From segmentation to setting the right metrics: Tips on growing your user base from IFTTT's Megan Cohen.

[00:00:01.260] - Olivier Destrebecq
Welcome to the Subscription League, a podcast by Purchasely. Listen to what's working in subscription apps. In each episode, we invite leaders of the app industry who are mastering the subscription model for mobile apps. To learn more about subscriptions, head to subscriptionleague.com. Let's get started.

[00:00:20.860] - Olivier Destrebecq
Welcome to the show, everybody. Today I have Jeff, my co-host, who will be joining me to interview Megan Cohen. She's a Growth Marketing Manager at IFTTT and has been in the SaaS industry for over five years. Hey, Megan, how are you doing?

[00:00:33.210] - Megan Cohen
Hey, Olivier. I'm doing well.

[00:00:34.820] - Jean-François Grang
Hi, Megan.

[00:00:35.820] - Megan Cohen
Hey, Jeff.

[00:00:36.500] - Olivier Destrebecq
Awesome. One of the things that I saw on your LinkedIn profile as I was checking out your profile is that you did a ChatGPT video plugin. That was outside of your comfort zone, I think, when you did it. I'm curious what your takeaways are now that it's been out for a little bit and hear what you shared actually on that video too.

[00:00:56.600] - Megan Cohen
Yeah. Producing video content is pretty new to me, so it had a lot of good reception and a pretty large volume of impressions. Some takeaways that I got from that were that consumers and businesses alike have a lot to gain from AI. It's going to impact industry, and we're just seeing the beginning of that now. Additionally, that IFTTT being in the integration space is positioned quite well to add a lot of value to OpenAI technology.

[00:01:26.230] - Olivier Destrebecq
Yes, nice. One thing you mentioned is that you started your career in the immersive art industry marketing live events, and it got you started on your growth marketing paths. I'm actually curious what immersive art industry is and what you learned from those first few years.

[00:01:41.080] - Megan Cohen
Immersive arts industry is where you have a mixed media approach and you'll be in a room, the whole room is an art installation versus just one piece and you can touch everything. It's very sensory-heavy. But working in live events in that space, I think I really cultivated a growth marketing mindset because people are really positive about trying a bunch of different things, seeing what works, and just iterating really fast.

[00:02:09.060] - Olivier Destrebecq
Nice.

[00:02:09.630] - Jean-François Grang
Yes. You have also some great organizational skills to have for such events that might be interesting to leverage when you do growth marketing.

[00:02:17.520] - Megan Cohen
That's true.

[00:02:18.510] - Olivier Destrebecq
I'll try to do my best pirate impression, but you also mentioned that you're a big AARRR Pirate Metrics for goals and KPI fan. AARRR is actually acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue. Can you tell us more about those and how you've used them so far?

[00:02:33.170] - Megan Cohen
Yeah, of course. Outside of just pretty normally and regularly using a full funnel approach to marketing, the Pirate Metric Framework applies really well to SaaS because it's very specific to the way that a mobile user might move through your platform as they go through the user journey. In contrast to traditional marketing, it actually refines them down into fewer steps. It's just a way of making sure that you're paying attention to your KPIs and you don't get lost in other metrics, which may not be high signals of impact. Sometimes marketers can get really caught up in social media likes and followers, but it's important for me to keep my eyes on the higher metrics.

[00:03:13.360] - Olivier Destrebecq
That's really the North Star metrics that you follow all the way until the end and not get stuck on those lighter metrics that you're mentioning?

[00:03:20.620] - Olivier Destrebecq
Now you're at IFTTT, and you've been over there for about two years. One of the things that I've know about IFTTT is that it historically had a very generous free tiers, which attracted lots of users, I'm assuming lots of developers actually, but I'm not sure you can clarify that for us. How have you tried to monetize that big, large user base that was used to a free product?

[00:03:44.860] - Megan Cohen
Yeah. IFTTT has over 25 million registered users and also a very large surface area of what it can do, especially on the consumer side. Segmentation strategies were a major first initiative for me. We wanted to reach users that had a specific need. The first segments I tested were music, smart home, and productivity. Productivity worked quite well. In the segmentation strategy, we created custom ad content and product pages in the App Stores, segmenting into the three groups. Same thing in the Google Display network, where we're retargeting users. We also retarget by their cohort. Getting visibility into the mobile apps was also a huge initiative so that we could continue to track users in a segmented way throughout their journey.

[00:04:32.820] - Olivier Destrebecq
You mentioned how you were experimenting with the custom landing pages in the App Store. How did that work out for you guys? Any tips for others on how to use that feature?

[00:04:45.130] - Megan Cohen
I think we had some good success with our custom landing pages. There were definite differences when we would single out specific niche. Productivity was one that worked really well. When we could reach users looking for productivity tools instead of smart home, we just saw a lot higher install rates and continued to see high engagement down the funnel.

[00:05:05.440] - Olivier Destrebecq
If that's a very well-known web presence, what effort are you doing to convert users to the mobile offering? Because I'm assuming that's a big push for you guys.

[00:05:14.590] - Megan Cohen
Yeah, one of our biggest assets actually is our heavy volume of daily traffic. We see about 25,000 users daily to the site, and half of those users are on a mobile device. Sign-in and sign-ups are majority mobile devices. We know that the best experience for a mobile user is going to be in our mobile app. We see this in Google Analytics too, the way mobile device users can be a little bit less engaged on web than users on desktop. We tested this theory of directing users to install the apps with a non-intrusive interstitial banner. In the first week, we saw installs increase by 133%.

[00:05:54.080] - Olivier Destrebecq
Nice. Big increase.

[00:05:55.290] - Megan Cohen
Yeah. It's definitely really encouraging and it's pushing us to think of other similar initiatives. One that we have in the pipeline now is to think about deep linking and how we can really leverage these in our campaigns.

[00:06:08.810] - Jean-François Grang
Is there any pricing that you're trying in different countries? Because you're such a global tool that we expect that you have different selling strategies and also different ways of presenting your offer in different territories. Do you have such a thing?

[00:06:22.410] - Megan Cohen
Yeah, I can't exactly speak to the pricing strategies. I know that it's something our product team has worked on in the past and continues to think about. It's not something I'm heavily working on the marketing side in my campaigns. I have worked on targeting different geographies and thinking about the value of an install by country. It's actually crucial, I think, in SaaS is to make sure that you're segmenting by country in any paid media you do.

[00:06:47.070] - Jean-François Grang
You've been talking about how you change your App Store page and the custom pages on the App Store and finding out better ways to present what you were doing. Did this ever had an impact in what you do within the app?

[00:07:00.130] - Megan Cohen
Yes, we've actually really thought about onboarding and how it should mimic the way that we are segmenting in our marketing campaigns. We currently have a self-selection process so that one of the first parts of our onboarding is you can tell us if you're there for business purposes or smart home or something else, you can always tell us what device you're on so that we can customize your email onboarding and what content and recommendations we serve in the app.

[00:07:26.430] - Jean-François Grang
Yeah, excellent. There's another thing that you are growing on, which is pretty new, I believe, is the B2B space. Most of our listeners might be knowing you from your B2C app and what you're doing for direct consumers, but that is something new that is maybe quite big right now. What prompted that shift towards B2B and where are you right now?

[00:07:47.300] - Megan Cohen
Yeah, that's very true. We are historically a B2C company. What prompted some of the shifts toward B2B were our early audience segmentation initiatives. Productivity segments were outperforming music and smart home in ROI. We were looking into the data to see how the users were using the product. A lot of our productivity users were doing marketing or project management or managing clients. The trend prompted us to focus on supporting this segment in the marketing content that we produced to teach them how to leverage IFTTT for those purposes. The segment consists of side hustlers, freelancers, creators, one person businesses. They're sometimes called solopreneurs. We use the term enterprise of one.

[00:08:32.880] - Olivier Destrebecq
I'm actually curious because being a solopreneur myself, can you tell us more about how IFTTT can help that segment in their business, in their day-to-day business?

[00:08:44.160] - Megan Cohen
Yeah, I think one of the main ways that it can help is in your marketing. With our AI tools, we can help you generate marketing content, marketing ideas, localizing copy for different social media platforms, and of course, with the integration side, actually getting it posted or scheduling it to somewhere, distributing it. Same thing with e-commerce or blog content for your website, managing your contacts and your e-mail or your CRM.

[00:09:12.650] - Olivier Destrebecq
Nice. I'm going to have to go spend a little bit of time over there and learn some more. That's a shift for you guys from consumer to that enterprise of one. I'm assuming that shift came with some challenges on how to market to those enterprise of one. How did that go for you guys and what are you doing differently now?

[00:09:30.620] - Megan Cohen
Yeah. The people that are monetizing their craft have a lot of functions to fill. Project management and sometimes accounting, content, website, social media, and our automations save them time, which frees them up to work on their bigger growth challenges or projects. One challenge for us on the marketing side is volume. There's just a smaller volume of search intent for business-supporting products than there are for the more consumer-heavy features. This necessitates a need for us to optimize the user journey for the organic traffic that we acquire. It just needs to be more specialized on every front.

[00:10:10.180] - Olivier Destrebecq
Do you have example of specialization that you've done?

[00:10:13.330] - Megan Cohen
Yeah, a lot of the specialization we've done is in our SEO strategy. The type of content we're producing for sometimes more niche needs. It's also in the way that our content will be modified depending on the platform that a user comes to us from. They're going to see different information presented in a different way if they come from TikTok versus if they come from YouTube. We really keep that in mind with the user demographics per channel.

[00:10:40.260] - Olivier Destrebecq
Makes sense. Can you tell us how you separate those two groups, the enterprise of one versus the consumer in your data analysis? What difference did you find between those two users and how they behave in your product?

[00:10:52.790] - Megan Cohen
Yeah. This has definitely been a challenge. Now that we're focusing on the enterprise of one, we need to be able to measure this segment growth against the rest of our user base. This is particularly difficult in the mobile apps. We have utilized Google Search Console to segment keyword search data. We can segment anything business-related from consumer terms. We can also look at the type of applets people are enabling or the services they're connecting to on the product side. We also use Google Analytics to create different audiences for people who are visiting our business blogs.

[00:11:30.870] - Olivier Destrebecq
You're mentioning that it was hard on the mobile side. I'm assuming it's because of all the pushes that Apple has done in limiting tracking and that stuff?

[00:11:39.780] - Megan Cohen
Indeed.

[00:11:40.630] - Olivier Destrebecq
Indeed, all right. Any advice for other people that are in the same boat as you and anything that you found to help you guys navigate those changes?

[00:11:49.720] - Megan Cohen
Yeah. Getting a mobile measurement partner in place was crucial to getting any visibility inside of the app. That's not just for paid media, though, it's for any campaign that we're linking people into the app for. We need that visibility to track events and know the efficacy of that campaign.

[00:12:07.340] - Jean-François Grang
Yeah, definitely. Have you tried some ATT acceptance tests to try to increase that rate over time in your onboarding or anywhere else?

[00:12:18.960] - Megan Cohen
Well, we actually don't use the ATT prompt. That does limit some of the visibility that we have. That's actually a play directed at the type of users that we have. Yeah, that our type of user base, we estimate won't respond very well to it.

[00:12:34.790] - Jean-François Grang
Let's continue discussing about tests. I'm sure you've run a lot of tests over time, especially as your service that is out there for a long time. Did you have any counterintuitive findings that you can share with us today?

[00:12:47.180] - Megan Cohen
Yeah, one that stands out was an Apple search campaign I was running where our install-to-subscription rate was the highest in Brazil, even over the US, which is pretty contrary to other AllPay media campaigns. This meant that our installs were worth more in this geo, and it typically ranks about 10 on the install-to-subscription rate. I scaled this campaign a bit to make sure that we had enough volume to know that this was statistically significant, and the trend did not cease. We just ran with that for the entire quarter, and it was a top-performing campaign.

[00:13:23.090] - Jean-François Grang
Wow. It didn't work anywhere else besides Brazil?

[00:13:26.640] - Megan Cohen
Yeah, it did not replicate on Android and our Google Ads did not see the same result.

[00:13:33.530] - Jean-François Grang
Okay, so test in Brazil on iOS?

[00:13:36.780] - Olivier Destrebecq
Yes. Do you actually see a lot of variants like this across country, or that was an outlier, the only one where you really saw some differences like this?

[00:13:46.140] - Megan Cohen
Sometimes on iOS, I do see this geographic variance, and I think it's just because the iOS versus Android users are very different. Yeah, everyone's normal, you will see an inconsistency.

[00:14:00.370] - Olivier Destrebecq
Actually, you mentioned the difference between iOS and Android. Is there one platform that gets you a lot more subscribers than the other one, or is it Even Steven?

[00:14:10.310] - Megan Cohen
It's somewhat even. IOS is a bit higher, but our engagement is pretty similar on each of them.

[00:14:17.580] - Olivier Destrebecq
Nice. One of the features that Apple came out with, and I think it was back in iOS 12, was shortcuts, which allow users on their iPhone to automate a few things, I guess. Is that competition for IFTTT, is it a stepping stone into IFTTT? Does that help you? How has that played out?

[00:14:35.140] - Megan Cohen
I know some IFTTT users have switched over to shortcuts for their smart home control. It's a great tool for iOS users and it can do a lot. I would say there's a higher technological barrier to entry with shortcuts than with IFTTT. Something we're really good at is simplifying automations. We also integrate with shortcuts and that expands what IFTTT can do overall. With our current focus of content creators and side hustlers, it's not necessarily a competition. It's really just expanding our functionality.

[00:15:05.280] - Olivier Destrebecq
Interesting. Thank you for all the answers that you've given us so far because that was a really great insight into the IFTTT world. But before I do that, if people want to learn more about you and IFTTT, where can they go?

[00:15:20.200] - Megan Cohen
You can find me on LinkedIn and you can find out about IFTTT on ifttt.com.

[00:15:25.710] - Olivier Destrebecq
Awesome. Well, thank you very much, Megan. It was a pleasure to have you on the show. Good luck with all your growth endeavours that are coming in front of you.

[00:15:34.330] - Jean-François Grang
Thanks, Megan.

[00:15:34.990] - Megan Cohen
Yes, thank you for having me.

[00:15:37.160] - Olivier Destrebecq
On behalf of the Purchasely team, thank you for listening to the Subscription League podcast. If you've enjoyed what you heard, leave us a five-star review on iTunes or other audio platform. To find out more about Purchasely and how we can improve your subscription business, visit purchasely.com. Please hit subscribe in your podcast player and don't miss any future episodes. You can also listen to previous episodes at subscriptionleague.com. See you soon.