At the time when new technologies are emerging almost every week, it is quite difficult to keep up with everything that helps us grow. In almost every field, digital marketing has triumphed over traditional advertising channels, and this is especially true in data gathering and measurement.
Today, with the rise of machine learning, we are again at the brink of a revolution, and digital marketing expertise is becoming more important than ever to those that want to stay or become competitive.
At ad:tech London, our Digital Marketing Team Leader, and eCommerce Consultant Vanja Bunjevac will give a talk named: Data-driven decision making: Embracing technology for triple-digit growth. For those wanting to catch a glimpse of the topic before the main event, I had a little chat with him to share his views on the future of digital marketing in eCommerce.
Vanja, what exactly are you doing at Inchoo, and what has your career path been like?
I am a Digital Marketing/UX Team Lead at Inchoo, where I am in charge of growing our clients’ eCommerce stores through digital marketing and UX improvements. My career started 14 years ago at the college where I was almost exclusively focusing on software development. I started working on my custom-built online store, launched a startup, and failed, mostly due to inexperience in business and digital marketing. That was the turning point where I switched from development into business and digital marketing where I work today.
Your presentation title is Data-driven decision making: Embracing technology for triple-digit growth. Why did you pick that topic in particular, and where do you see the future of machine learning?
Machine Learning is changing everything. An average person can look at data to up to three different data points and highly skilled ones to up to six or seven. If you take a look at today’s Google Analytics, you can choose among over 500 different data points to look at, which is unmanageable to a human being.
This is where Machine Learning shines. Machine Learning can use many different data points to work towards the desired goal. The more data you have, the better it performs. Some people are referring to Machine Learning as an Artifical Intelligence, which it is not right now, but it is a path to it. To call something intelligent, it should be able to interpret the knowledge it has and utilize the understanding to make decisions. Machine Learning can’t do that.
Where do I see the future of Machine Learning? Some researches claim the technological singularity will happen by 2045 powered by Machine Learning, and somehow I believe them.
What challenges do you and your team cope with while optimizing feeds or creating new campaigns for your clients?
There are many challenges we face when we are taking over the project. The main challenge is always the product taxonomy and the category structure of the online store which you want to organize for Machine Learning perfectly.
You say that in decision making, first, we start with data shaped into information. Information is becoming knowledge; knowledge becomes understanding, and ultimately we have wisdom. How do you use that in your marketing activities?
We track the data which we contextualize using the Analytics software to be able to get to a piece of specific information we need when we start analyzing the store. That kind of visualization (organized information) gives us insights into descriptive analytics which we use to make future predictions.
This is where Machine Learning kicks in. It helps us make much better future predictions based on the data we tracked with continuous parameter optimization towards a specific goal. The key to growth is utilizing the analysis provided by the machine learning models in order to fine-tune the parameters to achieve the best conversions possible.
You’ve worked with many clients. What results are you most proud of and can you reveal your triple-digit growth secret?
Currently, I am the proudest of the work we have done on the KEH Camera project. KEH Camera is one of the most significant second hand US camera stores, buying and selling pre-owned camera equipment. We were quick to embrace three new technologies on the market to get ahead of the competition – behavioral audiences, data-driven attribution modeling, and programmatic ad delivery.
This was the first time we worked on such a big project and the results ended up above all of our or client’s expectations. A secret for the triple-digit growth would be: lots of data, data organization, and continuous optimization.
What do you think is the advantage of Inchoo’s digital services over other marketing agencies?
Inchoo’s digital marketing team is dedicated to and focused on our client’s growth. Technical knowledge and data-driven mindset are our strongholds which give us an unparalleled advantage when scaling online stores.
How to find us at ad:tech London?
If you are interested to learn more, you can listen to Vanja’s talk at ad:tech London on Wednesday, September 25th at 10:15 in the Media & Advertising Theatre, so be sure to write it down in your planners.
Find our team at the stand – the number is # V010 if you are interested in finding out more about how we can help you improve your eCommerce results.
If you want to improve your business, but you are not coming to London – we can still help! We would be happy to talk with you and see if we can apply these learnings to help you grow your business as well. Get in touch with us and we will get back to you to get the conversation started.
See you at #ADTECHLDN!
