Mia Gokce Tombul

Want better conversion rates? Do the opposite of most brands: Most digital businesses add features. They chase shiny ideas and lose focus. Instead of solving one problem well, they dilute their product. Retention drops. The best teams do the opposite: they remove features. They strip away friction, shorten time to value, and focus on the core. Find the minimum users need to buy and stay. Get better at delivering that—and cut the rest. Growth is hard, but don’t overcomplicate it.

27

24 Comments

After working with $3.5B ARR brands, here's the truth: Noobs and experts tackle CRO very differently. Here are some key contrasts: 1. Beginner: "Let's change the button color to boost conversions." Expert: "What user behavior data supports this change?" 2. Beginner: "More pop-ups will capture more leads." Expert: "How can we add value without disrupting the user experience?" 3. Beginner: "Our conversion rate is low. We need a complete redesign." Expert: "Let's analyze the data to identify specific pain points first." 4. Beginner: "Mobile optimization isn't crucial for our B2B audience." Expert: "Let's ensure a seamless experience across all devices and contexts." 5. Beginner: "Our test didn't work. CRO doesn't work for our business." Expert: "What insights can we gain from this test to inform our next hypothesis?" The key takeaway? Expert CRO is about asking the right questions, not jumping to quick fixes. It's about: - Testing methodically - Understanding user behavior - Continuously improving based on data Where do you fall on this spectrum? Are you taking a beginner or expert approach to CRO? Share your thoughts below! 👇 - - - Want more expert CRO insights? I've compiled our top 446-point CRO checklist to increase conversion fast based on 2,500 A/B tests 1. Like and repost this post 2. Comment "CRO TIPS" and I'll DM you the full list. (Follow me first)

108

69 Comments

If 100% of your tests succeed, you’re not truly testing. This is probably my No. 1 takeaway from scaling two very different businesses. Here’s why: A good portion of your tests failing is the sign of a healthy experimentation process. Whether it's your marketing strategy or a product feature, if every test is succeeding, you're likely focusing on the wrong metrics or not aiming high enough in your experiments.

26

4 Comments

Launching ShowStop 🚀 Over the past six months, we've conducted hundreds of interviews and pilot tests with DTC brands, marketers, and SMB agencies. We've discovered that there's a super strong demand for managing and repurposing existing creative assets, like revisiting old footage (images or videos) to keep things fresh and trendy, rather than relying solely on net new AI video. In response, we're excited to introduce ShowStop—a dedicated MarTech SaaS designed to repurpose your best media into new, conversion-focused video ads automatically using AI. ShowStop generates multiple variations instantly, testing every element from the hook to the CTA, and puts creative control back in the hands of paid marketers. CreateIn will remain a separate innovation tool for AI video storytelling. We are soft launching ShowStop on Product Hunt today! Check it out at Product Hunt (https://lnkd.in/gSTkK-FX) and feel free to sign up for our waitlist at showstop.ai!

56

1 Comment

Revenue comes from scaling traffic Profit comes from maximizing conversions

1

CRO tip of the day. It is fine to use drag and drop editors to prototype and get things out fast. But once you find something that works, build it natively. You will likely gain a slight lift in conversion rate due to page speed load time--and being able to attain pixel perfect design (vs. clunky looking). #cro #ecommerce #conversionrateoptimization

4

Meta Advertisers: If your conversion tracking & ad structure are wrecked, creative can’t save you.   Just talked to a $25M brand running a strong creative motion.   But it looked like a 5th grader set up conversion tracking and ad accounts.   They’re putting out great statics & videos every week.   Starting with great creative frameworks & high-converting ad templates.   Even running a proper whitelisting play.   But it wasn’t enough to scale ads aggressively. B/c they had:   😡 Limited server-side tracking   😡 Only CAPI v. better options - Blotout, Elevar   😡 No micro-conversions - only orders   😡 Broken attribution - inaccurate GA4, no Northbeam   😡 Too many campaigns - crushing Meta’s ML’s potential   😡 Bad budget allocation - to Tests vs. Winners   😡 Too much ABO, too little CBO   😡 Too much retargeting - faking growth w/o incremental profit   --   Bums me out when good brands get in their own way (often bc of bad agencies). Yes, creative is a massive lever. But you’ll never be A+ if sleeping on the above.

25

25 Comments

Most ecoms overutilize Meta & neglect Google hardcore—a huge mistake. Here’s the 3-part, modern playbook top brands run: This isn’t anecdotal… - Based on aggressive ad testing - Across both Meta & Google - For 10+ high-growth brands - All between $5M-$75M in rev Here it is: 1. TOFU PMAX (Prospecting) - Non-brand, new customers only - Single asset group * Later: Test separate PMAX - For high margin products, cats, etc. * Large accounts: Test Demand Gen (needs time) - To feed PMAX high intent, cold traffic - Requires great video; arbitrage from Meta - Test all types: statics, videos, & feed - Run Lookalikes (only campaign that has) 2. MOFU Standard Shopping - For manual bidding - So can control “branded ad” cost - 2nd PMAX gatekeeper to funnel off brand terms * Later: Harvest keywords - To test Generic PPC * Large accounts: Test Display Remarketing - E.g., YouTube - Audience = visitors (non-purchased) 3. BOFU Exact Match Brand PPC - Target Impression Share (95%+) - Should have massive ROAS - 1st PMAX gatekeeper to funnel off brand terms Stop sleeping on Google. Diversify and get all your eggs out of Meta’s basket 👊

28

4 Comments

How We Helped Kiehl's Since 1851 Boost Revenue by $1.6M Through CRO. Kiehl's faced a common ecommerce challenge: increasing conversions while minimizing acquisition costs. Our "Conversion Blueprint" process uncovered 100s of optimizations. ✅ Reduced abandonment ✅ Increased purchases ✅ $1.6M in additional revenue 👉 Check out the full case study below.

12

1 Comment

Hands down, here's the top lesson I've learned from partnering with dozens of agencies:   🔴 "Meh" agencies focus on ROAS. 🟡 Good agencies focus on MER. 🟢 Great agencies focus on CM. 🔥 The top 1% turn ad spend into enterprise value.   The top 1% focus on profitable growth (CM), but they go further.   They know a secret most overlook and build a system around it.   Ultimately creating a predictable, repeatable, and defensible engine for growth.

27

8 Comments

How We Built a 7-Figure Agency with Zero Experience Quick story: 5 years ago, we were posting cringe button color tests on LinkedIn and getting roasted by every CRO expert out there. Today, we optimize billion-dollar e-commerce stores. I just recorded my first Less Ego More Data podcast in 2 years with the best co-founder I could imagine Fabian Gmeindl 🎙️ Here's what we covered in this raw conversation: 1. How we went from dropshipping jeans to running automated CRO programs 2. Why getting roasted on LinkedIn actually made us better optimizers 3. The exact process we used to learn proper A/B testing 4. How obsessing over statistics almost killed our ability to innovate 5. Breaking down how Tesla and LEGO think about conversion 6. Why I got banned from WeWork (and spent too much on LEGO) Want to hear how two clueless 19-year-olds built one of Europe's leading CRO agencies? Link in comments 👇

40

12 Comments

Announcing Aperiam's Latest Investment: Gigi! 🍒 Aperiam continues to make strategic bets in commerce media and CTV, the fastest-growing segments of digital advertising. With Amazon Ads being the largest commerce media channel AND the fastest-growing Streaming TV ad platform, we are excited to introduce our latest investment: Gigi. Why Gigi? 1) The product. Gigi’s unique ability to integrate a brand's first-party commerce data with Amazon's data for audience enrichment and deterministic omnichannel measurement sets it apart. This powerful combination enables brands and agencies to buy and measure Amazon Streaming TV ads more effectively. 2) The team. The founders behind Gigi consists of experienced commerce media executives - led by cofounder and CEO, Adam Epstein - who have a bold vision for the future of Streaming TV, commerce media, and data collaboration and a history of success in commerce media. Their expertise ensures that Gigi is at the forefront of innovation in this space. We believe Gigi’s capabilities and the vision of its team will drive significant advancements in how brands leverage data to enhance their advertising strategies on Amazon’s platform. Check out Gigi here: https://gigico.tv/ cc: James Borow Joe Zawadzki Danilo Tauro, PhD

140

7 Comments

In this video, learn how to effectively leverage Spark Toro to assess if a site's audience matches your target demographic. Discover how inputting a site and examining the audience's interests and behaviors can unveil potential commonalities for precise targeting. #SparkToro #AudienceAnalysis

1

"Ehhh, we don't waste time spending on top-of-funnel adv" A very real quote, from a very real, and very prolific growth marketer Responding to "Have you ever tested podcast ads?" 🤦‍♂️ In the quest to answer "How do we get podcast advertising on the media plan?" This is a huge problem. Sure. Us industry enthusiasts know podcasting is much more than a "brand awareness channel". But the popular option, amongst the majority, remains the same. Podcasting is not a DR channel. So how do we change this? PBA (pixel-based attribution) has been a great start and it's definitely contributed to the headway made demystifying this narrative. But This innovation alone is not fast enough to flip such a deeply engrained ideology on its head. So what does? A tool that can quantify and demonstrate the true, net new impact these ads have on a brand's bottom line. AKA Incrementality. Yup, conversion lift testing. In its nature, incrementality is one of, if not, the most rigorous forms of "performance quantifying" frameworks out there It's widely used across all industries and speaks the digital marketer's language. It concretely helps answer a question every advertiser has... "how many conversions would have been driven if the audience wasn't exposed to this ad at all" Incrementality isolates the impact not just of a channel but of campaigns to bring out the true "net new impact" dollars spent have on revenue made. Yet, the incrementality solutions available to podcast advertising historically have been, to put it lightly... Abhorrently tone deaf. - one-off - $$$ - resource intensive - require advertisers to adjust their campaign plan, sacrificing performance, in the effort to get the most statistically significantly incremental results. Podscribe's solution is different. We knew advertisers needed an 1. easy-to-use solution 2. that didn't cost an arm and a leg 3. didn't come in a PDF report 3 months later 4. and didn't require a team of data scientists to analyze AKA "Podscribe's always-on incrementality" available directly in your dashboard viewable at the flip of a toggle. And interpretable with or without a data science team. Making incrementality solutions accessible to EVERY advertiser should be the industry's goal if we want to go from "podcasting is just another brand awanress play" to "we use podcast adv to diversify our media mix, drive efficiency, and convert customers in ways we couldn't convert them before" In our latest PPB, Podscribe looked at the avg lift % we've seen across 60K campaigns, and 200+ advertiser (based on their size). The results? Pretty incredible. Check it out! https://lnkd.in/gXsZYbRy Shout out to Inside Radio for the feature!

26

3 Comments

AdAttributionKit: Unpacking Apple’s new ad attribution framework AAK unifies Apple’s various advertising attribution frameworks under a single umbrella product name and extends SKAdNetwork in meaningful ways, including with support for re-engagement and alternative app marketplaces. These are substantive improvements. But impediments to adoption remain: IP-based attribution is still widely viewed as a suitable alternative to Apple’s native iOS attribution framework, meaning that platform tools like Conversion APIs will take adoption priority.

101

5 Comments

Many product marketers get hung up on 'owning' items like messaging and pricing. But ownership or being the sole decision-maker on anything doesn't make a stellar product marketer. After all, a company is a collection of minds, not one mind. Unless you're the CEO or founder, thoughts of ownership aren't that helpful; they mostly just leave individuals and teams feeling frustrated. Instead, acting like an owner looks very different for PMMs. A stellar PMM knows how to manage various points of view, timelines, priorities, and nudge the organization in the right direction, one step at a time. As a PMM, it's healthier to approach your job as navigating a large ship, powered by many rowers, that can't turn on a dime rather than piloting a 2-person fighter jet. 75% of the job is knowing how to *influence* the other rowers, including the ones steering the ship. Influencing, not ownership, is the path to promotion and having an effect on revenue. The hardest part is this: influencing can't be learned from the neat and tidy frameworks found in books or through catchy stories on social. I don't have very many answers either. But maybe start by accepting that your success and happiness in PMM depend on being pragmatic, not dogmatic, having an opinion, and knowing how to gather support. Practice that. Enjoy the experience of learning how to influence and abandon the fallacy of ownership and control.

7

At 6 figures, vanity metrics are a distraction. At 7 figures, they're your downfall. After working with dozens of high-growth DTC brands, I've noticed a pattern: The ones scaling fastest focus relentlessly on actionable metrics. But first, let's address what many brands get wrong: ❌ Vanity Metrics (I call them the 'Growth Illusion') The total website traffic, social media follower count, and email list size might look impressive in the reports. But they're dangerous distractions. These metrics don't correlate with revenue or profitability. They often mask underlying issues in your business. Worse, they encourage short-term thinking over sustainable growth. It's gonna result in high marketing costs and low ROI. I've seen beauty brands with millions of Instagram followers struggle with tiny conversion rates. Fashion startups with massive email lists but negligible repeat purchases. These vanity metrics created an illusion of success while the businesses stagnated. Now, let's focus on what truly matters. ✅ Actionable Metrics Here are the 8 metrics that truly matter for ecommerce growth: → Conversion Rate → Average Order Value (AOV) → Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) → Cart Abandonment Rate → Revenue Per Visitor (RPV) → Add to Cart Rate → Gross Margin → Net Promoter Score (NPS) Unlike vanity metrics, these metrics give you a clear picture of your store's health. They reveal your true growth potential and areas for improvement. -- Stop chasing vanity metrics that look good on paper but don't drive growth. Remember, what gets measured gets managed. Follow me for more content on scaling ecom brands 🚀

7

1 Comment