B2C Marketing Channels Audit 5.8.13
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table of contents 01. Executive Summary
page 05
02. Trends Within the Antivirus Category
page 09
03. Competitive Review
page 21
SEO Competitive Review
page 22
SEM Competitive Review
page 26
Paid Media Competitive Review
page 37
Email Competitive Review
page 43
Affiliate Competitive Review
page 48
04. Channel Reviews
page 53
Analytics
page 54
SEO Program
page 58
SEM Program
page 65
Paid Media Program
page 69
Email Program
page 76
Social Program
page 88
05. Requirements
page 91
Strategic
page 92
Personnel
page 93
06. Appendix
page 95
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Executive Summary
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Executive Summary The stated purpose and goals of the ThreatTrack channel audit project is to review the antivirus space and competitors as well as each marketing channel. The reviewers focused on areas of improvement and defining next steps for potential hires. The marketing channels reviewed are: •
SEO
•
SEM
•
Paid Media
•
Email Marketing
•
Affiliate Marketing
•
Social Media
The Opportunity Throughout our analysis of the channels, we realized that there has been a general lack of measurement, which has prevented optimization and informed strategic decisions. After laying the groundwork for accurate tracking within analytics and throughout marketing processes, performance within all marketing channels will be greatly enhanced.
A note on the competitive review ESET, Kaspersky, and BitDefender are the three competitors we chose to review in this document. These competitors were identified because their products occupy a similar space and potential audience to Vipre products. Additionally, all three companies utilize a trial model.
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Trends Within the Antivirus Category
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Trends Within the Antivirus Category In this section of the document, we look to identify trends worthy of consideration in the overall strategy review.
About the Data The trend graphs referenced in this section of the document are generated with Google Insights for Search. You can read about how this data is populated here: http://support.google.com/ trends/?hl=en#topic=13762 In short, a rise in the interest chart line is a strong indication of increase in actual search volume.
Related Terms – Top The top ten keywords, by search volume, for related to the selected keyword or category, and region/ date range selections.
Related Terms - Rising The top ten keywords showing query volume growth, for related to the selected keyword or category, and region/date range selections. We chose to look at three time periods: 2007-2013 To illustrate a long-term trend, spanning to one year before the launch of Vipre Antivirus. 2011-2013 To illustrate a near-term trend, particularly one which does not incorporate a significant data collection anomaly which was present prior to the 2011 data. Reference: http://support.google.com/trends/answer/1383240?hl=en “On July 12, 2011 we rolled out a significant improvement to our geographical assignment. The improvement allows us to provide even better geo-location data for search queries. This update was applied retroactively from January 1, 2011 and may manifest itself in certain queries as a discontinuity in the trend line.” Last 12 Months To illustrate significant, recent trends.
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Noteworthy Trends Vipre Antivirus and Internet Security products fall within the ‘Antivirus & Malware’ category of search queries. The top keyword in this category is, unsurprisingly, ‘antivirus.’ Traffic for this keyword has declined significantly since 2007. Over time, top searches are related to free antivirus, or brands selling free antivirus, such as AVG, Avast, and Avira. Norton also shows up on this list. Keyword: antivirus, Worldwide, 2007-2013
The freeware players show strong growth during this time period. We also start to see ESET’s ‘NOD32’ antivirus rise in this timeframe. Growth in interest related to NOD32 doubled year after year from 2007-2010, and thereafter started to level off.
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Keyword: antivirus, Rising Terms, Worldwide, 2007-2013
The overall ‘Antivirus & Malware’ category is declining. Some seasonality can be seen, with peak traffic during July-August and December-January, each year. These peaks are very likely associated with the interest and marketing activity related to: July-August Back to school PC purchases, and review/purchase of related software December-January Holiday shopping PC purchases, and review/purchase of related software Category: Antivirus & Malware, US, 2007-2013
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In a more recent timeframe, we see the massive spike in interest around July of last year. This was related to the FBI/Moneypak virus. This is a great example of the search volume related to malware, scareware, and viruses. The pattern of traffic spikes then recedes with each threat name. The spike tends to last anywhere from a few days to a few months, but most tend to be around a week. The query volume related to these threats are, themselves much lower volume than the top queries, like antivirus. The ‘FBI virus’ queries reached about ten percent of ‘antivirus’ volume of queries during their peak. That said, the impact from these threats is very strong, in overall category search volume. A lot more people are searching for an antivirus solution during the peak of these attacks. Category: Antivirus & Malware, US, Last 12 months
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Over time, we can see that the highest volume of brand queries is related to Kaspersky. However, ESET presents itself as an interesting competitor, because it grew significantly, starting in 2008. Also noteworthy, is the decline of Bitdefender around mid-2010. This is also the same time period that search traffic for Vipre peaked, which may indicate that Vipre took some share of interest away from Bitdefender. Keywords: Bitdefender, ESET, Kaspersky, Vipre Category: Antivirus & Malware, US, 2007-2013
For Vipre, 2012 showed significant decline in search interest. A subsequent chart will illustrate that this decline is below the overall category trend, which is unfortunately unique to Vipre, relative to the competitors reviewed. Changes impacting this time period, related to marketing, product releases, or otherwise, should be reviewed for significance. Keyword: Vipre Category: Antivirus & Malware, US, 2007-2013
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This chart shows the search volume for competitor brand queries, for the past two years. Kaspersky shows a large spike in Dec-2011 through Jan-2012, but not one for the same time period this past year. This could indicate some decrease in marketing investment. Keywords: Bitdefender, ESET, Kaspersky, Vipre Category: Antivirus & Malware, US, 2011-2013
The chart below shows brand query trends, related to the query trends of the overall category. As mentioned above, Vipre is under performing, relative to both the competition and the category, most significantly starting in 2012. It may be too early to be sure, but it appears that queries related to Bitdefender have increased in the past few months, and continue to show some growth, relative to the category. Keywords: Bitdefender, ESET, Kaspersky, Vipre Keyword trendlines related to the Category: Antivirus & Malware, US, 2011-2013
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ESET Top
Rising
Nod32 ESET
ESET Antivirus 5
Nod32
ESET Security 5
Antivirus
ESET 5
ESET Online
Bitdefender
ESET Antivirus
Uninstall ESET
ESET Online Scanner ESET Security ESET Smart ESET Smart Security ESET Nod32 Antivirus
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Bitdefender Top
Rising
Antivirus Bitdefender
Bitdefender 2013
Antivirus
Best Antivirus 2012
Bitdefender 2012
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus
Bitdefender Free
Bitdefender 2012
Bitdefender 2013
Bitdefender Mac
Best Antivirus
Bitdefender Key
Bitdefender Download
Kaspersky
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus
Antivirus Reviews
Bitdefender Review
Best Antivirus
Kaspersky
Bitdefender
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Kaspersky Top
Rising
Antivirus Kaspersky
Kaspersky 2013
Antivirus
Kaspersky 2013 Download
Kaspersky Virus
Kaspersky Antivirus 2013
Kaspersky 2012
Kaspersky Pure 2.0
Kaspersky Removal Tool
Kaspersky Windows 8
Kaspersky Download
Best Antivirus 2012
Free Kaspersky
Kaspersky Antivirus 2012
Kaspersky Virus Removal
Kaspersky 2012 Download
Kaspersky Internet Security
Kaspersky 2012
Kaspersky Pure
Kaspersky One
Vipre Top
Rising
Antivirus
Vipre Definitions
Vipre Antivirus
Vipre Download
Vipre Download Vipre Vipre Vipre Free Vipre Antivirus Download Free Vipre Download Vipre Rescue Vipre Update Vipre Definitions
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It’s a stretch, but interesting! Searches related to ESET, BitDefender and Kaspersky all show strong regional interest in California and Virginia. Searches related to Vipre Antivirus stand out as not being concentrated in a particular state. Virginia is known as an ISP server hub, so this may hint at a few things. It could be that the target audiences are more likely to use ISPs from these areas. AOL is known for having servers in Virginia, so this could be a clue to the audience demographic. It also could be a clue that these brands leverage ISP partnerships to advertise or distribute their products.
ESET
Kaspersky
Bitdefender
Vipre
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Competitive Review
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SEO Competitive Review The antivirus and security vertical is not new, and has a number of established players who have had a good amount of time to build their brand relevance, back links, and organic search strategy. In order to succeed in driving non-branded search terms VipreAntivirus.com needs to focus its content in on its central domain, build up effective cross-linking as much as possible, and work on a media outreach strategy to build brand visibility as well as back links to support organic rankings.
SEO Statistics Looking at some of the key statistics related to SEO, PageRank is relatively even, but looking at the finer-resolution link metric of Linking Domains, we can see a clear difference. Vipreantivirus.com is at a bit of a disadvantage here, with a 10-to-1 or more difference in linking domains compared to ESET, Bitdefender, and Kaspersky. As the number of different domains linking back to your site is very strongly correlated with success in organic search – Vipreantivirus will need to be very well structurally optimized and keyword targeted in order to overcome this.
SEO Statistics Estimated Monthly
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Page Rank
Linking Domains
Traffic
Vipreantivirus.com
6
1,296
293,000
ESET.com
7
17,197
350,000
bitdefender.com
7
15,173
207,000
Kaspersky.com
6
27,206
1,384,710
Definitions PageRank PageRank is a rough measure of the ranking potential for a website. It is calculated on a logarithmic scale related to the number of backlinks a page has. Linking Domains An exact count of the number of external sites that link to the domain in question. Pages on a domain with lots of links to it will tend to rank well. Estimated Monthly Traffic An estimated amount of monthly traffic going to this site. Looking at the keyword rankings (as of April 15) we can see this play out more or less as expected. Kaspersky, with a large number of linking domains, has vastly more visibility than any other player here. Though it’s surprising that ESET & Bitdefender are not doing better – looking at their sites lends some clues, as they are severely under-optimized. This is a useful reminder that backlinks are useful for SEO but are not the final word.
Keyword Ranking Matrix Free Antivirus Antivirus Software
Free Antivirus
Antivirus
Download
Vipreantivirus. com
–
–
–
–
ESET.com
–
5
–
–
bitdefender. com
–
-
–
–
Kaspersky.com
7,8
8
6,7
–
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Share of voice is important to look at as well, because the sites taking up space in the conversation are sometimes unexpected. In the chart below, which covers share of voice for the keywords ‘antivirus software’, ‘free antivirus’, ‘antivirus’, and ‘free antivirus download’ we see the usual suspects, but also Wikipedia.org, Pcmag.com, and download.cnet.com. Finding a way to associate closer to these sites, ideally getting links from them would be a great mid to long term goal.
Bitdefender SEO Bitdefender has the second-highest number of backlinks of this competitive set, though duplicate title tags and non-optimized pages are significantly hampering their success in SEO. Bitdefender has all of their content on a central domain, building up the relevance of that location, and also has a great blog which allows them to expand content and react to current events happening in computer security. They also have forums which allows their customers to interact with each other, help propose bug fixes and new features, and further expand content naturally. All told there are 7000+ interlinked pages on the BitDefender site, which does a good job of building PageRank internally to support organic rankings.
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ESET SEO While ESET has a large number of backlinks, the largest of this competitive set, they have a number of issues with under-optimized pages and duplicate title tags. Duplicate title tags can cause pages to be de-listed from search engines, where they will not get any organic search traffic. ESET provides a number of free tools to their users which have been very successful at building backlinks to promote the rest of the website. ESET’s site has been heavily localized, which in effect creates multiple versions of all of the major pieces of content, all of which interlinks and strengthens the overall site. All of the ESET products (though notably not support) including mobile software, business software, and news/ blog content are all on the same domain. The makes that one central domain much more contentrich and relevant for search.
Kaspersky SEO Kaspersky is set up similarly to ESET, though with a more content-heavy design, and with much more attention paid to SEO. With well targeted keyword optimization, Kaspersky has done quite well in rankings. They also have a very centralized approach to their site, building all of the content on one domain, even for their localized versions. They also provide a number of free tools which get a lot of backlinks to them, such as http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/free-anti-virus-scan. VipreAntivirus. com may want to explore similar approaches.
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SEM Competitive Review
Top 20 Keywords by Competitor
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Kaspersky
ESET
Bitdefender
symptoms
Antivirus
Antivirus
Spyware
Spyware
spyware removal software
Anti
anti virus software comparison
antivirus firewall software
Antivirus
Norton
Kaspersky
Firewall
anti virus
anti virus
Norton
antivirus windows free
antivirus windows free
anti virus
norton antivirus
antivirus free download
Trojan
antivirus software
internet security
Infection
software anti virus
virus removal
Kaspersky
anti spyware
Popup
internet security
antivirus software reviews
firewall protection software
windows 2000 utilities
mobile security
spyware adware removal software
online virus checking
mcafee antivirus
top 10 antivirus
norton antivirus
anti virus software
firewall software
free downloads
Viruses
remove virus
antivirus software
Malware
frv protection
virus protection
norton internet security
virus scan
Symantec
free anti
parental controls
virtual machine
top 10 antivirus
Malware
virus removal
ESET
panda antivirus
SEM Competitive Summary Vipre competitors are bidding on many of the same one or two work phrases. There is great opportunity in educational, symptom-based and question-based. Examples of these sorts of keywords are:
• computer virus
• pc virus
• remove virus
• do I have a computer virus
• top rated antivirus
• remove computer virus
Based on our competitive review, the opportunity lies in shifting funds from basic core keywords in match types other than exact and focus on long tail exact and phrase terms. Many of these queries display ads without the keywords in the copy. It is imperative to align ad copy with keywords so that the ads are as relevant and connected to the query as possible. This will be rewarded with lower cost per clicks (CPCs) and higher position as people connect with the ad.
Competitor Ads Analysis Summary • Official ads offering 50% off almost across the board • Affiliate and review site ads offering a mix of free and discounted • Latest 2013 version copy used almost across the board • Room for experimentation with non traditional headlines beyond brand name, free, official, and discount% • Bold for keyword in copy really stands out among the standardized ads • Bitdefender offering only 35% off in ads, Kaspersky 50% off, ESET doesn’t appear to be doing a lot of SEM right now. • Vipre appears to be running out of budget on some terms by mid afternoon PST.
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Kaspersky – brand
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Bitdefender – brand
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ESET – brand
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antivirus
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antivirus software
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free antivirus - page 1
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free antivirus - page 2
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virus scan
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best antivirus
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Paid Media Competitive Review Competitors are driving traffic from a diverse array of sources. The table below shows the top fifty traffic sources for each competitor by visits, with major search engines, competitors and obvious self-referrals removed.
Bitdefender
ESET
Kaspersky
facebook.com
youtube.com
facebook.com
youtube.com
facebook.com
digitalriver.com
msn.com
we-care.com
aol.com
we-care.com
msn.com
microsoft.com
wellsfargo.com
aol.com
chase.com
atcomet.com
rebategiant.com
bestbuy.com
sgizmo.com
virusradar.com
msn.com
softonic.com
antivirus.com.au
ebay.com
ariva.de
centurylink.net
youtube.com
microsoft.com
niniweblog.com
paypal.com
pcmag.com
moshtak.ir
inbox.com
amazon.com
microsoft.com
bankofamerica.com
softhome.net
mapsgalaxy.com
surveymonkey.com
softpedia.com
extremefreecoupons.com
wellsfargo.com
clickvideodownload.com
designsbysick.com
citibank.com
swagbucks.com
cudenver.com
rr.com
ask.com
geology.com
capitalone.com
about.com
advantagemedia.com
craigslist.org
carbonite.com
pch.com
verizon.com
techrepublic.com
download-21.com
bleepingcomputer.com
pcworld.com
weather.com
we-care.com
tmhp.com
surfright.fr
ask.com
sysprobs.com
ask.com
adobe.com
nick.com
fidelity.com
amazon.com
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(continued)
Bitdefender
ESET
Kaspersky
flixxy.com
21searchengines.com
uncoverthenet.com
grecni.com
abfs.com
priceline.com
ixl.com
charter.net
roadrunner.com
shopnbc.com
welivesecurity.com
ilivid.com
groupon.com
uncoverthenet.com
lizardfreelotto.com
rr.com
ilivid.com
centurylink.net
bestbuy.com
movie2k.to
intuit.com
fastfreeconverter.com
verizon.com
infospace.com
montiera.com
microcenter.com
hp.com
reimageplus.com
wunderground.com
clickondetroit.com
ixquick.com
mpalyerfreeware.com
cnet.com
ebay.com
videos2view.net
intellisurvey.com
mywot.com
systweak.com
cox.net
whambanners.com
chicagotribune.com
toshiba.com
findmyorder.com
hrblock.com
iminent.com
inboxdollars.com
vtimefx.com
iplay.com
pornhub.com
synacor.com
suddenlink.net
poststar.com
microsoftstore.com
omphali.com
webtrickz.com
mrctv.org
startssl.com
skype.com
pcpowerspeed.com
usbank.com
kat.ph
nascar.com
systweak.com
webcams.com
savevalet.com
optimum.net
nasa.gov
sandals.com
instantcheckmate.com
directv.com
avon.com
windstream.net
bitfinder.com
hlntv.com
twitter.com
horse.com
amazon.com
instantservice.com
*March 2013
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While some percentage of these sites are likely affiliates, these lists show several advertising opportunities not currently being exploited. • Social media – strong for branding/sphere of influence and potentially trial downloads. Less likely to be successful for immediate sales. • Video – also helpful for branding and influence but less likely to drive direct sales. • Tech/software/other contextual sites – valuable for branding and influence but likely to drive more qualified downloads and direct sales. This is the only type of campaign currently running, via Download.com and PCMag. • Advertising on ‘sketchy’ sites frequented by visitors likely to be visiting similar sites that may host malware. This is a prime example of targeting campaigns by audience needs and personas rather than site content.
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Sample Ads
Bitdefender
• BitDefender’s ads are probably the most compelling – sticking to best practices like bold buttons and colors. • Promotional offers are very prominent and eye-catching. • They appear to be sticking mostly to classic CTAs like “buy now” and “save now.”
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ESET
• ESET stays on-brand very well, but their colors are muted and probably “fade into the page” in most cases. • They’re testing lots of different copy in their ads. • CTAs are non-existent or very muted.
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Kaspersky
• Kaspersky is mostly sticking to bold text and CTAs. • Testing a few interesting CTAs like “protect your online life.” • Their “Safeguarding me” campaign is conceptually interesting, however it’s visually muted.
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Email Competitive Review
Product Registration Flow and Email Capture Of the three competitors reviewed, none provide an easy sign-up for tips/tricks/helpful hints via an email newsletter. BitDefender and Kaspersky capture email trial user’s email addresses pre-download; ESET captures the email during “trial activation” post-install. ESET and BitDefender do have newsletter signups on their sites, but these signup forms are difficult to find. ESET is the only competitor we’ve received follow-up email campaigns from, post-trial and thus appears to be the only competitor that places much value on communicating with trial downloaders and customers outside outside of their applications.
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Bitdefender Signup Flow Product page (download / buy) > trial download overlay with mail capture
BitDefender’s signup flow varies from product to product – in general, product pages have a “try” link somewhere that triggers a trial download overlay with email capture. However, these links are often not very prominent, and the overlays vary quite a bit – some just capture email, while others capture name + email. One overlay has two forms – email only on the left, and email + name on the right. We haven’t received any follow-up email communication from BitDefender, which is not surprising, given their scattered approach to email capture. We can only conclude email marketing and ongoing communication with their trial users and customers (outside their applications) is not a priority.
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ESET Signup Flow and Follow-up Product page (download / buy) > trial download page > install flow with email capture for “trial activation”
Capturing email addresses after the download begins removes some friction and trust questions from the trial process, but may result in fewer email addresses – potential leads / customers – being captured. ESET is the only competitor that starts marketing to trial downloaders almost immediately, first with a helpful email containing information about the trial and resource links.
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This is followed up a few days later with a gentle prod to purchase in the form of an email “checking in to see how your trial is going.” However, this email is poorly executed – no clear call to action and no compelling reason to purchase given.
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Kaspersky Signup Flow and Follow-up Category / product page (download / buy) > trial download page with email capture > download page
Kaspersky captures email addresses pre-download. While they aren’t pushing upgrades early in the trial, they are the only competitor doing any real upsell / cross-sell of their own products immediately post-trial download.
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Affiliate Competitive Review For the affiliate channel we reviewed the three competitor programs, using each program’s Commission Junction US program as the primary reference for our comparisons. Below is a summary of the affiliate marketing programs for BitDefender, ESET and Kaspersky as compared to Vipre’s current program.
Program Overview From a publisher perspective the Vipre program looks very competitive and attractive. There’s a very small difference ($1.47) in EPC compared to the leader at the time of this analysis, BitDefender, in spite of their higher baseline commission – 35% versus Vipre’s 30%.
Top-level program comparison: CJ (US) Vipre
Bitdefender
ESET
Kaspersky
Baseline Commission
30%
35%
15%
20%
Referral Period
90 days
90 days
30 days
90 days
EPC
$52.16
$53.63
$35.62
$51.38
This high EPC combined with the strong default payout and ninety day cookie length should make the Vipre program attractive for both active and passive recruiting of new publishers. It’s worth noting, that Kaspersky’s EPC is almost as high despite a substantially lower baseline commission (20%) – indicative of a higher conversion rate and / or many affiliates receiving a higher than baseline commission.
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Promotions and Offers Vipre is currently less competitive across the board in both ongoing and seasonal promo offers, which help drive affiliate adoption and traffic driving activity.
Sample Promos
Ongoing
Seasonal
Bitdefender
ESET
Kaspersky
% off discount deals
Product comparison LP includes $25-$50 discounts
$15-25 off products
$39.95/$49.95 all products
15% off on renewals
Free tablet security
25% off Mobile Security
% off discount deals
% off discounts on multi-year licenses
Special pricing on multi-year licenses
50% Off
$20 off PURE Total Security + FREE H&R Block bundle
$29.99 for Mobile Security 2013
$20 off one-license/ multiple devices + H&RB bundle
All Access 50% off
$15 off PC Protection Plus + H&RB bundle
Leap Year Promo 29% off all Internet Security Products (2012)
ESET + Backblaze Bundle 20% off all products tax season promo
All three competitor programs offer a range of promotions, with Kaspersky and ESET offering a compelling array of discounts and bundles. These conversion enhancers almost certainly contribute to Kaspersky’s high EPC in spite of relatively low commission.
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Trials Each competitor offers a free thirty day trial (email required) across all products. Kaspersky and ESET are using smart tactics with trial language combined with landing page offers to drive sales from trial-centric ads. •
Kaspersky leverages “30 day trial” promo text in links and banners advertising a 30 day trial and then promotes a 50% off Buy Now CTA on the landing page. The link stipulates that the publisher is prohibited from including the 50% off in their ad. The link has a 3 month EPC of $18.
•
ESET provides a text link for a free scan with the landing page offering both a free trial and a slightly discounted Buy It Now CTA. The 3 month EPC for that link is $13. By comparison, the 4 combined text links and banners for Vipre’s trial had zero conversions in Q1 2013.
•
ESET uses similar tactics, offering a one time free scan in the text link and then splitting the path between the thirty day trial or Buy It Now for (marketed as just $.16 a day) on the landing page.
•
Both of these highlight an opportunity to leverage trial offers plus smart upsell to drive sales.
Summary and Recommendations 1. Tiered commission structure Although Vipre’s current public baseline commission is competitive and backed up by the high EPC, publishing an attractive tiered commission structure can help drive increased promotional activity by current publishers and also assist with attracting additional high quality publishers. A default program term could be structured in the following way, with sales tracked on a monthly basis and rESET to $0 at the beginning of each month.
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•
30% commission on all sales <$5,000
•
33% commission on all sales >$5,000
•
35% commission on all sales >$7,500
For Q1 2013 the average cost per order* at 30% commission was $22.62. The matrix below shows the increase in cost per order for each tier.
Vipre - Q1 13 - AOV $58 Tier
30%
33%
35%
40%
Cost Per Order
$22.62
$24.88
$26.39
$30.16
Return per Order
$35.38
$33.12
$31.61
$27.84
*The average cost per order factors publisher commissions and CJ fees only In Q1 these 4 Rising Star affiliates demonstrated incremental month over month sales growth. The right incentives could help boost their performance.
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2. Promotions and offers Aggressive and diverse promotions, offers and coupons represent a large opportunity to compete with the three competitors for publisher mindshare and will help drive activity by current publishers. Vipre has an opportunity to expand beyond the $5 and $20 off promotions currently being offered. This can be done with a mix of ongoing and seasonal promotions, general use coupons and strategically distributed vanity codes. We recommend partnering with high-profile coupon, discount or loyalty sites that do more than just SEO on brand+coupon keywords to test more specific aggressive promo offers, with an eye towards driving new customer acquisition rather than simply negatively affecting margins for potential Vipre customers who are already nearly committed to buying and simply looking to save money. Coupon distribution always carries risk of leakage beyond the target partners. To mitigate risk, trial groups and tight management would be required for any campaign. A 10-15% discount can be made available as a coupon to the general affiliate base, with more aggressive 20% coupons reserved for a specific group of coupon and discount publishers. Creating these as vanity codes helps drive affiliate loyalty and mitigate leakage. For example, rising star affiliate Shopathome.com would be given a code like SHOPATHOME20. Seasonal promotions are excellent opportunities to drive broad affiliate acquisition through newsletters and promotional vehicles such as the CJ Monthly Newsletter.
Product Trials as Sales Drivers The free 30 day trial is standard for all of the programs and products reviewed. We recommend providing publishers optimized assets that assist in the conversion of a potential trial downloader to customer at the time of initial download, through discounts, bundles or other incentives. Trial downloaders who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t immediately convert would be targeted for conversion to customer via Vipreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s email marketing program.
Summary Vipre is competing relatively well in CJ with BitDefender, ESET and Kaspersky by offering a comparable payout. Building out the affiliate program by leveraging best practices in tiered commissions, discounting and trial downloads, combined with ongoing active and passive recruiting, represent a significant opportunity for revenue growth in this channel.
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Channel Reviews
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Analytics The basics in analytics have been installed, but there are some significant issues to do with legacy code, and legacy configurations. There also appears to be some issues with cross-domain tracking that should be repaired before the numbers can be trusted to inform business decisions effectively.
Goal Tracking There are currently several legacy goals that are not recording data. While this is common during a reconfiguration process, it would be better if these goals were removed completely so that they do not clutter the current reporting. Goals to be removed: VPC Trial Download VIS - Unconfirmed Download VPC - Confirmed Download VPC - Unconfirmed Download Whenever an item is added to the cart, this should be counted as a goal. This new â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Add To Cartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; goal will be a useful measure of how effectively the Vipre Antivirus site urges visitors to complete this vital first sales task.
Custom Event Tracking While the main goal-posts of the website are best tracked with goals, this is not the limit of what can be counted. There are outliers such as shipping types, empty carts, payment methods, etc that need to be accounted for as well. Custom events are an ideal method to track sundry actions across the site, and should be deployed systematically to do so.
Documentation The implementation of Google Analytics should be fully documented, including the location of all custom events, all iterations of the tracking code, and the meaning and location of all goals.
Tracking Report Oddities There are a few items in the referring domains report that are concerning. The number 1 referrer is Vipreantivirus.com. This usually means that cross-domain tracking has been implemented incorrectly in some way. The referrals from domains that are owned by ThreatTrack (such as sunbeltsoftware.
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Vipreantivirus.com. This usually means that cross-domain tracking has been implemented incorrectly in some way. The referrals from domains that are owned by ThreatTrack (such as sunbeltsoftware. com) are also a bit strange to see here â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if traffic is being driven to these domains and then sent to Vipreantivirus.com it would likely be more efficient to send those users directly to Vipreantivirus.com. This should be explored fully. The other troubling entry here is the localhost:4444. This appears to be caused by some sort of QA process involving Selenium QA software. Any QA or development processes should be isolated from the production website to avoid distorting the business data in this way.
Funnel Analysis Funnel analysis is an extremely useful tool to visualize efficiencies and inefficiencies in the sales & checkout process. While there are several iterations of the funnel visualization that can be built out, the most useful one is the main purchase flow (visualized below).
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Monthly Accuracy Verification Whenever you use two different tools to measure the same thing, the results will not be the same. Similarly, we cannot expect the numbers in GA to line up 100% with Cleverbridge back-end accounting â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but we should expect it to be very close. On a monthly basis the commerce tracking should be compared to the Cleverbridge numbers, and accuracy tracked over time and fixed whenever possible.
In-Product Tracking Messaging Developing tracking for in-product messaging can be made more or less difficult depending on the way it is structured. If possible, a simple way to track delivery is to have the message displayed in a chromeless browser window, on a specialized page that contains a snippet of Google Analytics tracking code triggering a Custom Event. Assuming a link is delivered to the user, a tracking parameter can then be added to the end of that link that would tie to a specific campaign. This method could be used to track delivery effectiveness, click-through-rates, and conversion rates over multiple campaigns.
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Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth noting that several security software providers have dedicated space in the interface of their product for banner delivery, which delivers helpful tips as well as upsell/cross-sell/retention messaging.
Renewal / Expiry Messaging In-product messaging regarding renewal and expiry is arguably the highest priority messaging and should be both customized for different groups of users, and be of higher production value. Distribution of these can likely be tracked in the same way as described in the messaging section above.
Product Usage In-product usage is difficult to track using Google Analytics, and in fact itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an inappropriate use of that technology due to the high level of different activities. Certain key events could be tracked via chromeless browser window insertion however, such as successful installs and uninstalls. Other activities such as button presses or start-ups and shut-downs happen in too great of frequency to be usefully tracked via GA
Prioritized Analytics Tasks Task
Impact Ranking
Level of Effort
Create funnel reports to track fall-out
1
Highest
Repair cross-domain tracking
2
Develop In-product tracking
3
Further investigate referrer oddities
4
Extend event tracking to shipping / payment types
5
Document Implementation
6
Initiate monthly sales verifications
7
Remove un-necessary / unused metrics
8
Lowest
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SEO Program Organic search competition within the computer security market is especially fierce. The various content that surrounds Vipreantivirus.com should be concentrated on that domain to build up it’s relevance as much as possible. Care should be taken however, not to repeat (or inherit) mistakes made in the past.
Black Hat Legacy Black hat SEO is a group of techniques such as automated content writing, purchasing links, creating doorway pages, cloaking, and so on that are against the guidelines of search engines. In looking at the domain portfolio owned by ThreatTrack, there is significant evidence of such activity, including purchased low-quality links from Romanian websites, and the same content mirrored across multiple domains in order to fool search engines. It seems as if most of this activity took place around 2008 – 2010, though it is difficult to tell. What is not difficult to tell, is that a number of domains that are currently still live such as: http://www.wxpnews.net/ http://www.downwithbloatware.com/ http://www.window7news.com/ http://www.downwithbloatware.org/ http://www.exchangeservermonitoring.com/ should each be forensically examined. While it is beyond the scope of this analysis, the determination should be made in each case whether to abandon the site and take it offline, or whether the site can be salvaged to help bolster the core domain of Vipreantivirus.com.
Merging Domains Following a ‘less is more’ philosophy, live.Vipreantivirus.com and Vipresecuritynews.com should be merged into the main www.Vipreantivirus.com domain. By concentrating all of the content, and therefore all of the links and relevance – this will build up Vipreantivirus.com as more relevant overall, and improve rankings. In general it is best to focus attention onto a core domain. Building content on separate domains should only be done when absolutely necessary The content from live.Vipreantivirus.com should be moved to Vipreantivirus.com/live/ and the content from Vipresecuritynews.com should be moved (301 redirected) to Vipreantivirus.com/news/, and www.Vipremobile.com should be moved to Vipreantivirus.com/mobile/.
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Logo Linking The Vipre antivirus logo is a link to the homepage and is present on every page of the site. Alt text should be added to this image containing the phrase “Antivirus software”. This will help build up the domain’s relevance for this term.
Optimizing Navigation The main navigational elements of a website are one of the more important ways that both users and search engines understand what different topics of the website are. Changing the ‘Products’ section to ‘Software’ may help search engines better understand (and therefore rank) pages in this section of the site.
Social Voting Buttons Studies have shown that voting buttons “Like”, “+1” etc, get several times more interaction than sharing buttons “Share this”, “Tweet this”, etc. Social activity has become a much bigger part of the way search engines determine the importance of a website or brand, making social votes and interaction that much more important. To do: Add +1 and Like buttons to the top of every page.
Utilizing H1 Headers While headings can be built on a page in a number of ways, it is important to tag the most prominant header on the page with <h1> tags, and also to include relevant keywords. Search engines use this code to determine the most important header on a page, and then scan its contents. To do: Ensure all pages have a keyword-rich <h1> header on them.
Tag Management - Options & Opportunities Tag management technology is simple in concept: a third party service that bundles all of your tracking tags and pixels and loads them in one package which simplifies your on- page code, decouples your analytics/marketing efforts from engineering requests, and speeds up page speed for consumers. Newer generations of tools offer even more benefits: Targeted Delivery The delivery of tags and pixels can be targeted based on different rule sets, such as language, browser technology, or geo-location. An example of where this would be useful would be delivering tags for a country-specific ad or affiliate-network.
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Tag Testing Tags can be A|B tested, which can be used to pit different ad or affiliate networks against each other. Rule-Based Delivery The order of delivery of different tags and pixels can be finely tuned with ordering if-then logic.
Suggested Vendors Ensighten Ensighten is generally considered to be the technological leader in tag management, and has become the go-to ‘enterprise’ option. Pros: Support, advanced features such as testing and targeting Cons: Expense Google Tag Manager Google Tag Manager is a newcomer to the tag management field and offers a free service. Pros: Free Cons: Lack of support, does not work with synchronous tags, lack of advanced targeting features. Domain Portfolio ThreatTrack owns a fairly expansive domain portfolio, but most of these are not currently being used. It’s recommended that all of the domains listed below be allowed to expire. Though it should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list as developing that is beyond the scope of this analysis. These are adding no value to your marketing campaigns and just represent an additional expense and administrative task. http://www.spywarefighters.net/ http://www.spyware-resources.net/ http://www.juliansjournal.net/ http://www.spywareresearchcenter.info/ http://www.Viprelabs.com/ http://www.testdriveviper.com/ http://www.nextgenerationantivirus.net/ http://www.sunbeltchannelnews.net/ http://www.winservernews.com/ http://www.replacemcafee.com/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.us/ http://www.spysecure.net/ http://www.ninjaemailsecurity.com/ http://www.sunbeltchannelnews.com/ http://www.Vipre-antispyware.com/ http://www.sunbeltsoftwaresecuritynews.com/ http://www.threatnet.net/ http://www.viperenterprise.com/ http://www.Vipresucks.org/ http://www.spywareresources.net/ http://www.ssd2000.net/ http://www.spyware-research.info/ http://www.Vipreenterprisesucks.org/ http://www.viperpoints.com/ http://www.viperwebfilter.net/ http://www.Viprepoints.com/ http://www.viperwebfilter.org/ http://www.spywareresearchcenter.biz/ http://www.malwareminute.com/ http://www.spywareresearchcenter.net/
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http://www.websecurityauthority.com/ http://www.spyware-research-center.net/ http://www.vistanews.us/ http://www.spywareresearchcenter.tv/ http://www.Viprelabs.org/ http://www.Vipreenterprise.net/ http://www.Viprewebfilter.com/ http://www.sunbeltexchangearchiver. com/ http://www.sunbeltsupport.net/ http://www.replacemcafee.org/ http://www.spwarereport.org/ http://www.spywareresearchcenter.org/ http://www.Viprelove.com/ http://www.spyware-research-center.org/ http://www.sunbelt-university.us/ http://www.replacemyav.com/ http://www.websecurityguru.com/ http://www.support-robert.com/ http://www.Vipremobile.org/ http://www.Vipreperks.com/ http://www.itadminzone.com/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.com/ http://www.pinellastransitworks.net/ http://www.spywareresearch.org/ http://www.sunbeltcwsandbox.com/ http://www.replacemyav.net/ http://www.spwarereport.info/ http://www.vipertestdrive.com/ http://www.loveyourav.org/ http://www.spyware-resources.org/ http://www.malware-security.com/ http://www.spyware-research-center.us/ http://www.winxpnews.us/ http://www.replacemcafee.net/ http://www.sunbeltuniversity.us/ http://www.winservernews.net/ http://www.Vipresucks.net/ http://www.itadminqa.com/ http://www.vipermobile.org/ http://www.Viprelove.net/ http://www.sunbeltfilearchiver.org/ http://www.Vipreantiviruspremium.com/ http://www.itadminanswers.com/ http://www.sunbeltsoftwaresucks.com/ http://www.w7news.net/ http://www.dirqa.com/ http://www.cwsandbox.net/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.biz/ http://www.vipermobile.net/ http://www.Viprelabs.net/ http://www.Viprelove.org/ http://www.Vipreenterprisesucks.net/ http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.org/ http://www.w2knews.us/ http://www.sunbeltfilearchiver.com/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.org/ http://www.w7news.org/ http://www.loveyourav.net/ http://www.windowsdesktopnews.com/ http://www.threatnetnews.net/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.net/ http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.net/ http://www.Viprecast.org/ http://www.itadminasks.com/ http://www.getcounterspy.com/ http://www.ssdcorp.net/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.me/ http://www.spywarefighters.org/ http://www.websecurityguru.org/ http://www.antispamserver.com/ http://www.sunbeltfilearchiver.net/ http://www.sunbeltsoftwaresucks.org/ http://www.sunbelt-software.us/ http://www.Vipregatewaytesting.com/ http://www.getVipre.com/ http://www.clearclouddns.org/ http://www.wekeepthebadguysout.com/ http://www.xemplifyit.com/ http://www.cwsandbox.com/ http://www.sunbetsoftware.com/ http://www.Viprebusinessantivirus.com/ http://www.highperformanceav.net/
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http://www.nextgenerationantivirus.com/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.info/ http://www.spywareresearchcenter.com/ http://www.sunbeltsandbox.com/ http://www.antivirusfornetbooks.net/ http://www.vistaw7news.com/ http://www.pinellastransitworks.com/ http://www.spwarereport.biz/ http://www.messagingninja.com/ http://www.threatrack.co/ http://www.sunbeltsandbox.net/ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.org/ http://www.sunbelt-clearcloud.com/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.co/ http://www.Vipresucks.com/ http://www.Viprebusiness.org/ http://www.ninjaah.com/ http://www.antivirusfornetbooks.org/ http://www.Vipre-anti-malware.com/ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.us/ http://www.webexperiments.co/ http://www.juliansjournal.org/ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.net/ http://www.juliansjournal.com/ http://www.w2x.com/ http://www.antimalware-labs.com/ http://www.viperwebfilter.com/ http://www.threatnetnews.com/ http://www.itadminfaq.com/ http://www.Viprewebfilter.org/ http://www.malwareintelligenceservice.com/
http://www.Viprewebfilter.net/
http://www.spwarereport.net/ http://www.sunbeltsoftwaresucks.net/ http://www.clearclouddns.net/ http://www.exploitblock.com/ http://www.antivirusfornetbooks.com/ http://www.spysecure.info/ http://www.Vipremobile.net/ http://www.exchangeservermonitoring.net/ http://www.highperformanceantivirus.com/
http://www.Vipreenterprisesucks.com/
http://www.sunbelt-clearcloud.org/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.mobi/ http://www.spwarereport.us/ http://www.websecurityguru.net/ http://www.winxpnews.com/ http://www.pinellastransitworks.org/ http://www.sunbeltsucks.com/ http://www.sunbeltfilearchiver.us/ http://www.trustedorigin.com/ http://www.Vipreenterprisepremium.com/ http://www.fioqa.com/ http://www.sunbeltfirewall.com/ http://www.Vipreex.com/ http://www.Viprehomeantivirus.com/ http://www.sunbeltscan.net/ http://www.sunbeltsupport.us/ http://www.sunbeltsandbox.org/ http://www.counterspyv2.com/ http://www.websafetyguru.com/ http://www.sunbelt-clearcloud.net/ http://www.winservernews.org/ http://www.websecurityauthority.com/ http://www.spyware-research-center.net/
http://www.vistanews.us/
http://www.spywareresearchcenter.tv/ http://www.Viprelabs.org/ http://www.Vipreenterprise.net/ http://www.Viprewebfilter.com/ http://www.sunbeltexchangearchiver.com/
http://www.sunbeltsupport.net/
http://www.replacemcafee.org/ http://www.spwarereport.org/ http://www.spywareresearchcenter.org/ http://www.Viprelove.com/ http://www.spyware-research-center.org/
http://www.sunbelt-university.us/
http://www.replacemyav.com/ http://www.websecurityguru.com/ http://www.support-robert.com/ http://www.Vipremobile.org/ http://www.Vipreperks.com/ http://www.itadminzone.com/
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http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.com/ http://www.pinellastransitworks.net/ http://www.spywareresearch.org/ http://www.sunbeltcwsandbox.com/ http://www.replacemyav.net/ http://www.spwarereport.info/ http://www.vipertestdrive.com/ http://www.loveyourav.org/ http://www.spyware-resources.org/ http://www.malware-security.com/ http://www.spyware-research-center.us/ http://www.winxpnews.us/ http://www.replacemcafee.net/ http://www.sunbeltuniversity.us/ http://www.winservernews.net/ http://www.Vipresucks.net/ http://www.itadminqa.com/ http://www.vipermobile.org/ http://www.Viprelove.net/ http://www.sunbeltfilearchiver.org/ http://www.Vipreantiviruspremium.com/ http://www.itadminanswers.com/ http://www.sunbeltsoftwaresucks.com/ http://www.w7news.net/ http://www.dirqa.com/ http://www.cwsandbox.net/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.biz/ http://www.vipermobile.net/ http://www.Viprelabs.net/ http://www.Viprelove.org/ http://www.Vipreenterprisesucks.net/ http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.org/ http://www.w2knews.us/ http://www.sunbeltfilearchiver.com/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.org/ http://www.w7news.org/ http://www.loveyourav.net/ http://www.windowsdesktopnews.com/ http://www.threatnetnews.net/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.net/ http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.net/ http://www.Viprecast.org/ http://www.itadminasks.com/ http://www.getcounterspy.com/ http://www.ssdcorp.net/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.me/ http://www.spywarefighters.org/ http://www.websecurityguru.org/ http://www.antispamserver.com/ http://www.sunbeltfilearchiver.net/ http://www.sunbeltsoftwaresucks.org/ http://www.sunbelt-software.us/ http://www.Vipregatewaytesting.com/ http://www.getVipre.com/ http://www.clearclouddns.org/ http://www.wekeepthebadguysout.com/ http://www.xemplifyit.com/ http://www.cwsandbox.com/ http://www.sunbetsoftware.com/ http://www.Viprebusinessantivirus.com/ http://www.highperformanceav.net/ http://www.antimalwarelabs.com/ http://www.nextgenerationav.net/ http://www.nextgenerationantivirus.com/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.info/ http://www.spywareresearchcenter.com/ http://www.sunbeltsandbox.com/ http://www.antivirusfornetbooks.net/ http://www.vistaw7news.com/ http://www.pinellastransitworks.com/ http://www.spwarereport.biz/ http://www.messagingninja.com/ http://www.threatrack.co/ http://www.sunbeltsandbox.net/ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.org/ http://www.sunbelt-clearcloud.com/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.co/ http://www.Vipresucks.com/ http://www.Viprebusiness.org/ http://www.ninjaah.com/ http://www.antivirusfornetbooks.org/ http://www.Vipre-anti-malware.com/ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.us/ http://www.webexperiments.co/
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http://www.juliansjournal.org/ http://www.sunbeltsoftware.net/ http://www.juliansjournal.com/ http://www.w2x.com/ http://www.antimalware-labs.com/ http://www.viperwebfilter.com/ http://www.threatnetnews.com/ http://www.itadminfaq.com/ http://www.Viprewebfilter.org/ http://www.malwareintelligenceservice.com/ http://www.Viprewebfilter.net/ http://www.spwarereport.net/ http://www.sunbeltsoftwaresucks.net/ http://www.clearclouddns.net/ http://www.exploitblock.com/ http://www.antivirusfornetbooks.com/ http://www.spysecure.info/ http://www.Vipremobile.net/ http://www.exchangeservermonitoring.net/
http://www.highperformanceantivirus.com/
http://www.Vipreenterprisesucks.com/ http://www.sunbelt-clearcloud.org/ http://www.Vipremobilesecurity.mobi/ http://www.spwarereport.us/ http://www.websecurityguru.net/ http://www.winxpnews.com/ http://www.pinellastransitworks.org/ http://www.sunbeltsucks.com/ http://www.sunbeltfilearchiver.us/ http://www.trustedorigin.com/ http://www.Vipreenterprisepremium.com/
http://www.fioqa.com/
http://www.sunbeltfirewall.com/ http://www.Vipreex.com/ http://www.Viprehomeantivirus.com/ http://www.sunbeltscan.net/ http://www.sunbeltsupport.us/ http://www.sunbeltsandbox.org/ http://www.counterspyv2.com/ http://www.websafetyguru.com/ http://www.sunbelt-clearcloud.net/ http://www.winservernews.org/
Prioritized SEO Tasks
64
Task
Impact Ranking
Level of Effort
Merge Vipremobile, live.Vipreantivirus, Vipreantivirus, and Vipresecuritynews
1
Highest
Build & distribute free tools
2
Investigate and deal with Black Hat SEO domains
3
Implement Tag Management
4
Optimize logo linking
5
Optimize Navigation
6
Utilize H1 Headers
7
Lowest
SEM Program
Summary
Great room for improvement lies in keyword expansion and ad group breakouts paired with more relevant ad copy. This will lower CPCs, improve quality score, and conversion rates. The other area with large room for improvement applies to campaign settings, budget management, organized use of landing pages, and ad copy testing.
Settings
- Budget
o Day Parting – Several campaigns are limited by budget yet they are running
100% of the day. Day parting would utilize budget during the time of day when
people convert. o Increase daily budgets and monitor throughout the month to stay within
budget but demonstrate a higher daily budget to the auction.
o Lost Impression Share:
• Rank
• 6.4% B2C Branded_Exact
• 16% B2C Branded Broad
• 63% B2C General Broad
• 47% B2C General Exact
• Budget
• 49% B2C Free Exact – No Day Parting
• 65 % B2C Protection_Null – No Day Parting
• 47% B2C Removal Null – No Day Parting
- Mobile
o Currently bid down 100% on Brand while only 10% in non brand broad and 20 to
60% on other non brand terms.
o It might make more sense to have mobile on for Brand and off for non brand
without a mobile optimized site. Tablets are running at a much higher CPA than
desktops.
- Sitelinks
o Running the same 3 sitelinks for all campaigns. There is room for 8 sitelinks and the ability to customize for the campaign. Sitelinks are not currently set up for Branded_Search_B2C Tech Support_Null
65
Ad Groups 5 of the top 10 ad groups by cost have an ad hitting or redirecting to the homepage. These 5 ad groups have not converted since around April 3rd Within individual ad group spending over $50 this month these are the ad groups that have been hitting the wrong page and not converting: Vipre_Exact - $2056 Vipre_Broad - $502 Security_Exact - $302 Virus Protection_Exact - $93 Virus Protection - $108 Vipre Tech Support_Broad - $136 Vipre Tech Support_Broad - $120 Malware Removal - $66 Spyware Removal - $51
- In most cases, each ad group is running 3-4 very different ads. When the copy is this varied,
it’s difficult to test components of winning ads. AB tests are best when only one variable is
changed.
- Many ad groups have a clear winner for CPA and conversion rate but the losing ad is still
running for example:
o Antivirus_exact
o Vipre_Broad
- Use of punctuation at end of description lines would improve appearance and help with the
2 line format in AdWords’ top three placements
Keywords
- Ad groups contain long lists of keywords with high volume. These should be in separate
groups with more relevant ad copy.
o Viper exact contains 99 keywords. Viper – broad contains 11 modified broad keywords o Antivirus_exact contains 5 keywords including free antivirus download, software.
Breaking thse out will improve quality scores, which are currently at 3 and 4 out of
10.
o Antivirus broad contains 11 modified broad keywords with free included
The “Virus protection – exact” Ad Group contains these among others:
66
o free computer protection
o virus protection
o pc and computer in the same ad group, pc – 9 quality score since PC is in the copy,
Computer – 6 since computer is not in the copy
- 10 keywords with CPA less than $6 and average position over 3.
- 20 keywords with CPA greater than $9 and average position below 4. 12 are branded.
- Use of more phrase matches would allow for better control than modified broad
Here’s the full “Virus Protection – Exact” ad group for review: keywords: [virus protection] [computer virus protection] [virus protection software] [free virus protection] [antivirus protection] [anti virus protection] [freevirusprotection] [free computer protection] [free trial virus protection] [virus protection free trial] [free trial for virus protection] [virus protection for windows 7] [virus protection free from aol] [best virus protection 2012] [virus protection free trial 90 day] [best virus protection 2013]
The “Virus Protection – Exact” Ad Group is an example of an Ad Group with both totally disparate ad text (which is not ideal for AB testing), and too many keywords that aren’t tightly relevant to the ad text.
Negative Keywords
o There are no Vipre and brand variations are negatives for non brand keywords. This dilutes the brand to non brand data.
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o Vipre antivirus is the top spending query matching +antivirus at $221.21 this month. The
next closest is $26 for anitivirus protection
o Free should be a negative in non free ad groups
o Vipre negatives
• Mac, removal, help, how to remove, activation key, customer service, uninstall, sign in, log in
Quality Scores These score will improve with ad group break outs, more relevant ad copy, better budget management to increase volume Quality score quantities
o Total Keywords – 327 Search Keywords
o 3 – 53 (all non brand)
o 4-6 – 84 (13 branded)
o 7-9 – 28 (20 non brand)
o 10 - 162 (22 non branded)
AdWords Display Ads Audit:
- Both display campaigns have high CPAs, $12 - $14
- Search Companion Ads suggestions:
o Optimized bids for clicks. Mobile out performing desktop oddly. Several very high cost placements (filehippo.com, conduit.com, botcrawl.com
o Nothing is excluded
o Image ads not converting
o Several ads landing on this sketchy page:
http://Vipreantivirus.com/Vipre-internet-security/download-now/?go_id=1531
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o The ads are not excluding objectionable site categories
- Remarketing:
o Image ads are hitting the homepage instead of a landing page.
o More targeted remarketing ads
o Insure we are excluding those who purchase
Paid Media Program This section of the audit covers paid media campaigns – not including SEM. Current paid media programs are largely limited to paid placement in two networks. Return – downloads and sales - have been low across networks. •
ZDNet – PCMag.com
•
CBS Interactive – Download.com
•
Plus a few minor test campaigns.
All Q1 Media Spend Cost
$158,000.00
Downloads
266,711
CPD
$0.59
Purchases
199
CPP
$793.97
Revenue
$9,997.33
PCMag.com
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1. Ad shows in â&#x20AC;&#x153;Resource Centerâ&#x20AC;? and other locations such as bottom of article content.
2. Ad click takes user to sponsored download page for more information and a direct download.
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PCMag.com Performance PCMag drives inexpensive downloads but very limited purchase behavior, with $30,000 in spend resulting in 200,065 downloads at fifteen cents each, but just under $1,800 in revenue.
January
February
March
Q1 Total
Cost
$10,000.00
$10,000.00
$10,000.00
$30,000.00
Downloads
3,274
10,080
186,711
200,065
CPD
$3.05
$0.99
$0.05
$0.15
Purchases
10
9
15
34
CPP
$1,000.00
$1,111.11
$666.67
$882.35
Revenue
$559.70
$460.39
$761.92
$1,782.01
Referred traffic to VipreAntivirus.com from Download.com is small – only about 250 visits from October 2012 to March 2013, with zero transactions. Although additional traffic is almost certainly driven via paid and organic search for brand terms, these effects are difficult to determine by looking back.
Download.com 1. Sponsored match ad shows up in search results – example search for “antivirus.”
71
2. User can click to download immediately from the search results, buy (cleverbridge cart flow), or go to the download page.
72
Download.com Performance Download.com drives less scalable download but these downloaders do convert to purchase more efficiently, compared to PCMag. $81,000 in spend resulted in 61,611 downloads at $1.22 each, with $8,215 in revenue.
January
February
March
Q1 Total
Cost
$29,000.00
$26,000.00
$26,000.00
$81,000.00
Downloads
21,790
23,653
21,168
66,611
CPD
$1.33
$1.10
$1.23
$1.22
Purchases
58
50
57
165
CPP
$500.00
$520.00
$456.14
$490.91
Revenue
$2,812.64
$2,563.86
$2,838.82
$8,215.32
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Referred traffic to VipreAntivirus.com from Download.com is stronger than the corresponding traffic from PCMAg, but still small â&#x20AC;&#x201C;about 1,927 visits from October 2012 to March 2013, with four transactions and $140 in revenue. Although additional traffic is almost certainly driven via paid and organic search for brand terms, these effects are difficult to determine by looking back.
Other Campaigns Additional spend in other networks and placements in Q1 netted very little in the way of downloads and sales, with $47,000 in advertising spend bringing in only a handful of trackable downloads and no trackable sales.
PCWorld
January
February
March
Q1 Total
Cost
n/a
$18,000.00
$18,000.00
$36,000.00
Downloads
n/a
26
9
35
CPD
n/a
$692.31
$2,000.00
$1,028.57
Purchases
n/a
0
0
0
CPP
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Revenue
n/a
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
(banners)
January
February
March
Q1 Total
Cost
$5,000.00
n/a
n/a
$5,000.00
Downloads
0
n/a
n/a
0
CPD
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Purchases
0
n/a
n/a
0
CPP
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Revenue
$0.00
n/a
n/a
$0.00
FindTheBest.com
74
Woot
January
February
March
Q1 Total
Cost
$6,000.00
n/a
n/a
$6,000.00
Downloads
0
n/a
n/a
0
CPD
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Purchases
0
n/a
n/a
0
CPP
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Revenue
$0.00
n/a
n/a
$0.00
Recommendations 1. Current campaigns:
a. Discontinue PCMag. While download volume and cost per download from PCMag are
strong, conversion of these downloaders to customers is so low that it likely cannot be opti
mized to acceptable levels. However, effects on direct traffic and brand searches as well
as conversion rate from trial to paid across the trial download base should be watched
closely for negative effects.
b. Consider discontinuing Download.com. Cost per purchase of customers from Download.
com is better than PCMAg, but still not indicative of strong pre-optimization potential. We
recommend consulting with the CBSi team for aggressive fixes with strong potential â&#x20AC;&#x201C;
depending on that discussion this source should either quickly be tested further or shut
down for now. As with PCMag, effects on direct traffic and brand searches as well as
conversion rate from trial to paid across the trial download base should be watched closely
for negative effects, and the shutdown should be staged separately from PCMag to separate
the effects.
2. Use the Google Display Network as a proving ground for display conversion flows:
a. Testing and optimization:
i. Modulate traffic from known relevant/high quality sites to create traffic groups to be
used to test/optimize landing pages, conversion flows, and email nurturing
campaigns.
ii. Complete at least two rounds of this style of optimization before launching large-
scale paid media campaigns to create higher likelihood of success.
b. Prospecting (using standard GDN tactics):
i. Identify high quality site profiles
ii. Identify user groups that represent qualified prospects likely to convert from download to
sale.
c. Retargeting
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3. Implement systematic tracking of display and other difficult-to-track paid media campaigns to assist with understanding the contribution from these sources. At a minimum, we should:
a. Implement multi-channel funnel tracking in Google Analytics
b. Pulse spend for broad campaigns in such a way that impact to direct traffic and brand
search (organic and paid) can be analyzed. If possible, geo-target new campaigns to make it
easier to track brand and organic lift.
c. Where possible, drive downloads to VipreAntivirus.com or another owned domain so site
behavior and micro-conversions can be included in analysis.
d. Consider multi-channel attribution tools such as Ensighten or Tagman.
4.
Establish goals for brand versus direct response and test accordingly. (See sample media plan
for details)
a. Brand
i. Youtube – drive traffic to owned content (help files, tips and tricks, etc) and retarget
viewers ii. Social – inject Vipre into trial / buying decision process
iii. Display
1. Commit to small testing budget for a minimum of three months to prove out
2. Flow learnings from GDN into direct or network buys
b. Direct response
i. List acquisition – requires a well-optimized lead → sale funnel
ii. Product listings – feed placement in shopping engines, etc
1. Google, etc
2. Amazon product ads
iii. Email and offers
1. Personal tech-focused newsletters, etc
2. Google offers 3. Gmail promotions
Email Marketing Program
Overview
Email programs are currently split into two primary areas: campaign-centric emails and flow-based emails targeting trial downloaders for purchase. In this document, we’ll focus on the campaigns sent to the Vipre Security News list and the flow-based emails sent to downloaders of VIS and VPC. Current Vipre email marketing programs represent a significant growth opportunity in both campaigndriven and automated, flow-based emails. Across the program, there is a lack of optimization – from technical components like HTML templates and tracking, to strategic elements like time of day emails
76
revenue enhancements but also help establish ThreatTrack / Vipre as an authority in the consumer security space.
Campaign Emails Campaigns sent to the Vipre Security News (VSN) list in the last year consist of newsletters and promotions. Newsletters typically contain an opening note from Larry Jaffe and short intro pieces with links to articles on VipreSecurityNews.com. Most newsletters contain a conversion-driving element in the lower right rail: partner promos, upgrade offers, etc. Top three newsletters by open rate:
Subject
Open Rate
Clickthrough Rate
How to renew your Vipre subscription
19.08%
3.82%
Is Your System DNS Changer-free?
18.68%
5.08%
Printing with Vipre Internet Security 2012
17.48%
2.98%
Subject
Open Rate
Clickthrough Rate
Is Your System DNS Changer-free?
18.68%
5.08%
How to renew your Vipre subscription
19.08%
3.82%
“Vipre has been improved!” Pop-up
16.77%
3.56%
Top three newsletters by clickthrough rate:
The first “real” link – often in the first article summary after Larry Jaffe’s intro – tends to be the most popular link. The standout performer by far was the link in last July’s newsletter, “If you’re concerned that maybe your computer is infected, please visit http://www.dcwg.org/detect/,” which garnered over 20,000 clicks. The top-performing link typically receives around 6,000 clicks. Newsletter open and clickthrough rates have been in a slow decline over the last twelve months. While some of this decline may be a result of the list getting stale and losing interest, some of this is likely a result of recent list growth. Bounce rates in recent months have been higher – 3-5% - compared to typically lower bounce rates in 2012, often around 1%.
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Promotions are typically a header+text template with a discount offer, and in some cases a simple “postcard” layout has been used. Top three promo emails by open rate:
Subject
Open Rate
Clickthrough Rate
2 Years for New Year’s Sale
15.48%
2.13%
Save up to 75% on Vipre this weekend only
13.3%
3.68%
National Cyber Security Awareness Month Saving
12.23%
1.03%
Top three newsletters by clickthrough rate:
Subject
Open Rate
Clickthrough Rate
Save up to 75% on Vipre this weekend only
13.3%
3.68%
2 Years for New Year’s Sale
15.48%
2.13%
Only 5 Days Left - 2 Years for New Year’s Sale
14%
1.8%
Because the links in these emails are not tagged with link tracking and typically all go to the same destination URL, it’s impossible to tell where recipients are clicking in the email. Top promo emails have received between 6,000 and 11,000 clicks. In contrast to the newsletter emails, the open and clickthrough rates are low – 17% + for the newsletters versus a high of 15.5% for promos. This is surprising, given the aggressive offers in these campaigns, and represents a significant opportunity for improvement.
Flow-based Emails Trial users of both VIS and VPC begin receiving nurturing emails after download, at 7, 14, 28, and 35 days. The templates for both products are basically the same, with minor differences in content.
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7 Days
79
14 Days
80
28 Days
81
35 Days
82
The lack of visual differentiation of the different emails in these flows probably confuses users (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why have I received this email four times now?â&#x20AC;?) and keeps the messaging from being effective. Additionally, these emails suffer from many of the symptoms detailed below in the template asessments.
Mechanics The current email templates have some issues that are likely affecting email performance, from deliverability to revenue. Newsletter template assessment
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1. This vital “hot spot” in the top left of the email template is the part of the email that will be seen in all email clients, whether the email is viewed in a horizontal or vertical preview pane. This area is best used for quick brand/sender recognition and a call to action (CTA). This template has some teaser info, but it’s not well organized for easy parsing of what the email is about. 2. The upper section of the email is critical real estate. In this example, we have a large amount of wasted space that could be more efficiently used, thus bringing the content up further in the preview pane and increasing the likelihood of a click. 3. It’s unclear if this intro is the best use of critical space at the beginning of the email. 4. This “view as PDF” link is essentially a “view web version link” and should not be part of the main body of the email, but rather in the header or right margin. 5. Critical revenue-driving promo is de-prioritized here on the lower right. Although the newsletter is not primarily a revenue driver, performance of this link – and increased revenue – can likely be achieved by testing more prominent placement of this banner.
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Promo template assessment
85
6. This vital “hot spot” in the top left of the email template is the part of the email that will be seen in all email clients, whether the email is viewed in a horizontal or vertical preview pane. This area is best used for quick brand/sender recognition and a call to action (CTA). Vipre emails have the brand, but lack the a compelling CTA in this area. 7. The upper section of the email is critical real estate. In this example, we have some wasted space that could be more efficiently used, thus bringing the content up further in the preview pane and increasing the likelihood of a click. 8. The call to action is well below the fold and on the right side. If the email is viewed in a vertical preview pane (for example, Outlook) the button may not be seen. 9. This email is missing critical information about the sender, including CAN-SPAM required elements like address. 10. The unsubscribe link is not prominent, increasing the likelihood of a spam complaint by an unhappy recipient, rather than a simple unsubscribe.
General Notes
• The email templates are not sliced up so we can track where users clicked – which is helpful
for understanding intent as well as what language drives conversion.
• Links are not tagged with Google Analytics tracking.
• HTML code in many of the templates is substandard and may contribute to poor rendering in
email clients, and potentially even affect deliverability.
Opportunities & Recommendations Substantial opportunities exist for improvements with real results in engagement and revenue growth.
• Revisit overall email marketing strategy and develop plan for ongoing campaigns as well
as improved flow-based/triggered emails. Both programs offer significant room for improve
ment in performance:
consistent month-to-month. o Flow-based emails are similarly un-optimized, and also don’t currently sync with in-app marketing.
• Perform a comprehensive audit of all lists. Recent performance is indicative of potential list
hygiene issues – this should be addressed before bigger deliverability and sender reputation
problems set in.
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o Newsletters and promo emails are not optimized for best performance and are not
• Examine sources of list acquisition to improve quality of future list acquisition activities and
• Examine sources of list acquisition to improve quality of future list acquisition activities and
audit signup flows. • Perform in-depth examination of current ESP implementation, including triggered email
setups.
• Redesign email templates for improved clickability, and improve HTML for better rendering
across desktop and webmail clients. Most of the newsletter HTML files reviewed had signif
icant errors such as missing tags, CSS in the head with no inline styles to back it up, etc.
This can lead to the email not rendering correctly in recipients’ inboxes and in some cases
breaking completely.
• Raise visibility of subscribe source statement and unsubscribe link currently “hidden” in the
footer. Making this information more prominent in the footer increases the likelihood that an
unhappy subscriber will unsubscribe rather than clicking the complain button – which hurts
deliverability.
• Implement systematic Google Analytics tracking code on all links, so email performance can
be understood in terms of site and purchasing behavior, rather than just clicks and opens.
• Implement ongoing testing plan for all components of email: subject lines, send times,
layouts/design elements, and so on. • Generally speaking, competitors aren’t strong in email marketing.
o Some of BitDefender’s signup overlays are well designed, with clear signup flows and
calls to action, but they suffer from inconsistency and are not prominently
promoted.
o ESET is the only competitor that kicks off email marketing to trial downloaders quickly, but their emails are not particularly strong.
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Social Program
Official Vipre social properties
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Name
Link
Likes
Active
Facebook Vipre Antivirus Page
https://www.facebook. com/GFIVipreAntivirus
1,118
Moderately
Vipre Internet Security Group
https://www. facebook.com/ groups/81966283670/
3,257
Yes
Vipre Support Forum
http://forums.sunbeltsoftware.com/
9,476
Yes
Recommendations There are various other facebook pages not company sponsored. The most active social property is Vipre Facebook Group. The group has several power users who are great brand advocates. While it would be ideal to duplicate or move these users on a newer Facebook page, the users would have to be incented to leave, since prompts haven’t worked in the past. In terms of priorities and bandwidth, this isn’t a task worth tackling until the issues we’ve seen in other channels have been resolved. Izea/SocialSpark Currently, Izea, ThreatTrack is utilizing Izea’s SocialSpark service to drive paid reviews and tweets about Vipre. While Izea has done a great job sourcing and communicating with bloggers, there are two issues we see: Firstly, none of the links that the bloggers share with their followers contain any tagging. This means that tracking the value of leads from the social network is time consuming. In fact, it’s never been tracked to this point. While we could surmise that brand lift and indirect revenue has occurred as a result of Izea’s efforts, we don’t know. Of what we can track, we see 98 visits in Q1 and no revenue that is directly attributable to Izea. Additionally, Izea sends over basic reports on a timely basis, but many of their competitors offer a dashboard as well as some level of analysis for the same amount of money, or slightly more. While ThreatTrack is only spending $5,000 a month on Izea’s services, since there is no measurable return on revenue, this channel is not one that we would recommend growing. When tracking has begun and we can measure return, the decision can be made to expand, change, or stop the program. We would also recommend looking into Izea competitors, such as Linqia.
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90
Requirements
91
Personnel Recommendations Previously, all marketing decisions for ThreatTrackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s B2C business were made by one employee. The sheer amount of revenue and marketing channels involved in running the business would benefit from multiple view points. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d suggest a strategy focused Marketing Director as well as a Marketing Manager who handles more tactical tasks. Note that both roles will have some strategy and some tactical work involved. In terms of experience, specific channel familiarity is important. Search engine marketing, online advertising, or email marketing experience are three fields that tend to provide enough of a solid ground to manage other types of channels, including analytics set up, and goal setting.
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Strategic Recommendations
As referenced in this document, the antivirus category is facing an undeniable downward trend with quite a bit of competition beyond the 3 competitors we outlined. The prevailing market forces explain why marketing efforts have met with less success over time. While we believe product differentiation is the best way to carve a niche and gain momentum within this environment, product research and investment poses a barrier. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve outlined extensive changes and groundwork that must be completed within existing marketing channels before suggesting overarching strategic changes. ThreatTrack should take the remainder of Q3 to implement foundation work on all channels and processes to enforce tracking moving forward. When Vipre Antivirus 2014 and Vipre Internet Security 2014 launch in September 2013, enough of a history and track record will have been established to ensure a strong launch. Beyond the suggestions present, we believe more research can be done on persona and audience fit with product. Audience testing and surveys can be conducted regularly to help dictate strategic direction in messaging and product.
93
94
Appendix
95
Appendix Channel Charts
$15,000.00
Q1 Spend $123,411.73
Brand / Display $158,000.00
SEM -‐ direct response Content (Izea)
Q1 Spend vs. Brand & Direct Traffic $140,000.00 $120,000.00 $100,000.00 $80,000.00 $60,000.00 $40,000.00 $20,000.00 $0.00
96
January February March
100,000 90,000 80,000 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0
Content (Izea) SEM -‐ direct response Brand / Display Direct Traffic Brand Searches
Q1 Spend: Brand vs SEM & Content Content (Izea) CBSi CBSi ZDNet PCWorld FindTheBest
SEM -‐ direct response
Woot SEM -‐ direct response
ZDNet
Content (Izea)
PCWorld
Woot
FindTheBest
All Spend
January
February
March
Q1 Total
Brand / Display
$50,000.00
$54,000.00
$54,000.00
$158,000.00
SEM - direct response
$61,769.90
$30,479.81
$31,162.02
$123,411.73
Content (Izea)
$5,000.00
$5,000.00
$5,000.00
$15,000.00
Direct Traffic
90,209
82,980
76,028
249,217
Brand Searches
71,979
79,880
69,198
221,057
All Spend
January
February
March
Q1 Total
CBSi
$29,000.00
$26,000.00
$26,000.00
$81,000.00
ZDNet
$10,000.00
$10,000.00
$10,000.00
$30,000.00
PCWorld
n/a
$18,000.00
$18,000.00
$36,000.00
FindTheBest
$5,000.00
n/a
n/a
$5,000.00
Woot
$6,000.00
n/a
n/a
$6,000.00
SEM - direct response
$61,769.90
$30,479.81
$31,162.02
$123,411.73
Content (Izea)
$5,000.00
$5,000.00
$5,000.00
$15,000.00
97
Creative Technologies Review Creative Technologies LLC Properties • pcantivirusreviews.com
- Vipre is top ranked – Editor’s Choice Award – is this placement guaranteed?
• pcantiviruscoupon.com
- Antivirus coupon blog – Vipre has prominent placement and 15%-25% off coupon
Paid Search •
Paid Search funding – TT gives them about $50-75K a month for their Paid Search funding.
•
They earn 50% on each transaction as an affiliate.
•
E/R high – strategy is to use the affiliate channel to drive customer acquisitions which can be
converted to renewals through product prompts or email campaigns at lower cost ROI These calculations are from Creative Technologies. The last column is from cleverbridge Commerce Assistant.
Month
Sales
Revenue
Ad Cost
Post Ad Cost Revenue
2013 Jan
2,958
$135,657
(70,956)
$64,701
$11,558
$3.91
$6.31
2013 Feb
2,351
$112,781
(57,914)
$54,867
$10,894
$4.63
$6.26
2013 Mar
2,136
$114,224
(52,598)
$61,626
$17,336
$8.12
$10.16
All Time
16,335
$729,958
(400,727)
$329,230
$39,788
Profit / Loss
Return Per Sale
VS CB
*CB Calculation: (Revenue – Fees – Ad Cost = Profit Loss) / # Sales = Return per Sale Channel Share For Q113 there were152 productive affiliates with pcantivirusreviews.com representing 76% of revenue.
98
Opportunities •
Next Tier Active Affiliates
- Explore options to boost their performance.
- How active are they and what can be optimized?
novastor.com (#8494) $39,484 PPC,socialmedia (#19820) $4,873 Www.savesave.net (#19471) $4,066 prisoft.net (#6988) $3,223 download.com (#3322) $2,457 chilidownload.com[SCK] (#4889) $2,385 smartpon.com (#16527) $2,373 antiviruscouponreviews.com (#18530) $2,304 counterspy.com (#12803) $1,280 couponpaste.com (#23831) $1,103 toptenreviews.com (#1454) $1,066 •
Keyword Competitors
•
top ad groups - Are there opportunities to work with these publishers on an affiliate model?
Toptenreviews.com
Download.cnet.com
Pcmag.com
Pcworld.com
Filehippo.com
YouTube Campaigns
•
- These sites rank alongside pcantivirusreviews.com in organic and paid search for
- Explore this
Natural Intelligence (CJ)
- Top performer in CJ with 3M EPC $317-$420
- CPA $30-$50 for top 3 placement – only pay on sale
- http://www.top10anti-virus.com/ launching soon
- Multiple “Top10best….” Properties
- top10bestwebsitehosting.com , etc
99
CJ - Internet Security 1 License Return per Purchase
CPA
Override
CJ Fees
Cost
Sale
$49.00
$30
30%
$9
$39
$10.00
$49.99
$40
30%
$12
$52
($2.01)
$49.99
$50
30%
$15
$65
($15.01)
CJ - Internet Security Multiple Licenses Return per
100
Purchase
CPA
Override
CJ Fees
Cost
Sale
$69.00
$30
30%
$9
$39
$30.00
$69.00
$40
30%
$12
$52
$17.00
$69.00
$50
30%
$15
$65
$4.00
101
102