Home problem difficult to solve the reason

Absrtact: My old colleague Xie always give me a call suddenly, ask me if all of their company's departments are competing for home page resources, and play is full of time, how should coordinate the resources of the homepage, to ensure that the company's overall business has the largest output. Old

My old colleague Xie always called me suddenly, asked me if their company's various departments are competing for the home page resources, and play the full time, how should coordinate the home page resources, to ensure that the company's overall business has the largest output. Lao Xie's company is a proprietary + platform E-commerce site, home is currently more available to the platform of Third-party businesses to obtain advertising revenue, but the proprietary sector has asked to reduce the third party on the home page of the invasion, and come up with a seemingly very convincing argument- The advertising costs of franchisees may not be as profitable as our proprietary goods, and they weaken our company's brand.

I suddenly realized that this is a very important issue, home page, a website façade, all departments have to contend for the interests of the focus, subject to political will does not produce organizational benefits maximization, whether there is a way to help us scientifically coordinate the will of all parties, and can produce persuasive results? In my previous company, there will also be prolonged competition for the home page, although the company does not have a platform and third-party businesses, but the internal departments are still in conflict with each other, quite a tense time. Homepage, it is impossible to mix content in the most optimized way, but to succumb to political compromise. I have said that the focus of the home page is about the result of political compromise.

On the phone, I explained to him that we have a number of ways to help determine the strategy of the home page, which can be explained in quantitative conclusions to help him convince stakeholders to accept reality. The phone for 30 minutes, we all know that only by phone can not tell the problem, so I promised to come down, I said, I should have an article.

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Home page problem is difficult to solve the reasons for the following several aspects.

First of all, the home page is a collection of information, its role and goal of the target is actually more ambiguous than all other pages, which makes the optimization of the home page become somewhat "random." This means that before the allocation and optimization of home resources, we have to figure out what exactly we want to achieve on the home page what purpose? On this question, I asked him carefully, I ask him, do you particularly care about the company's brand image, the company's sales of products (whether high-end or at least not low-end), or need to highlight your in the industry first-class level and authority? If the answer is "yes", then, we simply use some "efficacy" indicators to measure the home page is no longer appropriate, but must take into account the "public welfare" value of the home page. This is similar to the difference between "effect marketing" and "brand marketing" when we're doing internet marketing--If your goal is branding, it's understandable that you're not driven by sales or conversion effects, or even at the expense of a significant portion of the transformation effect. In this case, you may feel that "political" factors in your home page, and optimize the home page goal, process and results are no longer so "quantitative", but the goal is so, there is nothing to think about. However, if the goal of the home page is to maximize the current economic profits, things will be much better, we can clearly define the metrics to be used, methodically carry out our tests, and give sufficient proof of results and impact factors analysis and conclusions.

Therefore, in the following discussion, we all assume that the goal of the home page is "utilitarian", that is, in order to achieve the current economic benefits of maximizing.

General method: Who is more productive?

The general method of solving the homepage problem will not exceed everyone's expectation. The best way to quell the controversy is to "be a mule or a horse." For the old Xie Company's problem, it seems to be able to promise: "We will continue this week with Third-party ads on the home page, and the next one weeks, we will be placed in the internal proprietary Department of the product recommendations." "Two weeks later, we look at the data and talk.

Our last look at the performance data is of course the revenue data (for the third party platform department is the revenue of marketing advertising, for the proprietary sector is the sales margin). If your situation is different from old Xie, and similar to my previous company-there is no Third-party platform business, and all is self, the competition is the home page of different categories of competition-then the performance data comparison is simpler, that is, compared to different departments in the specified time after the home debut, who contributed more Maori.

I believe most business friends can think of this way, this method is intuitive, easy to operate, and seems easy to convince people to accept.

Wait！

If you are really prepared to adopt this approach, I fear that in the end it will be ten to one.

The problem is not whether we set output as a relative key point. Generally speaking, this setting is correct and understandable. The problem is that comparing the time required to set up different home pages is a big practical hurdle. In general, it takes a week for the data to accumulate, and two different tests at least two weeks-two weeks, with no such patience in the business sector. Even with patience, time is still a problem, because no one can guarantee that the environment will not change during this time, for example, in the second week when the company suddenly has a full range of discount promotions, then the second week's performance and the first week can not be compared. In short, the time has changed, the environment will certainly change, this is not Apple to Apple's comparison, certainly can not achieve your desired fair comparison effect.

So what can be done to help us get a fair and effective comparison?

A/b test is better than time-sharing test

We have to conduct a/b test. If possible, all comparisons of internet marketing should be tested with AB tests. A/b test avoids the awkwardness of the above time-sharing test--ab test is simultaneous (eliminates the environmental changes caused by time), the sample is random (reduces the sample deviation), the process is controllable (I can stop at any time), and the result can be reflected in real time. All this is destined to make this method of great significance.

E-commerce companies that often do A/B testing often have higher operating levels. For what is a/b test, please take a look at this article: avinash– Analysis Series 2: Experiment and test initiation.