StumbleUpon is a little a classic school ad platform that’s been creating a small comeback, especially among marketing types. It’s a social discovery application, much like Reddit. Users browse (or “stumble”) on content that’s posted by users, that is sorted by StumbleUpon’s formula (note particularly the elevated Earned & Delinquent visit within the image below).
StumbleUpon had its heyday within the mid-2000s, but continues to be a really large second tier social networking with 30-ant million users. It’s especially interesting to marketers since you can purchase compensated stumbles according to very precise interest & demographic targeting. And users take presctiption StumbleUpon since they’re particularly searching to browse & share. Quite simply, it’s all of the positives of Facebook (target census & likes) and Reddit (target precise interests of active browsers) with no anti-marketing culture of Reddit or even the competition with friend’s baby images of Facebook. Also, StumbleUpon is amazingly cheap per click.
However, compensated StumbleUpon visits are infamously bouncy with low engagement. Should you’ve ever used StumbleUpon, then you definitely’ll realize that it’s a really fast-paced knowledge about a to clicking to another bit of content instead of remaining & engaging using the content. Also it’s an enormous downside. It’s easy (really very common) to invest a couple of hundred dollars on the campaign obtain a tsunami of traffic and also have absolutely nothing to show after however a 99% bounce rate. Ross Hudgens has written a sophisticated Help guide to StumbleUpon Marketing which tackles this problem & AJ Kohn comes with an innovative method to combine StumbleUpon with remarketing to assist “fill your funnel.”
StumbleUpon offers a choice I’ve been interested in – having to pay an additional $.05 for an engaged visit. StumbleUpon particularly defines it as being “visitors who stay greater than 4 seconds.” However if you simply are selecting engaged of unengaged visitors – will it really really make a difference? Could it be well worth the money?
Here’s the StumbleUpon Prices Overview for the reference:
The Exam
The exam itself was really quite simple. I’ve got a calculator that can help online storeowners determine if free delivery is actually worthwhile. It’s interactive, simple, helpful – and from things i read is a nice good page to undergo StumbleUpon.
I ran 2 campaigns consecutive days – on roughly exactly the same days each week. The targeting was exactly the same, census exactly the same, and devices exactly the same. The only real variable was “engaged customer” setting. I spent $75 on every campaign to obtain a decent group of visits to check out. The engaged visitors cost $.21 per visit and also the unengaged visits cost $.16 per visit.
Engagement Results
To begin with, in each and every StumbleUpon campaign I’ve ever run, my figures in Analytics and just what StumbleUpon reports never quite fall into line.
That stated, the overall visit and engagement rates arranged using what I purchased on StumbleUpon. Unengaged visitors spent 73.39% a shorter period around the page versus. engaged visitors. The bounce rate was also 31.65% worse.
Interestingly though, the unengaged (ie, cheaper) campaign only sent 7.93% more visits despite being 23.8% cheaper – something that will come up again within my cost results.
But additional time on-page & lower bounce rate involved so far as the variations went. Here’s StumbleUpon’s campaign report:
Engaged Campaign Metrics –
The Unengaged Campaign Metrics –
The possible lack of shares & re-stumbles was especially unfortunate. I’d wished more engaged visitors would be also more prone to share & re-stumble, but apparently not. A number of that might have been the information, but demonstrated that you will are merely having to pay for additional time on-page – not always engagement broadly defined. Bear in mind that “time on-page” might just be individuals with multiple tabs open or anybody who is actually distracted together with your site open.
Cost Results
StumbleUpon comes with a deliberate quirk within their formula more engaged content can earn more organic stumbles – even when apparently nobody re-stumbles your articles. Also, to have an engaged campaign, you’ll still get all individuals unengaged visits. You simply don’t need to pay on their behalf.
These two variables are type in figuring out regardless of whether you should spend the money for extra $.05 for engaged visitors. Here’s the account overview using the 2 campaigns consecutive.
Both campaigns received some earned visits – using the engaged campaign earning a little more. But note all of the compensated visits that demonstrated up on the website which i didn’t really purchase (the pink Delinquent bars). I compensated an additional $.05 for individuals clicks included in the engaged campaign. But, when they were a part of an unengaged campaign, they’d have cost $.10. Obviously, StumbleUpon is fairly good about not offering a lot of delinquent visits…but it’s a quirk that does affect your budgeting & choice. Here’s the two campaigns damaged out.
The engaged campaign’s effective cost-per-view (CPV) (ie, in the end visits generated through the campaign) was $.166.
The unengaged campaign’s effective CPV was $.153.
Quite simply, I had been effectively having to pay a $.013 premium in my more engaged visitors after everything was stated and done – and not the full $.05 front-finish premium.
Conclusion
So might be engaged visitors worthwhile on StumbleUpon?
Again, it is going to your objectives. Prior to the test, I’d have believed that if you’re simply attempting to fill your remarketing audience, then go cheap with unengaged visitors, so if you’re opting for engagement & shares, go with engaged.
However the high bounce rates & effective CPV throws a quirk for the reason that conventional knowledge. I only were built with a 7.93% rise in visitors (where your remarketing audience can come from) using the unengaged campaign. That’s something, but less than I’d want given the 31% rise in prices. When you element in the effective CPV, it’s only an extra cent to obtain the significant reduction in Bounce Rate & Time Allocated to Site with engaged visitors.
I’d state that unless of course you’ve got a specific reason to choose unengaged visitors, it’s well worth the premium to cover engaged tourists in StumbleUpon. But don’t take my word for this – go operate a small test here and take a look!
The publish StumbleUpon Advertising: Selecting Engaged or Unengaged Visitors made an appearance first on ShivarWeb.
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