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Joni Salminen Posts

Chasing the “true” CPA in digital marketing (for Pro’s only!)

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

This is a follow-up post on my earlier post about “fake” conversions — the post is in Finnish but, briefly, it’s about the problem of irreversibility of conversions in the ad platforms’ reporting. In reality, some conversions are cancelled (e.g., product returns), but the current platforms don’t track that. So, my point was to include a ‘churn coefficient’ which would…

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Online ad platforms’ leeching logic

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

We had a great discussion with Mr. Lauri Pitkänen about unfair advantage in business – e.g., a gift card company’s business model relying on people not redeeming gift cards, investment banker’s relying on monopoly to take 7% of each new IPO, doctor’s controlling how many new doctor’s are educated, taxi driver’s keeping the supply low through licenses, governments inventing new…

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Kun konversio ei ole konversio: Kvasikonversion idea ja todellisen CPA:n laskeminen

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

On tilanteita, joissa konversioiden määrä ja sitä myöten laskettu CPA ovat harhaanjohtavia. Erityisesti tällainen tilanne on, kun lasketun konversion jälkeen tapahtuu karsintaa (esim. liidien klousaus, korkea palautusprosentti, affiliate-huijaus). Miten siinä tapauksessa tulisi laskea CPA? Kaava on yksinkertainen: (1/(1-k))*CPA, jossa k on mitatun konversion jälkeinen katoprosentti CPA on konversion kustannus Esimerkki: Vaatealan verkkokauppa mainostaa mainosalustassa x. He laittavat mainontaan rahaa 1000…

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I hate to see investors coming into a growing startup… here’s why

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

I hate to see, from a customer’s perspective, investors coming into a growing Web startup. Because it only means rising prices. The logic is this: 1) the investors need a positive return, and 2) the startup is growing because it has created something valuable, in most cases significantly more valuable than what it is charging from the customer. Therefore, the…

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Koneoppiminen ja Googlen algoritmi

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

Johdanto Tämä postaus sisältää muutamia Rand Fiskinin (MOZ) “What Deep Learning and Machine Learning Mean For the Future of SEO” -videosta syntyneitä ajatuksia. Video löytyy täältä, ja se kannattaa katsoa jotta pysyy kärryillä. Mikä on SEO:n tulevaisuus koneoppimisen myötä? Kukaan ei varmasti tiedä, miltä osin Google on jo implementoinut koneoppimisen periaatteita sijoittelualgoritmiinsa. Kertauksen vuoksi, koneoppiminen voidaan määritellä avustetuksi tai avustamattomaksi…

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Kohtaamisongelmia opiskelija-startupeissa

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

Johdanto Tapasimme Timo Herttuan kanssa Helsingissä elokuussa 2014, ja startup-harrastajina keskustelimme tietysti startupeista. Tämä artikkeli tiivistää tuon keskustelun tulokset. Lähdimme liikkeelle siitä, että opiskelijavetoiset startit ohjattaisiin löytämään ja ratkaisemaan suuryritysten (Kone, Wärtsilä, jne.) ongelmia. Tällä vältettäisiin “triviaalien applikaatioiden ongelma”, jossa keskitytään asioihin, joilla on marginaalisen pieni vaikutus ihmisten elämään merkittävien ongelmien sijaan. Haluamme tässä yhteydessä korostaa, että kaikki startup-toiminta on tottakai haluttavaa ja…

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The Basics of Dilemmas

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

Introduction By definition, a dilemma is a trade-off situation in which there are two choices, each leading to a negative outcome. General solution A general solution, then, is to weigh the outcomes and compare them against one another. For example: choice A: -1 choice B: -2 In this example, choice A has smaller negative effect, so we’d pick that one.…

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Organic reach and the choice of social media platform

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

(This is work in progress.) Introduction It is a well-established fact that the organic reach in a dominant platform decreases over time, as the competition over users’ attention increases. There is thus an inverse relation: The more competition (by users and firms) in a user’s news feed, the less organic visibility for a firm. The problem How would a firm willing to…

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About moral hazard and banking crises

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

Introduction The struggle against moral hazard in banking is constant and real. There’s no turn-key solution for eliminating it, but it must be kept in mind at all times by policy makers. Consider the following citation from Wikipedia: “The role of the lender of last resort, and the existence of deposit insurance, both create moral hazard, since they reduce banks’…

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Big data is not enough data

Published by Joni on March 29, 2017

There is a big data fallacy My argument here is simple – even though it’s a common argument that “everything is tracked”, marketers face a big data fallacy when assessing their ability to predict consumer behavior. The reason is explicated here [1]: “On any given occasion, everything from personal factors such as how well a person has slept the night before,…

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