Growth Hacking a Multi Billion Dollar Funnel

Hello and thanks for reading The Real World Marketer. In this story, we'll break down what true growth marketing looks like and how it creatively and effectively catapulted automated coupon extensions to the front of the coupon industry.

As a recap.

• In part 1 of this story, we learned the back story to developing Piggy.

• In part 2, we what product market fit is and how it was used to create Piggy.

• In part 3 of this free newsletter, we dive deep into the secrets behind Honey’s impressive growth.

We needed to grow our subscriber base and do it quickly. At the time, we didn't know what true growth marketing was. We thought growth marketing hacks were the result of pure luck, not something we could get or learn from a "growth marketing expert."

By the time Piggy set its foot in the market, the competition seemed to be already there. They had armed themselves with outside funding and some clever growth marketing ideas, which helped them build a sizable user base quickly and organically. Our main competitor, Honey, launched on Product Hunt and Reddit before we did, giving them a significant head start. They had over 250,000 power users by the time we even caught on to them.

Maybe this community didn't drive cars, nor understand the fundamental differences between different car brands. Or maybe they didn't understand that there's always room for competition in the marketplace. In my opinion, that's what fundamentally drives product and customer satisfaction. Whatever the reason for their outrage, it was beyond me. But we had a great product, and we were determined to succeed regardless of the failure.

Successful Growth Marketing Strategy of Honey

We were closely monitoring our competition, and we couldn't help but feel the added pressure as they surged ahead. They were adding about 100,000 users every month, while we had barely cracked 20,000 in total. The mystery of their growth haunted us until we discovered a Business Insider article promoting Chrome Extensions, and there it was, our competitor Honey was sitting in position one on “These 13 Google Chrome Hacks will change the way you use the internet.”! Honey had gained millions of impressions from this one piece. But how?

We were amazed to see that Honey had gained millions of impressions from this one article. The article used a unique image of two fists together with the word "Chrome" spelled out across them. This image was catchy and turned out to be very effective when Honey used it in their Facebook ads with the tagline "Top Tricks To Power Up Your Computer - #1 Will Blow Your Mind."

Honey had wild success with this strategy. We later found out through our own testing that they were generating installs for $1-$2 each. The users would also comment back on the ads or share them when they saw them again that the extension had worked for them. This further added to the social proof, engagement, and algorithm gaming.

This was a major turning point for both of us. Honey, being very sharp, decided to put everything they had behind the ads and article. They came up with very unique ways to keep their ads fresh on Facebook. For example, they ran ads with pictures of Chrome that looked like cakes or cupcakes. These creatives were very effective in getting people's attention and driving installs. Often they could use the same tagline or description, or alternate them ever so slightly to keep the content fresh.

It seemed a little interesting that this one piece would drive them so much traffic continually. We would use all sorts of spy tools like SpyFu and AdBeat, but none of those turned up anything beyond what we already knew. This Business Insider article had 20 million impressions and counting! We couldn't help but feel the itch to try a similar tactic.

However, our timing and attempts to get featured hit roadblocks. Rejections from journalists and publications made it seem like a lost cause. But I knew from my experience in real estate that persistence is key. As my partner John would say,

Our persistence finally led us to an opportunity with The Huffington Post.

Understanding Honey’s Explosive Viral Marketing Techniques

In a fortunate turn of events, we had the opportunity to bring on board a growth marketer with specialized knowledge in content marketing and Facebook advertising. Their secret sauce? Content-driven Facebook marketing. These were the very elements at which we thought catalyzed Honey's rapid expansion.

The underlying principle was simple yet ingenious: Use content pieces as a tool for product promotion on Facebook. When an article garners a significant number of impressions, it acts as a magnet, attracting other journalists to write about the same topic. This creates a potent content-feedback loop: gain a content piece, funnel in traffic, attract more articles, and direct this traffic towards a new audience. As customers engaged, shared, and interacted with these pieces, Facebook's algorithms took note, offering impressively low CPMs (cost per million impressions).

Honey Optimized Facebook's Algorithm for Lower CPMs

Honey leveraged Facebook's algorithms to their advantage by creating content that was highly engaging. This resulted in their content being served more frequently and at a lower CPM.

There are a few reasons why this is the case. First, Facebook's algorithms prioritize content that is engaging and relevant to users. When people like, share, or comment on a piece of content, it tells Facebook that the content is valuable and that users are interested in it. As a result, Facebook is more likely to show that content to other users.

By creating content that was both engaging and inexpensive, Honey was able to get their content seen by a large number of people without breaking the bank. This helped them to achieve explosive growth.

Content Marketing Meets Facebook: A Formula for Viral Growth

But the genius didn't stop there. They exploited Facebook’s ability to target Desktop, more specifically Chrome browsers exclusively. This precision targeting skyrocketed CTRs (click-through rates) and conversions. Article advertising was still fresh in the digital landscape and it added a layer of credibility to Honey's campaigns. Therefore, their engagement rates were through the roof, simply because most Facebook advertisers hadn’t tapped into this goldmine yet. Even articles not optimized for conversions thrived due to the volume and affordability of the traffic.

Building Brand Credibility with Google Chrome

Honey was able to build brand credibility by leveraging Google Chrome's logo. This further helped their reputation and authority. They did this by incorporating Google Chrome's branding into their ad creatives in a unique and attention-grabbing way.

For example, remember those unique Chrome pictures above? Those ads were eye-catching and memorable, and it also made a connection between Honey and Google Chrome. The ad implied that Honey was a valuable extension that could help users save money, and it also suggested that Google Chrome was a trusted brand that users could rely on.

Honey's use of Google Chrome's branding was a clever way to build brand credibility and trust. It showed that Honey was a legitimate company that was worth users' attention. This helped Honey to stand out from the competition and get higher than normal CTR’s. This further contributed to their explosive growth.

Here are some specific tips for building brand credibility with other brands:

• Partner with brands that have a good reputation and authority.

• Use the other brand's branding in your marketing materials in a way that is relevant and appropriate.

  • Using their logos, font’s and styles in your creatives lends further credibility.

• Make sure that your products or services are aligned with the other brand's values.

In order to keep yourself in good standing with your partner. 

• Be transparent about your relationship with the other brand.

• Avoid making any claims that could be seen as misleading or deceptive.

• Altering brand logos like Honey was, could lend you receiving a Cease and Desist Letter (C&D). 

  • But, under the right context, it may be worth the risk.

By following these tips, you can build brand credibility with other brands and boost the success of your marketing campaigns. This is something I took special notice of when I later built the most successful marketing funnel on display traffic for the coupon industry.

Use Open Door Testing

Our venture into Facebook marketing had mixed results. We had a short-lived success, but it wasn't sustainable. The core issue was that a significant chunk of traffic on platforms like Facebook is mobile. This was a problem for us because our product was designed for desktop users.

Our competitor, Honey, did a good job of realizing what worked organically then began targeting it heavily on Facebook’s desktop users. They appeared to use a lot of open door testing to see what worked and what didn't. This allowed them to optimize their campaigns and get better results.

Honey did an excellent job at absolutely smashing the desktop chrome traffic on Facebook. This didn’t leave much room for the competition to also hit this market. Because they heavily saturated it, we found that it was a struggle to muscle in on their success. -It’s definitely helpful to have that war chest of capital.

Here are some tips for using open door testing to learn from your competition:

• Identify your competitors' most successful campaigns.

  • Think about why they are resonating with the audience and emulate that.

• Analyze the targeting, creative, and messaging of these campaigns.

  • If your product is mobile target that.

    • If it’s only available on iOS, target that.

• Test different variations of your own campaigns based on what you've learned from your competitors. Try some of the branding techniques from above. Be creative, but don’t make your customers think.

• Be patient and persistent. It takes time to learn from your mistakes and get better results.

By following these tips, you can use open door testing to learn from your competition and improve your own marketing campaigns.

How We Used Open Door Testing with Examples

Once we got a similar style article published on HuffPost, we focused on developing a series of ads similar to our competitors. We knew that they were getting their installs anywhere from $1-$2 per en masse, and we wanted to replicate their success. This was critical for, because it meant that was an acceptable baseline to target our CAC.

However, when Chrome cracked down on the use of their logo, we had to shift gears. We then developed a series of ads that would emulate their success without infringing on their copyright.

We tested a ton of different creatives, and we found a little success with a few different variations. For example, we created an ad that utilized a scene from iRobot. It was eye catching and relatable. Despite this, it was still incredibly hard for us to scale the campaign due to the exhaustion of the channel.

My partner John took on the role of finding something that would work for facebook. He started experimenting with some concepts that were unique as well. Images like Starbucks Coffee before and after Piggy. Pizza costs etc.

What we discovered to work best was actually sneakers. Nike had allowed individuals to create some of their very own Nike Air Max’s based on their own color palette. So we had our designer plug in our colors and with some Photoshop magic turned our ads into something like this.

Note: I couldn’t find any ads publicly on the internet in the US with this sneaker anymore. This is an ad that was ran in the UK at a later date. Which is why it says Voucher instead of Coupon and is in £ instead of $.

Our strategy of running traffic to a content article and then to the Chrome Webstore worked quite well for us. We found that users were more likely to install our extension when they could see how it worked and read about the benefits. However, we also figured out that we could remove a click hop and improve conversion rates by going directly to the Chrome Webstore. This was because users were more likely to install our extension if they didn't have to take an extra step.

We continued to iterate on our branding and messaging on the Chrome Webstore in an attempt to optimize conversion rates even further. We made some gains, but ultimately there was only so much we could do.

The Chrome Web Store Conversion Problem

The Chrome Web Store was designed by developers who wanted to make sure that users were aware of what they were doing when they installed an extension. This is great for protecting users from malicious extensions, but it can also make it difficult for legitimate extensions to get installed.

The Chrome Web Store forced a double opt-in confirmation on the install. This meant that users had to click twice to install ours and other extensions. The first click would open a confirmation dialog, and the second click would actually install the extension. This extra step made it less likely that users would install our extension.

We tried a number of different things to improve conversion rates on the web store, but we were never able to get the conversion rate high enough to overcome the double opt-in confirmation. This was a major setback for us, but it taught us a valuable lesson about the importance of user experience.

Why Facebook & Twitter Advertising Was Dead

We tried running advertising campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, but we found that they didn't have enough desktop left traffic to scale our campaigns. The CPM would skyrocket as soon as we tried to increase the budget behind the ads. We tried different ads, pages, and targeting options, but we couldn't get the results we wanted.

Honey and other competitors had heavily saturated these channels. Users that hadn’t already seen a coupon or cash back chrome extension ad were few and far between. The overwhelming majority of Facebook’s and Twitter’s (Now X’s) traffic was mobile, even then. We had to find a new channel.

Enter Native Advertising

Moving to other native channels, we had a lot more access to desktop traffic. These channels, such as Taboola, were a good fit for our aggressive headline article format. The traffic was cheap and plentiful, and for a very short time, we were able to get a lot of attention with our unique Chrome logos. Our ads also weren't as likely to be spammed by our competitors with fake and egregious comments..

However, we eventually ran into a problem with no longer being allowed to use Chrome logos in a unique and creative way. When we lost the ability to make our ads more eye-catching, they became less effective. As a result, our CAC (cost per acquisition) went up, and we couldn't afford to scale our campaigns.

We were still a young company at the time, and we didn't have enough merchant partners or the data on retention and revenue per user (RPU) to justify the higher CAC. In hindsight, this was a mistake as we later discovered. We should have raised money to invest in growth, and we would have been able to take advantage of the wide-open opportunity in these channels, despite the higher CAC.

In Retrospect Our Iterative Journey Towards Growth

Piggy's growth journey was a winding road of successes, setbacks, and valuable lessons. We started out as a team with little knowledge of growth marketing, enviously watching Honey dominate the field. But as we learned more about their strategies, we learned to adapt, experiment, and innovate. We discovered the power of brand association, the importance of A/B testing, and the need for persistence in a constantly changing digital landscape.

While the Chrome Web Store's user interface presented significant challenges, and the oversaturation of competitors on platforms like Facebook and Twitter made for a difficult environment, we never gave up. We embraced new platforms and constantly refined our approach, taking each obstacle as an opportunity to learn and grow. John's creativity with Facebook advertising and our foray into native channels like Taboola were turning points, teaching us that when one door closes, it's essential to look for another that might be open.

We never fully replicated Honey's explosive growth, but we found our own paths to growth, building a sustainable model that resonated with our unique strengths and customer base. Each hurdle shaped us, each failure enriched our understanding, and each success, however small, reaffirmed our belief in our product and vision.

Ultimately, what began as an emulation journey evolved into a saga of self-discovery. We realized that growth marketing is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, but a complex, iterative process that requires adaptability, ingenuity, and above all, the audacity to venture into the unknown. The story of Piggy is not just about growth; it's about resilience, ingenuity, and the continual pursuit of excellence. And so, as we look ahead to the next chapter, we do so with the same sense of excitement and curiosity that sparked this journey, confident that the best is yet to come.

Tune in next time for part 4 of this series, where I break down how Honey and Capital One Shopping utilized Amazon to unlock native channels like Outbrain and Taboola.

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