Alex Cohen

A/B test design often comes in 2 flavors: 1.) Test one variable, keep the others constant 2.) Test many variables, none are constant By testing one variable, you can isolate the element you're curious about and may get a clear answer. For example, changing a headline, CTA or value proposition. Alternatively, you can test completely different versions of a page that change many variables. While you lose the clarity of which change produced the result, big changes tend to produce larger lift. These are not mutually exclusive approaches: you can A/B test large changes, then sequentially test specific variables to get more insight. As with all tests, make sure you check your sample sizes to ensure statistical significance.

As more businesses are building inclusive advertising campaigns, they're recognizing the importance of buying with diverse owned media vendors and targeting diverse audiences. Advertisers can be a force for good with their media dollars by placing media buys with diverse owned vendors. After benchmarking your current media buy, work with your agency or sourcing partners to RFP other diverse owned partners to increase the percentage of your buy bought directly through them. Direct and sustained investment helps partners grow their inventory. Even larger platforms like Google and Meta can help you reach diverse audiences. Keep in mind that legal and compliance restrictions for protected class targeting and consult with your internal team.

In analysis, averages lie. All analysis comes down to metric, time period and segment. Group metrics into 2 types: - Business outcomes - Diagnostic Business outcome metrics are how you define success: ROI, CAC, LTV, etc. That tells you where your campaigns are contributing to the bottom line and where they're not. Diagnostic metrics help you dig into the root cause when you find a problem in your business outcomes. These include common campaign metrics like: clickthrough rate, conversion rate, cost-per-conversion, impressions, bounce rate, etc. Then, segment the data by channel, campaign, audience, etc. Drilling into your top and bottom performers will help focus action. Finally, trend the key metrics over time to find key moments.

Great digital storytelling follows some consistent best practices: - Tell your story quickly: You have less than 1 second to capture someone's attention - Mention the brand early and often. Don't count on your audience watching the entire ad - Design for sound off by including sub or super titles - Use mobile friendly visuals. Keep the framing tight and capture the aspect ratios that make sense for your channel (1x1, 9x16, etc.) - Keep your CTA obvious and prominent, so you can build momentum and drive response What works offline doesn't always translate to digital. The good news is that you can easily test and learn with minimal budget and time.

One of the most powerful, but lesser used, analytical techniques in subscription measurement is: Cohort Analytics. A cohort is a common variable that defines a group of customers. For example, the month that you acquired the customers (January, February, etc.) With cohort analytics, you track users based on when you acquired them across a similar range of variables. You can look at CAC, LTV, and churn rate among these groups to identify patterns in value. For example, by comparing cohorts of customers acquired in January vs. February. You can look at all metrics by Month 1, Month 2, etc. By normalizing the time, you may find that certain groups are more, or less, profitable.

Improving your digital analysis skills doesn't have to be limited to your job. One of the best ways to learn is hands on experience with your own projects. Looking at data for your site, blog, newsletter or shop will make the analytics personal and relevant. Even without budget, you can experiment with organic content on LinkedIn or Meta to see what works. What headlines stand out? Do posts with images work better? All of the platforms have free learning content, but it can only take you so far. Actually testing those concepts and trying to optimize and grow gives you tangible experience you can carry into work projects.