Chapter 2 Marketing Tactics

A marketing funnel is a model that represents the customer journey from initial awareness to eventual purchase. It is typically divided into three stages:

1. Top of the Funnel (Awareness): This stage focuses on creating awareness of a brand or product. It targets a broad audience to introduce them to the business, aiming to capture attention and generate interest.

   • Tactics: Display ads, social media marketing, blog posts, videos, PR campaigns.

   • Metrics: Impressions, reach, website traffic, brand recall.

2. Middle of the Funnel (Consideration): In this stage, the audience is already aware of the brand, and the goal is to nurture their interest and push them toward evaluating the product or service. This phase involves building trust, educating the potential customer, and addressing pain points.

   • Tactics: Email marketing, retargeting ads, content marketing (webinars, whitepapers), comparison tools, case studies.

   • Metrics: Engagement (clicks, time spent), leads, email signups, downloads.

3. Bottom of the Funnel (Conversion): This is the final stage where the focus is on converting potential customers into paying customers. It typically involves more direct, action-oriented marketing tactics designed to drive purchase or sign-ups.

   • Tactics: Personalized offers, discounts, demos, free trials.

   • Metrics: Conversions, sales, ROI, customer acquisition cost (CAC).

2.1 Channels and Platforms

These platforms play a pivotal role in mid and upper funnel marketing by allowing advertisers to reach broad audiences, optimize targeting, and measure effectiveness through data-driven strategies.

2.1.1 Google Display Network (GDN)

• What it is: GDN is one of the largest ad networks, allowing marketers to display ads (banner ads, responsive ads, etc.) across millions of websites, apps, and Google-owned platforms like YouTube and Gmail.

• Importance:

• Reach: GDN can reach over 90% of internet users globally, making it an ideal tool for upper funnel awareness campaigns.

• Targeting Options: With GDN, advertisers can target audiences based on demographics, interests, browsing behavior, and specific website placements.

• Brand Safety: It offers features to ensure that ads don’t appear on inappropriate or low-quality sites, ensuring brand safety.

• Formats: Supports a variety of formats (static, video, interactive) to engage users at different stages of the funnel.

2.1.2 Meta (Facebook/Instagram Ads)

• What it is: Meta’s advertising platform covers Facebook and Instagram, offering access to over 3 billion monthly active users.

• Importance:

• Granular Targeting: Meta allows for hyper-targeted campaigns using demographics, behaviors, interests, and custom audiences (including lookalike audiences). This is useful for both mid and upper funnel strategies.

• Ad Formats: It supports a wide range of ad formats, including image, video, carousel, and collection ads, enabling interactive and engaging campaigns.

  • Retargeting: Powerful retargeting capabilities allow advertisers to follow up with users who have interacted with the brand, pushing them down the funnel from awareness to consideration.
  • Cross-Channel Engagement: Since Facebook and Instagram are social networks, engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments) can be directly tied to how users interact with the brand.

2.1.3 DV360 (Google’s Display & Video 360)

• What it is: DV360 is a programmatic ad platform designed for advanced media buyers. It allows advertisers to buy and manage display, video, audio, and native ad campaigns across a variety of platforms in real-time.

• Importance:

• Programmatic Efficiency: DV360 allows marketers to target audiences across multiple networks in real-time using programmatic bidding, optimizing for reach and efficiency.

• Cross-Channel Campaigns: DV360 integrates with YouTube, mobile apps, connected TV, and third-party exchanges, enabling cohesive cross-channel strategies.

• Audience Targeting & Data Integration: It offers sophisticated audience targeting options, leveraging first-party data, Google’s proprietary data, and third-party data from integrated partners.

• Advanced Reporting: DV360’s robust reporting and analytics tools help marketers measure and optimize campaign performance with detailed insights.

2.2 Other Channels and Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) to Explore

2.2.1 The Trade Desk:

• Overview: A powerful programmatic DSP that allows marketers to buy display, video, audio, and native ads across various platforms.

• Why It’s Important: Known for its transparency and advanced targeting options, The Trade Desk is widely used for mid and upper funnel marketing strategies. It integrates with multiple data providers, allowing for precise audience segmentation.

2.2.2 Amazon DSP:

• Overview: A DSP that offers programmatic access to display, video, and audio ads both on and off Amazon.

• Why It’s Important: Amazon DSP is particularly valuable for ecommerce and retail brands. It provides access to Amazon’s first-party shopping and behavioral data, which allows advertisers to target users based on past purchase intent and behaviors.

2.2.3 LinkedIn Ads:

• Overview: A platform specializing in B2B advertising, allowing businesses to target professionals based on job title, industry, company size, and more.

• Why It’s Important: For upper and mid-funnel marketing in the B2B space, LinkedIn is an essential tool. It provides unique access to decision-makers and professionals, making it ideal for high-value lead generation campaigns.

2.2.4 TikTok Ads:

• Overview: A fast-growing platform that offers video advertising options targeting a younger demographic.

• Why It’s Important: TikTok’s algorithm helps marketers reach highly engaged audiences. Its focus on short-form video content makes it ideal for upper funnel brand awareness, particularly for brands targeting Gen Z and Millennials.

2.2.5 Snapchat Ads:

• Overview: Snapchat’s ad platform is known for its focus on younger audiences and engaging, immersive ad formats.

• Why It’s Important: Similar to TikTok, Snapchat offers unique ad formats like augmented reality (AR) ads and vertical video ads. It’s useful for upper funnel awareness campaigns, especially for consumer products aimed at younger audiences.

2.2.6 Verizon Media DSP:

• Overview: Verizon Media’s DSP offers access to a wide range of ad formats across video, native, display, and search inventory.

• Why It’s Important: It offers extensive targeting options, combining first-party data with third-party insights. It’s also integrated across Verizon’s owned properties, including Yahoo, HuffPost, and AOL, giving advertisers access to large audiences.

• how data-driven approaches in DSPs,

• how designed targeted strategies, and iterated through A/B testing to optimize performance across these funnel stages.

  • Data-Driven Marketing Strategies: Expect questions about how you’ve used data to inform and optimize marketing strategies, especially in the mid-upper funnel (awareness, consideration stages). Be prepared to discuss metrics like impressions, reach, engagement, and click-through rates (CTR).

  • Customer Segmentation: You may be asked how you’ve segmented customers or audiences for targeting in upper funnel strategies. Expect to explain methodologies for identifying and targeting segments, such as lookalike modeling or propensity scoring.

  • Attribution Challenges: While not focused on MMM, you might be asked about multi-touch attribution models or how you measure success across different channels, especially in brand awareness campaigns where conversions aren’t immediate.

  • A/B Testing and Experimentation: Expect questions about running A/B or multivariate tests, especially for upper funnel campaigns. Be ready to discuss how you measure uplift or improvement in key metrics through experimentation.

2.2.7 2. Business Acumen

• Strategic Thinking: You’ll likely be asked how marketing data informs broader business decisions, such as optimizing media spend or aligning marketing efforts with business goals. Be ready to discuss your ability to connect marketing KPIs with business growth.
• Budgeting and ROI: Since the focus is on mid-upper funnel, expect to discuss how you manage marketing budgets, measure ROI for awareness or consideration-focused campaigns, and allocate resources effectively.
• Campaign Performance Analysis: Be prepared to talk about how you analyze the performance of marketing campaigns at various funnel stages, particularly in terms of engagement, brand lift, and conversion funnel progression.
• Collaboration with Other Teams: Upper funnel marketing often involves working closely with creative teams, product teams, and sales. You might be asked about cross-functional collaboration and how marketing insights inform business strategy.

2.2.8 3. General Marketing Knowledge

• Upper Funnel Tactics: Be ready to talk about common strategies and tools used in the awareness and consideration stages, such as programmatic display, video advertising, influencer marketing, and social media strategies.
• Performance Benchmarks: You might be asked how you evaluate the success of these upper funnel activities, given the lack of immediate conversions. Be ready to discuss metrics like engagement rates, brand recall, and view-through conversions.
• Campaign Optimization: Expect questions on how you optimize campaigns based on real-time data and performance indicators, especially in situations where attribution is not clear-cut.

In short, be ready to demonstrate how you’ve leveraged quantitative skills to inform and optimize mid-upper funnel marketing efforts and connect those efforts to broader business outcomes.

2.3 Upper Funnel Marketing (Awareness Stage)

The upper funnel focuses on introducing your brand to as many people as possible, primarily to build awareness. This stage is not about conversions but about visibility and attracting attention from a broad audience.

Key Objectives:

• Make potential customers aware of your brand or product.

• Generate interest and build brand recognition.

• Reach a large and diverse audience to bring them into the consideration stage.

Common Tactics:

1. Display and Social Ads: Using platforms like Google Display Network, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), or DV360 to show ads to a wide audience.

2. Video Marketing: Creating engaging video content for platforms like YouTube or social media to increase brand visibility.

3. Content Amplification: Distributing branded content (blog posts, videos) through paid channels or influencer partnerships to increase reach.

4. Programmatic Advertising: Automated, real-time ad buying to target potential customers based on demographics, interests, or online behaviors (via DSPs like The Trade Desk, DV360).

5. Brand Partnerships and Sponsorships: Associating with other well-known brands or events to increase visibility.

Metrics: - Impressions: The total number of times your ad is displayed. - Reach: The number of unique people who saw your content. - Brand Recall/Brand Lift: Measuring how many people remember your brand after being exposed to your marketing. - Engagement: Likes, shares, and comments on social or video content.

2.4 Mid-Upper Funnel Marketing (Consideration Stage)

The mid funnel is crucial for turning awareness into genuine interest and engagement, often focusing on guiding customers as they start evaluating options. It’s about nurturing leads and educating potential customers to move them closer to a decision.

Key Objectives:

• Develop a relationship with the customer.

• Build trust and demonstrate the value proposition.

• Provide content that answers questions and alleviates concerns.

Common Tactics:

1. Retargeting Ads: Serve ads to people who have already interacted with your brand (e.g., visited your website) but haven’t converted yet.

2. Email Marketing: Personalized content sent to leads who have expressed interest but haven’t made a purchase.

3. Content Marketing: Educating leads through blogs, webinars, whitepapers, and case studies that provide deeper insights into the product or service.

4. Lookalike Audience Targeting: Identify and target users who are similar to your current leads or customers on platforms like Facebook or Google Ads.

Metrics:

• Click-Through Rate (CTR) on ads and emails.

• Conversion rates from lead magnets (downloads, webinar registrations).

• Engagement metrics (time on site, return visits).

• Lead Quality and nurturing progress (e.g., leads moving from cold to warm).

2.5 Why Mid and Upper Funnel Are Critical for Insurance Marketing

In industries like insurance, customers rarely make purchasing decisions right away. Mid and upper funnel strategies are crucial because:

• Insurance is a high-consideration product: It requires trust-building and multiple touchpoints before conversion. Awareness campaigns (upper funnel) aim to make your brand the first option they think of when a need arises.

• Education is key: Insurance buyers need to understand what differentiates your product. Mid-funnel strategies provide valuable information that helps guide customers toward making informed decisions.

• Long purchase cycles: Insurance purchase cycles are often lengthy, and staying top of mind during the decision-making process is crucial.

By focusing on upper funnel tactics, you can attract and educate a broad audience, ensuring your brand is recognized. By leveraging mid-funnel strategies, you can nurture potential customers and move them closer to conversion with the right messaging, targeting, and content.

• Incrementality Measurement: Study techniques for measuring the incremental profit impact of marketing campaigns. This includes uplift modeling, calculating incremental lift, and designing experiments to separate causality from correlation.

3. Data Science for Marketing:
   • Rapid Prototyping and Production Pipelines: Learn about tools and methodologies for rapid prototyping of data science models (e.g., Jupyter, PySpark) and putting them into production efficiently. Understand CI/CD practices for machine learning pipelines and model deployment.
   • ML Targeting Models: Review machine learning models commonly used for marketing (e.g., logistic regression, random forest, gradient boosting, and deep learning). Focus on how these are applied to customer segmentation, personalized recommendations, and ad targeting.
   • Tracking and Evaluating Marketing Effectiveness: Study how marketing performance is tracked (e.g., impressions, CTR, conversion rates) and how you can use that data to build predictive models for future campaigns.
4. Communicating Research Findings:
   • Data Storytelling: Practice how to communicate complex data science findings to non-technical stakeholders clearly and concisely. Use tools like PowerPoint, dashboards (e.g., Tableau, PowerBI), and Jupyter notebooks to present data visually.
5. End-to-End Ownership:
   • Marketing Analytics Lifecycle: Learn the full lifecycle of marketing analytics—from identifying key objectives, designing strategies, running campaigns, measuring impact, and iterating to improve performance.

2.5.1 Suggested Resources:

• Books:
  • Data Science for Marketing Analytics by Tommy Blanchard, Debasish Behera
  • Marketing Analytics: A Practical Guide to Real Marketing Science by Mike Grigsby
  • Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments by Ron Kohavi (for A/B testing and incrementality measurement)
• Courses:
  • Udacity - Marketing Analytics Nanodegree (covers A/B testing, funnel analytics, and campaign measurement)
  • Coursera - Machine Learning for Marketing (builds machine learning models for marketing applications)
• Papers and Blogs:
  • Read blog posts and case studies from platforms like The Trade Desk and Google Marketing Platform (DV360) to understand industry applications of DSPs and marketing strategies.

2.5.2 Mock Questions:

1. Can you walk me through how you would design an A/B test to measure the impact of a new mid-funnel marketing campaign?
2. How would you approach building a machine learning model for targeted advertising on a DSP like The Trade Desk or DV360?
3. What metrics would you use to measure the effectiveness of an upper funnel marketing campaign?

This preparation should align with the specific skills and knowledge you’ll need for your role at Root. Let me know if you’d like more details on any specific topics!

2.6 Question

How did you use data to inform and optimize marketing strategies especially in the mid-upper funnel (awareness and consideration stages)

Here’s a framework to guide your response:

2.6.1 Start with the Objective

• Explain the Business Goal: The goal here might have been building awareness, increasing engagement, or nurturing leads.

• For example: “The objective was to increase brand awareness and drive qualified traffic to the website in preparation for upcoming sales campaigns. We needed to optimize engagement in the consideration stage to nurture leads more effectively.”

2.6.2 Discuss the Data Sources You Used

Highlight the Types of Data: Discuss the data sources you used to gather insights on the target audience.

• Upper Funnel (Awareness): Focus on broad-reaching data such as audience demographics, third-party data (e.g., interests, behaviors), and impressions/engagement metrics.

• Mid Funnel (Consideration): Discuss more refined data such as retargeting data, website interaction (bounce rates, session duration), and engagement rates (CTR, form completions).

• For example: “We collected signals from first-party CRM data, web content traffic data, demographics and interests from Transunion population data. This helped identify potential customers who fit our target demographics but hadn’t yet interacted with the brand.”

2.6.3 Describe How You Analyzed the Data

• Showcase Analytical Techniques: Talk about specific analyses you performed, such as audience segmentation, A/B testing, or performance comparisons across channels. Mention tools like SQL, Python, or Tableau.

• For example: “We performed segmentation based on demographic and behavioral data to identify high-value audiences for our retargeting efforts. By using clustering techniques, we identified which audience segments were more likely to engage with our content.”

2.6.4 Explain the Strategy and How Data Informed It

• Link Insights to Actions: Describe how you used the data to adjust or develop marketing strategies, including channel selection, targeting, and messaging.

• For upper funnel: “Based on audience interest data, we identified key personas and launched targeted display ads on Google Display Network and YouTube to increase awareness. We focused on video ads for brand recall and static banner ads for broader reach.”

• For mid funnel: “In the consideration stage, we deployed retargeting campaigns on Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and personalized email campaigns using engagement data to keep prospects engaged.”

2.6.5 Discuss How You Optimized the Campaigns

• Show Iteration and Testing: Highlight how you continuously monitored performance and ran A/B tests or other experiments to optimize results.

• For example: “We set up A/B tests on different ad creatives and CTAs to see which messages resonated more with our audience. By using tools like Google Ads and Facebook Ads Manager, we iterated on campaigns based on CTR and conversion data, optimizing bids and ad placement accordingly.”

2.6.6 Show the Outcome and Impact

• Quantify the Results: Whenever possible, quantify the impact of your data-driven optimization.

• For example: “As a result, we improved brand awareness by 25% and reduced bounce rates on our landing page by 15%. Engagement rates on retargeted ads increased by 30%, leading to a significant increase in the number of leads moving further down the funnel.”

2.6.7 Sample Answer

“In my current role, I was responsible for optimizing mid-upper funnel marketing strategies to drive awareness and consideration. Our objective was to increase brand awareness while generating qualified leads for a new product launch. We leveraged a combination of first-party CRM data and third-party consumer purchase and web content consuming behavior data.

We used this data to build out personas and refine our targeting. For example, we segmented audiences by interests and demographics, launching targeted display and video campaigns across Google Display Network and YouTube. We monitored performance in real-time, using metrics like impressions, engagement rates, and click-through rates (CTR) to assess which channels and creatives were most effective.

In the consideration stage, we deployed retargeting campaigns using Facebook and Instagram ads to keep our brand top of mind. By analyzing audience engagement and running A/B tests on different messaging and creatives, we optimized our campaigns for higher engagement, which resulted in a 30% increase in click-through rates and a 20% increase in leads moving further down the funnel. This data-driven approach allowed us to efficiently allocate resources and improve ROI.”

1. Use data to create audiences, customer segments

2. launch campaign and monitor performance

3. assess which channels and individuals are more effective and engaged

4. deploy retargeting campaigns

5. test different segments and creative messages and optimize campaigns