Growth Hacking APIs: What role do APIs play in your growth strategy. There’s been lots of buzz in the tech startup space about “growth hacking” – what is it? how is it related to development? how is it related to marketing? At it’s core, growth hacking is about finding a strategy for growth within the parameters of scalability and replicability, driven by product and inspired by data. Growth hacking’s core is based in marketing but driven by product. Once the definition is clear, the question then becomes: without a UI to lean on, how does one “growth hack” an API? At last year’s Nordic API conference, Guillaume Balas from 3Scale presented several typologies of an API, namely API is the product, API projects the product, API promotes the product, and API powers the product. This presentation will elaborate on and reframe those typologies in the context of marketing and growth hacking of an API. We will examine the circumstances where an API is actually a growth hack in of itself, and where it is in need of growth hacking in order to make the business model behind it succeed. The presentation will use core concepts of strategic marketing – such as positioning, pricing, targeting, promotion, product and distribution – to create a framework for either growth hacking an API or developing an API as a key tactic in a growth strategy.

1. Growth Hacking APIs
The role of APIs in a growth strategy
Vanessa Meyer - Marketing Director, Load Impact

2. 2 The Questions
What role do APIs play in your growth strategy?
!
What to do when your API needs growth hacking?
!
What to do when your API is a growth hack?
@LoadImpact @VanessMeyer @NordicAPIs #API

3. 3
Product Marketing (aka Growth Hacking)
A growth hacker is someone focused on creating scalable growth by
manipulating and measuring each aspect of the customer funnel.

4. Intersection of Marketing and Growth Hacking

5. 5 Purchase Decision Making Process
The actual buying process
for IT buyers
How IT vendors view the
IT buying process

6. 6
The Decision Making Unit
there are often 6+ people involved the
decision to purchase a technology


Initiator
Users Influencers

Decider

7. 7
Typologies of an API
1. API is the product and the strategy
2.API projects the product
3.API powers and promotes the product} API is a growth hack
Source: Guillaume Balas, CMO at 3scale

8. 8 Typologies of an API
1. API is the product and the strategy
Example: Twilio or Stripe
• Core value: the infrastructure
• Growth metric: core service usage growth (calls to API)
• Use case: API is for partners, enables new business models or adds value to existing
applications
• Marketing: Complex. Create top-down demand among CTOs, CEOs, Product Managers.
Then win the “evaluation phase” by appealing to developer(user). Emphasize both
business and technical Unique Selling Points (USPs).

9. 9
Typologies of an API
2. API projects the product
Example: Load Impact or Salesforce
• Core value: the software or application
• Growth metric: first is increasing customer spend, second is increasing the number of
customers for core product
• Use case: API extends availability of software functionality - programatic access to core
service. API also enables mobile app and ecosystem that adds value to core service (i.e. 3rd
party integrations)
• Marketing: focus is on developer and showing them the means of customizing core product
to better fir their needs, or how to connect programmatically with the other tools they use.
Emphasis is on ease-of-use, DX, reliability and quality of API.

10. 10
Typologies of an API
3. API powers and promotes the product
Example: YELP, Facebook or YouTube
• Core value: the network (marketplace with high-value and/or user generated content, large
user base)
• Growth metric: first is getting more people using core service, second is increasing customer
spend
• Use case: API enables creation of “widgets” that help market the core service and drive leads
from external channels. API enables creation of user generated content which adds value to
core service.
• Marketing: API is enabling marketplace with network effects - API is only as valuable as the
number of users in the marketplace and/or the amount of content available for consumption.
Marketplace becomes increasingly dominant when 3rd party apps build on top of API (i.e.
the app store).

11. When Your API Needs Growth Hacking
1. API is the product and
the strategy
11
Product is infrastructure
Core service usage (calls to API)
Focus on the use cases for your API
and the different people involved in
the decision making process.
Typologies
Primary growth metric
API marketing strategy

12. 12 When Your API is a Growth Hack
3. API powers and promotes the product
Typologies
Product is network (marketplace)
Product is software or application
Primary growth metric
Increasing size of marketplace (get more
people using core service)
API marketing strategy
Target Product Managers of apps or websites that
would benefit from programatic access to user
base or programatic distribution of content. Key is
data in/data out.
2. API projects the product
Increasing customer spend
(Customer Lifetime Value and
Avg. Revenue per User)
Target developers - users of core
service.

13. 13 Primary Growth Goal of API
3. API powers and promotes the product Acquisition
1. API is the product and the strategy
2. API projects the product
Activation
Retention*
Revenue
Acquire users and/or content
Activate usage of core service
Referral*
Motivate customers to spend more
by typology & customer funnel stage
*Retention and referral are always goals.
Only those who can retain their customers and
generate positive WoM will succeed.

14. 14 What to do When Your API Needs Growth Hacking
Typology 1: API is the product and the strategy
• Product: infrastructure
• Growth metric: core service usage (calls to API)
Step 2:

Profile the company and people
in the Decision Making Unit for
that use case (what do they want
& what is holding them back)
!
• Developers
• Product Managers
• Project Managers
• C-suite
Step 3:
#Users
Deciders
Create content that addresses
those people and their concerns
!
• Customer stories (tech & biz)
• Code examples
• Technical documentation
• How to’s
• Testimonials/referrals
Step 1:
◎
Focus on use cases for
your API that you can
serve particularly well
!
• Improve security
• Facilitate communication
• Improve customer service
• Process payments
• Provision resources
• Enable integrations &
networking
Step 4:
%
Segment and deliver the
right content to the right
person at the right time
!
• APIs
• Landing pages
• Webhooks
• Marketing automation
• Release OS components
• Developer portal
• PR + social media
• Events/hackathons

15. 15 What to do When Your API is a Growth Hack
Typology 2: API projects the product
• Product: software or application
• Growth metric: customer spend (LTV, ARPU)
 Consider releasing high-quality OS components Developer
built on your API. It showcases your engineering
strength and builds brand equity among
developers (Github for developer advertising)
%
Create clean and easy-to-use
documentation. Documentation that
implicitly addresses developer’s unique
use case (i.e. integrated code examples)
 Price your service to accommodate for API
usage. Be cautious about overages and excess
usage fees, this will limit usage of your API.
'
Create, distribute and maintain code libraries,
SDKs and plugins in the languages and on the
platforms that are popular among your users.
Build confidence in stability, security, scalability of your
API. Be transparent about incidents and how you handled
them. Communicate regular maintenance and updates.
Commit to SLAs, Terms of Service, failover measures.

16. 16 What to do When Your API is a Growth Hack
Typology 3: API powers and promotes the product
• Product: network (marketplace)
• Growth metric: size of marketplace (users, content)
usage. For this typology, the price is usually - free (
 Product Manager
& Developer
%
'
Create and distribute “widgets/plugins”
that are easily implemented by non-developers
and that work well for most
use cases.  Price your service to accommodate for API
Create clean and easy-to-use
documentation. Documentation that
implicitly addresses developer’s unique
use case (i.e. integrated code examples)
Consider releasing high-quality OS components
built on your API. It showcases your engineering
strength and builds brand equity among
developers (Github for developer advertising)
Build confidence in stability, security, scalability of your
API. Be transparent about incidents and how you handled
them. Communicate regular maintenance and updates.
Commit to SLAs, Terms of Service, failover measures.

17. 17 The Questions
What role do APIs play in your growth strategy?
!
What to do when your API needs growth hacking?
!
What to do when your API is a growth hack?
@LoadImpact @VanessMeyer @NordicAPIs #API

18. 18 The Answers
What role do APIs play in your growth strategy?
Depends on the typology of your API. It’s either for
!
acquisition, activation or revenue.
What to do when your API needs growth hacking?
!
What to do when your API is a growth hack?
@LoadImpact @VanessMeyer @NordicAPIs #API

19. 19 The Answers
What role do APIs play in your growth strategy?
Depends on the typology of your API. It’s either for
!
acquisition, activation or revenue.
What to do when your API needs growth hacking?
Focus on use cases, profile key people in the decision
making process, create content, !
and segment tactics
What to do when your API is a growth hack?
@LoadImpact @VanessMeyer @NordicAPIs #API

20. 20 The Answers
What role do APIs play in your growth strategy?
Depends on the typology of your API. It’s either for
!
acquisition, activation or revenue.
What to do when your API needs growth hacking?
Focus on use cases, profile key people in the decision
making process, create content, !
and segment tactics
What to do when your API is a growth hack?
Price your service carefully; work with SDKs, widgets,
plugins and code examples; clean and easy-to-use
documentation; build confidence in your API; release OS
components to showcase engineering strength.
@LoadImpact @VanessMeyer @NordicAPIs #API

21. @VanessMeyer
@LoadImpact
Go forth and growth hack!
Thank you….