BEST PRACTICES IN DIGITAL ANALYTICS:

Optimizing For ViralityWith Website And

Social Media A/B Testing

OUR STORIES OF SELF

Jim Angelica

WHAT IS VIRALITY?• Often used, poorly understood:

“Make me a viral video!” “There’s a viral campaign happening on Twitter” “Social media goes viral on Capitol Hill”

• Virality measures organic growth, not overall popularity

• Determined by how much your users are sharing with friends

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 200

100

200

300

400

500

600

Sub-Viral

Time

Users

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 200

2000400060008000

100001200014000160001800020000

Viral

Time

Users

WHAT IS VIRALITY?

• Virality Ratio – average number of new people each user recruits

• Definition of “viral”: Virality ratio greater than 1 – explosive growth

• Virality ratio less than 1 is sub-viral – growth is limited

VIRALITY EXAMPLES

VIRALITY RATIO

INITIAL USERS (GEN 1)

RECRUITED USERS (GEN 2)

RECRUITED USERS (GEN 3)

USERS AFTER 10

GENERATIONS

0.01 5,000 50 1 5,051

0.1 5,000 500 50 5,556

0.5 5,000 2,500 1,250 9,990

0.9 5,000 4,500 4,050 32,566

1.1 5,000 5,500 6,050 79,687

Action

Invite

Response

Action Rate x Invite Rate x Response Rate = Virality Ratio

THE VIRAL LOOP

• Users take action

• Users invite friends

• Friends respond, become users

• Repeat

IMPROVING VIRALITY• "Ok, I understand what virality is -- but how can I increase

it?"

• Remember: Virality Ratio = Action Rate x Invite Rate x Response Rate

• Improving rate of any step improves virality ratio by same amount

A BRIEF INTRODUCTIONTO A/B TESTING

• Q: You have two ideas for language on a web page – which one do you choose?

• A: Both!

• Steps to run a webpage A/B test:– Create several different versions of the web page– For users coming to page, randomly show one version– Record if visitor takes the action– Calculate conversion rate (average # of actions per

visitors) for each version – highest conversion rate is best

29% increasedconversion rate

WEB PAGE A/B TESTING

+140% share recruitment rate

SOCIAL MEDIA A/B TESTING

STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE

VIRALITY OPTIMIZATIONEXAMPLE #1

• New campaign has virality ratio of 0.1 – viral actions increase total action count by 11%

• Virality loop optimizations: Optimize action page -> 20% higher action rate Use optimized share page -> 60% more sharing to friends Test share language -> 35% higher click rate

• New virality ratio: 0.1 x 1.20 x 1.60 x 1.35 = 0.26

• Viral actions increase total action count by 35%

• New campaign has virality ratio of 0.4 – viral actions increase total action count by 67%

• Virality loop optimizations: Optimize action page -> 20% higher conversion rate Use optimized share page -> 60% more sharing to friends Test share language -> 35% higher click rate

• New virality ratio: 0.4 x 1.20 x 1.60 x 1.35 = 1.04

• VIRAL CAMPAIGN

VIRALITY OPTIMIZATIONEXAMPLE #2

CASE STUDYCREDO ACTION PETITION:

“STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT”

CASE STUDYCREDO ACTION PETITION:

“STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT”

RESULTS

• The average petition gets less than 2% of names from social sharing

• CREDO received 13% of signatures from social sharing, resulting in 25,000 new names on their list

• How did they do this? CREDO optimized their petition page, used pre-optimized share pages, and optimized their share language asks

CASE STUDYCREDO ACTION PETITION:

“STOP THE MONSANTO PROTECTION ACT”

OPTIMIZED PETITION PAGE

• Multiple rounds of A/B testing have improved the action rate for the petition page where people add their name

OPTIMIZED SHARE PAGE

• CREDO used a pre-optimized ShareProgress share page for the petition to increase the sharing rates for signers

OPTIMIZING SHARE LANGUAGE• CREDO tested share language to turn more shares into viral

actions

• One Facebook language variation performed 63% better that the first version, increasing overall viral actions by 35%

Facebook TitleShares Driving Action / Total

SharesSuccess

RateImprovem

ent

Monsanto shouldn’t be above the law 341/1041

32.8% (±2.9%) --

“One of the most outrageous special interest provisions in years”

322/96233.5%

(±3.0%) 2.2%

Tell the Senate: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act

458/97247.1%

(±3.1%) 43.8%

Sign the Petition: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act

555/1037 53.5% (±3.0%) 63.4%

OVERALL RESULTS• Virality loop optimizations:

Optimize action page -> 20% higher conversion rate Plug in ShareProgress share page -> 50% more sharing to

friends Test share language -> 35% higher social conversions

• Result: Virality ratio of 0.135 (13.5% of actions from social sharing)

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT OPTIMIZATION?

With Optimization:Virality ratio: 0.135

35,000 actions from social25,000 new-to-list

Without Optimization (estimated):Virality Ratio: 0.056

13,000 actions from social – 22,000 fewer9,300 new-to-list – 15,700 fewer

QUESTIONS?

VIRALITY CHALLENGE

• http://www.shareprogress.org/virality-challenge/

• You need to optimize the action page, share page, and social sharing content to make your petition go viral.

• Only one combination of parameter choices will result in a viral campaign!

• Check your statistical significance at http://www.thumbtack.com/labs/abba/.