article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Startup Lessons Learned

I break the answer to that question down into three engines: Viral - this is the business model identified in the presentation as "Get Users." Here, the key metrics are Acquisition and Referral, combined into the now-famous viral coefficient. If the coefficient is > 1.0 , you generally have a viral hit on your hands.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: Using AdWords to assess demand for your new.

Startup Lessons Learned

Dont worry about selecting particularly good keywords, if youre new to SEM. SEM only gets at one segment of users, and for a brand new product, you presumably need some skill at marketing in general and adsense in particular to get any useful info. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Just put in your credit card.

Demand 167
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Andrew Chen: Growing renewable audiences

Startup Lessons Learned

vs. sustainable: Compare this to the renewable strategies, like viral marketing, SEO, widgets, and ads, which can scale into 10s of millions of users but are primarily centered around tough, non-user centric work. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Problem is, you inevitably become yesterday’s old news. Bring your questions.

Audience 119
article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time

Startup Lessons Learned

If its part of a viral loop, its probably trying to get them to invite more friends (on average). SEM on five dollars a day Andrew Chen: Growing renewable audiences Marc Prensky's Weblog: Cell Phones in Class A new version of the Joel Test (draft) Smarticus — 10 things you could be doing to your c. Bring your questions.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: The App Store after the gold rush

Startup Lessons Learned

On the web, we have many of these channels: SEM, SEO, world of mouth, PR and viral. If your app has strong word-of-mouth or viral components, your retention drives new acquisition, and its not so important to have good placement in the store. Or if your lifetime value is high enough, you can just keep spending on SEM.

article thumbnail

How to get distribution advantage on the iPhone

Startup Lessons Learned

On Facebook, viral distribution has proved decisive. Those companies who have learned to build apps that optimize the viral loop dominate in every category where they compete. If you sell an online service that solves a defined problem, you can compete in SEO or SEM. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: Don't launch

Startup Lessons Learned

If the viral coefficient is 0.9, Start with a five-dollar-a-day SEM campaign. the most sensible SEM advice Ive read - discussed in the context of a real situation. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Pay attention to your fundamental driver of growth. keep iterating until its 1.1 before you launch. Dont scale.