Mark Fiske

1. Programmatic as a Retention Driver
Mark Fiske, VP Channel Marketing, Ancestry
October 1, 2015

2. About Ancestry
• Ancestry is the world's largest online family history resource. We are
dedicated to helping everyone discover, preserve and share their family
history.
• 11 Brands and presence in 9 markets
• >2MM paying subscribers
• >16 Billion records
• >70 Million family trees containing >6 Billion profiles
• ~35 MM visits/month (Comscore)
2

3. The Promise of Programmatic Realized
3

4. 4
Ad Sales: Simplified

5. 5
Tech Stack: Simplified

6. 6
Customer Insights: Advanced
“User ID ABC123 clicked on page ID 376239, hovered mouse for 14 seconds over the headline, clicked
“add to tree”, entered custom comment, hovered mouse for 6 seconds, clicked “share,” shared to six
email addresses, clicked “submit,” clicked “home,” hovered mouse over pending suggestions for 10
seconds, clicked “review,” rejected pending suggestion ID 194829, hovered mouse for 4 seconds,
rejected pending suggestion ID 128403, hovered mouse for 6 seconds, clicked “add to tree” to
suggestion ID 983290, clicked “submit,” clicked “home,” hovered mouse over pending suggestions for
4 seconds, clicked “review,” rejected pending suggestion ID 194829, hovered mouse for 4 seconds,
rejected pending suggestion ID 128403, hovered mouse for 6 seconds, clicked “add to tree” to
suggestion ID 983290, clicked “home,” hovered mouse over pending suggestions for 9 seconds,
clicked “review,” rejected pending suggestion ID 194829, hovered mouse for 4 seconds, rejected
pending suggestion ID 128403, hovered mouse for 6 seconds, clicked “add to tree” to suggestion ID
983290, clicked “home,” hovered mouse over communications tab for 6seconds, clicked “review,”
rejected pending suggestion ID 194829, hovered mouse for 4 seconds, rejected pending suggestion
ID 128403, hovered mouse for 6 seconds, clicked “add to tree” to suggestion ID 983290, clicked
“home,” hovered mouse over pending suggestions for 11 seconds, clicked “review,” rejected pending
suggestion ID 194829, hovered mouse for 4 seconds, rejected pending suggestion ID 128403,
hovered mouse for 6 seconds, clicked “pedigree view” on ID 983290 clicked “home,” hovered mouse
over pending suggestions for 2 seconds, clicked “review,” rejected pending suggestion ID…”

7. 7
Customer Experience: Well…
Let me show you that product again… 37 times

8. So, what has changed with technology?
• Ways in which we can identify behaviors
• Ability to communicate on a 1:1 basis like never before
• Sheer quantity of channels in which we can communicate with customers
• Ability to leverage media once only seen as “acquisition/branding”

9. And yet… Show of hands…
In my company, CRM is… Cumulative
Touches/week
Email 1.5
Email + On-Site Banner 7
Above + Mobile Push 8
Above + Off-Site Programmatic 32
Above + AdWords RLSA 34
Above + Facebook WCA 49
Above + Direct Mail 50
97% of
Opportunity
Missed

10. Programmatic as CRM Driver
10

11. Defining Channel<->Message Interaction
• Test into target frequency by message
• Understand what is/is not profitable by channel
• Apply Common Sense
• Define media channel mix per segment/message
based on expected RPM
 “R” is important! Retention & frequency have value, know it!
 Test & Control

12. Testing: Profitability
• Target frequency of 16 per person before wasting impressions
• Message-level LTR/1000 impressions = $1.37
Channel Channel
Touches/week
Cost/1000
Email 1.5 $0.01
Email + On-Site Banner 5.5 $0.02
Above + Mobile Push 1 $0.03
Above + Off-Site Banner 24 $1.00
Above + AdWords RLSA 2 $1.30
Above + Facebook WCA 15 $1.40
Above + Direct Mail 2 $300
No further return on
impressions
Unprofitable

13. Sample Interaction Mapping
13
Communication Segment Email Site
Banner
Program.
Banner
Facebook
Newsfeed
- Cust.
Aud
FB
Newsfeed
- Pixel
Postal Mail Mobile
Push
AdWords
Brand
RLSA
“Hints” – Engagement/Retention
“Message Waiting” –
Engagement/Retention
Recently Canceled – Timed
Reactivation
Free Trialer - Education
Military Searcher – Cross-Sell
Global Interest - Upsell
Campaign – Free Access
Card Decline - Transactional

14. Align Organizational Structure, Goals
14

15. This Org Isn’t Bad…
15
CMO
Channels
SEM
Display
FB
Etc
CRM
Email
Campaigns
PR
Partnerships
Earned
Outreach

16. So Long as Shared Goals
16
Team Old Goal New Goal
Channels X New Subscribers $X LTR
CRM Y Reactivations
Z New Subs
N Churn Decrease
$Y LTR
PR P Pieces picked up
Z Reach
$Z LTR*
This Org Isn’t Bad…
• Testing key to understand LTR impact of ‘contributor Events’
 X decrease in churn
 Per piece mailed
• Budget Accordingly: Stop thinking of retention as free

17. Infrastructure
17

18. Uniform Definition of Customer
• Define who owns customer segment logic
• Create one source with mappings across all
customers/prospects
• Open System: Consumers can feed data in
/ data out
 Flat File
 API
 Accessible to website services
18

19. Reinventing Approach:
Test, Rinse, Repeat
• Your current marketing experience is
likely the product of years of testing
• Start with obvious
• Develop iterative testing process
• Expect & encourage failure
19

20. One of Dozens of Use Cases At Ancestry…
20
Email On-Site Display
Off-Site Display
Social Mobile

21. And it works!
21
• Significant lift vs. control
groups receiving messaging
via solely email channel
• As with all media, granular testing
achieves best results
Control Exposed Lift
Registrants 0.0% 1.2% N/A
Current Free Trialers 16.2% 26.8% 65.4%
Previous Trialers 0.0% 1.4% N/A
All Others 7.5% 8.3% 10.7%
TOTAL 5.9% 9.4% 58.9%
Conversion Rate
Ancestry Current Previous All
Registrant Free Trail Trialer Others Previous Subs Current Subs
Control 0.0% 16.2% 0.0% 7.5% 0.0% 76.0%
Exposed 1.2% 26.8% 1.4% 8.3% 8.3% 79.9%
Generic 1.3% 21.1% 1.8% 10.4% 10.7% 82.1%
Specific Hint counts 1.2% 27.5% 1.4% 8.0% 7.9% 79.6%
1 0.5% 24.8% 0.7% 3.4% 4.2% 73.1%
2 0.6% 27.1% 0.9% 5.1% 4.5% 72.9%
3 0.7% 21.9% 0.4% 4.4% 4.4% 70.6%
4 0.7% 23.9% 0.8% 4.1% 4.8% 72.1%
5 0.7% 24.4% 0.8% 6.3% 3.8% 70.9%
6 0.9% 26.2% 1.3% 4.7% 4.7% 72.5%
7 1.3% 26.1% 0.9% 4.5% 4.6% 72.8%
8 1.1% 32.9% 1.0% 4.9% 6.2% 72.2%
9 1.1% 27.7% 0.9% 4.4% 6.3% 75.5%
10 1.2% 29.1% 1.1% 7.0% 6.2% 75.1%
11 1.6% 30.4% 1.3% 6.6% 6.8% 73.7%
12 1.6% 31.3% 2.0% 6.0% 5.8% 73.8%
13-23 1.5% 25.0% 1.1% 6.3% 5.9% 74.5%
24-99 1.9% 29.0% 1.3% 7.3% 6.0% 78.2%
100-199 2.7% 30.4% 2.0% 10.9% 7.7% 81.8%
200+ 2.4% 27.8% 2.3% 12.3% 8.4% 81.5%
1000+ 3.4% 31.5% 3.2% 18.7% 15.0% 86.7%
Registrants (Never Subscribed)

22. Take-Aways
• Thinking of programmatic as a retention
driver can increase engagement
opportunities 97%
• Aligning teams around LTR goals creates
common language without significant
organizational change
• Test into optimal frequency, channel by
message to define interaction mapping
22

23. Thank you, questions
Mark Fiske
@thefiske

24. APPENDIX

25. Technology Key
• Focus on ETL times, system of record
 Near-real-time key, hours not an option
• Tag Management System
 Sounds so 2010, but needed for conditional logic
• Data Management Platform
 Not just display any more
25

26. Technology – Ancestry Past (24-48 hours)
Data
FTPBIT
24 Hour Wait
Web
Analytics
Tool
Web Analytics
Data Feed
Rest API
Marketing
Segmentation Tool
Email Service
Provider
Onsite Display Ad
Server
Offsite Display
Platform
Processing

27. The RX for 1:1 multichannel success
(in this order)
• Focus on core customer value proposition
• Develop interaction mapping
• Align organizational structure & goals
• Optimize infrastructure
• Test, rinse, repeat
27

28. Technology – Ancestry Present (<1 minute)
Data
Email Service
Provider
Onsite Display Ad
Server
Offsite Display
Platform
3rd Party
DMP
3rd Party
Tag Mgr
AdWords RLSA
Facebook WCA

29. Technology – Why Latency Matters
0-1 Hour 1-3 Hours 3-4 Hours 24+ Hours
60%
16%
8%
5%
Incremental Abandon Cart Volume By Send Time

30. Facebook
• Website Custom Audience List
 NOT just remarketing
 Recent audiences
 Tag Management tool for conditional fire
• “Traditional” Custom Audience List
 Campaigns
 Behaviors from 3+ mos ago
 Automate every x days
• Tie into Campaigns

31. AdWords RLSA
• Not display remarketing
• Can be used to enable specific messaging
for brand searchers
• Use tag manager to define audiences
based on meaningful criteria
• Focus on persistent categorizations
• Results:
 Relevant messaging – Members only offer
 Reduction in wasted brand SEM spend
 Improvement in upsell rate

32. Testing: Target Frequency
• For each messaging strategy & channel, test:
 Lift by count of impressions: Do you even need channel x to exhaust a
given messaging opportunity?
 LTR per 1K impressions
• Many channels won’t make sense for some messages