@TeamKano engineers targeting magic

When it comes to ad targeting and testing, @TeamKano's ingenuity is best in class. The London-based company targets different audiences, with different messaging, at different times, to optimize sales of their DIY computer kits. And because those techniques are so valuable — we had to have Chiara Radini, Performance Marketing Manager at Kano, on our newest episode of Character Count.

Launched in 2013, @TeamKano aims to empower the next generation of coders and makers by “demystifying what's inside these boxes that we carry in our pockets and we type on the whole day.” The first step: reaching the next generation.

Here are six pro-tips we learned from @TeamKano about connecting with your target audiences. (Yes, plural.)

Segment, then segment again

In the case of the above wand, one might be tempted to target fans of the franchise and leave it at that. Simple, right? @TeamKano takes it a step (or five) further:

“There are so many different layers of it…people who have only watched the movies and people that only love the books and people [who] love Snape and would like to definitely belong to a Slytherin house…. It's a hard balance to strike – granularity versus like reach – but we try to be as efficient as possible by breaking down and testing and learning how each sub-community responds.”

One discount, many ways

Let’s say you’re giving customers $20 off a $100 item. Does “$20 off” or “20% off” sound better? What about timing? Does urgent language like “this week only!” affect conversions? These are the kinds of things Kano explores:

“We've been testing percentages. We've been testing currency amounts. We tested the language of VIP discounts. For example, there was an amazing campaign...one of our best-performing Twitter ads... appealing to our core loyalty audiences, and we were rewarding them with a very, very specific discount code.”

Test, test

“You can't test a different image, a different copy, and a different call to action, all in the same space. So we would try and test a percentage off versus an amount. Or a free delivery message against an urgency message.... We gather the learnings and then we apply one and we iterate it and our new variables just to find the sweet spot."

KPIs vary

There is no shortage of metrics available in digital marketing, and it can be hard to know which ones – or really, which one – is most important.

One helpful thing to keep in mind: KPIs vary. Your team may have one central KPI, but your campaigns may have different ones, supporting different stages of the buyer's journey:

“For a convert, for a direct response ad, [the KPI] could be conversion or purchase. For a top of the funnel ad, it could be click-through rate and engagement rate with the art without necessarily resulting in an immediate purchase."

Keep things fresh

Twitter is all about being in the moment. You can leverage this by jumping into real-time conversations with new, topical content:

“It’s the most immediate and effective way to bring fresh content. And to drive big volumes of conversations, which are relevant, highly-engaged, and rich in terms of point-of-view and diversity of its content.”

Tune in to the full episode for more talk on finding your audience, your messaging, and (because we really do want that wand) your appropriate house of wizardry.

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