Optimizing for Virality -- Netroots 2016, Jim Pugh
- 1. BEST PRACTICES IN DIGITAL ANALYTICS: Optimizing For Virality With Website And Social Media A/B Testing
- 2. OUR STORIES OF SELF Jim Angelica
- 3. WHAT IS VIRALITY? • Often used, poorly understood: “Make me a viral video!” “There’s a viral campaign happening on Twitter” “Social media goes viral on Capitol Hill” • Virality measures organic growth, not overall popularity • Determined by how much your users are sharing with friends
- 4. 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Users Time Sub-Viral 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Users Time Viral WHAT IS VIRALITY? • Virality Ratio – average number of new people each user recruits • Definition of “viral”: Virality ratio greater than 1 – explosive growth • Virality ratio less than 1 is sub-viral – growth is limited
- 5. VIRALITY EXAMPLES VIRALITY RATIO INITIAL USERS (GEN 1) RECRUITE D USERS (GEN 2) RECRUITE D USERS (GEN 3) USERS AFTER 10 GENERATIONS 0.01 5,000 50 1 5,051 0.1 5,000 500 50 5,556 0.5 5,000 2,500 1,250 9,990 0.9 5,000 4,500 4,050 32,566 1.1 5,000 5,500 6,050 79,687
- 6. Action Invite Response Action Rate x Invite Rate x Response Rate = Virality Ratio THE VIRAL LOOP • Users take action • Users invite friends • Friends respond, become users • Repeat
- 7. IMPROVING VIRALITY • "Ok, I understand what virality is -- but how can I increase it?" • Remember: Virality Ratio = Action Rate x Invite Rate x Response Rate • Improving rate of any step improves virality ratio by same amount
- 8. A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO A/B TESTING • Q: You have two ideas for language on a web page – which one do you choose? • A: Both! • Steps to run a webpage A/B test: – Create several different versions of the web page – For users coming to page, randomly show one version – Record if visitor takes the action – Calculate conversion rate (average # of actions per visitors) for each version – highest conversion rate is best
- 9. 29% increased conversion rate WEB PAGE A/B TESTING
- 10. +140% share recruitment rate SOCIAL MEDIA A/B TESTING
- 12. VIRALITY OPTIMIZATION EXAMPLE #1 • New campaign has virality ratio of 0.1 – viral actions increase total action count by 11% • Virality loop optimizations: Optimize action page -> 20% higher action rate Use optimized share page -> 60% more sharing to friends Test share language -> 35% higher click rate • New virality ratio: 0.1 x 1.20 x 1.60 x 1.35 = 0.26 • Viral actions increase total action count by 35%
- 13. • New campaign has virality ratio of 0.4 – viral actions increase total action count by 67% • Virality loop optimizations: Optimize action page -> 20% higher conversion rate Use optimized share page -> 60% more sharing to friends Test share language -> 35% higher click rate • New virality ratio: 0.4 x 1.20 x 1.60 x 1.35 = 1.04 • VIRAL CAMPAIGN VIRALITY OPTIMIZATION EXAMPLE #2
- 14. CASE STUDY CREDO ACTION PETITION: “STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT”
- 15. CASE STUDY CREDO ACTION PETITION: “STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT”
- 16. RESULTS • The average petition gets less than 2% of names from social sharing • CREDO received 13% of signatures from social sharing, resulting in 25,000 new names on their list • How did they do this? CREDO optimized their petition page, used pre-optimized share pages, and optimized their share language asks
- 17. CASE STUDY CREDO ACTION PETITION: “STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT” OPTIMIZED PETITION PAGE • Multiple rounds of A/B testing have improved the action rate for the petition page where people add their name
- 18. OPTIMIZED SHARE PAGE • CREDO used a pre-optimized ShareProgress share page for the petition to increase the sharing rates for signers
- 19. OPTIMIZING SHARE LANGUAGE • CREDO tested share language to turn more shares into viral actions • One Facebook language variation performed 63% better that the first version, increasing overall viral actions by 35% Facebook Title Shares Driving Action / Total Shares Success Rate Improvement Monsanto shouldn’t be above the law 341/1041 32.8% (±2.9%) -- “One of the most outrageous special interest provisions in years” 322/962 33.5% (±3.0%) 2.2% Tell the Senate: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act 458/972 47.1% (±3.1%) 43.8% Sign the Petition: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act 555/1037 53.5% (±3.0%) 63.4%
- 20. OVERALL RESULTS • Virality loop optimizations: Optimize action page -> 20% higher conversion rate Plug in ShareProgress share page -> 50% more sharing to friends Test share language -> 35% higher social conversions • Result: Virality ratio of 0.135 (13.5% of actions from social sharing)
- 21. WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT OPTIMIZATION? With Optimization: Virality ratio: 0.135 35,000 actions from social 25,000 new-to-list Without Optimization (estimated): Virality Ratio: 0.056 13,000 actions from social – 22,000 fewer 9,300 new-to-list – 15,700 fewer
- 22. QUESTIONS?
- 23. VIRALITY CHALLENGE • http://www.shareprogress.org/virality-challenge/ • You need to optimize the action page, share page, and social sharing content to make your petition go viral. • Only one combination of parameter choices will result in a viral campaign! • Check your statistical significance at http://www.thumbtack.com/labs/abba/.
Editor's Notes
- #15: Help progressive organizations to take advantage of powerful, new social sharing tools and get a much wider reach for their actions and content Build a profitable and scalable company Help support and grow the space of progressive for-profit companies
- #16: Help progressive organizations to take advantage of powerful, new social sharing tools and get a much wider reach for their actions and content Build a profitable and scalable company Help support and grow the space of progressive for-profit companies
- #17: - Typical Petition does 1-2% from social actions versus 13% on this one.
- #21: - Typical Petition does 1-2% from social actions versus 13% on this one.
- #22: - Typical Petition does 1-2% from social actions versus 13% on this one.
- #24: - Typical Petition does 1-2% from social actions versus 13% on this one.