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Bots have been driving added frustration amongst companies lately, and across more teams. IT puts up with the additional server load, Operations often worries about proprietary data that bots are collecting, and Marketing deals with increased data noise. The good news for marketers using Adobe Analytics is that we have enabled our customers with several options for dealing with this influx of bot traffic that may be significantly affecting data quality. As described in this blog post, our built-in IAB Filtering plus manual bot rules are ideal for staying on top of the most recently identified bots and removing them from your report suites. Unfortunately, bots are advancing quickly and it’s become somewhat of an arms race to get rid of them.
The good news is that we have several powerful features that when combined properly, can help drive the removal of these enemies of data quality. Those features are: Marketing Cloud ID Service, Segmentation, Data Warehouse, Customer Attributes, and Virtual Report Suites.
Now let’s unplug some bots!
1 – Pass your visitors’ Marketing Cloud ID into a new declared ID:
To start, you’ll want to create a new declared ID in the Profiles & Audiences core service. You’ll need to pass your visitor’s Marketing Cloud ID into this new declared ID, which can be done quickly and easily with Adobe DTM. I’ve used the name “MCID” for my declared ID.
Here’s a screenshot of how this ID can be captured via Data Element. Be sure to populated your Adobe MCOrg ID into the Data Element correctly.
returnVisitor.getInstance(“REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_MCORG_ID@AdobeOrg”).getMarketingCloudVisitorID();
Once this Data Element is set up, follow the instructions on this post to pass declared ID’s into the MCID Tool in DTM.
2 – Use segmentation to identify pesky bots
Now that you have your visitor’s MCID passed into a declared ID, it’s time to use segmentation in Analysis Workspace to identify visitors that are acting bot-like. Bots are often defined by their behavior: single access visits, unusual user-agents, unknown device/browser information, no referrers, new visitors, unusual landing pages, etc. Use the powers of Workspace drilldowns and segmentation to identify the bots that have snuck through the IAB filtering and your report suite bot rules. For example, here’s a screenshot of a segment that I am using:
3 – Export all the MCID’s from the segment via Data Warehouse
Now that you’ve identified the bots using segments, the next step is to leverage Data Warehouse to extract all the Marketing Cloud ID’s associated with this segment. Here’s how I set up my Data Warehouse report:
Remember to use Marketing Cloud Visitor ID as your dimension and apply the Bots segment.
4 – Pass this list back to Adobe as a Customer Attribute
Once the Data Warehouse report arrives, you’ll have a list of MCID’s that need to be filtered from historical data. Copy and paste these MCID’s into a blank CSV file with just two columns, MCID and Bot Flag:
Make sure the first column header matches the name you gave to the new declared ID above.
Use this CSV as your Customer Attribute import file, then subscribe your report suite(s) to the Customer Attribute as described in this previously mentioned post.
5 – Create a segment that leverages the new Customer Attribute
Once your data set has been processed and integrated into Analysis Workspace, create one more segment that leverages your new “Bot Flag” customer attribute dimension:
6 – Use this segment as your Virtual Report Suite filter
Finally, you’ll want to create a Virtual Report Suite (or edit one you’re already using) that leverages this segment to filter out the identified bots:
This newly-segmented Virtual Report Suite will now be a significantly cleaner set of data with the identified bots completely removed.
7 – Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 regularly
I recommend setting at least a monthly reminder to identify and filter new bots, perhaps prior to regularly scheduled analysis.
Enjoy your improved data accuracy! If you have questions, comments, or ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out via the Adobe Analytics Community Forum.
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What if you could predict how your customers were likely to respond to a specific offer? The book Predictably Irrational by behavioral economist Dan Ariely examines the forces that cause people to behave in ways that seem irrational, but are oddly predictable. I recently discussed one of the concepts presented in the book—relative value—with my colleague in digital optimization consulting, Ivy Portwood.
Ivy has a wealth of experience and knowledge from working closely with Adobe Target customers every day. She shared some thoughts about tests and experiences that apply this concept that I wanted to capture for you. I hope these ideas inspire you to come up your own activities to run in Adobe Target, the optimization and personalization solution of the Adobe Experience Cloud.
But first—what exactly is the concept of relative value?
Relative value explained
As a consumer you’re always weighing your options when considering spending your hard-earned cash. You might do that methodically or through gut feel. Relative value plays more into that latter approach—when one option just feels like the best deal compared to the others. For example, let’s say you have a $1 off coupon for a $3.50 ice cream cone. Will you use the coupon? Highly likely. But what about a $1 coupon for a $2000 refrigerator? Even a $45 shirt? Will you use the coupon then? Probably not. A $1 off coupon for an ice cream feels more valuable.
At what point does the perceived value of a discount relative to the item cost entice you to purchase? Similarly, how does the perceived value of an item relative to other options make it feel more valuable? How can you play around with this idea in your testing and experience targeting?
Here are just a few ideas Ivy and I discussed (note that pages of sites shown may have changed since this was posted or may appear differently for you):
Test idea 1: Test different discounts and discount methods
If you’re like most consumers, you expect a discount when you shop online for the first time with a company—sign up for a newsletter and get 20% off, free shipping with an order over $50, $10 off your next purchase, and so on. But how can you discover the sweet spot for the discount relative to the price of your item or the total purchase amount?
Research what others are doing, but don’t just blindly follow; consider your brand and what differentiates it. Then determine what approach makes the most sense and test to find out. Don’t just vary discount amounts, vary the language you use in the offers. Try different combinations of perks, too, like testing a discount of 20% off plus free shipping, as the example below shows.
After running your test, remember to consider your results in the context of business goals. Making money is often a main goal, but many companies have other goals—like cost savings. For example, a company may try to shift typically more expensive interactions with customer service representatives on the phone to online self-service. Measure success by how a test or targeting activity contributes to your organization’s specific KPIs, which may be a combination of revenue, units sold, social media goodwill, and customer experience.
Once you’ve zeroed in on the sweet spot for a particular discount method—percent off, cash off, or free shipping—test those winners to see which discount method works best. Take it further by analyzing the characteristics of visitors who respond best to a specific discount method so you can target the right method to the right audience.
Not in retail? The root concept is the same. Credit card companies offer perks like 0% APR on transfers of funds, no annual fee, and miles or cash back. Media and entertainment companies offer various plans, including paying up front for a year for a discount or covering family and friends. All types of companies give discounts for paperless billing, signing up for auto pay, or using self-service features.
Testing allows the customer to tell you through their clicks and purchases what feels most valuable to them.
Test idea 2: Test how you display the offer
How you display the offer can impact its perceived value. The travel and hospitality industry has played around with this a lot—from slash-through pricing of the original price (see the image below), a discount % banner, comparisons to prices on other sites, reviews of the hotel and ratings, and a browse mode with a “View Price” or “View Deal” call to action (CTA).
Another example? The New York Times offers three subscription options (shown below)—two are digital only, and one is digital with print. Do any of the elements that differ across options influence you, for example, their order, background color, or size of the rectangular box around the offer? Think about where your eye travels along the page. Many retailers consider the fact that we read from left to right, so display options horizontally. The New York Times recommends the middle offer as the “best value.” Are you convinced that it is? Why or why not?
Looking at the DIRECTV screenshot below, what might they do to their packages page to steer you toward a specific package?
Test idea 3: Test offering fewer choices (in rare cases, adding one or two more)
Looking at the Delta Airlines screenshot that follows, you can see the company’s relatively new Basic Economy ticket. This ticket is a step below its “Main Cabin” economy ticket in perks, but also price. Providing another choice may attract customers who might not otherwise purchase a ticket, but it’s worth testing to discover the right number of options. Too few and you miss opportunities, but too many and customers experience the paradox of choice—they have difficulty identifying the option that feels most valuable.
Ideally, the more a customer browses a site and indicates his or her preferences, the more you can personalize and narrow down to the options that truly resonate. If you offer health insurance plans or financial investments, how might you use this idea to help potential customers feel confident in their choices.
Test idea 4: Test payment methods
As you can see in the top right of the previous Delta screenshot, Delta also lets its customers purchase with cash, miles (loyalty points), or a combination of miles and cash. Put yourself in the mindset of the customer (after all, we’re all consumers): Would you be more willing to commit to a purchase when you use loyalty points rather than all out-of-pocket cash? And if you’ve invested in accumulating loyalty points, would you be more apt to stick with the Delta brand?
Use your individual experience to practically guide you in forming hypotheses for what might work on your site, but then test to validate. By the way, you could apply this test idea to almost any industry with a loyalty program—retail, telco, technology companies, media and entertainment, and even wholesale distributors.
Get out there and test and target
I hope this has you thinking about additional A/B tests and targeting activities you can run in Adobe Target that use the concept of relative value. By the way, Predictably Irrational is a fascinating, fun read that could trigger some new, creative test ideas. It’s available as an audio book, so I recommend just listening to it on your commute in to work. Just as we think we know how our visitors will behave online, we think we know how we’ll behave in a given situation. You’ll often be surprised to discover that the data says otherwise.
The post 4 Test Ideas That Tap into the Concept of Relative Value appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.
Every brand worth their weight in gold knows their high-value audiences. Often, these are baby boomers and Gen Xers who are at a comfortable, stable phase of their financial lives. But it’s equally important to know tomorrow’s high-value audience — a generation that’s steadily encroaching on the baby boomers’ spending power. The millennials, ages 18 to 34, have surpassed the baby boomers in population size, according to the Pew Research Center. By 2025, 46 percent of US income will be generated by this tech-savvy, experience-hungry generation.
Keeping the increasing spending power of millennials in mind is key for any brand, but travel brands have an exceptional amount to gain by embracing this fact, imagining its ramifications, and then acting accordingly. Travel is where millennials love to invest. In fact, 70 percent of them say they value experiences over things, and they travel more per year on average than older age groups.
But this doesn’t mean that millennial dollars will automatically fall into every travel brand’s coffers — these are discerning consumers with very specific demands. To reach this digitally-native demographic, digital isn’t just nice to have — it’s a necessity. “Millennials aren’t necessarily technologically savvy; they’re technologically dependent,” says Jason Dorsey in a report by Skift.
To engage these consumers online, travel brands must constantly seek ways to personalize and target relevant messages across digital channels and devices. The average millennial owns 7.7 connected devices and uses 3.3 devices daily. Smartphones are the most common, but individuals migrate from device to device throughout a given day. Millennials are far more likely than older travelers to shop for flights and hotels on their mobile devices, according to a recent report.
Members of this demographic also rely on brand-created and social media content as they plan and navigate their travel choices. In fact, 84 percent of millennials usually plan trips based on someone else’s vacation photos or social media updates. These users produce content, share content, and prefer customized content when it comes from brands. They demand new levels of transparency as they engage over time.
This generation comes with some characteristic traits, but multiple sub-segments of millennials exist as well. For example, there’s the “hip-ennial,” who wants to make the world a better place, or the “millennial moms,” who work out, travel, and spend time with their kids. To speak the language of each millennial subset and deliver experiences that resonate, brands can invest now in strategic analytics and programmatic marketing tools that get the job done. But this level of digital maturity takes time, and brands that wait lose out on the first-mover advantage. Failing to be top-of-mind when millennials are ready to spend more than ever on travel experiences will impact the bottom line.
The first steps are to understand the unique traits and interests of millennials, learn to speak their language, meet them where they are, and deliver a great experience. To learn how, read “Millennials Love Travel. How Travel Brands Can Love them Back.”
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