Looking for the best marketing books? You’re in the right place!

In the early 2000s, PepsiCo ran blind taste tests that showed most people preferred Pepsi over Coke. Confident in the data, they launched a bold campaign but it backfired. Sales didn’t spike. In fact, Coke pulled ahead.

Why? Because marketing isn’t just about the product. It’s about memory, identity, emotions—things you can’t always measure.

That’s why the best marketing books don’t just teach tactics. They teach you how people think. And in 2025, as AI tools flood the landscape and automation handles the busywork, your edge comes from knowing what still can’t be outsourced: human insight, strategy, and brand intuition.

This list brings together some of the best marketing books for today’s post-SEO world. 

We’ve organized the 31 best marketing books into clear, purposeful categories, so you can jump straight to what matters most for your role, goals, or curiosity.

• Marketing Classics & Timeless Strategy: Essential reads on brand positioning, copywriting, and the fundamentals that never go out of style.
• Consumer Behavior & Persuasion: Understand the psychological drivers behind buying decisions and how to influence them ethically.
• Content Marketing & Storytelling: Books to help you craft stories that build trust, spark action, and grow your brand.
• Social Media & Direct Response Marketing: High-impact strategies for engagement, ROI, and platform-specific growth.
• Strategy, Innovation & Category Design: Forward-looking reads on long-term growth, market disruption, and owning your niche.
• Marketing in the Age of AI: Navigate automation, generative tools, and the future of marketing in an AI-driven world.

Each book in this list will sharpen your thinking, upgrade your strategy, and help you stand out—whether you’re a beginner, a brand builder, or a digital native navigating the noise.

TL;DR: The Best Marketing Books of 2025—What to Read and Why

• Positioning by Al Ries & Jack Trout -> For mastering brand perception and competitive messaging

• Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy -> For persuasive copy and ad fundamentals that still work today

• Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt -> For building clear, focused marketing plans

• Influence by Robert Cialdini -> For using psychology to make your campaigns more persuasive

• Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi -> For creating value-first content that converts

• Everybody Writes by Ann Handley -> For improving your writing across all channels

• Marketing Artificial Intelligence by Paul Roetzer -> For using AI tools without losing the human touch

• Conversion Optimization by Khalid Saleh -> For turning traffic into actual sales through better UX and copy

• Contagious by Jonah Berger -> For designing content and offers, people naturally share

• The Age of Invisible Machines by Robb Wilson -> For building AI-powered customer experiences

I. Marketing Classics & Timeless Strategy

These are the books that shaped modern marketing. Whether you’re launching a brand or repositioning one, these timeless titles will help you build strategy, find your competitive edge, and make your message stick.

1. Positioning by Al Ries & Jack Trout

Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout is a groundbreaking classic that introduced the concept of “positioning” — a strategy to help brands claim a distinct place in the customer’s mind. And now it seems almost prophetic when there’s so much noise in the marketing industry and positioning is one way to cut through the clutter with focused messaging and strategic perception.

Instead of trying to introduce something completely new, the book shows you how to link your message to something your audience already understands, making it easier for them to remember and trust your brand. You’ll learn how to simplify your messaging, avoid over-promising, and take a clear stand in your category.

Who It’s For: Marketers, brand strategists, founders, or anyone looking to differentiate their product in a crowded market.

What You’ll Learn: 

• How to create a “position” in your customer’s mind that reflects your strengths.
• Why simple, consistent messaging always outperforms clever or complicated branding.
  
• The dangers of repositioning and why it’s easier (and smarter) to carve out a new space rather than shift an existing perception. 
  
• The importance of timing and being first in a category. 
  
• Real-world examples of how brands like Avis, IBM, and VW succeeded (or failed) based on how they were perceived. 

One Smart Takeaway: “Marketing is not a battle of products. It’s a battle of perceptions.”

2. Conversion Optimization by Khalid Saleh & Ayat Shukairy

If your website gets traffic but few sales, Conversion Optimization by Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy will show you exactly how to fix that. Written by the founders of Invesp (one of the first conversion rate optimization agencies), Conversion Optimization is packed with step-by-step advice on how to turn visitors into buyers without guessing.

It doesn’t just tell you to “test everything.” 

It shows you: 

• What to test
• How to understand user behavior
• And why small changes like button text, page layout, or offer framing can double your conversions.

This book is ideal if you want to grow revenue without spending more on ads—by making the most of the traffic you already have.

Who It’s For: Ecommerce teams, DTC founders, SaaS marketers, growth hackers, and anyone running paid traffic or managing landing pages.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to identify where and why users drop off on your site
• How to structure a high-converting landing page, from headline to CTA
• What kinds of A/B tests actually move the needle (hint: not button colors)
• Why understanding user intent is more important than demographics
• How to use psychology, urgency, and social proof to reduce hesitation and build trust

One Smart Takeaway: “Conversion optimization isn’t about fixing your website. It’s about fixing your customer’s journey.”

3. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy, often called the “father of advertising,” built one of the world’s most iconic agencies and changed how brands speak to people. This book distills decades of his real-world experience into a surprisingly readable, even entertaining, guide for creating ads that actually drive results.

Ogilvy believed great advertising isn’t about being clever or flashy but more about selling honestly. His book teaches how you should always back your message with research, speak to real customer needs, and never underestimate your audience’s intelligence.

Even though this book was written in 1983, his lessons are still useful today:

• Keep your message clear and focused
• Use clean visuals that guide attention
• Write copy that informs, not confuses

This book is a powerful reminder that substance and clarity win over hype.

Who It’s For: Ad writers, performance marketers, founders building brand language, content strategists, and anyone who wants to write with persuasion and clarity.

What You’ll Learn:

• The anatomy of an ad that sells—from headlines and visuals to copy structure
• Why rigorous consumer research must precede any creative work.
• The lasting value of brand personality and tone of voice.
• How to advertise everything from luxury goods to charities.
• Lessons from classic campaigns by Rolls-Royce, Dove, and Hathaway shirts and why they worked.
  

One Smart Takeaway: “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.”

4. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout

This book is like a cheat sheet for understanding how marketing really works (not just in theory, but in the minds of customers). Ries and Trout lay out 22 simple, no-nonsense laws that explain why some brands win and others quietly fade.

Each chapter is short and sharp, giving you one powerful principle—for example, why being first matters more than being better, or why trying to please everyone almost always fails.

If you’re launching something new, repositioning, or just trying to stand out, this book helps you avoid classic mistakes.

Who It’s For: Startup founders, product marketers, brand strategists, solo entrepreneurs, and anyone building go-to-market plans

What You’ll Learn: 

• Why customers remember the first in a category, not the best

• Why perception beats reality (and how to shape it)

• Why narrowing your focus often strengthens your brand

• How being bold and consistent gives you long-term power

• What not to do when you’re the #2 or #3 in a crowded space

One Smart Takeaway: “It’s better to be first in the mind than first in the marketplace.”

5. Marketing Management by Philip Kotler & Kevin Lane Keller

This book teaches you how to think like a real marketer, not just someone who runs ads or social media, but someone who understands how marketing drives the entire business.

It covers everything: how to find the right audience, how to price your product, how to position your brand, and how to build long-term customer relationships.

It’s not light reading, but if you apply even a few chapters, you’ll make smarter decisions, create better campaigns, and understand what actually grows a business.

Who It’s For: Aspiring CMOs, business students, generalists moving into marketing, and marketers who want to build strong strategic thinking

What You’ll Learn: 

• How to craft a full marketing strategy — not just isolated campaigns

• How to segment and target the right customers

• How pricing, promotion, and product work together (the 4Ps — and beyond)

• How to manage and grow a brand across its lifecycle

• How marketing connects with finance, operations, and overall business growth

One Smart Takeaway: “Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. It is the art of creating genuine customer value.”

6. Purple Cow by Seth Godin

This book teaches one core idea: being “good” is no longer enough. In a crowded market, you have to be remarkable—like a purple cow in a field of regular cows. Something people notice, talk about, and remember.

Seth Godin shows you why most products fail, not because they’re bad, but because they’re boring. And why playing it safe actually puts you at more risk than standing out.

If you’re building a new product, launching a brand, or trying to grow faster, this book will shift how you think: instead of asking “How do I sell this?”, you’ll start asking, “Is this even worth talking about?”

Who It’s For: Founders, DTC brands, content creators, product marketers, and anyone struggling to get attention.

What You’ll Learn: 

• Why safe, average ideas get ignored

• How to build products and services that stand out on their own

• Why marketing is baked into the product, not just what comes after

• How to find early adopters who spread your message

• Why word-of-mouth always beats paid ads in the long run

One Smart Takeaway: “If it’s not remarkable, it’s invisible.”

II. Best Marketing Books on Consumer Behavior, Psychology & Persuasion

Great marketing starts with understanding people. These books decode how customers think, what drives them to act, and how brands can influence decisions ethically, using proven psychological principles that work across industries.

7. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

This is one of the most practical books ever written on how to ethically influence people’s behavior in marketing, sales, or everyday life. Backed by 35+ years of research, Cialdini breaks down six principles that explain why people say yes (or no) and how you can use them to improve conversions, messaging, and trust.

If you’ve ever wondered why testimonials work, why urgency drives action, or why people follow social trends, this book gives you the science behind it all.

Who It’s For: Marketers, copywriters, founders, sales teams — anyone who needs to persuade or drive action.

What You’ll Learn: 

• How to use social proof to build instant trust (e.g., reviews, case studies)

• Why scarcity (limited-time offers, low stock) makes people act faster

• How authority and even simple visual cues (like uniforms or titles) increase credibility

• Why people stick to their choices (and how to make your offer the first commitment)

• How reciprocity—giving value first—boosts response rates

One Smart Takeaway: “People say yes more often when they feel like they owe you something — even something small.”

8. Buy.logy by Martin Lindstrom

What if customers don’t actually know why they buy? Buy.logy dives into the subconscious triggers that shape purchasing decisions—many of which happen before logic even kicks in.

Lindstrom led a $7 million neuromarketing study (with brain scans) to understand how branding, emotions, visuals, and sensory cues influence what people buy and why. You’ll walk away understanding how the brain really responds to ads, logos, packaging, and messaging.

It’s especially useful if you’re working on visual branding, in-store marketing, or storytelling that needs to make an emotional impact.

Who It’s For: Brand strategists, product marketers, retail marketers, and anyone shaping customer experience.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why emotional branding works better than logic

• How visuals, smells, and sounds affect buyer decisions

• Why some ads backfire — even when they test well

• How mirror neurons, rituals, and symbolism play into brand loyalty

• Why logos and product placement succeed or fail at a brain level

One Smart Takeaway: “People don’t buy with logic. They buy with emotion and justify it with logic later.”

9. Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

This book explains why some ideas catch on and others don’t even when the “bad” ideas seem to spread faster. Made to Stick gives you a clear formula for making your messages unforgettable, whether you’re writing an ad, pitching a product, or giving a talk.

If you’ve ever had a great message fall flat, this book will show you how to package your ideas so people actually remember and repeat them.

Who It’s For: Content creators, brand storytellers, marketers, educators, and anyone crafting messages that need to land. 

What You’ll Learn

• The 6 principles of sticky ideas: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, and Stories (SUCCESs model)

• How to turn abstract ideas into visuals and stories people understand instantly

• Why “surprise” and “curiosity gaps” are powerful tools for engagement

• How to use real-life examples to increase believability and retention

• How to test if your message will actually stick

One Smart Takeaway: “If you say three things, you’ve said nothing. Find the core of your message and stick to it.”

10. The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

This book is a crash course in how to build a brand people truly connect with not just a logo or color palette. Neumeier explains that a brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what your customers believe it is. The gap between your business strategy and how people feel about your brand? That’s the “brand gap.”

This book helps you close that gap through clear messaging, smart design, and a unified customer experience.

Who It’s For: Brand strategists, early-stage founders, designers, creative leads, and product marketers.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why branding is about gut feeling, not logos

• The five disciplines of great branding: Differentiate, Collaborate, Innovate, Validate, and Cultivate

• How to create a meaningful, consistent brand personality

• How to align your internal culture with your external image

• How to design brand touchpoints that leave a lasting impression

One Smart Takeaway: “A brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.”

11. The Brand Flip by Marty Neumeier

In The Brand Flip, Neumeier builds on his earlier ideas by showing how branding has changed in the age of empowered customers and social media. He argues that the power has flipped, from businesses to consumers.

Your audience now defines your brand through what they share, say, and expect. This book helps you stay relevant by focusing on customer values, community, and co-creation.

Who It’s For: Marketing teams, brand consultants, DTC founders, and anyone navigating modern customer relationships. 

What You’ll Learn:

• Why traditional top-down branding no longer works

• How to build a tribe around shared values

• Why customer experience is the new marketing

• How to turn your best customers into evangelists

• How to align culture, mission, and business goals into one clear brand story

One Smart Takeaway: “Today’s customers don’t buy brands. They join them.”

12. Zag: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands by Marty Neumeier

If your brand feels like it’s getting lost in the crowd, Zag shows you how to stand out. Neumeier argues that in a world where everyone is zigging (doing the expected), your best move is to zag—that is, to go in a completely different, focused, and bold direction.

This book helps you sharpen your positioning, clarify your brand purpose, and make strategic choices that separate you from everyone else instead of blending in.

It’s short, practical, and feels more like a workshop than a lecture. Great for when you’re stuck or want a reset.

Who It’s For: Founders, brand strategists, creatives, and product teams building something from scratch or trying to rethink their market position.

What You’ll Learn: 

• Why true brand strength comes from being different, not just better

• How to find your “onliness statement” (what your brand does that no one else can)

• How to build your brand around a clear idea, not just features

• Why narrowing your focus can actually widen your impact

• How to spot the right trends — and avoid jumping on the wrong ones

One Smart Takeaway: “When everyone zigs, zag. It’s the only way to stand out.”

III. Best Marketing Books Content Marketing, Storytelling & Messaging

Forget empty content and keyword stuffing. These books teach you how to create marketing that actually informs, entertains, and builds trust, so customers come to you, not the other way around.

13. Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi

Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi is one of the best content marketing books of all time.

Joe Pulizzi founded the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), one of the leading educational resources for enterprise brands in content marketing.

It is safe to assume that Pullizzi knows a thing or two about content marketing, and in this book, he gives plenty of great advice about how to do it right.

In this book, Pulizzi lays out a full content strategy, from finding your niche to publishing consistently across channels.

If you’re tired of chasing traffic or constantly pushing ads, Epic Content Marketing helps you shift from interrupting people to becoming their go-to source of value.

Who It’s For: Content marketers, solopreneurs, brand builders, and anyone creating blogs, newsletters, or video content.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to find your unique content angle (your “sweet spot”)

• How to build trust through consistent, useful content

• Why content should educate or entertain — not push sales

• How to distribute content across channels without burning out

• How to measure success and adjust based on results

One Smart Takeaway: “Customers don’t care about your products. They care about their problems. Create content that helps them solve those.”

14. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley

Ann Handley’s “Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content” is indispensable for anyone looking to succeed through content marketing or simply wanting to create good content.

It’s your go-to guide for writing better marketing content, whether it’s a homepage, a product description, a blog post, or even a LinkedIn update. Ann Handley makes writing feel approachable and gives you practical rules to write clearly, confidently, and in your own voice.

No fluff, no jargon—just simple, direct writing that actually works.

Who It’s For: Writers, marketers, founders, creators (or anyone who communicates online). 

What You’ll Learn:

• How to write clear, useful content that people actually read

• Why every piece of content should start with empathy and purpose

• Easy rules for grammar, tone, and formatting that make a big difference

• How to write for different channels without losing your brand voice

• How to edit like a pro (even if you’re not one)

One Smart Takeaway: “Your words are your web presence. Make them count.”

15. Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

This book gives you a repeatable framework to clarify your brand message using storytelling. Donald Miller shows you how to stop talking about your product features and start making your customer the hero of the story.

If your website or pitch ever leaves people confused, this book will help you fix it fast. It’s especially helpful for writing homepages, product pages, emails, and sales decks.

Who It’s For: Founders, brand leads, copywriters, marketers, and anyone struggling to explain what they do clearly.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to simplify your message so customers actually get it

• Why your customer is the hero and you’re just the guide

• How to structure messaging like a story (problem -> solution -> success)

• What to include on your homepage to drive more conversions

• How to build a clear call-to-action that moves people forward

One Smart Takeaway: “If you confuse, you lose. People don’t buy the best product, they buy the one they understand fastest.”

16. Content Chemistry by Andy Crestodina

This is a how-to manual for content marketing that combines strategy, SEO, analytics, and writing—all in one place. Andy Crestodina breaks everything down into digestible, visual chapters with tons of templates, examples, and checklists you can apply right away.

It’s perfect if you’re doing content marketing and want it to rank, convert, and support your business goals.

Who It’s For: Content marketers, B2B brands, inbound marketers, SEO-focused teams, and anyone who wants content that performs.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to align content with keyword strategy and search intent

• How to write blog posts that get found and convert

• How to promote and repurpose content across channels

• What analytics to track (and how to improve based on them)

• How to use visuals, structure, and formatting to improve readability

One Smart Takeaway: “Great content doesn’t just attract, it answers questions, builds trust, and moves people to act.”

17. The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly

This is a classic, no-fluff guide to writing copy that sells. Whether you’re working on ads, landing pages, emails, or brochures, Bly gives you the structure, psychology, and tactics that top copywriters use. 

Think of it as a practical reference manual: clear headlines, persuasive body copy, irresistible offers, and strong calls-to-action. If you want your words to make people click, sign up, or buy, this is your guide.

Who It’s For: Copywriters, email marketers, content writers, small business owners, and anyone writing to drive action.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to write attention-grabbing headlines and leads

• The AIDA formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

• How to write for clarity, not cleverness

• What makes a call-to-action actually work

• Tips for writing long-form vs. short-form copy

One Smart Takeaway: “The purpose of a headline is to get the reader to read the first sentence. That’s it. Do that well, and you’re winning.”

18. Contagious: How to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age by Jonah Berger

Ever wonder why some products or ideas go viral while others flop? Berger unpacks the science of sharing—why people talk, post, and recommend certain things. He also discusses how you can design content, campaigns, or even products that people want to spread.

It’s not about luck, it’s about psychology and structure. Berger gives you the STEPPS framework (Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, Stories) to help your marketing become naturally shareable.

Who It’s For: Social media marketers, product teams, growth strategists, brand storytellers and anyone trying to create buzz or referrals.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why people share content (and how to engineer that sharing)

• How to use emotion and relatability to drive engagement

• What makes something “talkable,” from headlines to packaging

• Why context and timing matter more than you think

• How storytelling builds memory and word-of-mouth

One Smart Takeaway: “People don’t share ads. They share stories, feelings, and things that make them look good.”

IV. Best Marketing Books on Social Media and Direct Response Marketing

This section focuses on results, not just reach. These books help you move beyond vanity metrics (likes, views, follows) and focus on strategies that generate real leads, sales, and business growth from social and direct marketing channels.

19. Social Media ROI by Olivier Blanchard

This book answers the big question most marketers avoid:

“Is social media actually driving business results?”

Blanchard takes you past fluffy engagement metrics and shows you how to plan, execute, and measure a social media strategy that supports real business goals, like leads, conversions, and customer retention.

If your social content feels busy but not effective, this book gives you a clear roadmap for tying social media back to revenue.

Who It’s For: Social media managers, digital marketers, CMOs, agency teams, and small business owners who want to prove ROI.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to align social media with your company’s business objectives

• How to create social KPIs that matter (not just “likes”)

• How to track performance across channels with real metrics

• How to justify your budget — with numbers, not just engagement screenshots

• How to build internal support and get buy-in for your strategy

One Smart Takeaway: “Social media is not free. It takes time, effort, and money. ROI isn’t optional, it’s essential.”

20. No B.S. Guide To Direct Marketing by Dan Kennedy & Kim Walsh-Phillips

This book is a wake-up call for anyone too focused on likes and impressions. Kennedy and Walsh-Phillips show you how to use direct response marketing—content that gets leads, builds a list, and converts without wasting time on vanity metrics.

It’s straight-talking, aggressive, and full of real-world examples. Whether you’re running ads, sending emails, or building landing pages, this book helps you focus on what actually works.

Who It’s For
Email marketers, lead gen teams, solopreneurs, sales funnels pros, and anyone tired of vague marketing results.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to craft offers that people actually respond to

• Why likes don’t matter if they don’t lead to money

• How to write copy that sells — not just entertains

• How to build high-converting campaigns across email, landing pages, and social ads

• How to track real ROI from every campaign you run

One Smart Takeaway: “You can’t take likes to the bank. Direct response marketing is about cash flow not applause.”

21. The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen

Before influencer marketing had a name, Rosen studied how word-of-mouth really spreads and how some products become “talkable” from day one. The Anatomy of Buzz breaks down the mechanics behind organic growth: how messages travel, who amplifies them, and how to engineer marketing that spreads without big budgets.

After interviewing over 150 executives, marketing leaders, and researchers who have successfully built buzz for major brands, Rosen describes the ins and outs of attracting the attention of influential first users and “big-mouth” movers and shakers.

It’s a timeless guide to earning attention instead of buying it.

Who It’s For: Early-stage founders, growth marketers, PR teams, and product marketers focused on organic reach.

What You’ll Learn:

• What makes people talk about a product or brand

• How to identify and engage “influencers” before social media existed

• How to design marketing that travels by itself

• Why trust and early adopters are key to launching with momentum

• How customer experiences fuel referrals (or kill them)

One Smart Takeaway: “People don’t spread products. They spread stories, excitement, and value—in a way that makes them look smart.”

V. Best Marketing Books on Strategy, Innovation & Category Creation

These books go beyond day-to-day marketing. They help you think like a strategist, whether you’re defining a new market, building a long-term competitive edge, or designing products people can’t ignore. If you’re in growth, leadership, or product strategy, this section is your playbook.

22. Play Bigger by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, Kevin Maney

Most companies compete in existing markets. The best ones create new categories and dominate them. Play Bigger introduces the idea of “category design”: the process of inventing a problem only you can solve, then positioning your brand as the leader in that space.

If you’re building something disruptive or struggling to stand out, this book will completely reframe how you think about product positioning and market leadership.

Who It’s For: Startup founders, product marketers, CMOs, and innovation teams building or launching something new.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to define a new category instead of competing in an old one

• Why category leaders capture the most value (not just market share)

• How to craft a powerful “point of view” that shifts customer perception

• How to align product, brand, and company strategy around that POV

• Why timing your launch and messaging matters more than you think

One Smart Takeaway: “The company that designs the category is the company that owns it.”

23. Competing Against Luck by Dr. Clayton Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, & David Duncan

Why do people buy what they buy? It’s not random, they’re hiring products to do a job. This book introduces the Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) theory—a way to understand your customer’s true needs so you can design products and marketing that match.

Instead of guessing what features will work, JTBD helps you build around real, useful customer goals. If you’re launching or refining a product, this book gives you a research-backed lens for smarter decisions.

Who It’s For: Product teams, marketers, founders, UX designers, and anyone doing customer interviews or building roadmaps.

What You’ll Learn: 

• How to uncover the hidden “job” your product is hired to do

• Why demographics don’t explain customer behavior

• How to avoid building features no one uses

• How to structure interviews that reveal useful insights

• How to link innovation to predictable growth

One Smart Takeaway: “Customers don’t buy products, they hire them to get a job done.”

24. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard P. Rumelt

What goes into developing a marketing strategy? What’s the difference between a good and bad marketing strategy? Richard P. Rumelt’s book Good Strategy, Bad Strategy answers all these questions sufficiently.

Most business plans are filled with buzzwords and vague goals like “become the market leader” or “drive innovation.” This book shows you how to recognize empty strategy and replace it with one that’s actually executable.

Rumelt gives you a clear framework: a real strategy starts with diagnosing the core problem, choosing a guiding policy, and focusing on a few coordinated actions that address it.

Although he doesn’t specifically discuss marketing, the core principles in the book can also apply to marketing.

Who It’s For: CMOs, marketing strategists, founders, consultants, and teams creating annual plans, go-to-market strategies, or business pivots.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why vague goals like “grow market share” aren’t strategy and what to say instead

• How to define a “kernel of strategy”: a challenge, a policy, and a set of actions

• How to focus resources on a single point of leverage

• Why trying to please everyone leads to weak results

• Real-world breakdowns of strategy at companies like Apple, Nvidia, and General Motors (what they did right and where they went wrong) 

One Smart Takeaway: “The first natural advantage of good strategy is clarity: it forces you to stop lying to yourself about what really needs to be solved.”

VI. Best Marketing Books on AI, Automation & the Future

AI is changing how marketing works, from how we write and automate campaigns to how we generate leads and build customer loyalty. These are the best marketing books to understand what works now, what’s coming next, and how to stay effective in an AI-first world.

25. Marketing Artificial Intelligence by Paul Roetzer & Mike Kaput

This is the most practical, marketing-first guide to using AI in real work not just theory. It shows how tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and predictive analytics can help you write faster, build better campaigns, automate targeting, and generate more qualified leads.

It also helps you avoid the hype and focus on what’s actually useful for marketers right now.

Who It’s For: Digital marketers, content teams, growth leads, marketing ops professionals.

What You’ll Learn:

• Where AI fits into your marketing workflow, from planning to performance

• How to use AI to scale content, personalize outreach, and reduce time on manual tasks

• Which tools are worth adopting now, and what to watch out for

• Why marketing teams need to upskill, not panic

• How to think ethically about AI and data usage

One Smart Takeaway: “AI won’t replace marketers. But marketers who use AI will replace those who don’t.”

26. The Age of Invisible Machines by Robb Wilson

This book looks at how AI and automation are quietly changing how customers experience brands—through chatbots, voice assistants, personalized flows, and backend logic we don’t even see.

It’s especially helpful if you’re building customer journeys or thinking about how to make your brand feel smooth, fast, and smart in a world of digital noise.

Who It’s For: CX designers, UX leads, marketers working on automation, product marketing teams. 

What You’ll Learn: 

• What “invisible UX” is and how AI powers it

• How to design customer experiences that feel natural, not robotic

• How to apply conversational AI to sales, onboarding, and support

• How backend automation affects front-end brand experience

• Why this shift isn’t about tools, it’s about user flow

One Smart Takeaway: “The best interface is no interface. AI-powered systems should serve without being seen.”

27. This Is Marketing by Seth Godin

In an age of AI-generated everything, this book is a grounding force. It reminds you that marketing still comes down to empathy, positioning, and trust, not hacks or volume.

It’s not about algorithms. It’s about knowing who you serve, what they need, and how to connect with them clearly and honestly. If you want your AI-assisted marketing to actually land, this gives you the human foundation to build on.

Who It’s For: Anyone building a brand, writing copy, or creating content, with or without AI tools.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why trying to reach everyone leads to weak results

• How to create something people genuinely want

• How to build trust, not just traffic

• How to speak to your smallest viable audience

• How to stay human while everyone else automates

One Smart Takeaway: “People don’t buy products. They buy stories, belonging, and connection.”

28. The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman

Written by the co-founder of DeepMind, this book gives you the big picture of what’s coming: not just AI tools, but a total shift in how work, power, and industries operate. It helps you think long-term: how to build resilient marketing strategies in a world that’s speeding up, getting smarter, and becoming harder to predict.

It’s not a “how-to”—it’s a strategic lens for leaders who want to stay relevant.

Who It’s For: Founders, CMOs, product strategists, brand thinkers who want a long-view perspective

What You’ll Learn: 

• How AI (and synthetic tech) will reshape every business function

• Why speed and adaptiveness are now survival skills

• The risks of unregulated AI and how to market ethically

• Why trust and transparency will be a competitive edge

• How to lead in a world where disruption is constant

One Smart Takeaway: “In the AI age, your edge won’t come from tools, it’ll come from how fast you can adapt.”

29. AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor

Most marketers are being sold AI tools they barely understand, with promises like “automated copywriting,” “personalized at scale,” or “predictive magic.”

This book helps you separate real AI from marketing fluff.

Written by two Princeton researchers, AI Snake Oil breaks down the difference between what AI can do well (e.g. generating content, recognizing patterns) and what it struggles with (e.g. understanding meaning, making decisions). If you’re evaluating AI vendors or tools, this book gives you the mental filter to avoid wasting time and budget.

Who It’s For: CMOs, marketing leads, consultants, growth teams, and anyone investing in AI-powered marketing tools or agencies.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why many “AI-powered” tools are overhyped or misleading

• The difference between narrow, useful AI and “general intelligence” hype

• How to ask the right questions before buying or implementing AI tools

• Where AI adds value in marketing workflows and where it doesn’t

• Ethical red flags to look for when using customer data in AI systems

One Smart Takeaway: “You don’t need to fear AI. But you do need to question what it claims to do, especially when it comes with a subscription fee.”

30. The AI Marketing Canvas by Raj Venkatesan & Jim Lecinski 

This is a strategic and practical guide written by a marketing professor and a former Google VP. It lays out a five-stage framework to integrate AI into marketing: from data collection to personalized experiences and predictive insights. It’s clear, credible, and made for marketing leaders.

Who It’s For: CMOs, growth marketers, brand strategists, and senior marketers building AI-ready teams.

What You’ll Learn:

• A step-by-step model for AI integration across the customer journey

• How to personalize campaigns using customer behavior data

• How to identify quick wins with AI before full transformation

• Use cases for content, media, pricing, and loyalty

• How to align AI with brand strategy and ROI goals

One Smart Takeaway: “The marketers who will win with AI are the ones who treat it as a partner, not just a tool.”

31. Mastering Marketing Agility by Andrea Fryrear

In the era of AI and ongoing algorithmic updates, speed and adaptability are crucial. This book teaches you how to build agile marketing teams that can test faster, respond to insights in real-time, and evolve messaging on the fly—something tools like ChatGPT and Claude make easier, but only if your team is structured right.

Who It’s For: Marketing ops leaders, in-house teams, startup CMOs, agency managers.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to implement agile workflows tailored for marketing (not borrowed from software dev)

• How to prioritize quickly without drowning in tasks

• How to create feedback loops that adapt messaging in near real time

• How to balance experimentation with long-term brand strategy

• Tools, templates, and rituals for keeping teams aligned and fast

One Smart Takeaway: “AI makes speed possible. Agility makes it valuable.”

How to Apply What You Learn From the Best Marketing Books: 5 Proven Marketing Moves for 2025

Reading great marketing books is valuable, but applying what they teach is what drives real results. Based on the key insights from this list of best marketing books, here are five high-impact marketing strategies you can use to achieve your marketing goals in 2025:

1. Set Measurable Goals and Build Strategy Backward

Books like “Good Strategy, Bad Strategy” and “Marketing Management” emphasize that effective marketing starts with clarity.

That means setting measurable goals (not vague aspirations), identifying the biggest obstacle in your way, and creating a focused plan to address it.

For example, instead of saying “We want to grow brand awareness,” define a measurable goal tied to business impact. Something like, “We want to increase demo requests from qualified leads by 30% in Q3.”

Once the goal is clear, define the challenge, like “Our current landing page converts at just 1.2% and traffic quality is inconsistent.”

Now build a strategy that addresses it:

• Focus the media budget on high-intent search terms

• A/B test new landing page layouts

• Update CTAs based on scroll and click behavior

This is the difference between random activity and strategic marketing.

2. Make Your Brand Easy to Understand and Easy to Share

In Contagious, The Brand Flip, and Ogilvy on Advertising, a consistent message emerges: people don’t just buy products, they spread stories that reflect who they are.

To stand out, stop describing your product in features. Instead, craft a simple message that resonates with the customer’s self-image and inspires them to share it.

For example, instead of “We offer scalable CRM integrations,” say “We help fast-moving sales teams close faster with tools that feel like second nature.”

Create messages that are:

• Emotionally relevant

• Socially shareable (makes them look smart or helpful)

• Instantly clear

Then bake those into your homepage headline, email intros, and product explainer.

3. Create Content That Solves Specific Problems

Books like Epic Content Marketing, Everybody Writes, and Made to Stick all highlight that content isn’t just filler; it builds trust, solves real problems, and nudges people toward action.

For example, instead of “5 Social Media Tips,” write “How B2B Brands Can Get Leads from LinkedIn Without Paid Ads.” Then break it down with steps, visuals, and a soft CTA to your demo or resource.

What works:

• Narrow focus

• Clear structure

• Immediate value

• A useful next step

4. Leverage AI Tools But Keep Your Strategy Human

As explored in Marketing Artificial Intelligence, The Age of Invisible Machines, and This Is Marketing, the future belongs to marketers who use AI to amplify—not replace—their voice.

For example, this could mean: 

• Using ChatGPT to draft three email variations per segment, but review and rewrite them based on tone, industry, and context.
• Or, using predictive scoring to prioritize warm leads, while allowing sales to use their judgment when reaching out.

For example, when we’re updating an old article, I start by using SurferSEO to analyze what the top-ranking pages are covering. It helps me identify content gaps—subtopics we’ve missed, outdated angles, or questions people are searching for that we haven’t addressed.

Based on that, I sketch a revised outline. Then I feed the outdated version and the new outline into ChatGPT or Grok with a clear prompt: make it relevant for 2025, plug the gaps, and optimize for both Google and AI tools like Perplexity.

The exact AI prompt I use to turn outdated blog posts into top-ranking, AI-citable content. 

Once the outline feels solid, I take over. I bring our own test results, fresh examples, and real insights to ensure the content is genuinely helpful and original.

And it works like a wonder! 

We used this exact approach to approach a blog post that had been dead for months. And after the updated outline and data from 2025, it started picking up traffic within just 3-4 days. It’s clear: AI can help you smartly shape the structure, while your own human insights and data will make it actually work!

5. Optimize Every Step with Real Data, Not Assumptions

In Conversion Optimization by Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy, the message is clear: testing isn’t optional. Understand how users behave on your site.

Run A/B tests.

Refine your offer and layout based on real-world behavior, not internal opinions.

Small changes in messaging, layout, or offer framing can significantly improve conversions over time.

For example, we ran an A/B test on an eTextbook product page to reduce user confusion around rental durations. The control version displayed rental options as “90 Days,” “120 Days,” and so on.

In Variant 1, we replaced these durations with exact expiration dates—e.g., “Access Until May 20, 2024.” In Variant 2, we combined both: duration + expiration date.

The results were clear:

• Variant 1 outperformed the control with a 14.35% increase in conversion rate and a $2.65 lift in revenue per visitor.

• Variant 2 showed no significant improvement, suggesting that clarity beats complexity, and that adding too much information (even if helpful) can overwhelm users.

This experiment reinforced the core principle: even small changes in microcopy or layout, when based on actual user behavior, can significantly improve performance.

Here are some other elements you can test:

• Record scroll depth to see if people even reach your CTA

• Test testimonials vs. feature blocks above the fold

• Track micro-conversions (e.g., clicks on FAQ links) to measure interest

Wrapping Up: Key Takeaways from the Best Marketing Books!

So, there you have it! Diving into some of the best marketing books is like giving yourself a masterclass in cutting-edge marketing strategies. Some even help you hone your business strategy in everyday life.

Whether it’s gaining deeper insights into consumer behavior, mastering content creation, or leveraging social media, each book packs a powerful punch of knowledge that can help grow your business with a winning and successful marketing strategy.

And remember the marketing tips for 2025! These strategies are fresh and geared to keep you ahead of the curve. So, pick up some marketing books based on your industry and interest, use what you learn, do market research, and watch your business grow.

Resources You’ll Love.

1. What are the 4 Ps of Marketing? Understanding the Basics

2. How to Manage a Remote Team in a Way that Drives Business Growth

3. How To Build Thought Leadership From Scratch For Your Business

4. 12 Entrepreneurship Lessons Every Entrepreneur Must Know

5. 13 Best Product Marketing Books in 2023

Best Marketing Books FAQs

The post The 31 Best Marketing Books to Read in the Age of AI (2025) appeared first on Invesp.

Most marketers still rely on surface-level tactics; demographics, gut instinct, and scheduled campaigns. But that’s no longer enough since customers now expect instant relevance. 

A behavior-based marketing strategy flips the script. Instead of guessing what customers want, it watches what they do and responds in real time. Behavioral data helps you identify your audience’s behavioral patterns, browsing history, and abandoned carts, tailor marketing efforts, and reach out to them with targeted ads and email marketing campaigns. 

This guide explains how behavioral marketing works step-by-step (along with behavioral triggers), why it outperforms traditional targeting, and provides behavioral marketing examples from top brands. 

Let’s start with the behavioral marketing definition first.

What is Behavioral Marketing?

Behavioral marketing is a strategy that uses data about users’ actions—like what they click, how long they stay, what they abandon, and what they revisit—to personalize experiences in real time. It’s not about who the customer is (age, gender, location) but what they’re doing and what those actions reveal about their intent.

Think of it as the difference between shouting in a crowd vs. whispering the right thing to the right person at the right moment.

In fact, Google’s shift to GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is largely a move toward behavioral measurement: it now emphasizes events and user journeys over traditional sessions and pageviews. This tells you that the industry is fully aligning around actions over attributes.

How Behavioral Marketing Works (Step-by-Step Guide)

In the 1960s Mad Men era, marketing was broad. You placed one ad and hoped it worked. Today, that’s laughable. 

In 2025, Fetch, an app where users snap photos of their receipts for rewards, became one of the most behaviorally rich marketing engines. 

With 11 million receipts scanned daily, Fetch gives brands access to real, item-level purchase data—what people actually bought, not just what they clicked. Campaigns run inside the app have led to a 5–15% increase in first-time purchases and up to 40% growth in repeat purchases, mainly because they respond faster than traditional ad channels.

This same approach—sending the right offer based on what someone does—is now driving better ecommerce, streaming, and travel results. The most effective marketers don’t wait around. They track real actions and respond quickly, with valid, relevant offers at the right time.

Here’s how behavioral marketing works step-by-step: 

Step #1: Collect Behavioral Data 

Behavioral marketing starts with collecting data about real user actions: what they click, where they scroll, what they ignore, what they buy, and how they leave.

Think of it like being a bartender at a busy local joint. You don’t ask every patron to fill out a form. You just notice: she always orders a martini, he checks the football scores before ordering, that couple only comes on Fridays. It’s the same online—watch, record, and learn from real behavior.

Here are the most common (and useful) types of behavioral data:

Pageviews & session time: 

This tells you what content or category pages attract attention, what paths users take through your site, and where they drop off. If 60% of users visit your homepage and then bounce in under 10 seconds, you’ve got a problem—likely messaging, loading speed, or visual hierarchy.

How to track it: Use tools like GA4 and FigPii to see average session duration, bounce rate, and user flows. Use exploration reports in GA4 or session recordings in FigPii to spot patterns, like users skipping key content.

For example, this session shows a user visiting a blog post, frequently switching tabs, and hovering over navigation and CTAs, which indicates distraction or low engagement. Session recordings like this help identify attention drop-off points and test areas for improving on-page retention.

FigPii session recording session to identify user behavior (Source)

Clicks & hovers: 

You can see what CTAs, product tiles, or filters users are drawn to and what they overlook. For example, if users hover over a “Size Guide” link but do not click, maybe it’s too small or unhelpful.

How to track it: Use heatmaps and click maps in FigPii, Hotjar, or Fullstory. FigPii’s heatmaps are scroll and device-specific, helping you compare behavior on mobile vs. desktop.

This heatmap visualizes where users move their mouse the most. Warmer colors (red, orange, yellow) show high activity—places users focus on or are likely to click. Cooler colors (blue, green) indicate low engagement.

In the example above, the top nav bar and “Contact Us” button (red spots) receive the most attention, while the body text and lower areas receive less. You can use this insight to reposition CTAs, fix ignored sections, or reduce distractions.

Purchase and cart activity: 

Behavior around cart activity reveals user intent. For example, someone adding three items and bouncing may be price-checking or confused about shipping. Tracking which items are abandoned often helps shape upsell, urgency messaging, or retargeting strategies.

How to track it:

Tools like GA4 enhanced ecommerce and Shopify’s native analytics let you track:

• Add to cart rates
• Checkout initiation
• Drop-off points in multi-step checkout
• Final conversion

Search queries: 

On-site search behavior reveals what users want, but can’t immediately find. If 200 people a week are typing “gift cards” and you don’t offer them (or hide the page), that’s missed revenue.

How to track it: Enable site search tracking in GA4, or use Shopify’s search analytics. For deeper insight, combine this with session recordings in FigPii to watch how users behave after searching. Do they convert? Bounce? Filter heavily?

Email & ad interactions: 

You’ll know who opened, clicked, converted, or bounced—critical for mapping behavioral segments like “engaged non-buyers” or “email loyalists.” This also helps test messaging effectiveness and CTA placement.

How to track it: Track email performance with your email service provider (like Klaviyo or Mailchimp), but pull that behavioral data into a central source for unified user profiles.

Device, location, time: 

Knowing when and where people browse (and on what device) helps you personalize UX and optimize send times. For instance, if 80% of late-night traffic is from mobile, your mobile experience better be airtight.

How to track it: GA4 provides these insights, but FigPii’s segmentation filters let you break test data down by device, location, or time of day. You can A/B test a mobile-only variant and isolate the results.

Step #2: Segment Users by Behavior 

Once you’ve collected behavioral data, it’s time to stop treating all users the same. Behavioral segmentation means grouping users based on their actions, not who they are. That way, you send the right message at the right time to the right person.

Think of it like a gym. One member comes daily at 6 AM and never misses leg day. Another shows up once a month and only uses the treadmill. Would you give both the same workout plan or offer? Likely not—and the same goes for your users.

Here are the most useful ways to segment based on behavior:

• New site visitors vs. returning visitors: The goal here is not to treat every visitor like they’re new. For example,
  • New users don’t know your brand yet. Focus on low-friction trust-builders: welcome popups, first-time discount codes, or a “Why choose us” section above the fold.
    
  • On the other hand, returning users already showed interest, so drop the hard sell and offer targeted messaging. Show recently viewed items, notify them of price drops, or greet them with “Welcome back” messaging that resumes where they left off.

• Cart abandoners: These users showed strong purchase intent but didn’t complete checkout, often due to price, distraction, or friction (e.g., forced account creation).
  • Pro tip: Send follow-up emails within 1–3 hours while interest remains fresh. Include visuals of abandoned items, stock urgency (“Only 2 left!”), or limited-time discounts.

For example, Joslin Studio sends a beautifully branded cart recovery email with the exact product left behind, a 15% discount code, and a copy that blends scarcity with emotional pull: “We only produce very small runs, don’t miss out… Are you in love?”

• High-intent browsers: These users engage deeply but haven’t converted. They might visit the same item several times, spend 5+ minutes on a product page, or explore size guides and reviews. Treat them like they’re in the “consideration” phase—retarget with product benefit callouts, third-party reviews, or price drop alerts.
  • Pro tip: Use behavior-triggered Facebook and Google retargeting ads that show, for example, “Still thinking about this?” or “Over 2,100 people bought this last week.”

• Purchase frequency: Not all customers are created equal. Segment by:
  • One-time buyers: Nudge them with customer loyalty incentives or replenishment reminders.
    
  • VIP/repeat buyers: Make them feel exclusive with early access, sneak peeks, or thank-you perks.
  • Churned customers (who have not purchased in 3–6 months): Win them back with “We miss you” offers or personalized product recommendations.

• Feature usage (for SaaS or product-based apps): This applies to users interacting with specific product features—some adopt fast, others don’t.
  • New users: Track where they drop off in onboarding. If they skip a key feature, trigger a walkthrough or help tooltip.
  • Power users: Identify what they use most and upsell add-ons or premium plans aligned with that usage.
  • Inactive users: Flag non-engagement and send reactivation nudges based on what they ignored.

Netflix is an oft-repeated example, but remains one of the best use cases of segmentation. The streaming platform is famous for recommending shows to its viewers based on their viewing history (aka customer’s online behavior). 

If you binge K-dramas, expect more of that genre. If you skip intros or rewatch a scene, that behavior gets noted. Their segmentation engine is so advanced that it runs 1,300+ recommendation clusters at any given time.

Netflix goes a step further and uses image recognition to personalize what you see. It tracks the scenes, moods, and types of visuals you watch or rewatch, then adjusts the artwork. 

So if you’re into thrillers, Stranger Things might show you a dark poster with Eleven’s bloody nose. But if you prefer nostalgic adventures, you’ll probably see the boys riding bikes. 

Using image recognition and behavioral data, Netflix shows different artwork for the same show based on what you’re most likely to click (Source). 

Step #3: Trigger Personalized Actions

Now that you’ve collected behavioral data and segmented users based on what they do, the next step is to act on it in real time. This is where behavioral marketing efforts turn into results: you trigger timely personalized messages and offers to appeal to your target audience. 

Here are some of the most effective types of behavioral marketing triggers you can use:

1. Abandoned cart reminder:

If a user adds an item to the cart but doesn’t complete checkout within X hours, trigger a follow-up based on behavioral targeting.

• Include a saved cart link, product image, and light urgency (“Almost sold out!”).
• Offer an incentive only if the user has shown high intent but hesitated.

Free People sends a stylish, emotionally driven reminder with the headline: “Something you love is going fast.”

It includes images of the products left behind and a clear “Shop Now” CTA. 

The design is calm but persuasive, and the tone matches their chic, light, and personal brand voice. There’s also a free shipping reminder to remove purchase friction.

2. Product browsing without purchase

If someone browses a category or product several times but doesn’t convert, send a follow-up highlighting:

• Reviews or UGC for that item
• Price drop alerts
• Similar alternatives

For example, Edmunds sends a clean, timely alert when a user’s previously viewed vehicle drops in price. The subject line is to-the-point (“Price drop on the 2015 Toyota Tacoma”), and the message highlights the exact car—Toyota Tacoma—plus the dealership’s name and distance. 

Price drop email example (Source)

A bold CTA button (“View This Offer”) creates urgency and makes it easy to return and act.

3. Time-triggered replenishment reminders

For products that run out (e.g., skincare, supplements, razors), track average repurchase cycles and nudge users before they realize they’re running low.

For example, Rockin’ Wellness sends a smart refill email about a month after purchase with the heading “Need a Refill?”

Time-triggered reminder example (Source)

It includes the exact product ordered, its price, and a bold CTA button (“Get Some More”)—all framed as helpful rather than pushy. The copy keeps it casual and warm: “We would hate for you to run out.” It’s a timely nudge that makes repurchasing frictionless.

4. Feature re-engagement (for SaaS)

If users stop using a key feature, or never activate it, trigger tooltips or emails that reintroduce it with short tutorials or examples of how others use it.

Step #4: Refine Using Real-Time Feedback

Behavioral marketing isn’t set-and-forget. Even with great segmentation and triggered actions, you must constantly adjust based on how people respond, in real time.

Real-time feedback doesn’t mean waiting for quarterly reports. It includes:

• Click-through rates on emails or push notifications
• Heatmaps and scroll depth on landing pages
• Conversion rates across personalized variants
• On-site behavior post-trigger (e.g., did they bounce, buy, browse?)
• Session recordings showing hesitation, drop-offs, or frustration
• A/B test results from personalized vs. default experiences
• Live chat transcripts that surface objections in the moment
  

Pro tip: Use tools like FigPii to run A/B or multivariate tests on different personalized flows and then adjust automatically based on winning variants.

Why Behavioral Marketing Matters for ROI and Growth

Personalized experiences driven by behavior consistently outperform broad, generic campaigns across industries, from ecommerce to SaaS. Here are some key reasons behavioral marketing drives higher ROI and growth: 

• It converts more of your existing traffic. You’ve already paid to bring users to your site through ads, SEO, influencer partnerships, or content. Behavioral marketing helps you keep them by responding to what they do on-site (browsing a category, abandoning a cart, or revisiting a product), so your follow-up feels timely and relevant, not random.

• It reduces churn and increases retention. Instead of blasting generic follow-ups, you send smart nudges—like refill reminders before someone runs out, or feature tips when a user stalls during onboarding. These small, behavior-based messages keep people engaged before they slip away.

• It improves ROI across marketing channels. You stop wasting budget on one-size-fits-all ads or emails. With customer behavior data, you only show discount codes to hesitant shoppers or upsells to high-intent buyers. That means better open rates, lower CPA, and more efficient spend, especially on retargeting.

• It builds trust and loyalty by showing users you’re paying attention. When someone sees product suggestions or offers that match their actual behavior, not just their demographics, they feel seen. This creates a feedback loop: more engagement, which leads to better personalization, which in turn leads to more profound brand affinity.

• It gives you a testing ground that teaches you something. Because behavioral marketing is dynamic, every segment, message, or offer becomes a live experiment. You learn which actions predict conversion, what sequence works best, and how different audiences behave—no waiting on quarterly insights.

Behavioral Marketing Tactics: Turn Real Actions Into Real Conversions

If there’s one takeaway from this guide, it’s this: the most effective marketing doesn’t rely on assumptions—it responds to behavior.

Behavioral marketing strategies help you make better decisions using real user activity. Instead of relying on assumptions, you use consumer behavior data from how and where site visitors click, scroll, drop off, and their search history to improve your marketing messages across different social media platforms and other marketing channels, along with the overall customer journey.

It helps you personalize based on actual behavior, recover abandoned carts, and send more relevant content and emails. When combined with a structured CRO process, it becomes a reliable way to increase sales and improve key metrics like revenue per visitor across different digital marketing channels. 

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start testing smarter, Invesp’s CRO experts can help you extract behavioral data and turn it into higher conversions. 

The post What is Behavioral Marketing and Why is it Important appeared first on Invesp.

Everywhere you look, you see ads. Amid this chaos, word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) helps you cut through the noise by doing what algorithms can’t—building trust. 

Whether it’s a quick recommendation in a WhatsApp group, a 15-second TikTok from a micro-influencer, or a glowing review in a niche subreddit, WOMM drives more credible, more lasting influence than traditional media ever could.

This article breaks down the importance of word-of-mouth marketing in 2025, the channels where it’s most active, and the latest data that proves why it’s still your most valuable growth driver. You’ll also find actionable strategies—backed by examples and tools—to help you scale WOMM for your brand.

What Is Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM)?

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) occurs when customers organically promote a brand, product, or experience through conversations, posts, reviews, or recommendations. It can be spontaneous or sparked by a strategy (like a referral program or community campaign).

In 2025, it will not be just friends chatting that moves the needle. Every time you see referrals in private messages, niche forums, shared user-generated content (UGC), and everyday micro-influencer posts, you can safely say that it’s a part of WOMM. 

Key channels for WOMM in 2025

In 2025, word-of-mouth marketing will spread through more nuanced and fragmented channels than ever before. It’s no longer just face-to-face chats or viral tweets—it’s happening across invisible networks, niche communities, and personal-feeling content formats.

Here are the key channels where WOMM is most active today:

• Dark Social: Think WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, Slack, and email—places where people share product links privately. This is where most recommendations happen, but they’re hard to track. (More on this later.)
  
• Online Communities: Reddit threads, Discord servers, and closed Facebook groups often host authentic, high-intent conversations about brands, especially in niches like skincare, productivity, or sustainability.
  
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Organic posts, videos, and reviews from real customers serve as modern-day word-of-mouth, especially in DTC and creator-led spaces.
  
• Micro-Influencers: Smaller creators with strong community ties outperform larger influencers in trust and engagement. They often act as super-referrers.
  
• Reviews & Testimonials: From product pages to Trustpilot, customer reviews influence discovery and reinforce purchase decisions. It’s one of the most scalable forms of WOM.
  
• Offline Triggers: Thoughtful packaging, real-world experiences, and physical brand moments (like events or pop-ups) help spark conversations, both in person and online.

Word of Mouth Marketing Statistics to Know in 2025

Here are some statistics that prove the power of word-of-mouth in 2025: 

People Trust People More Than Ads—By a Long Shot

A massive 88% of consumers say they trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other type of advertising. 

Think about it: when someone you know says, “This worked for me,” you don’t question it like a paid ad or influencer post. You believe them. You might even go look the product up immediately.

That’s what makes word-of-mouth marketing so powerful. It moves people to act because it feels personal. Brands that focus on creating genuinely great experiences and then make it easy for people to talk about them get the kind of exposure money can’t replicate.

Word of Mouth is Still the #1 Way People Discover New Brands

A 2023 survey found that 36% of U.S. internet users said word of mouth was their leading source of brand discovery, beating out social media ads (32%) and mobile app ads (21%).

This means that, despite the rise of paid performance channels, people still trust people more than algorithms. 

For marketers, this is a reminder: while paid reach gets you in front of people, trust gets them to act. If people aren’t discussing your product on group chats, dinner tables, or Slack threads, you’re missing the channel that drives the highest-intent traffic of all.

Referred Customers Don’t Just Convert—They Multiply

Word-of-mouth becomes a growth loop, not just a one-time win.

A Harvard Business Review study analyzing data from over 41 million customers of a cashback app found that customers who joined through a referral not only purchased more. They also went on to refer 30% to 57% more new customers than users acquired through other channels.

This turns word-of-mouth into a compounding asset. That’s the kind of retention plus acquisition combo most ad campaigns can’t touch.

Referred Customers Stick Around Longer and Spend More

According to multiple studies, customers who come through referrals stay 37% longer and deliver 16% more lifetime value than those acquired through paid ads or cold outreach. 

In other words, they don’t just buy once and bounce. They buy again, engage more often, and are more likely to refer others.

This happens because they enter your brand ecosystem with built-in trust. Someone they know already gave you a vote of confidence, and that shortcut to credibility pays off long after the first purchase.

The takeaway? If you want higher-value customers, don’t just spend more on ads. Build systems that encourage your best customers to bring in more people like them.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing in 2025: Key Trends and How to Capitalize on Them

In 2025, word-of-mouth marketing is unfolding quietly across DMs, Discords, and creator-driven content. 

As consumer trust in polished ads declines, brands are finding smarter ways to spark organic advocacy in the spaces people pay attention to. 

Here are the key trends shaping modern WOMM and how to emulate them to make your business more successful and inspire customer loyalty. 

Micro-Influencers and Nano Communities Are More Trusted Than Celebrities

In 2025, the most influential voices are small, specific, and deeply embedded in their communities. There’s a reason micro-influencers (10K–50K followers) and nano-influencers (<10K followers) are outperforming traditional celebrity endorsements across every primary metric: trust, engagement, conversion, and ROI.

The numbers tell a clear story.

87.7% of all TikTok creators are nano-influencers, and they generate an average engagement rate of 10.3%, nearly triple that of megastars.

Engagement rates decline across all influencer tiers (2021–2024), but nano (1K–10K) and micro (10K–50K) creators consistently outperform larger accounts, maintaining the highest average engagement through 2024. 

63% of shoppers say they’re more likely to buy a product if it’s recommended by a social media influencer they trust. 

But how do you capitalize on micro-inflencer WOMM in 2025? 

Working with micro-influencers shouldn’t feel vague or hard to measure. Here’s how to turn it into a focused, repeatable channel that drives both reach and revenue.

1. Use Modash to shortlist 20–30 creators who already post about your category

Instead of working with whoever slides into your DMs, start with a focused shortlist. 

Use a tool like Modash to filter for creators with 5K–50K followers, at least 3% engagement, and existing content related to your niche—like “mineral sunscreen” if you’re in skincare, for example. 

Finding nano influencers in your niche and based on other filters (Source)

This approach helps you find creators whose audience already trusts them on the topic you’re trying to sell. 

2. Send 10 of them your best product, no strings attached

Reach out with a simple note offering to send them your hero product. Don’t attach any posting requirements or approval steps. Just ship the product, include a handwritten message that reflects your brand tone, and trust the quality to speak for itself.

You’ll often find that 4–5 of those 10 will post something anyway, and organic, unsolicited content performs better than most paid collaborations.

This kind of no-ask gifting is called product seeding—you send your product to creators without asking them to post. It’s personal, low-pressure, and often more effective than paid campaigns. 

Graza, a DTC olive oil brand, did precisely this. They shipped bottles to food creators they genuinely liked and thought aligned with their brand values, added handwritten notes, and didn’t ask for anything. 

The posts came anyway. Small content creators who received the product shared their experiences, generating authentic user-generated content (UGC).

The result? Graza sold out during their first week in business, bringing in $100,000 in revenue. Within three months, they surpassed $500,000 in revenue, all without spending on traditional advertising.

3. Give each creator a trackable URL to measure real impact

The biggest mistake in micro-influencer marketing is not tracking correctly. Every creator should get a unique, UTM-tagged link using Bitly or Switchy. It can look like:

brand.com/lip-oil?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=jenna

This link shows how many clicks each person made, whether they shared it via DMs, Stories, or in a private group.

Without this, all your traffic shows up as “direct,” and you’ll never know which creators helped you grab more eyeballs. 

Most Shares Happen in Dark Social, Not Public Feeds

Word-of-mouth in 2025 will live in private, untrackable channels: DMs, text messages, WhatsApp, Slack, and even Discord. Beyond exchanging messages, these platforms are your customers’ most-used sharing surfaces, and they don’t leave visible traces in traditional analytics.

Analytics expert Steve Lamar recently ran a deep attribution experiment to understand how platforms pass referral data.

By redirecting clicks through uniquely structured subdomains, he managed to track what GA4 misses. Here’s what he found:

• 100% of clicks from TikTok profiles and apps like WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, and Mastodon were attributed as “direct” traffic—completely untrackable via default Google Analytics.
  
• 75% of clicks from Facebook Messenger were also misattributed.
  
• Even mainstream platforms like Instagram (70%), LinkedIn (86%), and Pinterest (88%) mostly passed incomplete or no attribution data.

Dark traffic on major social networks (Source)

This means that even if people actively share your brand, you won’t see it in your dashboards unless you track differently.

But despite its untraceability, dark social is modern-day word-of-mouth. When a friend DMs a product link, shares a TikTok, or mentions your brand in a private Slack channel, they recommend it and influence purchase decisions.

But since it shows up as “direct traffic,” most brands don’t realize what’s working.

So, since you can’t see every share, how do you capitalize on dark social WOMM? Here are some quick tips that can help: 

1. Track smarter with share-optimized URLs. 

Many brands lose visibility because all shared links look the same in their analytics (“direct traffic”). 

The fix? Use custom links with tags. Create trackable URLs using UTM parameters (small bits of info added to the end of a URL) so you know where the click came from.

For example, instead of sharing website.com/product-a, use website.com/product-a?utm_source=whatsapp&utm_campaign=drop1.

This helps you see if someone clicked the link from WhatsApp, email, or Instagram bio, even if it was shared privately.

Pro tip: You can use Bitly for branded, shortened links or Switchy for link retargeting and deeper analytics. 

2. Make it easy to share products via WhatsApp, Messenger, or DMs 

After someone buys a product, gets a discount code, or finishes a quiz, they’re in a high-emotion state. This is when they’re most open to sharing something they love (or just scored) with a friend.

To make the most of this, brands need to remove friction. The best way to do this is by adding “Send to a friend” or “Share on WhatsApp” buttons on post-purchase confirmation pages, wishlists, and quiz result screens.

A great example of this in action: Fashionette, a luxury fashion retailer in Europe, integrated WhatsApp sharing directly into a giveaway flow.

They launched a giveaway campaign where users could click a Facebook ad and join a sunglasses giveaway by clicking “Chat with us” on WhatsApp. 

Once in the chat, users get real-time responses and can easily share the offer with friends, creating a conversational entry point for word-of-mouth.

Users click “Chat with us” on the ad to enter the giveaway via WhatsApp, making it easy to join and share the offer with friends in just a few taps (Source)

This shift to real-time, one-on-one messaging paid off. Fashionette’s WhatsApp flows converted 7.4 times higher than their most engaged email segments, driving a 25% increase in average order value.

3. Watch for sudden traffic spikes—then trace the source

Not all dark social traffic is invisible. Sometimes, the signal is a sharp rise in direct traffic to a specific product or blog page, primarily when you haven’t run paid campaigns or sent emails.

This often means someone shared your link in a WhatsApp group, Discord server, or Slack workspace. But instead of showing up as a referral, it shows up as “direct traffic.”

Here’s what to do: 

• Set up daily traffic alerts in your analytics platform. For example, in Google Analytics 4, you can use “Custom Insights” to trigger alerts when a page’s traffic exceeds a certain threshold—say, 200% of its weekly average. (This guide helps you set up custom insights in GA4.)

Setting up custom metrics in GA4 to track a sudden traffic spike (Source)

• Cross-check those spikes with your marketing activity. Identify this by asking yourself:
  • Did you publish a TikTok, YouTube Short, or Instagram Story in the past 24 hours?
  • Was your product linked in a newsletter, Substack issue, or X thread?
  • Did someone post about you in a Reddit community (search via site:reddit.com yourbrand)?
  • Did a micro-influencer quietly tag or mention you in a private story or channel?

• Correlate timestamped events. Once you notice a traffic spike, dig into the timestamps in your analytics and compare them to when your content—or any third-party content—went live. Let’s say your product page for a “hydrating mist” usually gets around 120 visits daily. On May 5th, you notice 670 visits to that page within two hours, all showing up as “direct traffic.” That’s a red flag for dark social. You check TikTok and discover that a creator with 18,000 followers posted a GRWM (get ready with me) video that morning featuring your mist. That’s likely your referral source—just hidden from plain view in your analytics.

Private Communities Are Becoming Brand Powerhouses

In 2025, brands are seeing more word-of-mouth action inside closed groups than they do on open platforms. Think, Slack channels, Discord servers, subscription-based Substacks, even private Facebook or Geneva groups.

According to a 2024 report by TINT, 40.9% of consumers said they planned to increase their participation in online communities, marking a 9% year-over-year growth. 

But more importantly, it’s working:

• 73.6% of consumers say they purchase more frequently because of a brand’s online community
  
• 75% agree that communities improve the customer experience
  
• 57% report better brand SEO tied to community discussions
  
• 90% of community managers say user suggestions directly inform product improvements
  
• And in some cases, over 30% of total revenue can be traced back to the influence of a brand’s community

So, how do you tap into this in 2025? Here are some quick, actionable tips: 

• Find where your customers already gather. Instead of building your community from scratch, start by identifying where high-intent conversations are already happening. You can use platforms like Common Room to surface mentions of your brand or product across Slack groups, Discord servers, or Reddit threads you care about. 

• Don’t show up to promote, show up to participate. Community members can spot a sales pitch from a mile away. Join as a peer instead of leading with a CTA or product link. Offer value: answer questions, host an AMA (Ask Me Anything), or share honest behind-the-scenes updates from your product or team.
  
• Seed early access or limited drops inside these groups. When members feel they’ve discovered something first, they share it naturally.

If you enter these groups thoughtfully, participate sincerely, and offer value early, the word-of-mouth that follows is more powerful and longer-lasting than any shoutout on a public feed.

Short-Form UGC Is the Most Believable Form of Marketing

Short-form UGC (think 10 to 60-second videos shared by real users) is now one of the most trusted and influential content types in marketing.

Whether it’s a quick “unboxing” on Instagram Stories, a GRWM (get ready with me) TikTok, or a 15-second “before and after” reel, short-form UGC feels real, spontaneous, and relatable. And that’s precisely why people believe it.

And the numbers back this up.

• 73% of consumers say they prefer short-form videos when researching products or services, because they feel more to-the-point and trustworthy.
• Short-form videos generate 2.5x more engagement than long-form, making them more likely to be liked, shared, or saved.
• And when brands use short-form UGC in paid ads, the results are hard to ignore: 4× higher click-through rates and 50% lower cost-per-click compared to traditional branded content.

As we mentioned earlier, a low-pressure seeding campaign is one of the most effective ways to spark this kind of UGC. You send your product to a curated list of creators without any obligations to them and simply trust that those who genuinely love it will talk about it.

Conclusion: Why Word of Mouth Marketing Should Be a Priority in 2025

At a time when paid ads are getting more expensive and less effective, WOMM gives you scalable, high-intent growth without burning budget. It turns your best customers into your best marketers. And in 2025, it’s happening where brands aren’t looking: inside DMs, private Discords, WhatsApp groups, and short-form creator videos.

If you’re serious about scaling WOMM in 2025, here’s where to focus:

• Track private sharing behavior through better attribution (UTMs, GA4 custom insights, link tagging)
  
• Encourage advocacy with smart referral, loyalty, and creator seeding programs
  
• Optimize your site for post-purchase sharing, especially on mobile and messaging-first channels
  
• Test how user-generated content impacts CRO on PDPs, review sections, and post-purchase flows
  

At Invesp, we help brands turn passive word-of-mouth into measurable conversion lifts by testing how, where, and why your best customers are talking.

Want to see how CRO and WOMM overlap on your site? Start a conversation with our team.

The post The Importance of Word Of Mouth Marketing – Statistics and Trends 2025 appeared first on Invesp.

Imagine a chessboard where each move reveals an opportunity or threat. Without studying your opponent’s strategy, you are likely to get outmaneuvered. The same applies in business—competitive analysis is your playbook for success.

By assessing competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and strategies, you can uncover opportunities, refine your plans, and stay ahead of industry trends.

This article breaks down the essentials of competitive analysis with real-world examples and actionable steps to help you outsmart the competition.

What Exactly is Competitive Analysis?

Competitive analysis involves analyzing your competitors’ successes and losses to identify their strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and market positioning. This helps you identify opportunities, mitigate risks, and make informed decisions to gain a competitive edge. 

Think of it as doing homework before playing a high-stakes game—you can’t win if you don’t know your opponent’s moves.

Why is Competitive Analysis so Important?

Imagine running a race without knowing who else is competing, their speed, or their strategies. That’s what it’s like for a business without competitive analysis.

In the early 2010s, Nokia dominated the mobile phone market. Yet, they failed to recognize the shift toward smartphones driven by Apple and Android. Without a solid competitive analysis of these emerging players, Nokia stuck to outdated strategies and missed the touch-screen revolution. The result? A dramatic fall from being a market leader to an industry afterthought.

Here’s a quick overview of why competitive analysis is so integral to a business:

• Understand Market Gaps: Identify untapped opportunities your competitors are missing.
• Refine Your Strategy: Adjust your pricing, marketing, or customer experience based on competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Stay Relevant: Predict industry trends and customer preferences before others do.

How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis

Define goals and objectives

Defining your goals and objectives is the first and most critical step in conducting a competitive analysis. Think of it as creating a map before you start a journey—you need to know where you’re going and why you’re going there.

Without clear goals, your analysis risks becoming a pile of data without direction or purpose.

Here are some types of goals for competitive analysis:

• Understand market position: Where do you stand compared to competitors? What gaps or opportunities exist in your industry?
• Improve customer experience: What do competitors do better? How can you adapt their strengths to meet your customers’ needs?
• Refine marketing strategy: What messaging resonates with your audience? How can you differentiate your branding?
• Identify innovation opportunities: What new features or trends are gaining traction? How can your business stay ahead?

Now that you know the goals you can set for your company, how will you define your goals? Here’s a step-by-step approach to help you determine your goals effectively: 
Start with your business objectives. Every competitive analysis should tie back to your company’s larger goals. For example, if your company wants to expand into a new market, your analysis should focus on local competitors and customer behavior. For example, when Starbucks expanded into China, it aimed to understand local tea culture and how competitors catered to it. The competitive analysis helped them integrate tea-based beverages into their menu, establishing a strong presence in a tea-dominated market.

• Identify your target audience. Define whose needs you want to meet. Your goals might focus on understanding why competitors attract a specific customer segment. In fact, a study by Epsilon revealed that 80% of customers are more likely to engage with brands that offer a personalized experience. And knowing your competitors’ audience can help you deliver personalization better.

• Ask key questions. Frame questions in a way that answers shape actionable goals.
  • “What do customers love about my competitors?”
  • “How do competitors use pricing, promotions, or products to win?”

• Use data-driven insights. Back your goals with data. You can use tools like Google Trends, SEMrush, and social media analytics to get insights into what works for competitors.

Pro tip: Use the SMART framework for goal-setting (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). For example, “Increase market share by 10% within six months by targeting Gen Z customers through Instagram ads.”

Gather competitor data, including strengths and weaknesses

When conducting a competitive analysis, the next important step is to gather accurate, actionable data about your competitors. This data helps you identify their strengths, weaknesses, and ways you can differentiate yourself from them.

Here’s how to do it effectively:

• Start by defining what data you want to collect. Start by identifying the key aspects of your competitors you want to analyze. These typically include:
  • Product or service offerings: Features, quality, and pricing
  • Market positioning: Where they stand in the industry
  • Marketing and branding: Channels, tone, and customer reach
  • Customer experience: Support, reviews, and engagement

• Use reliable tools for data collection. To gather valuable and actionable competitor data, you’ll need the right tools to save time and provide deeper insights. These tools analyze everything from website traffic to customer engagement, clearly showing how your competitors operate and where they excel or fall short.

• SEMrush or Ahrefs: Analyze competitors’ SEO performance, keywords, and backlinks.
• SimilarWeb: Understand their website traffic, audience demographics, and referral sources.
• Sprout Social or Brandwatch: Monitor their social media strategies and audience engagement.
• Glassdoor or Indeed: Learn about internal strengths and weaknesses through employee reviews.

• Gather qualitative data. In addition to using tools, you need qualitative methods to gain deeper insights into what competitors are doing and how customers feel about them. These methods focus on understanding the why behind the data and provide actionable details that numbers alone can’t offer. Here’s how you can do it:
  • Competitor websites and reports: Look for annual reports, press releases, and blog content. Use these reports to determine their pricing details, product features, and unique selling points. Their blog content, whitepapers, and press releases will help you understand their brand’s messaging and priorities.
  • Customer reviews and forums: Use Yelp or Reddit to uncover customer sentiments about competitors.
  • Mystery shopping: It involves experiencing the products or services firsthand.

• Apply a framework to analyze strengths and weaknesses. To break down data, use a framework like SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) framework to break down data.
  • Strengths: Look for their competitive edges, like superior technology or loyal customer bases.
  • Weaknesses: Identify gaps such as high prices or limited product diversity.

Companies that fail to identify their weaknesses and those of their competitors often lose the market to a new contender. One of the most prominent examples is when Kodak failed to recognize its weakness—reluctance to embrace digital photography—and lost its competitive edge to companies like Sony and Canon.

• Combine insights from multiple sources. Cross-reference findings from tools and methods to build a holistic picture. For example:
  • If SEMrush shows high traffic for a competitor’s blog, use social media tools to check how they promote it.
  • If customer reviews indicate poor service, check Glassdoor for potential internal issues.

Pro tip: Competitors evolve constantly, so don’t forget to update your data regularly to stay informed—for instance, track product launches, partnerships, or rebranding efforts. You can also set up Google Alerts or subscribe to competitor newsletters to keep yourself updated.

Evaluate key metrics

The next step is to evaluate key metrics—which involves analyzing measurable data points that reveal your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and market performance.

Tangible metrics will show you where your business stands compared to others and what to improve or focus on to succeed in the market.

Start by understanding the key metrics to evaluate:

To get a complete picture, focus on these critical areas:

• Market share and reach: How much of the market do competitors control?
• Customer sentiment and engagement: What do customers say about their products and services?
• Product or service quality: Are their offerings superior or lagging?
• Pricing strategies: Are they underpricing, premium pricing, or bundling effectively?
• Operational efficiency: How quickly do they deliver, and what’s their supply chain like?

For example, Tesla disrupted the automobile market by evaluating its competitors’ reliance on internal combustion engines. Focusing on electric vehicles and assessing gaps in innovation, the company managed to carve out a dominant niche.

Leverage metrics to measure marketing effectiveness:

Use marketing metrics to see how competitors connect with their audience.

Here’s a list of metrics and elements to consider:

• Website traffic and SEO performance: Use tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush to reveal traffic volume, top-performing keywords, and backlinks.
• Social media engagement: Leverage tools like Sprout Social to determine likes, shares, comments, and audience demographics.
• Content marketing impact: Look at the frequency of blogs and videos and how they resonate with the audience.

Evaluate financial metrics:

Assessing competitors’ financial performance is essential to see whether their efforts are paying off. Financial metrics will give you a clear picture of their stability and growth.

Key metrics include:

• Revenue growth: Indicates market demand and business health.
• Profit margins: Reflects operational efficiency.
• Investment trends: Look at R&D spending or acquisitions to gauge innovation.

Track industry-specific metrics:

Depending on your industry, metrics may vary. Examples include:

• Churn rate: It’s especially critical in SaaS to measure how many customers cancel their subscriptions.
• Foot traffic: Important for retail and hospitality businesses.
• App downloads and ratings: Crucial for tech and mobile-first businesses.

For instance, Netflix tracks user churn to understand when and why subscribers leave. It uses this insight to adjust pricing, add new features, and prioritize trending content, keeping churn at competitive levels.

Finally, use collected data to compare competitors’ metrics against your own performance.

You can do this by identifying areas where you excel, and double down on those strengths. Secondly, spot gaps where competitors are ahead, and develop strategies to close them.

Create actionable strategies

Once you’ve gathered data and evaluated key metrics, the next step in a competitive analysis is to use your uncovered insights than turn them into actionable strategies.

This ensures your findings drive tangible changes to improve your position in the market and get an edge over the competition.

Your first step is to align findings with your business objectives. Ask yourself:

• What gaps can we exploit in the market?
• Where can we differentiate our offerings?
• How can we strengthen our weaknesses against competitors?

Once you have an answer to these questions, it’s time to develop strategies to get a competitive edge.

Your strategies can fall into two categories:

Offensive Strategies: Playing to Your Strengths

Offensive strategies are about staying ahead of your competitors by using your strengths or targeting areas they’re missing. They involve focusing on:

• Building on your strengths: Use what you do best to create an advantage.
• Filling market gaps: Look for unmet customer needs or underserved groups and step in.
• Innovating boldly: Introduce unique products or features competitors don’t offer.

For example, Airbnb expanded globally by addressing gaps in affordable and unique accommodations. Instead of competing directly with hotels, it targeted travelers seeking home-like stays or unconventional options, like treehouses or houseboats.

Defensive Strategies: Protecting What’s Yours

Defensive strategies are about holding onto what you already have—your customers, market share, and position. The goal is to address any weaknesses and prevent competitors from taking over your space.

It involves focusing on:

• Improving customer experience: Look at where competitors excel (e.g., faster delivery, better support) and close the gap.
• Matching competitive pricing and promotions: Keep an eye on competitor pricing—if they lower prices or run promotions, respond quickly. Offer added value like loyalty rewards or free shipping to stay ahead.
• Strengthening brand loyalty: Reward loyal customers with exclusive perks, early access, or personalized offers. Create emotional connections through strong branding and consistent messaging.
• Enhancing product and service quality: Focus on fixing weaknesses competitors could exploit. Improve durability, ease of use, or features in your offerings

One of the biggest examples of defensive strategy in the competitive market is between Walmart and Amazon.

When Walmart noticed Amazon’s dominance in convenience and delivery, it overhauled its e-commerce platform, launched same-day delivery services, and introduced grocery pickup options. 

The result? Walmart’s shopping app is now more popular in the US than even Amazon’s app. Addressing these operational gaps helped Walmart maintain its position as a major retail force.

Your Turn to Gain an Edge Using Competitive Analysis!

Competitive analysis is a powerful tool to stay ahead in business. By studying your competitors, you can spot opportunities, fix weaknesses, and improve your strategies. This helps you stay relevant, offer better experiences, and outsmart the competition.

Use the steps in this article to guide your analysis. By understanding what your competitors are doing, you can make smarter decisions and keep moving forward. Competitive analysis isn’t just about keeping up—it’s about leading the way. Stay proactive, and let this strategy help you win.

Competitive Analysis FAQs

The post What is a Competitive Analysis (With Examples) [2025] appeared first on Invesp.

Retail therapy plays a significant role in impulse buying, as individuals often make purchases to improve their mood, especially during rough days. This emotional aspect of shopping can trigger a dopamine release, similar to other pleasurable activities, and marketers exploit these emotions to encourage consumer spending.

Impulsive personas are the apple of the eye of marketers and business owners.

The credit-card-in-hand shoppers get undivided attention in copy, design, and layout of websites, landing pages, and ads, as well as in brick-and-mortar displays and services.

So much is carefully crafted to address impulsive buying: scarcity and emergency elements, benefits displayed in bullet points, big and bright CTAs, smooth and fast check-out processes.

But who are the impulsive buyers shaking up online and offline commerce? Are they mostly married or single? Do they usually act impulsively while online shopping or in-store browsing? Do they really regret their purchases? Do they spend more on unplanned shopping trips? How much do they generally spend in each impulsive purchase? What is the state of mind they normally experience during impulsive buying?

Let’s get to know this darling persona better with our infographic. You will be able to identify trends and general traits to address impulsive prospects in your business.

What Is Impulse Buying?

Impulse buying refers to the act of making unplanned and spontaneous purchases, often driven by emotions, desires, or a sudden urge. It involves buying items without careful consideration or prior intention, and the decision to make the purchase is typically made on the spot.

Impulse buying, also known as impulse purchasing, is characterized by a lack of premeditation, with individuals succumbing to the immediate desire for a product or service. This behavior is often associated with the psychological concept of instant gratification, where individuals seek immediate satisfaction or pleasure without considering the long-term consequences.

84% of all shoppers have made impulse purchases

This high percentage suggests a significant influence of emotional and psychological factors on spending habits, as consumers often prioritize immediate satisfaction over rational decision-making.

It also sheds light on the prevalent phenomenon of impulse buying in today’s consumer culture. Common examples of impulse purchases include clothing and groceries, with trends showing increased impulse buying during occasions like the holiday season. This data underscores the pervasive nature of impulse buying behavior, where individuals make unplanned and spontaneous purchases.

The prevalence of impulse buying in the market emphasizes the need for retailers to understand and capitalize on these tendencies, while consumers may benefit from recognizing and managing their own impulses to make more mindful purchasing decisions.

40% of all the money spent on e-commerce is attributed to impulse purchases

The data highlights the substantial impact of impulsive behavior in shaping the financial dynamics of e-commerce, emphasizing the role of immediate desires and spur-of-the-moment choices in driving online sales. Managing impulse buying is crucial to save money and make more mindful purchasing decisions. Businesses in the digital marketplace can leverage this information to tailor their strategies and capitalize on the prevalence of impulse buying in the online shopping experience.

54% of U.S shoppers acknowledge spending $100 or more on impulse buys

More than half of U.S. shoppers—54 percent—have admitted to spending $100 or more on an impulse buy, including 20 percent who have spent at least $1,000. By understanding the extent to which consumers are willing to spend impulsively, businesses can optimize their approaches to capitalize on this behavior, whether through strategic promotions, targeted advertising, or creating a shopping environment that encourages spontaneous purchases.

Compulsive shopping, however, is a dangerous progression from impulse buying, with detrimental impacts on finances and personal well-being.

8 out of 10 impulse buys are made in a brick-and-mortar store

This indicates the continued significance of physical retail spaces in driving spontaneous consumer purchases. Optimizing in-store experiences and strategically placing products can be pivotal in capitalizing on impulsive buying behavior. Creating visually appealing displays, offering limited-time promotions, and ensuring an easily navigable layout can enhance the likelihood of impulse purchases.

Impulsive shopping, often driven by emotional spending, is a common behavior where people buy things to reward themselves or cope with negative feelings. Strategies to manage this behavior include undertaking a no-spend challenge.

While e-commerce continues to grow, the tangible and immediate nature of brick-and-mortar environments provides a unique opportunity for businesses to leverage human psychology and boost spontaneous buying, emphasizing the need for a well-crafted in-store strategy to complement online efforts.

Single shoppers make 45% more impulse buys compared to married shoppers.

Marketing strategies and product placements targeting single individuals may yield higher returns in terms of impulsive purchases. Understanding the distinct consumer buying behavior of single shoppers versus married ones enables businesses to tailor their promotional efforts accordingly.

Only 13% of buyers engage in planned impulse buying on a shopping trip.

While a majority of buyers may adhere to predetermined shopping lists during planned trips, the 13% engagement in impulse buying suggests that there is still room to influence purchasing decisions through targeted marketing, appealing displays, and strategic product placements.

Recognizing and capitalizing on this minority’s openness to spontaneity becomes crucial, urging businesses to craft nuanced approaches that balance the predictability of planned trips with opportunities to stimulate impulse purchases and enhance overall sales.

46% of men regret impulse buys compared to 52% of women.

Understanding the varying degrees of post-purchase regret can inform targeted interventions, such as personalized post-purchase communication or specialized return policies, aimed at mitigating buyer’s remorse. By recognizing and responding to these gender-specific tendencies, businesses can refine their customer engagement strategies, enhance customer satisfaction, and potentially influence brand loyalty based on distinct consumer behaviors among men and women in the aftermath of impulse purchases.

52% of millennials were more likely to make impulse purchases

The revelation that 52% of millennials exhibit a higher propensity for impulse shopping than any other generation underscores the distinct impulse-buying behavior prevalent among this demographic. For businesses, understanding and catering to the preferences of millennial impulse buyers is paramount.

Crafting marketing strategies that resonate with the spontaneity of their impulse spending tendencies, providing visually engaging displays, and promoting limited-time offers can be instrumental in capturing their attention during unplanned purchases.

Recognizing the unique dynamics of millennial impulse buyers allows businesses to tailor their product offerings and promotional efforts effectively, capitalizing on the spontaneity inherent in their purchasing behavior to drive increased sales and engagement.

The average shopper will make an average of 3 unplanned purchases out of every 10 store visits they make.

All this highlights the prevalence of impulsive spending habits and impulsive buying behavior among consumers. Understanding this aspect of shopping behavior is crucial in developing effective strategies to capitalize on unplanned purchases.

Creating an in-store environment conducive to spontaneous buying, strategically placing enticing products, and leveraging promotional tactics can harness the impulse buying tendencies of customers.

Acknowledging and adapting to the frequency of unplanned purchases in the design of marketing campaigns and store layouts allows businesses to optimize their overall sales strategy, tapping into the dynamics of impulsive spending to enhance customer satisfaction and drive increased revenue.

The Psychology of Impulse Purchases

A combination of mental and emotional triggers often drives impulse purchases. Research suggests that the brain’s reward system is activated when a consumer sees a product or receives a promotional message, releasing feel-good chemicals such as dopamine. This can lead to a sense of instant gratification and pleasure, making it more likely for the consumer to make an impulse purchase.

Additionally, emotional states such as stress, anxiety, and boredom can also contribute to impulse buying. Consumers may use shopping as a coping mechanism to relieve negative emotions or to satisfy their temptation to buy. Understanding these mental and emotional triggers can help individuals develop strategies to resist impulse purchases and make more intentional purchasing decisions.

Understanding the mental and emotional triggers

Why We Engage in Impulse Shopping

Impulse shopping is a multifaceted behavior influenced by various factors. One primary reason is the thrill of the hunt. The excitement of discovering a new product or snagging a limited-time offer can be exhilarating, leading to spontaneous purchases. Social and cultural factors also play a significant role. For instance, societal norms and peer pressure can drive individuals to make unplanned purchases to fit in or keep up with trends.

Marketing tactics are another powerful influence. Retailers use strategies like scarcity, urgency, and visually appealing displays to entice consumers into making impulse buys. The combination of these elements creates an environment where impulse shopping thrives, making it essential for consumers to be aware of these influences to manage their spending habits better.

Types of Impulse Purchases

Impulse purchases can be categorized into several types, each with its own characteristics and triggers:

1. Pure Impulse Buying: This is the most spontaneous form of impulse buying, where a consumer makes an unplanned purchase without any prior intention. An example could be grabbing a candy bar at the checkout counter.
2. Reminder Impulse Buying: This occurs when a consumer is reminded of a need or desire upon seeing a product. For instance, seeing a display of sunscreen might remind someone to buy it for an upcoming beach trip.
3. Suggestion Impulse Buying: In this type, a consumer makes a purchase based on a suggestion or recommendation, often influenced by marketing tactics. An example could be buying a new gadget after seeing an influencer’s review.
4. Planned Impulse Buying: This involves a consumer planning to make a purchase but not deciding on the specific product until they see it. For example, someone might plan to buy a gift but only choose the actual item when they find something appealing in the store.

Understanding these types of impulse purchases can help consumers recognize their buying patterns and make more informed decisions, ultimately aiding in saving money and reducing unplanned expenditures.

States of Mind When Making an Impulsive Purchase

When making an unplanned purchase, 50% of females express greater excitement, whereas only 47% of males share the same level of enthusiasm.

When intoxicated, 13% of males exhibit impulse buying behavior, while only 5% of females engage in impulse purchases under the same circumstances.

Infographic by- Invesp Conversion Optimization Services

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84% of all shoppers have made impulse purchases

Impulse purchases represent almost 40% of all the money spent on e-commerce

More than half of U.S. shoppers—54 percent—have admitted to spending $100 or more on an impulse buy, including 20 percent who have spent at least $1,000

8 out of 10 impulse buys are made in a brick-and-mortar store

Single shoppers make 45% more impulse buys than married shoppers

Buyers are 13% less likely to make impulse buys on a planned shopping trip. They are 23% more likely to impulse buy on an unplanned shipping trip

Only 46% of men said they regretted an impulse purchase compared to 52% of women

52% of millennials were more likely to make impulse purchases than any other generation.

The average shopper will make an average of 3 unplanned purchases in 4 out of every 10 store visits they make.

States of Mind When Making an Impulsive Purchase

Khalid Saleh

Khalid Saleh is CEO and co-founder of Invesp. He is the co-author of Amazon.com bestselling book: “Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Visitors into Customers.” Khalid is an in-demand speaker who has presented at such industry events as SMX, SES, PubCon, Emetrics, ACCM and DMA, among others.

The post The State of Impulse Buying (Statistics & Trends 2025) appeared first on Invesp.

But before we start – what does the team look like?

A CRO team typically looks something like this:

• Conversion optimization specialist (2-3)
• UX designer
• Front-end developer
• Customer research specialist (part-time)
• Analytics specialist (part-time)
• Data analyst (part-time)
• Product manager/Program manager

Holy moly, that’s a lot of people.

According to Dennis van der Heijden:

“CRO is a commitment. Running a test on your homepage isn’t enough. Hiring a consultant for a week isn’t enough. You need time, dedication, coordination, and (though this is often underlooked) enough site traffic—to make conversion optimization work. The best way to think about a CRO strategy is, put simply, “long term.” Then get ready to invest the hours. The results will be well worth the effort.”

Of course, I have yet to see a non-agency team with this many individuals at the helm of CRO. That requires a big budget that most companies are unwilling to allocate for just CRO (although if they only knew what it could unlock…).

I went ahead and asked Khalid Saleh, CEO of Invesp, based on his many years of experience in CRO, what he thought are the components of a successful CRO project. Now, Khalid doesn’t run projects, but he’s pretty aware of the ins and outs of the projects. Based on his knowledge and what he’s seen, he mentioned a few things:

1. setting expectations correctly
2. using different methods to uncover meaningful insight
3. the velocity of testing”

With Khalid, it is always about the client. And it’s true, whenever the client thinks the conversion rates are going to skyrocket after a couple of tests, you know the project is headed in the wrong direction. Also if a client doesn’t realize their involvement, again, that will just impact response time and data collection success.

Additionally, Khalid points to something interesting, his last two points: using different methods to uncover data and velocity of testing both are a cry for increased creativity and out of the box thinking on a test. Why? Well, when you look at the same sources of data, and you aren’t continuously seeking other sources that may relay a different story, you’ll be stuck in a rut. Additionally, if test slowly you’re limiting the scope of the project and ability to push the limits on several elements.

I asked one of our CRO success managers, Hatice, about what she thought the components of a successful project were:

1. defining a sound hypothesis
2. cross-device testing each launch
3. before launching the test, test experience of original and variation designs with a few people who aren’t familiar with test designs
4. limiting the number of the testing elements/idea that helps to calculate impacts correctly”

Hatice’s advice is more tactical because she spends the day to day working on projects, so she considers the small things when considering success. It’s interesting to see these very different perspectives from two people who work and handle projects very differently.

Since co-founding the Invesp, I’ve been managing CRO projects. My role has grown over the years, but for growth and learning purposes, I inject myself in some of the projects that we run.

What I’ve noticed, are that “well defined goals” as well as procedure and process following make or break a project.  Once the project veers off the rails, whatever the reason may be (client initiated or internal management issues), the project wanes, and the client becomes frustrated.

So ultimately, there are many considerations to managing a project. In this post, I’ll dissect all the different points made by Khalid, Hatice, and myself in order to help you gauge what it takes to lead and manage a successful CRO project.

1. Setting expectations correctly

Whether you’re an in-house CRO expert, or a consultant, you need to set expectations correctly when it comes to the work you are doing. And this is essentially a key point in any project and isn’t unique to CRO. If expectations aren’t set correctly, you are going to end up with angry management.

How do you set expectations correctly. When we take on a full engagement, our client is essentially expecting that their conversion rates will increase. We have to do a little education on what that means: If a test increases CR for a specific page, it doesn’t translate into that increase for the overall site.

Additionally, some basic information on statistics and conversion rates in general is important to clarify how and what increases mean to the success of the project.

2. Using different methods to uncover meaningful insight

Managing a CRO project means the team needs to be able to conduct qualitative data, deduce meaningful data from it, conduct on analytics assessments, read heatmap data effectively, conduct usability tests, and more in order to get the full picture of what is happening on the website.

The reason why I mentioned at the beginning of the post that CRO is not a one man job because the data collection alone requires quite a few experts.

It’s rare to find someone who is good at analytics analysis as well as conducting sound qualitative data and knows UX and UX testing in and out. Krista Seiden from Google explains:

“My step by step process for A/B testing starts with analysis—in my opinion, this is the core of any good testing program. In the analysis stage, the goal is to analyze your analytics data, survey or UX data, or any other sources of customer insight you might have in order to understand where your opportunities for optimization are.”

The scrutinize phase of our conversion optimization SHIP method is 60-70% of the time a consultant spends on the project. Ultimately that research and discovery of the website, site visitors, and burning questions is what shapes the rest of the project.

3. Velocity of testing

We use velocity loosely because it is really highly dependent on the project and website we are working on. I can’t be conducting a lot of testing a site that has limited visitors and conversions. We use a different approach for those specific sites.

However, if a site has the traffic and conversion volume, we take our testing up a notch. What is critical however is to never do what we call: reckless testing. Tests that have no evidence or data or reasoning. Anyone can do that. As a CRO managing a CRO project, well, that is simply unacceptable. Your tests have to be rooted in meaningful data and a meaningful thought process behind it.

4. Defining a sound hypothesis

There’s confusion when it comes to creating a hypothesis. Many may think of as the problem that has been uncovered, while others jump to creating solutions. But that’s not what a hypothesis. We have found that most tests with a sound hypothesis tend to perform well. If we run tests that don’t have a strong hypothesis behind them, statistically, they have a greater likelihood of failure. According to Sharon Hurley Hall:

“When you start your testing without a hypothesis, you’re wasting time. A hypothesis is an idea about what you need to test and why, and what changes you’ll see after you make any changes. With this structure in place, you’ll know the scope of your test and when it succeeds or fails. Without it, your testing is just a guessing game.”

The hypothesis should be a group effort. A single problem can have multiple hypotheses, and it’s up to the team to consider the best hypothesis that will drive that greatest return. Putting the time and effort into defining the hypothesis is an important consideration for the success of a project.

5. Cross-device testing

Image Source: smashingmagazine

It’s sometimes the little things that matter most. Having a precise process on how to go about things is critical in order for a project to succeed and to minimize error. The activities may seem mundane, but less errors equals greater success. That’s why cross browser and device testing is a critical component to a test launch.

6. Pre-test prototype with an unfamiliar eye

You don’t have to do this every time, but very often, prior to developing a concept, prototyping it can help you have a more razor-sharp focus on the validity of a design – especially if it is a time consuming change that takes a lot of development time. Don’t just launch blindly, create a prototype and conduct usability testing to see the viability of the change prior to making it.

7. Limit the number of changes

Sometimes tests are bundled, meaning there are more than one change in a single test. That isn’t always the best approach if you want to identify what change had the greatest impact! That’s why we encourage the changes to be limited in order to pinpoint which change had the greatest impact.

8. Define the goals

Look at any marketing activity or project needs to have well defined goals. It’s really not rocket-science or anything new. The emphasis on KPIs and OKRs is something real that impacts conversion rate optimization first and foremost. The project overall should have an objective, and each change should have an accompanying goal. This will help define the direction of the project and even the way the changes will be made.

9. Process, process, process

I may sound like a broken record, but following a process is really important. We have our processes defined in playbooks for each portion of a CRO project. That doesn’t mean our process isn’t evolving. Online marketing is evolving so your process should NEVER be set in stone. However, if something is tried and succeeds, we like to define it so we can try it again and again, eventually building upon it. But you need to have a structure for a project, otherwise, things can get messy and confusing rather quickly.

The advice is simple, but important in order to have great success in whatever CRO project you are conducting. What do you think are the components of a successful CRO project?

The post 9 Components of A Successful CRO Project appeared first on Invesp.

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<a href=”https://www.invespcro.com/blog/images/blog-images/data-driven-marketing.jpg”><img src=”https://www.invespcro.com/blog/images/blog-images/data-driven-marketing.jpg” alt=”The importance of data driven marketing – Statistics and Trends” width=”580″></a></p><br /> <p>Infographic by- <a href=”https://www.invespcro.com/services/landing-page-optimization/”>Invesp Landing page Design and Optimization</a>

The most Important objectives of Data Driven Marketing

Over 40% of brands plan to expand their data-driven marketing budgets whereas 88% of marketers surveyed use data obtained by third parties to enhance their understanding of each customer

Data Driven Marketing Strategies Companies Using to Improve Conversion Rates

64% of marketing executives “strongly agree” that data-driven marketing is crucial in the economy

49% of marketers feel “significant pressure” to increase data’s role in their current strategy whereas  87% of marketers consider data their organization’s most underutilized asset

54% of companies say their biggest challenge to data-driven marketing success is the lack of data quality and completeness

More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents believe that they’ve had a somewhat or significant increase in access to useful data over the past year  but only 49% of respondents reported being somewhat or very effective at using data-informed insights to guide future strategy

Biggest Challenges of Data Driven Marketing

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Visits, page views, bounce rates, cart abandonment, etc. are all great metrics, but their utility wanes when it comes to their ability to provide any actionable intelligence about advanced efficiency metrics (attribution, channel ROI, etc.) and effectiveness metrics (think strategic business outcomes like market share, category growth, etc.).

Advanced metrics inevitably require combining data from various sources and businesses to make informed decisions about the best approach to implementing analytics rigor that is in line with business priorities, resource availabilities and commercial constraints.

In this post, I discuss the importance of tagging within the context of digital data mining and outline 3 different implementation approaches. I will contrast the limitations of various tagging approaches when dealing with advanced data analysis scenarios and how they impact decision making.

Digital data collection-The technology options

The common vocabulary used for enriching clickstream data is tagging. For the purpose of a wider discussion around digital insights though, we swap the word tagging with Digital data collection. A capability that can be implemented using 3 distinct approaches.

Option 1– Using Plain JavaScript

Tech-savvy analysts would already be aware of how JavaScript tags are typically used in conjunction with pixel-based tracking techniques (Google Analytics, Coremetrics, Adobe Analytics etc.) to capture data about important events relevant for specific business context.

Image source: Tekraze

This technique is the predominant method for collecting digital behavior data, yet it has its limitations in terms of how effectively and efficiently can the data be collected and the ease with which it can be assimilated to provide advanced digital intelligence.

Consider for example a simple use case of a small SaaS business that is just starting out with its analytics journey. Basic metrics such as page views, unique sessions, newsletter signups, CRM leads, collateral downloads etc. would likely be enough as a starting point to building an optimization agenda. The company is likely using simple lead capture forms with inbuilt support for plugging into tools such as Google Analytics. In such cases, simple JavaScript snippets are written directly within the CMS (e.g. within WordPress themes or landing page builder platform) would likely be enough to send any additional data into the analytics tracking tool.

Small team sizes, in-frequent website code updates, single installation web properties, and an online-only acquisition channel are some of the factors that make it perfectly fine to simply use vanilla JavaScript coding to enrich basic clickstream data already captured by the web analytics tool.

In terms of technology options, tools such as Google Analytics or Mixapanel can be easily set up to use JavaScript-based coding approach.

Option 2 – Using Tag Management Technology

Tag managers provide an alternative to the direct JavaScript tags-based data collection approach but come with their own limitations around getting insights for metrics that were not originally planned when the data layer was put in place or where merging with offline datasets is required.  

Consider the scenario of a media publisher whose business model relies heavily upon how well it can monetize its digital properties. Some specific considerations around business context include the following:

1. The publisher operates multiple sites for varying audience categories, but all of them just follow the same underlying analytics architecture.
2. The Company is looking to roll out an analytics solution that will help better quantify digital engagement so it can use the stats to demand better pricing for its digital inventory.
3. The Company wants to segment its users based on various behavioral signals that the visitors exhibit as they browse through the company’s media properties.  A Technology advertiser looking to target its content specifically to an engaged and in-market C-level audience would likely pay a higher price for ad exposure if the company can show the advertiser’s ads specifically to cookies that meet this criterion.

How can this be implemented technically?

Behavioral signals used to assess engagement are generated as the user interacts with a website.

Is it still advisable to capture these using plain JavaScript?

Perhaps not. Consider the following arguments to understand why;

1. The company has multiple web properties with different HTML markups. Building code that reads directly from HTML DOM can be highly problematic because the changes will have to be implemented separately for every DOM variation. For example, we need to tag all visitors who come from a specific campaign and interact with an article in a certain manner (spend > x secs on a page, reach section y of the page, etc.). Site A identifies all such articles of interest as HTML id ‘A’ while Site B uses different identifiers. How do we write JavaScript code once and make it work across HTML DOM variations?
2. Every digital property has its own release cycle, which means that putting a code into production cannot happen simultaneously if we inject JavaScript code directly into web pages. This will likely present significant reporting challenges when conveying campaign performance figures to Clients.
3. The specific signals that define ‘intent’ may be a matter of experiment and involve trying out different JavaScript codes before adding a cookie to a segment. For example, the first iteration might assume engagement to be consisting of:

a. Visitor spending > x seconds on an article

b. No exit from the landing page

c. At least one follow-up interaction (submit a query, phone call, online webinar registration etc.)

However, the company might want to try out different such conditions and then run A/B experiments to identify the most relevant definition of engagement. All this requires a significant amount of testing with JavaScript coding variations and having a dependency on code release cycles can be a significant drag in the marketing team’s ability to provide answers to sales teams about exactly what constitutes engagement.

4. The operational issues around maintaining JavaScript code that must change every time the HTML markup is changed can be simply unmanageable and cost prohibitive. Consider the process nightmares involved in having to communicate code changes to a central team or worst, having to take formal approvals before making HTML DOM changes!

As you can see, directly injecting JavaScript code into HTML pages may no longer be a viable option in this specific scenario.

A better approach would use a Tag Manager solution that can provide the following benefits:

4. 4. 1. Tag Managers use an intermediate data layer that can decouple server-side logic from HTML markup. For example, instead of having separate code on site A that counts the number of downloads of a form with div id ‘A’ and then another code on site ‘B’ that identifies the same form with div id ‘B’, we could write and deploy a single snippet that fires for every value in an intermediate JavaScript variable ‘C’. This variable would be populated at the time of page load and would require no changes in the client-side JavaScript code.
      2. As long as an intermediate canonical data format is used (a.k.a. the data layer), individual website owners would have the flexibility in using whatever HTML markup that they have been using historically and not run the risk of break existing functionality.
      3. One of the biggest USPs of the Tag Management approach would be that all changes to JavaScript tags can be implemented centrally as opposed to on individual properties. This would allow not just the centralization of Technical Architecture but also significantly reduce the time taken to roll out tag changes.

But of course, these benefits come with additional costs and implementation complexities and every business must make its own unique assessment around which approach might suit better given a set of constraints about business requirements, skills availability, and time/budget constraints.

In terms of technology options though, tools such as Google Tag Manager, Qubit, Ensighten can all be considered as viable platform choices.

Option 3- Using Server-side tagging on raw clickstream data

This is the most flexible but the most resource and cost intensive approach to data collection and involves creating meta-data on the fly instead of using JavaScript-based tags.

The first two scenarios outlined above focused entirely on tracking behavior online.

But what if analysis needs require working with a combination of online/offline datasets?

To illustrate the tracking complexity in this situation better, consider a large B2B Software Company that captures leads online but where the actual conversion happens after a number of interactions with the website, webinar presentations, offline events, and sales team calls.

How does this company profile and segment its prospects and customers? Can we still feasibly send interaction data from multiple channels into the analytics tool via the Tag Management solution?

Perhaps not. Consider some reasons as to why not;

4. 4. 1. Every interaction would have a different customer/prospect identifier. Even if you could somehow send in offline data into the analytics tool, you would still need to bring data out to create a single profile that combines the data from different events into a record with the common identifier. Tag Manager and certainly basic web analytics tools such as Google Analytics are simply not designed for this use case.
      2. Most large companies have enterprise-level data warehouses and advanced business intelligence tools that are purpose-built for aggregating and analyzing complex data sets created from varied sources. Going off the established Enterprise Architecture would almost always be resisted by most IT teams.

A better approach in this scenario would be to deploy a server-side tagging architecture which allows not just attaching arbitrary metadata to visitor level clickstream records but also facilitates complex ETL operations through integration with leading data integration tools.

Such an approach could include following general steps:

4. 4. 1. In addition to sending interaction data into the web analytics tool, we would record the cookie ID in CRM as soon as a lead is generated online.
      2. The backend code would ensure that the cookie ID gets associated with the unique CRM record identified.
      3. The cookie ID could then be used to regularly pull all web behavioral data into an intermediate data store.
      4. Finally, the behavioral data from intermediate data store could be merged with data collected from other offline interactions such as event attendance, roadshow participations, webinar registrations on third-party sites etc. to create composite datasets for powering advanced customer intelligence.

By following the 4 steps above, you will have a unified profile of every visitor and which combines data from online(web/mobile) and offline interactions would allow the brand to develop advanced personas that can then be deployed in personalized marketing.

Tools such as iJento, Tealium, and Adobe Insights provide varying degrees of capabilities when it comes to server-side tagging.

Summary

Small businesses may never have an immediate need for implementing advanced digital measurement infrastructures but would like to at least be aware of the options. Mid-sized companies may have clarity about the specific analysis needs but lack the knowledge (or budget!) to get there. Large companies may have both the need and the knowledge but might lack the roadmap that incrementally onboard analytics rigor in line with business priorities and resource constraints.  

Regardless of the context though, analytics and conversion specialists should have a perspective of the various approaches (and the pros and cons of each) that can be leveraged to put in place robust digital insights capabilities.

The post 3 Approaches to Harnessing Advanced Digital Insights With Data appeared first on Invesp.

She conducted experiments early in her tenure that were groundbreaking. She set up a tasting table at a grocery store, offering visitors a taste of an assortment of 24 different jams. 60% of the shoppers stopped by and took a taste. But then she set up a table with just 6 flavors. A lesser amount of 40% of shoppers stopped by and took a taste.

But the kicker was that 30% of those who stopped the 6-choices table ended up making a purchase, vs. a measly 3% of those who stopped by at the table with the larger assortment.

This study “raised the hypothesis that the presence of choice might be appealing as a theory,” Professor Iyengar said last year, “but in reality, people might find more and more choice actually to be debilitating.”

Over the years, versions of the jam study have been conducted using all sorts of subjects, like chocolate and speed dating.

What’s the point of this? While companies try to push a number of different products at customers and site visitors, however, research proves simple is better. When humans are confronted with too many choices, they will be unhappy with their selection or unable to make a choice. According to Hoa Loranger:

“Humans have limited capacities for processing information and often choose the path of least effort, even though an alternative path would result in better outcomes. Users often take shortcuts and may appear lazy, but their actions are ways of protecting themselves from information overload and fatigue.”

Think about the last time you went to a restaurant, if the menu is too big (like Cheesecake factory), you take forever to make a decision, and you may just revert to something you’ve already tasted before. Where is the fun in that?

The abundance of choice is often “more limiting” to the consumer than having a controlled number of choices, which makes the decision and precision in the choice easier.

According to Nora Popova:

“Feeling overwhelmed by number of potential options often leads to inertia.”

We’ve all experienced this online. Think of the last time you shopped at an e-commerce store and were presented with an insane number of options. For instance, if you’re looking to buy a pair of shoes and even know in your head what kind of shoes you want to buy,

Even if you have a ballpark idea of what you want, you will likely find hundreds of options on a specialized shoe website.

You may even veer off what you are searching for in the first place – get frustrated and leave.

Is Abundance of choice ever a good thing?

Well, in case you haven’t noticed already, humans are very interesting creatures, and there is really a right answer when it comes to how people think.

As the renowned American psychologist Barry Schwartz says in his paper ‘Tyranny of Choice’

“As the number of choices we face increase, the psychological benefits we derive start to level off… Some of the negative effects of choice… begin to appear and rather than level off, they accelerate.”

What’s clear is when humans are confronted with many choices, their expectations rise, which likely results in dissatisfaction.

Schwartz points out some results of too many choices:

1. People end up selecting something good enough instead of the best option
2. Expectations are much higher, which results in greater disappointments
3. You pay more attention to what others are doing with more choices, rather than deciding what’s best for you

How many times have you made a decision about something when presented with many options, and then looked back regretting and maybe thinking you could have done better? It happens all the time. Like the last time I booked a hotel on Orbitz I thought, but what if I chose that other hotel?

Janelle De Weerd offers:

“Make the decision less painful: Use simple design, give shoppers time to decide, provide choice shaping information.”

When you have too many options to choose from, you will make choice and then start to feel that you could have done better. You might feel poorly about the choice you made because you will always think you could have made a better choice because there were so many options available. In the end, it will be like a domino effect. Triggered by the abundance of choice leading to high expectations finally followed by dissatisfaction.

Barry Schwartz also says something similar in his interesting Ted Talk. He talks about buying a pair of jeans. He states that when back in the day when so many options of jeans were not available and almost everyone used to buy the same kind of pair, they used to walk out relatively happy. Though the jeans may not have fit well, they were not dissatisfied because not too many options were available.

But now, with hundreds of kinds of jeans made available to us, we almost never are happy. Because we know we could have done better. We literally had hundreds of jeans to choose from.

Simplicity Over Abundance in Online World

We ran a qualitative study for customers visiting a client site selling home goods and stationery items. One of the questions we asked visitors who intended to leave (exit intent) what was the source of their dissatisfaction with the site that ultimately prompted them to leave?  The said the product selection was too limited.

After reading all of these studies by professors Schwartz and Iyengar, this perplexed us. Visitors then want to see a great breadth of a product but get overwhelmed and likely dissatisfied with too few options.

So what’s the solution?

Consider a site like aliexpress.com for women’s dresses, the results come back with 464,868 choices. Talk about a breadth of product. But this can cause grave dissatisfaction because of the abundance of choice is magnified with endless options. In a physical world, the space available to showcase any products is limited. But virtual world is infinite, and the number of products that can be displayed is endless.

I consider my experience shopping at a store with a limited product like Ann Taylor, vs. going to a store like Marshalls with too much product. My experience at Ann Taylor is always more positive.

And the jam study findings reaffirm my feeling and this state that our human brains, both off and online, can’t deal with too much choice. The excess choice ultimately leads to anxiety, and the brain begins to focus not on what it has, but instead on what it doesn’t have. The greater the sacrifice, the more dissatisfaction is felt.

Let us also see how the abundance of choice works in SaaS industry.

The industry standard is to have between 3 and 4 packages on the pricing grid. Many SaaS pricing pages have that number and tend to highlight one of the plans as “most popular”.

What becomes clear is that it’s not the number of plans that matters [abundance of choice], but the amount of information that a person has to consider.

If we see the pricing package for both the websites, one offers 3 plans and the other 4 plans. BidSketch purposefully presents its users with only 1 factor to consider, number of users. In contrast, Surveygizmo used to give its users 15 factors. According to information overload theory, choosing a plan at Surveygizmo will be more overwhelming than choosing a plan at BidSketch because of the number of options present.

Less is more

Benjamin Scheibehenne, a research scientist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, said it might be too simple to conclude that too many choices are bad, just as it is wrong to assume that more choices are always better. It can depend on what information we’re being given as we make those choices, the type of expertise we have to rely on and how much importance we ascribe to each choice.

Mr. Scheibehenne recently co-wrote an analysis, to be published in October in The Journal of Consumer Research, examining dozens of studies about choices. One problem, he said, is separating the concept of choice overload from information overload.

Gif source: Tenor

In other words, he said, how much are people affected by the number of choices and “how much from the lack of information or any prior understanding of the options?”

As per the 401[k] pension fund study, if more fund options are offered, fewer people participate. And the highest participation rates are among those employees who are automatically enrolled in their company’s 401(k)’s unless they actively choose not to.

This is a case where offering a default option of opting in, rather than opting out doesn’t take away choice but guides us to make better ones.

Sometimes, it’s a good thing

Having discussed the perils of the abundance of choice, sometimes too much of choice can be a good thing too.

We have discussed hundreds of pairs of jeans to too many dresses on the website to choose from, but have we ever actually walked out of a website or an actual store without buying anything because we had too much of choice?

Sometimes we actually walk into a place because it offers a wide choice. Like various kinds of cheeses at a deli. For cheese lovers, they likely go because they are offering a huge choice of cheeses.

Egor Driagin offers:

“Help customers to identify the dominant option in the choice set:

This could mean making it easier for users to eliminate “inferior” options in the choice set (review ratings, bestseller tags, and filters).

This could mean designing products for distinct segments so that users would not need to make complicated trade-offs between products.”

Simplicity or abundance of choice doesn’t revolve only around the number of products or services to choose from, but also comes into picture while choosing the specifications of the product or a particular service.

For example, the iPhone remains to be an extremely popular product despite the fact that there are many mobile phones out in the market which are cheaper, have bigger screens and a lot more features. That is because Apple has simplified the decision-making process by providing the users with exactly what they need, without too many frills. Of course, there are some users who like the complexity of the technology, but a lot more people have proven to like the simplicity and easy to use technology. And that’s the reason Apple dominates the market.

When you have an abundance of choice, there are ways to make the decision easier for your visitors:

1. Filtration: Providing visitors a way to find precisely what they need allows for a better experience, without losing breadth of choice.
2. Anchoring: is when an initial piece of information is used to make subsequent decisions (reg vs. sale price). Incorporating anchoring in the choices visitors have, helps them make decisions.
3. Frame and account: is how our decisions are shaped based on language 5% fat vs. 95% fat free. By suggesting different variants to the language on the variety of products you can help visitors make a better decision.
4. Prospect theory: is about how we evaluate options and make decisions. Visitors will estimate in a biased and unlikely way the perceived likelihood of all the options. The way you order the products considering intent can have a tremendous impact.
5. Loss aversion: losses have more than twice the psychological impacts of equivalent gains. This is one of the biases that can come from prospect theory. Visitors will tend to give more weight to small probabilities to guard against losses.
6. Endowment effect the feeling of ownership you have once you’ve been given something. Promotions and incentives can help move visitors through to the next stage.

The Balancing Act

Too much of choice is a bad thing, but it’s not bad all the time in some cases.

Image source: Superheroes

Increasingly the studies are proving that more options always lead to fewer actions and conversely fewer options lead to more actions being taken.

But it has to be about finding the middle path. We can take away a lot of knowledge from the above-mentioned studies to understand how this concept works the best for conversion rate optimization.

• You can eliminate too much of choice on the webpage by providing just one clear call to action button, which calls for just one desired action from the user.
• Making the outreach personal and relevant, and by not sending emails with too much information.
• By reducing the number of products or services that are displayed per page.
• By using some of the psychological tactics to help decipher through the abundant choices.

According to Barry Schwartz:

“Does choice overload always occur? Of course not. Does it affect all people, in all domains of decision making? Of course not. Does it matter how options are organized and arrayed? By all means, yes. Does adding options improve decision making by making salient features of alternatives that might otherwise be ignored? Sometimes, yes. But sometimes it has a perverse effect, by making salient features of options that ought to be ignored.”

While talking about simplicity over abundance of choice and while explaining why simplicity is better, let me briefly tell you about decision fatigue, and why it affects the human psychology in terms of making choices.

Image source: Intech

Decision fatigue is when we start taking shortcuts as we exhaust our mental energy. Research suggests that humans have a limit on how many active, deliberate decisions they can make in a certain time period. The more we exhaust that reserve, the more likely we are to look for shortcuts.

There was a study conducted to prove this point. Researchers analyzed more than 1,100 decisions made by court judges. They found that as the day went by (and judges made more decisions), judges were becoming more likely to take shortcuts when deciding which prisoners to release before their official sentence was over.

Result?

Prisoners who appeared at the start of the day received parole about 65% of the time. Those who appeared late in the day received parole less than 10% of the time. Put simply, as judges got tired they used the least-risky option and allowed only a small number of prisoners out.

Conclusion

Ultimately If people have a strong preference for a particular product, the choice won’t overwhelm them. They will simply choose their favorite option.

Human beings have limited energies for processing information and more often than not, choose the path of minimum effort, even though an alternative path would result in better results. Users often take shortcuts and may appear disinterested, but their actions are ways of protecting themselves from information overload and fatigue.

All decisions people make require mental effort. As technological advancements proliferate, so does the amount of work required to make good choices. Every decision, large or small, costs us time and effort.

And in the end, as Mr. Scheibehenne said:

“It is not clear that more choice gives you more freedom. It could decrease our freedom if we spend so much time trying to make choices.”

The post The Paradox of Choice in Web Design: Simplicity vs. Abundance of Choice appeared first on Invesp.

• There are hundreds of case studies and examples of A/B testing. While A/B testing is important, it’s just a small fraction of the overall CRO process.
• AB testing isn’t foolproof and like anything in statistics, results can be inaccurate. But the more you know about what makes a test valid, and basic statistical concepts, the more likely it is that you will not face errors.
•  Validity threats are risks associated with certain uncontrollable or ‘little-known’ factors that can lead to inaccuracy in results and render inaccurate A/B test outputs and they’re categorized as type 1 and type 2 errors.
• A null hypothesis is an assumption stating that there is absolutely no relation between two datasets. Hypothesis testing is done to either prove or disprove if an assumption is correct or wrong.
• In statistics, type 1 error is said to occur when a true null hypothesis is rejected, which is also called a ‘false positive’ occurrence. Results might indicate that Variation B is better than Variation A as B is giving you more conversions, but there might be a type 1 error causing this conclusion.
• In statistics, type 2 errors or a false negative occur when a false null hypothesis is retained or accepted. Or, in other words, when a test is inconclusive when in reality it is conclusive. 
• Flicker effect: this occurs when original content flashes for a brief time before the variation gets loaded onto the visitors’ screens. This leads to visitors getting confused about content, and can result in conversions dropping.
• History effect: this happens when an extraneous variable is introduced while a test is running, and leads to a skewing of results. It happens because an AB test is unlike a lab test and does not run in isolation. Therefore, AB tests are prone to be affected by external variables and real-world factors.
• Instrumentation effect: these are errors related to your testing tool and code implementations. It happens when the tool you’re using is faulty or the implemented the wrong code.
• Selection effect: this bias or error occurs because the sample is not representative of your entire audience. One of the reasons why selection error happens is because of sample bias. Marketers conducting experiments get attached to the hypothesis that they have constructed. Everyone wants their hypothesis to win. So, it is easy to select a certain sample for testing and eliminate factors or variants that might result in their hypothesis being incorrect.
• Novelty effect: error or changes in test results that are an outcome of introducing something unusual or new that the visitor is not used to. The novelty effect happens because something new is fed to visitors.
• Statistical regression: this happens when you end a test too early. This leads to data being evened out over the time period. Most people end the test when a 90% significance level is reached, without reaching the required sample size. You cannot be sure of the AB test results only by reaching 90% significance. You must be able to reach the required sample size as well.
• Simpson’s paradox: this happens because of changing the traffic splits for variants while the test is going on. It occurs when a trend that was being observed in different sets of data disappears by combining those groups.

Here’s A Longer And More Detailed Version Of The Article.

There are hundreds of case studies and examples on AB testing, explaining what makes it highly useful for conversion optimization. While AB testing is important, it is a mere component of the overall CRO process. What’s critical to keep in mind is not dive into AB testing right away until you know everything about interpreting, analyzing, and understanding test results.

AB testing isn’t foolproof and like anything in statistics, results can simply be wrong. But the more you know about what makes a test valid, and basic statistical concepts, the more likely it is that you will not face errors. This is where validity threats because of an important topic of discussion. If left unidentified or unaccounted for, they can lead you to take the wrong decision.

What are validity threats, you ask? In simple words, validity threats are risks associated with certain uncontrollable or ‘little-known’ factors that can lead to inaccuracy in results and render inaccurate AB test outputs. Broadly speaking, validity threats can be categorized as type 1 and type 2 errors. But before we define these errors, let’s understand what a null hypothesis is.

Null hypothesis: An assumption stating that there is absolutely no relation between two datasets. Hypothesis testing is done, to either prove that is an assumption is wrong or correct.

Gif source: Giphy

Type 1 errors: In statistics, type 1 error is said to occur when a true null hypothesis is rejected, which is also called ‘false positive’ occurrence. Results might indicate that Variation B is better than Variation A as B is giving you more conversions, but there might be a type 1 error causing this conclusion. Such errors are said to occur when a test is declared as conclusive although it is inconclusive. In every test, there is some amount of probability of false positives or incorrect conclusions.

Hypothetical case study explaining type 1 errors:

You have a SaaS product and you believe that changing the CTA ‘free trial’ from fixed to floating will get you higher free trial subscriptions. Variation A will have fixed CTA and Variation B a floating free trial CTA.

You launch the test and check results within 48 hours. Results point out that Variation B is giving 2% higher conversions with 90% confidence. You declare Variation B as the winner. A week passes by and you see that conversions are starting to show a downward trend. What went wrong? Probably you checked the results too early or maybe you did not set the right confidence interval.

Type 2 errors:  In statistics, type 2 errors or a false negative occurs when a false null hypothesis is retained or accepted.Or, in other words, when a test as inconclusive when in reality it is conclusive. As opposed to type 1 error, type 2 error occurs when evidence shows that Variation A is either performing better or just like Variation B.

Hypothetical case study explaining type 2 errors:

For example, your hypothesis is that introducing the option ‘Pay by PayPal’ is likely to improve purchases.

Version A (Control): Does not have PayPal payment option

Version B: Includes the option to ‘Pay by Paypal’ on checkout

Test results show that Version A wins and the option to ‘Pay by PayPal’ did not have any effect on final conversions. However, in reality, this might have happened because maybe your sample size was not appropriate. If you had increased the sample size, you might have eliminated this type 2 error or false negative.

Types of Validity Threats and How to Minimize Them

Having understood the two common categorizations of validity threats, let’s study in detail the common threats to the validity of AB tests. Also, let’s get to know how to minimize them.

1. Flicker Effect

Gif source: Kameleoon

What is it: Occurs when original content flashes for a brief time before the variation gets loaded onto the visitors’ screens. This leads to visitors getting confused about content, and can result in conversions dropping. Any disturbance on the website and slow loading can put visitors off. If visitors see two different content being shown to them during the website loads, it is likely to make them suspicious and withdraw.

Why it happens: Flickering might happen because of slow website loading speed, the code being added incorrectly to the webpage being tested, because of code being asynchronous, or because too many scripts are being loaded before the test script. There could be some other reasons as well, other than what we’ve mentioned, which lead to flicker effect.

Example: For example, on your variations being testing, you have applied the testing code to the bottom of the test variation rather than to the header. This can cause flickering as the browser will execute the code only in the end and not as soon as the visitor lands on the variation. And, as a result, the visitor will first see the original content on his screen.

How to minimize it: Optimizing your website speed will help reduce flicker. You should also be careful while implementing the code. Another thing to ensure is that the testing script is removed from the tag manager or that it is set to a synchronous code.

2. History Effect

What is it: History effect happens when an extraneous variable is introduced while a test is running, and leads to skewing of results.

Why it happens: It happens because an AB test is unlike a lab test and does not run in isolation. Therefore, AB tests are prone to be affected by external variables and real-world factors.

Example: You are running a marketing campaign utilizing a landing page from your website and you are running an AB test on that landing page. You might see a spike in the traffic on your landing page due to the marketing campaign that you are running on it. This might lead to increased sign-ups on that landing page as well. Now, it might lead you to conclude that the original landing page is better while in reality Variation B might have won in case you wouldn’t be running the marketing campaign at the time. In this case, ‘the marketing campaign’ is the extraneous variable that has caused your AB test to give skewed results.

How to minimize it: The best way to tackle the history effect is to take into account any external factors that can skew results. Apart from this, it is important to let everyone in the organization know if an AB test is being run. Knowing that an AB test is being conducted will ensure that no one on the team introduces any external factors/variables during the tenure of the test, to the pages being tested. Making use of Google Analytics alongside your AB testing tool will also help you track any changes in traffic that have happened not because of the test but because of an external variable. This will save you from deploying the wrong variation and incur losses.

Case Study: This post on validity threats, by Marketing Experiments, talks about a case study where they wanted to determine which ad headline would fetch the highest click-through-rate for their subscription-based website. During the test, an external ‘real world’ event occurred that led to a significant and transient change in the traffic coming to the website. And, this resulted in the skewing of results as well.  

3. Instrumentation Effect

What is it: These errors are related to your testing tool and code implementations.

Why it happens: When the tool you are using is faulty. Or, in case you have deployed the incorrect code. It can also happen if the code is deployed incorrectly or is not compatible with browser types. Although, deploying incorrect code is not like a faulty test engine – each of those are problems and each need to be diagnosed differently.

Example/Examples: One out of the 4 variations you are testing is not running properly on Chrome. This means the chances of recording conversions on that variation are slim. If the code was compatible with Chrome, that Variation would have given a different result.

How to minimize it: A/A testing is one way that can help you determine if your tool is faulty or hasn’t been deployed correctly, or is inefficient. If this is the case then your AA test will conclude a winner even between two identical variations. The problem, however, with AA testing is that it is time-consuming. It is best to perform an AA test only if your website gets loads of traffic.  

Another way to tackle the instrumentation effect is to double check that your experimentation has been set up the right way. There is no code error, no mismatch between code and browser compatibility, and that your data is being passed correctly onto the CRM. Being vigilant and watchful for errors can help you minimize instrumentation effect in the best manner.

Raphael Paulin-Daigle recommends:

“Before launching ANY tests, you should always do rigorous Quality Assurance (QA) checks such as performing cross-browser and cross-device testing on your new variations, and trying out your variations under multiple different user scenarios.”

You must also ensure that the testing engine is compatible with Google Analytics in order to see the testing data in the GA and have that as a source of comparison.

In case, all of your measures to minimize instrumentation errors fails, it can be indicated that the testing engine is faulty.

Case Study: You can read this case study which talks about how Copyhackers ran a split test and found out there were major loopholes in their testing engine.

4. Selection Effect

What is it: The bias or error that occurs because the sample is not representative of your entire audience.

Why it happens: There are many reasons why one could end up picking a sample that does not completely or accurately represents the entire audience set. One of the reasons why selection error happens is because of sample bias. Marketers conducting experiments get attached to the hypothesis that they have constructed. Everyone wants their hypothesis to win. So, it is easy to select a certain sample for testing and eliminate factors or variants that might result in their hypothesis to be incorrect. While calculations can tell you the appropriate sample size, they are not helpful in deciding who should comprise the sample type. The idea is to keep the sample completely representative of your entire audience, free of bias.

Example: You are running ads on your website for premium hotels and your hypothesis is that number of bookings will increase by running this campaign. However, the conversions on Variation B that has the ad campaign running goes down instead of going up. Maybe your main traffic type comprises middle-income group and you haven’t considered this group in your sample. This is likely to skew your test results.

How to minimize it: Regularly study your analytics reports and keep digging deeper into the source of traffic.  Make sure that your sample that is truly representative and is free of sample pollution. Not taking into account the different types of traffic that visit and interacts with your website and comprises your sample, will cause regression to the mean. Include both new as well as returning traffic in your sample, and consider both weekday vs. weekend traffic in it.

Optimize smart summarizes the point:

“Each traffic source brings its own type of visitors, and you can’t assume that paid traffic from a few ads and one channel mirrors the behaviors, context, mindset, and needs of the totality of your usual traffic.”

Case Study: “In that case launching a winning variation may not result in any real uplift in sales/conversion rate. The launch of winning variation may, in fact, lower your conversion rate. When you’re analyzing the test results, make sure to segment by sources in order to see the real data that lies behind averages.” via SplitBase

5. Novelty Effect

Gif source: Giphy

What is it: Error or changes in test results that are an outcome of introducing something unusual or new that the visitor is not used to.

Why it happens: Novelty effect happens because of something new being fed to visitors. It occurs because of innate human behavior to prefer something new over old, such as alterations made to a landing page that visitors are not used to seeing on your website.

Example: Let’s flip back to online. You introduce slider images for your apparels section, in Variation B. In Variation A, you have one image for the apparel. Your hypothesis is that the version with slider images will fetch you more conversions. Even though your hypothesis wins, it might be that because of the new change is attention-grabbing, and results in the novelty effect kicking in, the conversion has seen a temporary spike.

How to minimize it: Your old set of the audience might behave differently just because they have been exposed to something new. Conversions, in this case, are simply likely to spike not because one version is better than the other, but because there is something different that the audience is getting to see. The best way to eliminate this bias is to try driving new traffic to your website while introducing something new and AB testing it.

Case Study: Let’s look at  FC Dallas stadium case study by Clive Thompson

“In 2005, FC Dallas — the city’s pro soccer team — moved into a new, state-of-the-art $80 million stadia. Over the next two years, games drew 66% more fans, with an average of about 15,145 attending each game. Over the next few years, though, as the novelty of the stadium diminished, some of those new fans began drifting away, and average attendance slid to 12,440.”

6. Statistical Regression

What is it: Regression towards mean, also called statistical regression happens when you end a test too early. This leads to data being evened out over the time period.

According to Ted Vrountas:

“If you’re making business decisions based on your A/B tests just because they reached statistical significance, stop now. You need to reach statistical significance before you can make any inferences based on your results, but that’s not all you need. You also have to run a valid test.”

Why it happens: Most people end the test when a 90% significance level is reached, without reaching the required sample size. You cannot be sure of the AB test results only by reaching 90% significance. You must be able to reach the required sample size as well. Otherwise, the results might actually just be imaginary. If, for example, the required sample size for your test is 50 and you end the test at the sample size 20 because you’ve reached 90% significance, your test results are skewed. There are a number of AB testing sample size calculators that can help you find out the required sample size for your AB test.

Example: You create a new landing page for your SaaS product and the all of your first 15 visitors convert on the new variation. This means that there is a 100% conversion rate. Does that mean that the new landing page is far better than the older one? No. First 15 visitors do not denote the full sample size. Your sample size calculator tells you that your minimum sample size is 50. You cannot conclude variation as winner having reached a sample size of 15.

How to minimize it: Do not stop your AB test when you reach statistical significance. You need to collect as much data as possible, which in turn will lead to higher accuracy in your test results. Reaching the required sample size is the key to eliminating statistical regression errors.

You must also calculate the sample size prior to running the test so that you can ensure meeting that number of conversions before the conclusion.

7. Simpson’s Paradox

Gif source: Giphy

What is it: Errors that happen because of changing the traffic splits for variants while the test is going on.

Why it happens: It occurs when a trend that was being observed in different sets of data disappears by combining those groups. This happens because when calculating test results, weighted averages are taken into account. Simpson’s paradox can also occur when an alteration to traffic distribution for a variation is done manually. For example, you see that Variation B is a winning variant, so you change traffic distribution to that variant. Another reason that it happens is that members of the population leave or join when a test is going on.

Example: To understand the point on weighted averages and Simpson’s paradox, let’s compare conversions and test results for control and variation, in the University of California example that Josh Baker explains:

“In 1973, the University of California at Berkeley was sued for showing bias in admissions for women to their graduate school. Men had a much better chance to be admitted than women according to the statistics given. “

The subgroups combined as below, showing men more likely to be admitted:

“But according to individual department numbers, it showed that there was a small but statistically significant bias that favored the women in actually having a higher chance of being admitted.”

The above chart is a good example of Simpson’s paradox and depicts how women results are performing better than men results when divided by departments.

How to minimize it: Rather than opting for what total numbers tell you, we should be ensured before start to testing, the groups are similar as far as possible.

Gordon S. Linoff explains:

“Simpson’s Paradox arises when we are taking weighted averages of evidence from different groups. Different weightings can produce very different, even counter-intuitive results. The results become much less paradoxical when we see the actual counts rather than just the percentages.”

Georgi Georgiev recommends:

“We should threat each source/page couple as a separate test variation and perform some additional testing  until we reach the desired statistically significant result for each pair (currently we do not have significant results pair-wise).”

Let’s look at another example.

Example: To understand the point on weighted averages and Simpson’s paradox, let’s compare conversions and test results for control and variation, in the following hypothetical example.

The above chart is the perfect exemplification of Simpson’s paradox and depicts how Variation A is performing better than Variation B when divided by traffic sources.

How to minimize it: Rather than opting for what aggregates tell you, dig a little deeper into a segment-wise performance of your variations. Maybe, you would like to retail Variation B for traffic source 3 as it is performing equally well as Variation A is for the same traffic source. Maybe, deploying Variation A for traffic source 2 is a good idea. Such insights can help you improve your decision making and infer better out of AB testing.

Conclusion

AB tests aren’t free of bias and there are a number of factors that can skew the results that you obtain from AB testing. However, if you are aware of validity threats – type 1 and type 2, which we have discussed in this post, you can stay vigilant, take into account the scope of error, and wisely interpret test results. We’d love to know if you ever ran an AB test and encountered a validity threat. Share with us your experience and learnings in comments below. Feedback is welcome!

The post Validity Threats to Your AB Test and How to Minimize Them appeared first on Invesp.