Mastering Growth Hacking: Scaling Strategies, Learning from Failure, and Data-Driven Experimentation

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In this podcast episode on brndBuilder Academy Podcast, Hamlet Azarian, CEO and Founder of Azarian Growth Agency, delves into the intricate world of growth hacking with host Kelli F. Kelleyl.
Hamlet Azarian reveals hidden pitfalls in common growth-focused strategies, emphasizes the importance of an ongoing experimentation mindset, and discusses how even non-technical companies can benefit from this approach.

Regardless of your company’s technical expertise, this episode offers invaluable insights for all.
Could your company be the next to unlock unprecedented growth using these pioneering tactics?

Common Mistakes in Growth Experimentation Best Practices for Growth Experimentation Key Takeaways for Founders Final Thoughts

What We Discussed

The True Meaning of Growth Hacking: Hamlet redefines growth hacking as an experimentation-driven process that relies on testing hypotheses and analyzing raw data, emphasizing that it’s not about shortcuts but systematic learning and improvement.
The Importance of Failure in Experimentation: Hamlet highlights that 90% of experiments fail, but the lessons learned from those failures are the building blocks of successful strategies and scalable growth engines.
Common Growth Experimentation Mistakes: From running overlapping experiments to testing minor changes (like a headline), Hamlet explains how businesses often misstep in their experimentation processes and shares why starting at the wrong funnel stage can lead to wasted time and resources.
The Flywheel of Growth Experimentation: Hamlet introduces the concept of building momentum through continuous, iterative testing, explaining how businesses can use historical experiments to improve the speed and efficiency of future campaigns.
Examples of High-Impact Experiments: Hamlet shares practical examples, such as moving lead forms to the top of a landing page, adding trust symbols, and using authentic customer testimonials to boost conversions and engagement.
Best Practices for Experimentation: From identifying your ideal customer and defining a clear value proposition to conducting competitive research, Hamlet outlines the foundational steps for creating effective growth strategies.
Growth Experimentation for Non-Tech Companies: Hamlet explains how non-technical companies can apply the same experimentation methodologies used by startups to improve their marketing efforts and achieve scalable results.

Common Mistakes in Growth Experimentation

Hamlet Azarian sheds light on the frequent errors businesses encounter when implementing growth experimentation, which can hinder results and waste valuable resources.

These mistakes often stem from a lack of proper planning, poor execution, or an incomplete understanding of the experimentation process. Here’s what businesses should watch out for:

1. Overlapping Experiments

One of the most common mistakes is running experiments that overlap or interfere with each other.

For example, if you’re testing two different ad campaigns (Experiment A and Experiment B) targeting the same audience or using overlapping variables, the results from both tests can become skewed.

Overlapping experiments create confounding issues, where it’s difficult to determine which changes are driving results.
The lack of clean, isolated data prevents marketers from drawing meaningful conclusions, ultimately making the experiment a waste of time and resources.

How to Avoid It: Ensure each experiment operates independently, testing only one variable at a time with distinct audiences or timeframes. Carefully monitor data segmentation to maintain the integrity of each test.

2. Narrow Testing

Another common error is conducting experiments that are too narrow or surface-level.

For example, simply testing a headline change on an ad or landing page might not provide valuable insights into your audience or drive meaningful improvements.

Small, incremental changes like font tweaks or slight variations in wording often result in minor performance differences that aren’t actionable.
Effective growth experimentation requires testing broader ideas or value propositions that directly address your audience’s pain points or interests.

How to Avoid It: Think big when crafting experiments. For instance, test entirely different messaging strategies, creative directions, or offers to identify which resonates most with your audience. By starting with bold tests, you can narrow down the most effective strategies and optimize from there.

3. Starting at the Wrong Funnel Stage

Businesses often focus their experiments on the wrong stage of the marketing funnel. For example:

Testing bottom-of-funnel elements, such as conversion optimizations or retention strategies, when there’s not enough top-of-funnel traffic can lead to delays and unreliable data. Without sufficient traffic or leads entering the funnel, lower-stage experiments lack the volume needed to draw meaningful conclusions.
Businesses may also neglect top-of-funnel experiments, like awareness campaigns, which are critical for fueling the rest of the funnel.

How to Avoid It: Begin your experimentation process at the top or middle of the funnel, where traffic is more abundant, and insights can be gathered quickly. For example:

Test ad campaigns or landing pages that focus on awareness or acquisition before moving into deeper stages like retention or upselling.
Once you’ve built sufficient traffic and a strong foundation, progressively work your way down the funnel to refine conversion and retention strategies.

Pro Tip: Start with Broad and Foundational Experiments

Hamlet emphasizes the importance of building a strong foundation before diving into overly specific or advanced tests.

Start with experiments that address top-level concerns, like identifying your most compelling value proposition, understanding which channels drive the best traffic, or optimizing key elements on landing pages.

Once you’ve established reliable data and traffic patterns, you can confidently move into more granular testing.

Best Practices for Growth Experimentation

While every business has unique needs and challenges, Hamlet emphasizes that the foundation of any successful growth experimentation process lies in understanding core marketing principles.

By starting with these fundamentals, companies can ensure their experiments are focused, effective, and ultimately impactful.

1. Understand Your Customer

The cornerstone of any marketing or growth strategy is a deep understanding of your audience. Before running any experiments, ask:

Who is your ideal customer? Go beyond basic demographics and consider their behaviors, pain points, motivations, and goals.
What problem are you solving for them? Clearly identify the challenges they face and how your product or service provides a solution.
Where do they spend their time? Determine the platforms, tools, and channels your audience engages with, so you can meet them where they are.

Hamlet suggests leveraging data from tools like Google Analytics, CRM platforms, and customer surveys to build detailed customer personas. These personas should guide your experiments, ensuring that every test meets your audience’s needs and preferences.

2. Define Your Value Proposition

Your value proposition is the unique benefit your product or service offers to customers. It’s what sets you apart from competitors and answers the question, “Why should someone choose us?”

Focus on clarity and specificity: Avoid generic statements like “we’re the best” and instead articulate exactly what you deliver (e.g., faster results, lower costs, better quality).
Align your value proposition with your customers’ pain points. For example, if your audience struggles with inefficient workflows, highlight how your solution saves time and simplifies processes.
Continuously refine your value proposition through experimentation. Test different messaging, formats, and delivery methods to identify what resonates most with your audience.

3. Conduct Competitive Research

In today’s crowded marketplace, understanding what your competitors are doing can uncover valuable opportunities for differentiation. Hamlet recommends conducting thorough competitive research, focusing on:

Competitors’ messaging and positioning: What are they saying about their products or services? How are they positioning themselves in the market?
Marketing strategies and channels: Analyze their ad campaigns, social media presence, SEO efforts, and email marketing tactics to identify what’s working for them.
Customer feedback: Read reviews and testimonials for competitor products to discover gaps or weaknesses you can address in your own offerings.

Leverage tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and SimilarWeb to gather competitive insights, and use these findings to inform your growth experiments.

For example, if a competitor’s ad is performing well, you can test a similar format or value proposition to see if it resonates with your audience.

4. Experiment Iteratively

Growth experimentation is not a one-time activity—it’s an ongoing process of testing, learning, and optimizing. Hamlet highlights the importance of a structured approach:

Start with a clear hypothesis: Define what you’re testing and what you hope to learn. For example, “We believe that moving our lead form to the top of the page will increase conversions by 15%.”
Test across multiple channels: Don’t limit experiments to a single platform. Test your value proposition’s performance on Facebook Ads, Google Ads, email marketing, webinars, and even landing pages to find what works best.
Test contrasting ideas: To gather meaningful insights, test significantly different value propositions or creative ideas rather than minor variations (e.g., testing entirely different ad messages instead of just changing the headline).
Document and analyze results: Keep a record of each experiment, including the hypothesis, methodology, results, and lessons learned. This documentation becomes a valuable resource for future tests.
Scale successful experiments: Once an experiment yields a clear winner, implement it across your campaigns and focus on optimizing other areas of your marketing funnel.

5. Keep the Customer Journey in Mind

As you experiment, remember that growth is about guiding your customer through a journey-from awareness to conversion to retention.

Each stage of the funnel requires different tactics and tests:

Awareness stage: Test ways to attract attention and drive traffic, such as eye-catching ad creatives, compelling headlines, or educational content.
Acquisition stage: Experiment with landing page designs, call-to-action placements, and lead generation forms to increase sign-ups or purchases.
Retention stage: Test email sequences, loyalty programs, and personalized offers to keep customers engaged and coming back.

Key Takeaways for Founders

For founders looking to implement effective growth experimentation strategies, here are the key insights shared by Hamlet Azarian during the podcast:

Start with Your Audience: Understand your ideal customer, their pain points, and what drives their decisions. All growth experiments should be rooted in solving their problems and delivering value.
Focus on Bold, High-Impact Tests: Avoid small, narrow experiments that provide minimal insights. Instead, test broad value propositions, creative ideas, or entirely new approaches to maximize learning.
Avoid Overlapping Experiments: Run experiments in isolation to ensure clean, actionable data. Confounding issues caused by overlapping tests will compromise your ability to draw meaningful conclusions.
Experiment at the Right Funnel Stage: Start at the top or middle of the funnel where you have enough traffic to collect reliable data. Save bottom-of-funnel optimization for later, once you’ve built a strong foundation of awareness and acquisition.
Think Long-Term: Experimentation isn’t a one-and-done activity. It’s a continuous process of testing, learning, and optimizing. Commit to ongoing experimentation to build a sustainable growth engine.
Document and Systematize: Track every experiment, including hypotheses, results, and lessons learned. Use this documentation to inform future tests and systematize successful strategies.
Balance Data with Creativity: While data is essential for growth experimentation, creative thinking is equally important. Combine bold ideas with data-driven analysis to uncover winning strategies.
Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Accept that most experiments won’t succeed, and that’s okay. Each failure teaches you what doesn’t work, helping you refine your approach and move closer to success.
Use Tools and Technology Wisely: Leverage tools like Google Analytics, Google Optimize, or CRM platforms to collect data and streamline your experimentation process. Tools can enhance your testing but should never replace strategic thinking.
Customize to Your Sales Cycle: Whether your sales process is quick and transactional or long and relationship-driven, tailor your experiments to align with your unique customer journey.

Final Thoughts

Growth experimentation is not about quick wins or shortcuts; it’s about building a sustainable, data-driven process that uncovers what truly works for your business.

By starting with a deep understanding of your audience, testing bold ideas, and committing to continuous learning, founders can create a scalable growth engine that delivers long-term success.

Embrace failure as part of the journey, and let each insight bring you closer to achieving your vision.