31 – so we’re looking towards platforms like

14:34 – tick tock as an example where we can

14:35 – still leverage that discovery and social

14:37 – based element based on that brand and

14:40 – you know kind of how they succeeded and

14:41 – have succeeded in the past and ensuring

14:44 – that they’re um still able to capture

14:47 – that that discovery oriented market by

14:50 – leveraging creatives that are

14:51 – appropriate for the platform that

14:53 – they’re going to go on now the key is

14:55 – you have to couple that with aggressive

14:57 – retargeting strategies and remarketing

14:58 – strategies um throughout the google

15:00 – suite whether it’s youtube search etc as

15:03 – well as making sure you just have the

15:04 – basics of intent based search completely

15:07 – covered for your brand so that when you

15:09 – are front of mind for that consumer or

15:11 – other consumers that might have seen

15:13 – that ad but they didn’t transact

15:14 – directly on that platform like tick tock

15:16 – as an example they can find you and very

15:18 – easily transact with you in the future

15:20 – or of course through remarketing you

15:23 – find them and give them a reason to

15:24 – transact yeah that’s what we’re seeing a

15:26 – lot is a lot of our clients are starting

15:28 – to push a lot of traffic off of tick

15:30 – tock um but it’s it’s definitely uh a

15:33 – long i don’t wanna say longer term play

15:35 – but um

15:36 – heavy heavy discovery and then the rest

15:38 – of the funnel needs to bring them back

15:39 – or you go out and get them and uh it’s a

15:41 – much more holistic view it’s really like

15:43 – what i’m hearing from this part um

15:45 – one of the things we talked about is

15:47 – like different creative so like

15:48 – different creative um you know depending

15:50 – on the buying stage they’re at or the

15:52 – platform tick-tock facebook et cetera

15:55 – even placements within the platforms um

15:58 – how do you guys identify or or

16:01 – what have you seen

16:02 – as far as what type of ad experience

16:05 – works on on which different platform

16:07 – because a lot of initially when when i

16:09 – hear people say yeah we’re going to be

16:10 – looking at tick tock it’s like we’re

16:11 – taking stuff from facebook and putting

16:13 – on tick tock right and that’s that’s not

16:14 – how it works so i’m kind of curious like

16:16 – what are you seeing as the recipe of

16:18 – like what works best on which type of

16:20 – platform so brands can kind of be a

16:21 – little more

16:22 – framework driven with their thought here

16:24 – yeah uh so

16:26 – what you just said Jon

16:28 – biggest mistake of taking your facebook

16:31 – creative and assuming it’s gonna work on

16:33 – tick tock or on snap or any other

16:35 – platform

16:36 – the key is that first off creative’s

16:38 – going to vary per brand of course but

16:41 – when it comes down to advertising no

16:42 – matter what platform you’re on

16:45 – it’s important to remember that the best

16:47 – ads don’t look like ads they look like

16:50 – they’re native to that respective

16:51 – platform so no matter which platform

16:53 – you’re on it is imperative that however

16:56 – your ad is crafted and communicated it

17:00 – is it is integrated with the overall

17:02 – user experience of what that platform

17:04 – has

17:05 – also it’s important to look at obviously

17:07 – capturing trends on that specific

17:09 – platform integrating and leading into

17:11 – those those specific instances whether

17:13 – there’s trends on facebook or tick tock

17:15 – or whatever it is making sure that

17:16 – you’re spotting those and be and able to

17:18 – kind of capture the upswing of those

17:20 – trends but all in all the key is going

17:22 – to be making sure that you’re creative

17:24 – is compelling and engaging and when

17:26 – you’re on a platform like a tick tock

17:29 – versus a facebook

17:31 – look creative is absolutely key tick

17:33 – tock is you know you need you need to

17:35 – have a very good uh you know skilled

17:37 – kind of videographer and video editing

17:39 – team uh in regards to getting those

17:41 – creatives done right whether it’s ugc or

17:44 – otherwise

17:45 – you could do it on a low budget but the

17:47 – key is just making sure that it’s a

17:48 – video first play that’s that’s

17:51 – integrated the native with that platform

17:53 – and in turn

17:54 – you know what your creative should be

17:56 – doing

17:57 – is creating an emotion in that end

17:59 – consumer that’s compelling them to take

18:01 – some kind of action um if you’re taking

18:04 – the branded play that’s a completely

18:05 – different ballgame in which you might

18:07 – take branded content to just drive that

18:09 – awareness and then have maybe a heavier

18:11 – converting creative on the retargeting

18:13 – strategy that’s fine too but the key is

18:16 – however you’re communicating that

18:18 – creative and wherever that that stage in

18:20 – the funnel is if your retargeting’s on

18:22 – youtube don’t use your tic toc creative

18:24 – on youtube make sure you’re retargeting

18:26 – creatives built for youtube and the way

18:27 – that it’s meant to be versus really kind

18:29 – of merging those creatives per platform

18:32 – got it yeah that makes sense and i know

18:33 – that adds just a ton of work like what

18:35 – i’m what i’m hearing is

18:36 – you need to be on multiple platforms you

18:38 – need to have the whole the whole

18:39 – advertising journey figured out a

18:41 – customer journey and be connecting with

18:42 – people at different places and then you

18:44 – need to feel native on all those steps

18:46 – so it’s just uh it’s more complex now

18:48 – but um there is a structure to it um

18:52 – one of the things i thought was

18:53 – interesting that that you mentioned um

18:55 – or might have been somebody on your team

18:57 – on our initial call

18:58 – was like ways to train algorithms to

19:01 – work for you right which i i know um on

19:03 – the facebook side like people are

19:05 – familiar with that of like it’s all

19:06 – based on data and there’s certain things

19:08 – that happen and it learns over time

19:10 – but i sense that you guys had some

19:12 – interesting ways of how you think about

19:14 – basically training the algorithms and

19:16 – getting certain things in place to have

19:18 – the algorithm start to work for you

19:19 – whether it’s tick tock facebook etc can

19:21 – you walk us through some of that of like

19:23 – how you’re leveraging data and

19:24 – segmenting and all that stuff to kind of

19:26 – um

19:27 – have the algorithms work in your favor

19:29 – yeah so it is a loaded question because

19:32 – at the end of the day the word training

19:34 – algorithms the phrase rather is a little

19:36 – bit scary right because at the end of

19:37 – the day the algorithms are are different

19:40 – per platform um they’re ever changing

19:44 – and then if you factor in ad compliance

19:45 – and add policy into the algorithms it’s

19:48 – just a completely different ballgame so

19:50 – i wouldn’t necessarily look at it as

19:51 – training the algorithms per se but

19:53 – instead look at it as more of feeding

19:55 – the algorithms and ensuring that that

19:58 – your data

19:59 – whatever data you’re leveraging for your

20:01 – campaign that it’s clean data that it’s

20:03 – first-party data specifically that you

20:05 – can leverage uh and making sure that

20:07 – based on that data

20:09 – you know it’s it’s interesting that i

20:11 – see this all the time but brands want to

20:13 – pause campaigns down completely and when

20:16 – you do that you’re actually sending the

20:18 – wrong signal to the algorithm in the

20:19 – sense that all learning’s going to drop

20:21 – and if you try to restart that campaign

20:23 – later because you’ve you’ve kind of

20:24 – stopped feeding that data it’s going to

20:26 – be really challenging to do so so the

20:28 – key is making sure the data and the

20:31 – overall kind of audience that you’re

20:32 – going after is real it’s live it’s it’s

20:35 – uh clean in a way and it just in turn

20:38 – feeding that data into the algorithm

20:40 – leveraging it and from there maximizing

20:43 – revenue by uh you know having downstream

20:45 – funnel and converting those consumers

20:48 – and turn you know kind of throwing in in

20:50 – the email or sms and maximizing ltd on

20:52 – the back end

20:53 – got it um so i know we didn’t talk about

20:56 – this initially um on our first call but

20:58 – i’m curious if you guys um

21:00 – what you’re seeing with the shopify

21:02 – audience uh feature that they they just

21:04 – released i know it’s only on on some

21:05 – accounts i don’t know if you guys have

21:06 – been able to test it but i’m kind of

21:08 – curious um

21:09 – what you see potentially happening with

21:11 – that it seems like a smart play for them

21:13 – to do if it’s executed well are you

21:15 – seeing any any testing on that yet or

21:17 – been able to kind of see any of how

21:18 – that’s going to work out

21:20 – i think it’s still pretty early so the

21:22 – jury’s still out in terms of what the

21:23 – success is going to be but look at the

21:25 – end of the day what they’re doing it is

21:26 – a data play right it’s all about

21:28 – creating different audiences by

21:30 – leveraging that data and actually

21:32 – integrating that into your own uh

21:34 – e-commerce instance so it’s a smart play

21:36 – for sure i think the jury is still out

21:38 – especially with where the industry is

21:40 – going with the privacy first uh kind of

21:43 – play that’s happening across the board

21:45 – uh with google’s about set you know

21:47 – google’s gonna roll theirs out pretty

21:48 – soon here too so it’s early but i think

21:50 – the jury’s still out

21:52 – nice yeah it’s definitely early i think

21:54 – this was

21:55 – i don’t remember when they released it

21:56 – but i saw it probably 10 days ago or

21:57 – something so uh definitely definitely

22:00 – new um

22:01 – what about customer experience um of

22:04 – like aligning the entire customer

22:05 – experience between you know you’ve got

22:08 – these platforms uh where where people

22:10 – are discovering the brand the creative’s

22:12 – gonna be different on all those

22:13 – platforms then you’ve got them kind of

22:15 – in your funnel um how do you basically

22:18 – align the entire customer experience you

22:20 – know across

22:21 – not only that individual ad journey but

22:23 – like

22:24 – as you start to retarget them and bring

22:26 – them back like how do you guys think

22:27 – about that part of just kind of making

22:28 – sure everything feels

22:30 – you know cohesive and and on brand

22:32 – because there’s so much diversity in the

22:34 – actual advertising side

22:36 – yeah yeah it’s a great great question

22:38 – Jon that is often overlooked because

22:42 – brands are so obsessed with return on ad

22:44 – spend and or

22:46 – their ad metrics that they sometimes

22:47 – forget about their overall site user

22:49 – experience

22:50 – now you’re going to hear me talk about

22:52 – emotion a lot because your brand and the

22:56 – overall experience of your brand it has

22:58 – to match the emotion that the consumer

23:00 – feels when they first experience

23:03 – anything about your brand whether that’s

23:05 – in an ad an email whatever it is

23:08 – so you know for example if you got

23:10 – ads on tiktok that are amazingly comical

23:14 – in nature and they’re creating joy in

23:16 – the audience that’s causing them to want

23:18 – to learn more but then they end up on a

23:20 – brand experience that’s very serious and

23:22 – buttoned up your conversion rate’s going

23:24 – to be impacted

23:25 – and you know you have to really think

23:27 – about that when you couple it with ux

23:29 – best practices and just that overall

23:31 – combination and how that can really

23:34 – unlock the increases in return on ad

23:36 – spend or marketing efficiency ratio

23:38 – depending on what metric metric you’re

23:39 – looking at

23:41 – but

23:41 – on the flip side a lot of brands get

23:43 – stuck in conversion rate optimization

23:45 – now i’m not saying cro is not important

23:47 – it absolutely is but there’s only so

23:50 – much testing and dollars you can spend

23:52 – on testing of changing the button colors

23:55 – changing your copy on the site etc and

23:57 – instead before doing that i would

23:59 – suggest zooming out a bit and making

24:02:00 – sure that your brand your messaging who

24:04:00 – you’re going after

24:06:00 – and what your competitor said is making

24:08:00 – sure that’s clear before you go into

24:11:00 – uh cro

24:13:00 – practices and and more heavy testing so

24:16:00 – i always look at it as think about think

24:18:00 – about your audience think about your

24:20:00 – competition think about where your niche

24:22:00 – is like as an example if you’re uh let’s

24:24:00 – say you’re an ice cream brand like ben

24:26:00 – and jerry’s versus versus uh breyer’s

24:28:00 – ice cream um

24:30:00 – the key is it’s completely different ben

24:32:00 – jerry’s has those fun and unique flavors

24:34:00 – and ryers has vanilla and chocolate and

24:37:00 – a couple of those more basic kind of uh

24:40:00 – flavors and therefore the brand

24:41:00 – experience is completely different so

24:43:00 – when you look at your e-commerce brand

24:44:00 – itself as what will the consumer feel

24:47:00 – and making sure that that feeling and

24:49:00 – emotion is congruent throughout the

24:51:00 – entire journey from initial impression

24:54:00 – all the way through to conversion and

24:56:00 – beyond that’s going to be a huge

24:57:00 – component to really maximizing that

24:59:00 – post-click experience and customer

25:01:00 – lifetime value

25:02:00 – got it that makes sense um we’ve covered

25:05:00 – a bunch of stuff here we’re gonna we’re

25:06:00 – gonna have a lot in the show notes but

25:08:00 – um is there anything else that you think

25:10:00 – is really relevant right now or really

25:12:00 – important for brands to be aware when

25:14:00 – when it comes to the ad side

25:16:00 – yeah i think on the ad side um

25:19:00 – definitely looking at your creative

25:21:00 – strategy because creative is going to be

25:25:00 – more and more important especially where

25:27:00 – things are going on the privacy side you

25:28:00 – have to be able to

25:30:00 – really capture a higher volume of your

25:33:00 – target audience’s eyeballs and get them

25:36:00 – to engage a different rate so on the

25:39:00 – outside i’d say specifically creative if

25:42:00 – i were just to go to the business side

25:44:00 – really quick Jon

25:45:00 – cash flow you got to make sure your cash

25:48:00 – flow is managed well because with

25:49:00 – inventory lock-ups and you know you may

25:52:00 – have an experience where your inventory

25:53:00 – is locked up on a ship make sure you

25:55:00 – start thinking about those strategies

25:57:00 – now around cash flow to manage your

25:59:00 – business through whatever lies ahead

26:01:00 – absolutely yeah i’m seeing uh

26:04:00 – so one of the things i’ve noticed about

26:06:00 – brands that seem to scale really quickly

26:07:00 – as they’re they’re very

26:09:00 – specific with how they manage cash flow

26:11:00 – all the way down to like you know what

26:12:00 – they’re doing for their ad spend of like

26:14:00 – you know getting extended terms on

26:16:00 – things like that um

26:18:00 – you know very aggressive with vendors as

26:19:00 – far as how they structure payment terms

26:21:00 – there and it’s it’s not an accident that

26:23:00 – they have the fuel to really grow to the

26:25:00 – next level right because if

26:27:00 – you don’t have the terms that support

26:28:00 – you like it’s going to be fairly

26:30:00 – difficult to do that

26:31:00 – um so i totally get that any uh any

26:34:00 – other insights you think are important

26:35:00 – before we wrap up here

26:38:00 – yeah i think uh just pay attention to

26:39:00 – the macro economic factors um you know

26:42:00 – don’t get too lost in your ad sets and

26:43:00 – your campaigns make sure you you got

26:45:00 – your eye on what’s actually happening

26:46:00 – around us uh in the overall landscape

26:49:00 – and and build the strategies associated

26:52:00 – with not just where you are but where

26:54:00 – with where things are headed

26:55:00 – absolutely that way you’re gonna have

26:57:00 – some defensibility in your business as

26:59:00 – well

26:59:00 – good yeah that’s that’s my takeaway from

27:01:00 – what i’m hearing here too is um

27:03:00 – you know it’s it’s the strategy has

27:05:00 – broadened out right it’s not just about

27:07:00 – like finding a single winning product

27:09:00 – it’s product set it’s not about a single

27:11:00 – channel uh to drive ads it’s about how

27:13:00 – all the channels work together um and

27:16:00 – then as things broaden out they do feel

27:18:00 – a little more complicated where um you

27:20:00 – know all these platforms uh operate

27:21:00 – differently you gotta look native and

27:23:00 – make it work well on platform and then

27:26:00 – it’s gotta feel cohesive for the entire

27:27:00 – brand experience too so it’s just it’s

27:29:00 – uh it’s more sophisticated than it used

27:32:00 – to be and i think that um the sooner

27:34:00 – that that brands just accept that and

27:36:00 – focus on getting really good at that

27:38:00 – aspect of things of how complex it is

27:40:00 – now um you know the better they’re going

27:42:00 – to be able to uh to win in this

27:43:00 – environment and uh i was i was chatting

27:45:00 – with a mentor uh last week about you

27:47:00 – know

27:48:00 – how things have changed coming into 2022

27:51:00 – and he said you know there’s peace time

27:53:00 – and there’s war time and he said um you

27:55:00 – know once you step into that wartime ceo

27:57:00 – mindset like this is how it is you’re

27:58:00 – not going to change the macro part

27:59:00 – you’re not going to make that you

28:00:00 – mention the ship if your inventory is

28:02:00 – locked up on the ship it’s just it’s not

28:03:00 – coming into the harbor today because of

28:04:00 – the strike right and i’m making this up

28:06:00 – but hopefully we don’t end up in that

28:07:00 – position he said you don’t change any of

28:09:00 – those like you operate within those um

28:11:00 – and so i think that’s the place that

28:13:00 – we’re in now is there’s a lot of

28:14:00 – opportunity for brands that know how to

28:16:00 – operate and

28:17:00 – i hope for everyone listening that

28:18:00 – they’ve been able to get a lot of value

28:19:00 – out of this we’ll summarize things in

28:21:00 – the show notes but if people want to

28:23:00 – continue the discussion with you guys

28:24:00 – what’s the best place to go any

28:26:00 – resources you’d recommend that you guys

28:28:00 – have put out what’s the best way to kind

28:29:00 – of uh continue the conversation with you

28:30:00 – guys yeah we’ve got a lot of content

28:32:00 – that’s getting pumped out right now on

28:33:00 – all these topics uh you can check them

28:35:00 – out on linkedin or on our social media

28:37:00 – at quadrant uh my email address is Arjun

28:40:00 – quadrant.com if anyone wants to get in

28:42:00 – touch and

28:43:00 – look forward to keeping the conversation

28:44:00 – going awesome awesome we will have both

28:47:00 – of those in the show notes thank you

28:48:00 – everyone for listening and uh let us

28:50:00 – know what you guys are uh able to

28:51:00 – implement from this thank you so much

28:53:00 – for your time today Arjun

28:54:00 – thank you

28:56:00 – thanks for tuning in to ecommerce town

28:58:00 – hall for more resources related to

29:00:00 – today’s episode visit

29:02:00 – ecommercetownhall.com

29:04:00 – and don’t forget to check out helpflow

29:07:00 – helpflow provides 24 7 live chat teams

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