In 2023, one would be hard pressed to overvalue the impact that data can have on a business’ bottom line. Professionals in today’s era are privy to staggering amounts of data compared to their counterparts just 25 years ago. And making prudent use of that data to interpret and solve problems is essential in remaining competitive and continuing to meet and exceed customers’ needs.
Whereas data scientists have become increasingly important to the successes of tech companies, the work of interpreting data has not been limited to any one set of workers or any particular place in a product’s life cycle. Professionals throughout an organization must be savvy data interpreters if they want to maximize their successes and limit their failures.
In the case of customer success professionals like Vibes’ Sr. Director, Customer Strategy John Johnson, that means using key performance indicators to measure customer health, reduce the risk of churn and nurture long-lasting client relationships. It also means approaching key customer interactions as opportunities to gain insights and refine CS strategies.
“Our learning cycle regarding customer themes in data as well as goal-setting is quite agile,” Johnson said. “Each key customer win or customer loss is closely evaluated for learnings that can be shared with the entire Vibes organization.”
Accelerated Digital Media is a performance marketing agency that specializes in paid media management for direct-to-consumer digital health and e-commerce companies.
What are the key metrics you track when it comes to Accelerated Digital Media’s customers?
As performance marketers, it’s all about hitting client goals. Revenue is typically the ultimate goal, so all the metrics we’re going to be tracking feed into that; return-on-ad-spend and cost-per-acquisition serve as our primary indicators. Clients may have internal targets for ROAS and CPA, or we will work with them to develop accurate and reasonable ones that will foster their continued growth.
While client goals for ROAS, CPA and, ultimately, revenue will usually be account-wide, we still have to look at ROAS and CPA both granularly and holistically across all their marketing efforts. The targets may vary for specific product launches or new channel expansions. We have a great understanding of what an attainable ROAS looks like through paid search as opposed to, say, programmatic display. So our data forecasts revolve around combining our knowledge of those by-channel baselines with how clients’ ads currently and historically perform on those channels.
Other key metrics that inform that work center around how the client’s website interacts with the ads. We monitor bounce rates, time-on-site and overall page funnel. If the marking side is falling short because the site volume doesn’t actually align with ROAS goals, you want to investigate if it’s the audiences being targeted or a web design issue. You don’t want to overreact and deviate from marketing approaches that work if the data is telling you that the problem is elsewhere.
Which metrics — or combinations of metrics — do you prioritize when identifying accounts that might be in danger of churning?
The biggest indicators are usually efficiency metrics — if the account is spending its budget but failing to deliver a great ROAS and CPA or perhaps even far exceeding the client ROAS and CPA goals but failing to spend enough budget.
Spending stagnation would indicate that we haven’t been able to build on our previous work for any number of reasons related to the market, the client or our own approach. That means it’s a good time to build tests around additional channels and approaches, especially if a high ROAS is giving you the leeway to try some channel expansions without hurting your client’s end goal.
That data — paired with some human factors — lets us know an account is at risk. If the client isn’t very receptive to our testing proposals or we just notice a general decline in feedback or good questions coming from their end, those are indications that they may churn.
How have you used this data to tailor your re-engagement strategy or otherwise improve and nurture customer relationships?
It’s important to discuss the client’s efficiency and performance data in context when nurturing client relationships. That’s for both success and struggles.
We had a client that was consistently in the red, failing to meet their goals. They had defined their own goals, and those goals were just not realistic.
We had to explain that digital marketing isn’t the same year-over-year; 2020 and 2021 were very different years than 2019. After the onset of the pandemic, we saw an immediate increase in cost per thousand impressions. Then Facebook diminished its tracking capabilities, so things changed even more dramatically.
Digital marketing isn’t the same year-over-year; 2020 and 2021 were very different years than 2019.”
The things the client was seeing in their account were consistent with what other accounts were seeing. Sometimes, you need to use contextual data to prove that and to forecast the client’s future and help them come to a more realistic ROAS and CPA.
On the other side of things, you can use the data to convince a client to try things that will help improve efficiency overall. A subscription delivery client had noticed their CPA numbers were growing higher than expected and wanted to improve performance across the account. They had never wanted to run Google Shopping ads before, and we brought them a detailed data analysis that strongly laid out how, when implemented for other clients, we saw immediate improvements in conversion rate, purchases and revenue across the board.
Vibes’ mobile engagement platform gives marketers, e-commerce professionals, loyalty specialists and data technologists the tools to acquire, engage, service and retain customers.
What are the key metrics you track when it comes to Vibes’ customers?
We have core KPIs, which we leverage in analyzing program performance and health with our customers within regular executive business reviews. We have a different set of KPIs for internal analysis of customer health.
Some of these data points overlap, and some are starkly different. In our EBRs, we try to focus on the signal and not the noise when analyzing KPIs. We look at click-through-rate; conversion and activation rate, subscription list growth rate, average order value, subscriber lifetime value, revenue per message and cumulative and year-to-date mobile attributed revenue.
Behind these data points are key insights worthy of a “double-click.” Which campaign types lift our CTR? Which campaign types drive the least amount of revenue? The faster we can isolate the catalyst thematics, the more quickly our CSMs can offer up recommendations that maximize the program’s potential.
Which metrics — or combinations of metrics — do you prioritize when identifying accounts that might be in danger of churning?
The SMS landscape is moving at hyper-speed, and the external influences driving churn risk today are vastly different than they were even 12 months ago. In 12 months, we will need to look for different risk indicators than today, but that is what makes it exciting.
The foundation for risk in this space is always tied to value. The beauty of the SaaS world is that you are “up for election” every year, and as a vendor or partner, you need to re-earn the business throughout the customer lifecycle in perpetuity. If you are able to create an environment that fosters customer content creativity while driving true value within your platform — and that value could be MAR, brand awareness, loyalty or many other program outcomes — the rest should fall into place.
The external influences driving churn risk today are vastly different than they were even 12 months ago.”
In every EBR, we re-validate the program goals our customers have set and then help them isolate the KPIs we should track for progress against those goals. When there is a deficit between their goals and performance there is risk. Common KPIs leveraged for platform value are subscription list size or reach, MAR, retention and SMS throughput — meaning speed to device.
How have you used this data to tailor your re-engagement strategy or otherwise improve and nurture customer relationships?
Our learning cycle regarding customer themes in data as well as goal-setting is quite agile. Each key customer win or customer loss is closely evaluated for learnings that can be shared with the entire Vibes organization. We then use these learnings to refine our go-to-market strategy for product, sales, customer success, partnerships and more.
Data accessibility is key to fast pivots and re-directs, which should then have a positive impact on our customer base. A great example was a review of the 2021 BFCM — Black Friday Cyber Monday. For the first time, we saw what looks like SMS market saturation on those days due to the high traffic volume across all verticals — banking, retail, QSR, dining and more. This led to very high cumulative opt out rates on broadcasts during the week surrounding those events. This data helped our CSMs advise customers to shift their strategy in 2022 to drive engagement and sales before and after BFCM to avoid high-opt outs and drive more sales.
This strategy proved fruitful for our customers as competitors saw massive opt-outs this holiday season. Once you lose a subscriber, they rarely return.
