Bas Godska is an e-commerce expert with 14 years of experience. He discusses strategies for reaching multi-million dollar turnover within 6 months through e-commerce. He outlines case studies of businesses that achieved 6-digit, 7-digit, and 8-digit revenues in 18 months, 12 months, and 6 months respectively. The key strategies involve finding the right niche, optimizing operations, recruiting a top team, focusing on marketing techniques like the C.A.S.H.C.O.W. formula, and being willing to adapt plans as needed.

1. E-commerce:
How to reach multi-million
turnover in 6 months?
Bas Godska

2. Who is this guy?
Bas Godska is an e-commerce and digital
marketing professional with 14 years of
experience in global companies worldwide like
Lastminute.com / Travelocity.com,
Ebookers.com / Orbitz.com.
In Russia Bas led the marketing teams of Ozon.ru,
Gloria Jeans, Lamoda.ru, KupiVIP.ru, myThings.com,
Enter.ru.
Bas is also an investor / shareholder in several e-commerce and digital
marketing startups, part of them are supported by Acrobator.com.
Bas is the author of the proven C.A.S.H.C.O.W formula, which brought
billions in e-commerce revenue.

3. Acrobator.com invests in early stage companies in
the sectors of e-commerce, digital media, internet
marketing and mobile.

4. Case #1: how to get to a 6-digit e-business
in 18 months… (2000, Australia)
• Find your niche
• Stock in consignment
• Digital camera: your best friend… 
• Play your portals, think ROMI
• Software is a commodity!
• Select your partners well…

5. Case #2: how to get to a 7-digit business
in 12months (2005,Netherlands)
• Low costs are cool
• Find B2B SLA’s
• Watch out for the wrong VC’s
• Think international
• Pick your staff well…

6. Case #3: how to get to an 8-digit e-
business in 6 months… (2011, Russia)
• Investing: get lucky, find a billionaire… 
• Operations: outsource logistics, call centre in-
house, test stock-assortment
• Recruit! Top team.
• Wipe out all bureaucracy to enable explosive
growth; no board meetings in startup mode.
• The right Marketing: C.a.s.h.c.o.w. B.o.m.b.er....
MKTG as “pup mira”
• Protect your legal rights…

7. Check: is your idea really, really useful?
“If you don’t have problems in your life,
buy them even with your last money” --
Chines proverb…

8. Make sure your business views and those of
your investors are compatible!

9. Pick your team well...

10. Be aware: very often success
comes only with Plan B or C or D…

11. Do one thing every day
that scares you…

12. C.A.S.H.C.O.W.
• CONTEXT /COST PER CLICK
AFFILIATE MARKETING
• SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
• HUMAN INTERACTION
• COMMERCIAL CREATIVITY
• OPTIMISED SITE USABILITY
WEB ANALYTICS

13. = context / cost per click

14. Example: CPC or context advertising

15. = Affiliate marketing
• Affiliates: traffic on a no cure no pay basis
• Get paid for relevant traffic or actions only
• CPC, CPL or CPA pricing model
• Very cost efficient (if well managed)

16. How do you define advertising
performance?
CPA = оплата за действие. За что можно платить?
• CPL = cost per lead (за лид*)
• CPO = cost per order (за заказ)
• CPS = cost per sale (за продажу)
• CPI = cost per install (за установку приложения)
• CPD = cost per download (за загрузку контента)
Источник: AffSurv.ru
• CPE = cost per user engagement (за соц./email подписку)
• CPCall = cost per call (за звонок клиента по телефону)
• Revenue share = разделение дохода от продаж привлеченным
покупателям
* Лид – условное обобщенное название анкеты, заполненной пользователем (от формы
«быстрого» заказа до длинной заявки на потребительский кредит). Как правило включает
контактную информацию и предмет интереса / запроса
Лид не является гарантией продажи, но обычно % конвертации лидов в покупатели известен и
почти постоянен

17. Performance-based players of
today’s ecosystem

18. Why CPA is so undervalued by top
advertisers?
• Little contribution or overlap with other sources
• Low manageability
• Little volume predictability
• Low financial transparency
• Brand exposure risks (good banners on bad sites)
• Cannibalisation (e.g. context)
• Little or no customer service
• The wicked games you play (fraud)

19. Some seek shortcuts to easy earnings.
FRAUD 
• Накрутки с помощью ботов (умных и не очень)
• Недобросовестное “incentive” продвижение и клик-клубы
• Спам или полу-спам (рассылки без явного согласия)
• Контекстная реклама по брендовым запросам
• Подмена баннеров на «более привлекательные»
• Покупка трафика на adult-ресурсах и дорвеях
• Комбинация всего перечисленного и другие трюки
• Cookie dropping, pop-under истории

20. = SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):
• Process of attracting traffic to a website
from search engines like Google or Yandex
As an internet marketing strategy, SEO
considers how search engines work and
what people search for.

21. Example: SEO

22. Useful SEO tips
• Match the text on your website with you prospects’ search queries.
• Using search query statistics by region, you can see the top search queries in your city or
region.
• Select a few key phrases, which can describe the services you provide. The page should give
best answer for the set question to be highly rated.
• Thoroughly designed and structured pages are the most attractive to the user, they are much
easier to find information.
• Don’t place on your pages the text your users will never see.
• Don’t replace text with images thus all the necessary information is indexed.
• The simpler your site is arranged, the better it will be indexed.
• Pay attention not only to links to your site, but also to your website references – you can see
them at Google Webmaster Central / Yandex Webmaster.
• Use the Host directive or redirection (301, 302) to transfer the site to another domain.
• Indicate on the website your city, full address and telephone number ​to correctly identify the
region by search engine.

23. = Human interaction
• Human interaction is still a key converter in a
given costumer segment, even online
• Call centres are profit
centre, not a cost centre!
• Viral effect
Examples:
• Call centre
• Real time chat
• Emails

24. = Commercial creativity
Think outside the box!
• Lastminute.com + Kelkoo
• White labels : Tesco + Lastminute
• Merchant platforms: KupiVip.ru, Ozon.ru
• Co-branding: Nike +
• PR “stuff-ups”
And many more!

25. =Optimised site usability
• Usability, the ease with which visitors are able to use a
web site
• Web site usability: how to use the site most effective
• Good analytics help creating optimal funnels
• Heat maps and click density
• Focus groups / user case scenarios
• Product recommendations

27. = Web analytics
In short, monetising optimised customer insight.
• Web statistics: measurement, collecting, analysis and
reporting of internet data
• Using the data! Example: internal recommendations
• ROMI: Return On Marketing Investment
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Data mining. Example: beer and pampers
• E-mail marketing, triggered rules

28. Web analytics tips & tools
1. Filter First, Group Second, Then Segment
2. Determine Visitor Type Segments (RFM)
3. Segment by Traffic Source Type
4. Scrutinize 'Direct' Traffic by Using Query String Parameters (UTM)
5. Insert Acquisition Costs
6. Segment by Product Type Engagement Using a Meaningful Taxonomy
7. Integrate Data Sources Across Platforms
8. Get Closer to the Customer
9. Set Targets With Reasoning for Each & Test Your Predictions
10. Align Segments & Metrics With Business Drivers

29. B.O.M.B.E.R.
BRAND
ONLINE COMMUNITIES (SOCIAL MEDIA)
METASEARCH (PRICE COMPARISON)
BANNERS (DISPLAY ADVERTISING)
E-MAIL MARKETING / CRM
RETARGETING

30. =Brand
Case Study:
Leading European online
travel company
Management
Every player
perceives
the brand
differently
Staff Consumer

31. =Online communities (social media)
• Virality is key (Example: Shoedazzle)
• High conversion from social content,
guaranteed scalability impossible
• SMM still sucks as an
acquisition instrument
(and maybe it always will )
BUT
• Amazing as engagement tool
• Retargeting with behavioural data

32. Tools to simplify your social media activity
• Hootsuite
• The leading social media dashboard to manage and measure your social networks.
uberVU
The only end-to-end social intelligence dashboard that covers all 4 social media value
pillars: Monitoring, Analytics & Reporting, Engagement, Workflow.
PageLever
Takes Facebook Insights and adds more analytics—like how many of your fans are using mobile
devices.
Sprout Social
Integrates with Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, LinkedIn and other networks where consumers are engaging
with businesses and brands.
EdgeRank Checker
Is an algorithm that ranks objects in the Facebook News Feed. Pages with high EdgeRank Scores will be more
l likely to show up in the news feed, than Pages with low EdgeRank Scores.
Shoutlet
The Shoutlet do-it-yourself SaaS solution gives brands & agencies the tools to publish, engage, & measure all
of their social marketing in one platform.
And many more….

33. = Metaseach (price comparison)
• Very high quality lead generation, on CPC
basis
• Not applicable for all products
– Easier to compare notebooks than dresses
• Examples of sites
– Yandex Market
– Kayak
– Kelkoo

34. =Banners (display advertising)
Get the formula right => unlimited business
growth
– CPM
– CTR
– CR
– (e)CPO
– Optional parameters: PCCR + cookie lifetime
– Format : animated gif or flash?
– Make sure you buy at rock bottom rates

35. RTB ecosystem under construction in Russia

36. Banner formats

37. =E-mail marketing / CRM
Most cost effective revenue driver together with SEO
How do you get it right?
• Get a database
• Select the right tool
• Segment your audience
• A,B test
• Comply with rules and ISP, technology requirements

38. Email marketing tips you are probably
missing out on
1) Add Tracking Tokens to Links
Chosing Your Variable Names:
• UTM_Campaign: For the campaign variable, choose a word or phrase that best describes
the marketing campaign the link is part of. Make sure you use dashes in place of any
spaces.
• UTM_Medium: For the medium, just choose the channel that your using to send the link
out (e.g. email, social, ppc, etc.).
• UTM_Source: The source is the descriptor of where specifically the traffic is coming from
(e.g. newsletter, twitter, adwords, etc.).
Here’s an example of what a tracking link for email might look like:
http://www.yoursite.com/?utm_campaign=summersale&
utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

39. 2) Add Social Media Sharing Links
A GetResponse analysis reported that
email newsletters with social sharing buttons generated a
115% higher click-through rate than those that did not.
• helps your content spread
• spreads the content in your email to the people
in their networks
• easy to implement

40. 3) Design Email for Web / Mobile
According to Knotice's Mobile Email Opens Report,
nearly a third of all emails in the first half of 2012 were
opened on a mobile device.
Avoid:
• Multiple Columns
• Too Many Images
• Too Many Links Too Close Together
• Long Emails
• Not Offering a Plain-Text Version

41. 4) Test!
Beyond thoughtful design, there are a few companies out
there that will test your emails and show you how they
appear on multiple devices and clients.

42. =Retargeting

43. Start making sense of retargeting
(if not yet)

44. Core product: personalized retargeting
550K 150% 1:24
ROI
Ratio
Conversions / month Compared to Spend €1. Earn €24
Growing at 30% MoM Standard Retargeting in return revenue

45. Display right ads to the right users
at right time
On any screen (device)
At affordable price!

46. Full Cycle Bannering
Driving conversions, repeat buys &
Acquiring new users who did
increasing AOV of existing customers
not visit advertiser’s site
and users who have yet to convert
Tactical Personalised
Pretargeting
display retargeting
Unified Tracking & Measurement System

47. What is pretargeting?
Pretargeting is a method of targeting and optimizing display
campaigns aimed at attracting new consumers who have never
been to a merchant's website
Gathering intent data: Targeting is performed using 3rd party
data from providers such as toolbars, content sites and price
comparison engines, and includes browsing data as well as
search keywords
Browsed designer Browsed travel to
sunglasses sites Italy websites

48. Pretargeting: benefits
ATTRACT NEW CUSTOMERS
Expand your reach to users who are searching for products you offer
but have yet to visit your site
BEAT THE COMPETITION
Target users who have been to sites of your
competitors looking for products you offer
CUTTING SEM BUDGET
Drive incremental sales while significantly cutting your SEM budget.
Why purchase expensive keywords?

49. What’s next?
Dynamic Personalized Display: One creative fits all

50. With myThings,
there’s always light at the end of the tunnel

51. Never in the dark, myThings’ upper funnel acquisition solution optimizes
each and every impression based on available data in REAL TIME
DYNAMIC (TACTICAL) DISPLAY CAMPAIGNS

52. How does it work?
Combining user acquisition dynamic
display and lower funnel personalised
retargeting, in real time, is an industry first User shown
tactical
display
User reaches publisher site, banner
NO
call made to myThings ad server
Did user visit
advertiser’s
site before? User shown
personalized
retargeting
YES banner

53. Key trends to watch out for
• If you don’t have it, get a feel of CPA ASAP
• Ensure brand protection, monitor fraud
• Understand multi-channel attribution and LTV
• Get a sense of your CRM – your gold mine for
lower CPA
• Tag management
• RTB and data are here: The Guy With The
Most Data Wins (when used right).

54. FB contest: which landing page works better?
1 2
3

55. Questions?
bas@acrobator.com
www.skolkovo.ru
www.acrobator.com
@BasGodska