Podcast Summary: Marketing Operators E036 – "Our Biggest Mistakes & Lessons Learnt This Year"

In Episode 36 of Marketing Operators, hosts Connor Rolain, Connor MacDonald, Cody Plofker, and co-host Mike Beckham delve into their most significant mistakes of the year, the invaluable lessons drawn from them, and celebrate their notable wins. Additionally, they introduce a unique pricing test from Connor’s firm, Hexclab. This comprehensive discussion offers deep insights for marketers aiming to navigate the complexities of growth, paid media, and operational efficiency.

1. Scaling Paid Social Through Creative Testing

Mike Beckham kicks off the conversation by sharing Hexclad’s strategic focus in 2023: scaling their top-line revenue by enhancing creative testing in paid social channels.

“We probably 2, 3, maybe even 4x our creative output in 2023 and that allowed us to scale our Facebook account efficiently in 2023 compared to 2022.”
[02:22]

Mike emphasizes that increasing creative variety mitigates the natural decline in ad efficiency as spend grows. Utilizing tools like Motion, they could identify top-performing creatives, maintaining their Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) despite a 50% year-over-year increase in expenditure.

2. Navigating Agency Relationships and Internal Teams

A significant portion of the episode addresses the challenges of working with marketing agencies versus building internal teams.

Mike Beckham reflects on the misalignment experienced when expecting agencies to adapt to shifting business needs:

“Agencies are good at a certain thing... when you start to pivot, you start to feel like you're kind of butting your head against the wall.”
[16:43]

He elaborates that while agencies offer consistency and efficiency, brands often require flexibility that agencies may not inherently provide. Consequently, Hexclad decided to bring more functions in-house to better align creative efforts with their evolving strategies.

3. Lessons from Missed Projections and Forecasting

Connor Rolain shares insights from missing Q2 projections, attributing it to overly optimistic forecasting based on an anomalous event in 2023.

“We did this year was hard for many reasons... we end up missing our projections by quite a bit to start.”
[22:35]

He outlines key lessons:

• Reversion to the Mean: Realizing that exceptional past performance (like a perfect month with Meta) isn’t always sustainable.

• Decoupling Inputs and Outcomes: Understanding that strong execution doesn’t always translate to expected results due to external factors like consumer sentiment and platform changes.

• Adjusting Forecasts Proactively: Recognizing the need to adapt forecasts more swiftly and drastically in response to real-time data and trends.

Mike Beckham adds to this by stressing the importance of linking revenue projections with appropriate ad spend inputs:

“We should never be talking about a revenue output number without a spend input number.”
[29:34]

4. Embracing Failures and Pivoting Quickly

Connor discusses the cultural aspect of owning up to mistakes and making necessary pivots:

“You just have to decouple like the inputs and the work put in with the outcomes and then adjust for external factors.”
[27:05]

He emphasizes the importance of transparency within teams, encouraging directors to acknowledge missed targets without fear of reflecting poorly on themselves. This approach fosters a culture where quick adjustments are made to optimize outcomes.

Mike Beckham echoes this sentiment, sharing a real-world example from his time at an agency:

“We hit a local maximum and now we pivoted to find the new winning tactic... the ability to pivot and act quick is what really is the sign of a great operator.”
[48:59]

5. Celebrating Wins and Operational Improvements

Despite the setbacks, the hosts share several wins that underscore their resilience and strategic prowess.

Cody Plofker highlights successful initiatives such as launching TV ads and expanding into the EU market:

“TV ads was a big one actually. We launched that December 26th of last year and it's been great for us... EU expansion went really well. Made a million in the first month.”
[60:54]

Mike Beckham celebrates the internal growth at Hexclad, particularly in building dedicated teams that enhance retention and paid media efforts:

“We've continued to build those teams internally and I've just seen the output of those functions just improve so much year over year.”
[60:27]

These victories illustrate the benefits of refining internal processes and investing in specialized teams to drive sustained growth.

6. Test of the Week: Double Strike-Through Pricing

In the final segment, Mike Beckham introduces a pricing test conducted during Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) to optimize revenue and conversion rates.

“The double strike through did have a better conversion rate.”
[66:28]

Test Details:

• Double Strike-Through Pricing: Displaying both the original bundle price and an additional Black Friday discount.

• Single Strike-Through Pricing: Showing a single discounted price without referencing the bundle's total value.

Findings:

The double strike-through approach resulted in a 3% lift in overall revenue and improved conversion rates compared to the single strike-through method. Mike concludes that the perceived value enhancement from the double strike-through positioning positively influenced consumer behavior.

“Complexity does not equal upside. It’s an interesting lesson here.”
[68:41]

This straightforward yet effective test underscores the importance of pricing strategies in maximizing sales during peak shopping periods.

7. Conclusion and Forward Look

The episode wraps up with the hosts expressing optimism and readiness to leverage their learnings in upcoming sales events like Black Friday. They also hint at future discussions and encourage listeners to reach out via the moderator’s hotline for questions and podcast topic suggestions.

“Hopefully when people are listening to this, I'm like really feeling good... All the losses become wins if you're properly building the culture and refining the processes over time.”
[57:16]

The collective experiences shared in this episode provide a roadmap for marketers to navigate challenges, optimize operations, and celebrate successes in the dynamic landscape of digital marketing.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike Beckham [02:22]: “We probably 2, 3, maybe even 4x our creative output in 2023 and that allowed us to scale our Facebook account efficiently in 2023 compared to 2022.”

• Mike Beckham [16:43]: “Agencies are good at a certain thing... when you start to pivot, you start to feel like you're kind of butting your head against the wall.”

• Connor Rolain [22:35]: “We did this year was hard for many reasons... we end up missing our projections by quite a bit to start.”

• Mike Beckham [29:34]: “We should never be talking about a revenue output number without a spend input number.”

• Mike Beckham [48:59]: “We hit a local maximum and now we pivoted to find the new winning tactic... the ability to pivot and act quick is what really is the sign of a great operator.”

• Cody Plofker [60:54]: “EU expansion went really well. Made a million in the first month.”

• Mike Beckham [66:28]: “The double strike through did have a better conversion rate.”

This episode serves as a valuable resource for marketers looking to learn from real-world experiences, adapt strategies dynamically, and implement effective pricing tactics to drive growth and efficiency.