Project

by

Final Project: Digital Marketing Analytics Project

 

The final digital marketing analytics project focuses on answering specific questions about the current digital marketing campaign of a business. You will first analyze the digital marketing presence (website, advertisement, or social media presence) of a business. Based on your analysis, your group will develop research questions, collect and analyze the data, and draw insightful conclusions based on statistical analyses.

 

Project Deliverables and Deadline

  Grade Due
Proposal 40 points (4% of the final grade) Mar 3
Project Presentation   40 points (4% of the final grade) Apr 26, 28 in class
Project Report 150 points (15% of the final grade) May 5 11:59 PM

 

Business client selection

  • Businesses can range from one-man local shops to multi-national companies.
  • If you plan to collect the data from the survey, choose a business that is relevant to your survey sample. You will distribute the A/B testing survey to students taking this class.
  • Choose a business that has enough activity for you to analyze. Select a business that has at least 4 landing pages (i.e., webpages) on its website and it is a plus if the client has sufficient social media activities.

 

Important: Data Requirement

  • Your project outcome should be based on the original data. You can collect your data from the existing database (e.g., YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Google Trends, etc.) or from the Qualtrics survey (e.g., A/B testing survey).
  • To ensure reliable and valid results, the number of observations (i.e., the number of survey respondents of A/B testing survey; the number of videos, social media posts, Tweets, influencers in other projects) should be at least 140.
  • For meaningful data exploration, your data should contain a minimum of 15 variables (the number of questions of your survey; the number of variables in other projects).

 

NOTE: If you would like to study different questions for the final project, please consult with me in advance. I am open to your suggestions if (1) the topic is relevant to digital marketing, (2) the analysis builds on the original data, and (3) your hypotheses are tested with statistical analyses (e.g., regression analysis). Examples of the topics you may consider include:

“What makes YouTube videos viral?”

“What drives engagement in Instagram posts?”

“What makes Kickstarter projects more successful?”

“The impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Kickstarter project successes”

 

 

1.  Project Proposal

 

Student groups are expected to submit the project proposal by 11:59 PM on Mar 3. The proposal provides you with opportunities to prepare the project step-by-step and improve your research questions and data collection plan based on my feedback. The project proposal is worth 4% of the final grade.

 

Report Format

– PDF or Word document

– 12-point Times font, 1-inch page margins, US Letter paper, left-justification, 1.5 line spacing

– Maximum 3 pages except for the draft of the survey questionnaire and data codebook.

 

Your report will be evaluated based on the following components (Total 40 points).

  1. Understanding of client’s situation and research motivation (10 points)
  2. Quality of research questions and hypotheses (10 points)
  3. Quality of data collection plan (20 points)

 

You should provide the following information in your proposal.

  • Client Profile
  • Research motivation
  • Research questions
  • Research hypotheses
  • Research design and data collection plan
  • Required appendix: Qualtrics survey link and codebook (A/B testing survey) or codebook (other projects)

 

Client Profile:

  • Name, Location, URL, social media channels
  • Goods and services offered
  • Overview of their digital presence (e.g., website, social media posts, search ads, display ads, email marketing, etc.)

 

Research Motivation and Research Questions:

  • Do you see any problems or areas for improvement? How can your research project help improve your client’s digital marketing?
  • Specify your research objectives and research questions.
  • Research questions should be meaningful and relevant for your client that potentially presents actionable insights to improve the client’s digital marketing presence.

 

Research Hypotheses

  • Craft at least 5 research hypotheses you plan to test.
  • Research hypotheses should be clearly stated and be tested with statistical analyses.
  • State at least 2 hypotheses on the interaction effects.

 

[AB Testing: Example of research hypotheses]

  • Focusing on the differences between version A and B (main effect)
    • Version A drives more likes on Instagram than Version B.
    • Customers find Version A more energetic than Version B.
  • Focusing on the differences across customer segments (interaction effect)
    • The degree of liking Version A over Version B depends on gender. The degree of liking Version A (compared to Version B) is weakened for females (strengthened for males).
    • The degree of liking Version A over Version B depends on customers’ fashion trendiness. The degree of liking Version A (compared to Version B) is weakened for fashion trendy customers (strengthened for less fashion trendy customers.)

 

[Other projects: Example of research hypotheses]

  • Focusing on the main effects
    • The number of hashtags is positively related to the number of likes on Instagram.
    • The number of people featured in the post is positively related to the number of likes on Instagram.
    • Posts posted in the evening receive more likes than posts posted in the afternoon.
  • Focusing on the interaction effects
    • The positive relationship between the number of hashtags and the number of likes is strengthened for fashion Instagrammers.

 

 

Research Design/ Data Collection Plan

[AB Testing survey]

  • Present an example of your version A and B: provide an image
  • Timeline of survey and survey distribution plan
  • Sample of your survey
  • What to measure?
    • List at least 3 dependent variables: How would you compare the performance of two versions?
    • List customer characteristics that are potentially relevant to your A/B test.

 

         [Other projects]

  • If you plan to collect the data from the existing database (e.g., YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Google Trends, government data, etc.)
    • Source of the data
    • Sampling plan:
      • Specify the sampling criteria to select 140 YouTube videos, social media posts, etc.
    • Timeline of the data collection plan
    • What to measure?
      • Define dependent variables: What is your focus of the research? (e.g., number of likes, number of shares, number of views, viewing duration, etc.)
      • List other variables that are potentially relevant to your dependent variable.

 

Required appendix for any projects

  • Link to your Qualtrics survey
  • Data codebook
    • Present how each variable is measured.
      • Column1: variable name
      • Column2: variable description
      • Column3: Is it your dependent variable?
      • Column4: Is it measured on a nominal scale? (i.e., categorical variable)

 

2. Project Presentation

 

Deliverable: PowerPoint slides that summarize the key findings of your final project (slides submission due 11:59 PM on the day before your presentation day) Each group will be given 18 -20 minutes.

 

Please make sure to deliver the following elements in your presentation:

  • Client overview and research motivation
  • Research questions and hypotheses
  • Research design and data description
  • Summary of findings
  • Conclusions, recommendations, suggestions

 

Your report will be evaluated based on the following components (Total 40 points).

  1. Organization of presentation, effective use of tables and figures (15 points)
  2. Understanding of research project findings (including the quality of Q&A) (15 points)
  3. Presentation and communication skills (clarity and enthusiasm) (10 points)

 

 

 

 

3. Project Report

 

Report Format

– PDF or Word document

– 12-point Times font, 1-inch page margins, US Letter paper, left-justification, 1.5 line spacing

– Maximum 12 pages except for references and appendices.

 

Your report will be evaluated based on the following components (Total 150 points).

  1. Executive Summary (10 points)
  2. Business Overview (20 points)
  3. Research Design (30 points)
  4. Findings from Statistical Analyses (50 points)
  5. Conclusion and Recommendations (20 points)
  6. Communication and Readability (20 points)

 

1. Executive Summary (5 points, maximum one page)

This stand-alone document provides your client with a project snapshot and highlights four key areas:

  • Purpose – a basic review of the project by introducing research objectives.
  • Methods – an overview of research design and data
  • Key Results – major findings of the project.
  • Conclusion – a clear synthesis of the report content. This is your chance to tie together the findings and focus on recommendations for your client.

 

2. Client Overview and Research Motivations (10 points, 1-2 pages)

This section should provide an overview of the client and research objectives.

Client Profile:

  • Name, Location, URL
  • Goods and services offered

Market Analysis:

  • Current and potential customers
  • Current and potential competitors
  • Market position and unique selling points of the goods/services offered

Current Marketing:

  • Strengths and weaknesses of digital marketing presence
    • Social media, website design, search ad, display ad, etc.
  • If available, summary information from other third-party web tracking service (e.g., Similar Web, SEMRush, etc.)

Objectives of your research:

  • Clearly state your research objectives and questions
  • Justify how your research can help the business

 

3. Research Design (25 points, 2-3 pages)

This section should provide an overview of research design. This section should include:

  • Research hypotheses:
    • List at least 6 hypotheses
    • Explore potential differences across respondents/observations in your data
  • Research Design and Data Description
    • Data collection process: timeline, sample, A/B test design
    • Data Description
      • Description of your data
      • [Required table] Codebook: describe how each variable is coded in your data
      • [Required appendix] Qualtrics survey questions and links (if you collected the data from Qualtrics survey)

 

4. Findings (50 points, 4-6 pages including tables and figures)

  • Descriptive analysis
    • Summary of survey respondents/ observations
    • Summary of key variables
    • Include appropriate graphical and numerical summaries (i.e., bar graphs, pie charts, boxplots, scatterplots, counts, correlation coefficients)
  • (For A/B testing) Exploratory Difference analysis of the key dependent variables. Focus on meaningful differences.
    • Discuss whether you were able to see the differences in your key dependent variables between version A and B.
  • Regression analysis that provides an answer to research questions.
    • Propose at least four different regression models and summarize the results.
    • Must present a model that tests the differences across observations using the interaction effects.
    • Select the best model and discuss the findings based on the best regression model.
    • Discuss what the data tell you about your research questions. What did you learn?

 

5. Conclusion (15 points, 1-2 pages)

  • Summary of your answers to research questions
  • Recommendations and implications for client that describes implications of findings for marketing managers and relevant stakeholders
  • Limitations & Suggestions for future research.

 

4. Communication and readability (15 points)

Your presentation should have a logical flow, be easy to follow, and clear. Feel free to utilize charts, tables, and figures to illustrate your content.

 

Required Appendix

  • Survey questionnaire
  • Data and codebook
  • Descriptive summary statistics of all your variables
  • Additional regression analysis tables

 

References

  • Make sure to include links/screenshots or whatever is necessary to demonstrate your points.
  • Please provide the list of references in the slides’ notes (sources of articles, industry reports, blog posts, web links, etc.)
  • Always provide with an appropriate reference for your argument.
  • The best reports will be factual and analytical. There is no room for personal feelings or emotional response. Think of this as the type of presentation created by a digital marketing consulting firm before a first meeting with a client.