Digital Marketing Planning

Round 6 Market Report

It is predicted that the start of the school year and the return to full-time work will give rise to robust consumer demand. Furthermore, the current surplus of available products is likely to result in intensified price competition amongst retailers. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that an increasing proportion of consumers are revisiting familiar websites and demonstrating a preference for established product brands.

Audience Insight

Many young people will need electronics before returning to college or university. Common wisdom is that their parents will be in charge of their purchases this year.

Available budget101099887766554433221100001122334455667788991010

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Here are the results for Round !

    On Web you had:

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  • Conversions

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Welcome to the Simbound Simulation Dashboard Tutorial.

You can move between tutorial items using arrows {'<- ->'} on your keyboard.
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Before accessing the application you need to purchase a license

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Welcome to SIMBOUND!

Intro to the Digital Marketing Simulation

This is a simulated environment for practicing and learning digital marketing operations and strategy. It allows you to take on the role of a digital marketer.

animated character sitting on a monitor

Intro to the Digital Marketing Simulation

Start by reading the business case resource. Then familiarize yourself with the dashboard where you can make decisions and monitor results.

animated character sitting on a monitor

Intro to the Digital Marketing Simulation

You should visit the Planner section to research data and make sales estimates. Don’t worry there is no penalty for not meeting estimates. Good luck!

animated character sitting on a monitor

Select Team

General Settings

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Introduction

1. Introduction to Simbound

1.1 Overview

Welcome to Simbound, the digital marketing simulation game!
Let's explore the world of Simbound! The first step is to explain how the simulation works:

Simbound is a risk-free environment for creating Internet marketing. It allows users to create new marketing content alongside their peers. You will measure the reach and impact of your marketing decisions based on the results of the simulation. When you use the Simbound software, you are not spending a real budget and you are not affecting the image of a real brand, so feel free to experiment and be creative.

The simulation is a competition in which you can participate either as part of a team or as an individual. Each simulation contains a number of rounds, each with its own time limit. If you are playing alone, you can move through the rounds at your own pace. Your instructor will determine the total number of rounds in the simulation.

Each round presents a new set of conditions and challenges that require you to respond with analysis, creative thinking, and timely execution, just as you would in real-world situations. A round ends when its deadline is reached, or when you choose to advance the simulation (if this option is enabled in your simulation).

Getting Started

E-marketing involves planning, researching, creating, and optimizing content. The results report from the simulation will help you improve your content marketing. You can also compare your results with other participants. We will look at each type of marketing in the simulation later.

Welcome to Simbound

The simulation has different conditions called scenarios, so the content marketing may vary.

1.2 Registration

Your instructor will give you a link to register your account. You may get the link in class, by email, or through your school's learning system. You need a valid email address to register at Simbound this will be your unique username on the platform.

After registering and activating your account, you can log in and browse the simulation interface. If you don't get the email, check your spam folder or wait a few minutes. If you still can't activate your account, email support@simbound.com with your email address and course link.

After logging in, choose your country, time zone, and language. Select the correct country and time zone to manage deadlines in the simulation.

The next step is to choose a team. You can either do this on your own, or your instructor may have already selected the teams. If so, they should have given you a list of all the teams and their members. If you accidentally choose the wrong team, don't worry and ask your instructor about this option. Remember, teams should only be changed before the simulation begins.

If you're playing as an individual, just choose any team that has no other participants.

Teams Selection

Payment

You may have to pay to access the simulation. You can pay with a credit/debit card or by bank wire.

Refunds

If you're not happy with Simbound, you can get a refund up to the first round deadline. If there is no first round deadline, you can request a refund up until the first round is completed by you. You can't get a refund after the deadline or after you've played the first round. A small fee may be charged for each refund. To help process your refund, email support@simbound.com with your username and date of purchase.

1.3 Goal of the Simulation

You will research, plan, create, evaluate, and optimize marketing content using the provided tools. You can use a website, search engine, email, online communities, social media and affiliate marketing partners to distribute your content.

Use online advertising and marketing to achieve the highest possible profit during the simulation. This number is sometimes called simply "Value", "Conversion Value" or "Profit" and is used to calculate the Return on Advertising Spend.

Your scores and rankings may change several times by the end of the simulation. This depends on your and others' decisions in the simulation.

Planner Overview

1 The instructor may give more specific goals to track (e.g., sales, market share, or a set number of marketing assets to create). He or she can add or remove rounds at any time. Track additional objectives and make decisions before each round deadline for the best results.

The round objectives are just one part of the simulation. To improve your decisions and outcomes, you'll need to work on more than just meeting the round objectives.

If your instructor doesn't give you objectives, you can set your own for each new round. The Task Board in the Planner section (see Section 1.7) is a useful tool. This is good for setting up new tasks and objectives for teams and individuals.

2 If your game has a bonus feature for completing various tasks within the SEA simulation, you'll find the rules in each new round. Meet the bonus requirements to increase your marketing budget.

Learning Tab

3 The simulation will track your performance of various operations. In your left dashboard, go to the Learning tab to see a journal of your recent actions.

What to Improve

4 The planner section will show you what you can do better in terms of your ongoing decisions.

Just a heads-up: Any changes you make to your team account will override your teammates' previously recorded decisions. It's probably a good idea to discuss your strategy and decisions with your teammates before each round's deadline. One approach is to have as many product marketing managers on a team as there are products to sell, so that everyone has their own product assigned and can limit their workload.

1.4 Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of Simbound, participants should be able to demonstrate the following competencies:

- How Online/Digital advertising offers a rapid and quantifiable approach to raising awareness of a sales proposition.
- Proficiency in executing e-marketing operations, including: search engine advertising, SEO, Website Management, Email newsletters, Online community management, Social Media Marketing and Affiliate marketing campaigns.

- Experience in planning, managing and measuring online outreach campaigns

- How to measure and improve online sales through marketing technology operations

- How to interpret operational metrics for different online marketing


- Website Management: Unique Page views, Traffic Sources, Conversion Ratio

- Search Engine Advertising: Setting up Keyword(interest) based campaigns, Shopping campaigns, A/B testing, Tracking Clicks, Impressions, Click-Through-Rate, Cost per Click, Average Ad Position, Conversions

- E-mail Marketing: Building up Lists of contacts (Leads), tracking various metrics such as: Open Rate, Click-through Rate, Conversion Rate, Unsubscribe Rate

- Community management: Working with Community Managers, Tracking members, Raising Engagement, Posting, Gamification, Managing budgets

- Social Media Marketing: How to set up and run a consistent presence on Social Networks, how to set up ads for various audiences and track performance

- Affiliate marketing: how to set up and manage multiple campaigns each one with their own unique financial and operational indicators, how to reward top-performing affiliates and how to integrate affiliate marketing into a broad range of marketing communications

1.5 Getting Started – Short summary

Plan to spend 1-3 hours preparing and executing your first content marketing campaign in Simbound. Follow the steps below, and develop your own decision-making and results analysis systems.

Read the guidebooks to learn how to use each marketing tool.

Read the case materials in the main case study section of the dashboard to learn about the company. At the end you should be able to answer these questions:

What should we promote? Who are the customers? Where are they? What are their preferences? Knowing your target audience helps you create better marketing.

Next plan your first online content marketing campaign. Your campaign will start when you save your content. You'll see the results when the deadline is reached or when you run the simulation. Each simulation section on the main dashboard has a symbol in the top left corner showing when results will be available.

If your simulation includes objectives or bonuses, meet the conditions before the end of the round. If you meet a bonus condition, your marketing budget will increase for all subsequent rounds. Click "Planner" to view the goal in the menu.

Your instructor can reset deadlines for each round. If your team missed the deadline, ask your instructor. If you can run the simulation on your own, your instructor could enable the option to restart a round on your own.

1.6 Simulation General Settings

Profile

1 Profile

Edit your profile to include a picture, password, and short description. Here are some ideas: What do you like to do? Where are you from? What do you want from the simulation? You can also change your time zone if you're traveling.

2 My Team/My Brand

This is your team overview. Get your teammates' email addresses to contact them. You can also change your company name up until round 2.

3 My Games

To sign up for another Simbound course, enter the five-character code or URL. You can switch between simulations from this screen.

4 Look and Feel
Change the look and feel of your simulation dashboard.

common functions

5 Calendar/Run the Simulation

View the schedule and prepare for your next round. You can also access goals or bonus conditions here. If you're in individual progress mode, you can run the simulation and get your results with one click.

6 Language selection, support and tutorial

You can change the language, submit a ticket to get assistance, or launch a tutorial. You can also change your settings or log out.

7 Resources

Use videos and guidebooks to get the most out of the simulation.

1.7 Digital Marketing Planner

Adding plans

Start with a plan. The Planner section shows you the general information about the simulation and suggests an initial method to plan out the first few rounds. You can also use the Task Board to organize and track your marketing efforts.

1 Go to the Planner and look at the objectives section to review any outlined round and SEA bonus objectives.

2 The Market Report gives you information about the current market. Check back here for more information to help you make better decisions.

3 The Total Available Budget graph shows how the advertising budget changes over the rounds of the simulation game. The budget is available to your entire team. The graph shows the budget available during each round for the various simulations.

Please note this rule: If the SEA budget amount has been allocated to a campaign and this amount is not spent, it will not be carried forward to a future round. This may occur when the campaign is on pause or when there are insufficient searches for the keywords included in the campaign. Check your campaigns after each round and make adjustments as needed.

Search Trends

4 The Research tab shows recent search trends for keywords you can use in your marketing.

Planner step

5 Click New Plan to create a marketing plan. Select the product and market. This can help your team reach a consensus when time is short.

Estimates

6 Enter the number of units to be sold in the chart and add notes. Each person can estimate how many items are sold in the simulation. Other team members can see this. There is no penalty for wrong estimates.

Adding_tasks

7 The Task Board lets you create tasks for yourself or your team. Stay organized and communicate as a team. Click Add Task to create a task.

E-mail Marketing Guide

Quick Guide and Introduction

Keeping your customers and prospects informed through email is a great way to enhance your communications and consolidate other marketing channels. With Email Marketing Simulation, you can create customized messages, send periodic newsletters, run promotions, announce new company or community milestones, and inform your audience of new environmental, social, and governance initiatives.

Sending frequent emails to your engaged contacts will help you build awareness. This will ultimately lead to new conversions.

Good to know: E-mail simulation results are available soon after sending the e-mail and cannot be deleted.

What to expect

A good email marketing campaign will generate a high number of opens or views, be engaging enough for virtual subscribers to click through to your content, and provide good value so that it leads to conversions or purchases. Here is what you can expect:

Typical open rates for emails usually range from 1 to 50%. This is influenced by the subject line, the frequency of your emails, and the perception of your company.

The click-through rate of an email can range from 0 to 20% or more. This is influenced by the content and scope of the campaign.

The number of conversions obtained will depend on the conditions presented in the email, such as price, types and number of products as well as the audience receiving the email.

Types of Decisions

email 1

1. First add and manage the products on your website that be included in the email.

Some email templates will be disabled if there are no products featured on your website!

EMAIL 2

2. Select the market.

3. Provide a name for your campaign.

The campaign name is used only to later quickly find a campaign

email 3

4. Write the subject line.

This is the first thing your contacts will see when they read your email

5. Add specific content and the design.

There are several templates to choose from, depending on the purpose of the email, such as product launches, promotions, new milestones, community member recruitment, affiliate partner recruitment, or announcing ESG initiatives. On here you will need to Choose an audience or the groups of contacts who will receive the email.

6. Target an audience.

Choose who will receive your e-mail.

Reports

To follow the performance of your campaigns you can study the response data produced by each campaign and you can also see how your general metrics have performed.

email 4

7. Sent e-mails results.

From the Actions section of the tables, you can view the emails and also send a follow-up email and initiate a new email sequence.

email 5

8. Contacts evolution and financial performance.

By using email simulation correctly, you can enhance your other digital marketing campaigns and:

  1. Drive more targeted traffic
  1. Attract more prospects to your website
  1. Recruit new affiliates
  1. Recruit new community members
  1. Improve your company's ESG ratings

Community Management Guide

Introduction

Welcome to the community management simulation where you can enhance your brand's marketing presence by creating and managing various online communities for virtual members. The purpose of this simulation is to encourage the exploration of alternative approaches to digital marketing while covering topics such as gamification, community management skills, and collaboration with others.

There are 4 different types of communities: 

1.     Support Community - This will help you improve the overall customer perception of your brand. By having high levels of engagement between members, you will stimulate the best outcome

2.     Marketplace - This community helps past and present customers exchange used products and provide small services to each other. Running a successful marketplace can unlock a new source of revenue and also improve your environmental brand score

3.     ESG  Community - This community highlights members' actions and participation in environmental, social, and governance activities, helping to improve the overall ESG score of your company

4.     Insight Community - This community helps you conduct market research and identify new consumer trends. Be careful, as some of the results and insights from these studies may not always be present in the actual market conditions.

Communities Dashboard

view of the community management simulation dashboard

1.     Set up a new community from here. You will need to have the right amount of hiring budget. You can expand this budget by enabling new community manager skills.

2.    You can make changes to your existing communities by adding new gamification tactics, bring in new community managers and you can also track results.

3.     Respond to incoming invitations to become a community manager coming from communities which are owned by other companies in the simulation.

Setting up a community

Follow the community setup utility and go through the 3 steps:

select community type

1. Select the community type. Each community type can help you achieve a different set of business goals. Choose the one that best fits your overall marketing and brand strategy.

Assign a community name and welcome message as well as the market

2.     Assign a name and welcome message and select the market for which the community will be made available

Select community managers

3.     The last step is to select one or more community managers to help with the operational aspects of running the community.

community managers overview

Community Managers can be individuals from your team or from outside your team, and they can post updates and enable gamification tactics within your communities. They can also use their individual skills to help develop your communities and have a minimum tenure of 3 rounds before they can be removed. There is a fee to recruit a community manager, this is paid one time at the beginning. Each community must have at least one manager but several managers can be added at the same time.

Posting to communities

Community members will expect periodical posts from you and the community managers. This raises engagement and can help you meet business objectives. Posts are done from the decisions section of the communities dashboard.

New post to community

1. Enter a new text post for the community members to read

2. Choose to feature or highlight a product in your post

3. Add a link to your website

Add Gamification to your communities

Gamification Tactics

On each community you have the option to add up to 4 unique gamification tactics. This will help direct community behavior and reward the most active members of each community.  Some of the gamification tactics may be more appropriate depending on the type of community. You can experiment with them to see which one produced the highest lift.

What results to expect from your communities

Communities can typically have anywhere from 10% to 40% or more engagement. Engagement levels will determine much of their success, and increasing engagement requires careful consideration of each community type and assigning the right type of community manager. Some of the virtual community members will visit your main website, creating repeat visits to your storefront. The insight community will help you reach insights, however you should keep in mind that these will not always be indicative of larger consumer trends and shifts in market behavior.

Results

Once the communities are set up and the simulation calculates results, you can view the results in the corresponding dashboard. Results are displayed for each community.

These reports will help you make decisions in every round. You are encouraged to experiment and discuss ongoing tactics.

Community Results dashboard

Enjoy learning about community management with the Simbound simulation!

Social Media Marketing Simulation Guide

Introduction

Welcome to the Simbound social network marketing simulation. This is a great place to develop your own social media marketing strategy in a safe and game-like environment. You can post updates, set up ads, and track performance across all your assets. Let’s dive straight in!

Social Media Marketing Simulation cover

Good to know: Social media marketing simulation

In the current digital age, customers are engaging with brands on a multitude of social media platforms. Engaging with followers on the social media platform in the simulation is an effective strategy for announcing new initiatives, thereby increasing brand awareness, recognition, and loyalty. New posts are revised by AI to ensure relevancy and frequency.

Learning Goals

This simulation shows how social media marketing can be used to engage customers and improve business results. Your goal is to interact with consumers and create social media action plans that can be easily implemented and then measure their impact. You can also have a look at what other participants are doing.

1. Posting updates

You'll be setting up new posts during the simulation. It's important to follow the system or teacher's advice, but you should also do your own research into what constitutes best practice in posting updates on behalf of a company. A good social media strategy is one that is consistent and well monitored with the goal of improving this. A creative approach that provides value will typically yield good results and engagement.

post updates to social media simulation

1.    Add the post content and mention important details about your company, and its products or services. Make sure your message is consistent with that of other posts

2.    You can add a link to send people to your website once they’ve read the post

3.    You can highlight a product in a post. This is useful later on if you choose to boost the visibility of the post by creating a sponsored post

4.    You can add other assets such as images or tags to your post

Remember that you are allowed to set up social media campaigns only for the products found on your website.

2. Boosting a post

Boost a post

  1. View detailed results for each of your posts, their reach and impact on your website traffic, social media followers and conversions.

2.  You can choose to boost the post for further visibility and engagement. A budget is required, which will be consumed during the same round when the boost is initiated.

What to expect when posting:

 As a general rule a post can get between 0% and 20% engagement, although there are exceptions with some values falling outside of this interval. How much engagement a post gets depends on how relevant it is, when it goes out, how many followers your brand has, and how people perceive your company.

3. Ad Campaigns

Please note: It is required that you set up the website first and add a few products to it before launching your ad campaign.

steps to add a new social media marketing campaign

1.  Launch the Ad campaign setup process

2. Choose the market

3. Name the campaign

4. Select the goal of the campaign from the different options: maximize number of conversions, the value of conversions or the number of leads (new contacts)

5. Choose the Audience you want to target

Social Audiences targeting

6.   Set up the Ad creative

4. Setting up Ads

Steps to creating a social media marketing ad

1.     Select the products featured in the campaign

2.     Add a primary title.

3.     Write the Ad headline

4.     Add a short description

5.     Set up a call to action

6.     Select an Image

7.     You can set up an A/B test

8.     Save the Ad. You can edit the creative or the products later on

What to expect when running Social Media Ads:

The click-through rate of a social ads campaign can vary considerably, from 0% to 10% or more. This is dependent on a number of factors, including the scope and settings of the campaign, the audiences selected, and the timing of the campaign. The content, products, pricing, and scope of the campaign all contribute to the probability of a successful outcome.

5. Budget Allocation

  • SMM Budget: The SMM budget covers both SMA (Social Media Advertising) and Social Media Posts, and can be allocated entirely to either or both.
  • SMA Spending Rules : Each round has a maximum budget determined by dividing the total SMM budget for the game by the remaining rounds. If playing in teams, any member of the team can use this entire amount for SMA campaigns.
  • Social Posts Spending Rules: The maximum budget which can be allocated is calculated based on the number of rounds left. Each team member can spend an equal share of the round's SMM budget (e.g., for a 3-member team, divide the max round budget by 3) to boost one of their own organic posts. To invest fully in Social Media Posts, all team members must have posted at least once and use their entire share to boost their own content.
  • Carryover of Unused Budget: Unlike with the SEA (Search Engine Advertising) simulation, any unspent SMM budget from a round can be carried over to future rounds.

 

6. Results

After the ads are set up and the simulation is run, or after the deadline for the round is reached, you will be issued with the campaign results.

These reports will help you make decisions in every round. You are encouraged to edit ongoing campaigns in search for better results. You can use market information bulletins that contain updates on the audiences in the game to guide your strategy. Results can be broken down by looking at ads, product performance, posts and audiences.

social media ad campaign results

1.     Switch in between simulation report results from here. The options are: Campaigns, Ads, Products, Posts and Audience Insights

2.     You may select which round to display in the report.      

3.     Further options include the ability to edit, delete or highlight results for a single campaign or campaign item in the reporting interface

You will find a series of additional results under the main Results section, as well as under other pages such as Web Analytics and Products.

Social Media Marketing Results Dashboard

1.     Go to the main Results section

2.     Click on the Social report tab to open up statistics and comparisons

That's it. Good luck on your Social Media Marketing! 🤞🏻

Affiliate Marketing Simulation Guide

Quick Guide and Introduction

You can use the Affiliate Campaign Manager to drive new traffic to your website.

overview screenshot

What to expect

You can expect anywhere between 0 to 20% conversion rates from the affiliate marketing channel.

If your campaigns are correctly set up you should expect a few affiliate marketing partners to join your campaign in every new round.

Affiliates open up a new discovery channel for your site, which will diversify your online presence and improve your website's external link profile. Having multiple affiliate sites linking back to your own site will help with your SEO strategy.

The more active affiliate marketers you have, the more traffic and links you can expect to gather. By creating an optimal affiliate campaign, you can attract new affiliates in each round.

Types of Decisions

You can set up a new campaign and the decisions you need to make are the following

campaign builder step 1

1. Product and Market selection

Choose the product and the market in which the campaign will run. You will need to review data such as product price, the current gross margin - the equivalent of which is set to be the conversion value in the simulation.

Remember that you are allowed to set up affiliate campaigns only for the products found on your website. Only one affiliate marketing campaign is allowed for each product on your website.

For each product you will need to specify the following parameters: (see items 2 to 5 below)

Campaign Builder step 2

2. Commission Amount

This is the amount your company pays to each affiliate marketer for a sale that takes place on your website. The affiliate has sent your website a visitor that turned into a client so he expects a commission out of every sale.

The commission is calculated in the following way: Product Price x Commission %.

The decision is made in advance for every round of the simulation, so you can select various levels of commission for each round in the simulation (1 to 10)

The commission is paid during the round when the sale actually takes place. When setting the commission percentage, make sure that the commission does not wipe out the net profit amount that you should be making on each sale of the product.

It is a good practice to review each affiliate's campaign commission amount after changing the pricing of products on your site.

You may also want to consider attracting more affiliates during rounds when there is expected to be high demand for a particular product by increasing the amount of commission you agree to pay.

campaign builder step 3

3. Cookie Lifespan

When an affiliate marketer starts to promote your products on their website they will use their own unique Affiliate ID that is stored within a browser cookie which is then placed on potential shoppers computers and other devices as soon as they visit the website of the affiliate. Once a potential client clicks on a link and gets taken to your own website the client will be attributed to the correct affiliate (first-attribution model). This will work even if the client does not click on the link immediately and e.g. comes back to your website a few days later to make the purchase.

Here you need to specify the time length for the validity of the cookie.

Every sale that will happen during this time period, stated in rounds, will:

  • be attributed to the affiliate marketer
  • will command that you pay the set commission, even if the same client purchases multiple products of the same kind during different periods (rounds)

Please note: The set time span of the cookie cannot be extended beyond the amount of rounds remaining in the simulation.

4. Promotion budget

In each round you have the choice of providing a small boost to your affiliate campaign by helping the affiliate marketing partners to promote their websites. The budget amount that you specify here for will be transferred over to the affiliate marketer that obtains the best results in every round. Thus by setting up a competitive arena for affiliate marketers you encourage the prioritization of your own offer above other deals they might have with other companies such as yours. Affiliates will then use this budget to invest in better graphics, or new services such as ads that will eventually bring more visitors to their website or they could use this budget to present their audience members with small gifts or vouchers.

Char and table with campaign data

5. Your campaigns

The settings of each affiliate campaign can be edited later on, once the campaign has been saved . Also campaigns can be deleted, however the results they will have produced will continue to be available within the products and analytics sections of the web simulation.

Search Engine Advertising (SEA) Guide

3.1 Baigoo, the Search Engine in Simbound

In the previous section, you learned how to set up pages for your website. In this section of the guide, you will learn how to increase the visibility of your website pages in two ways: by improving your website's ranking in search results compared to other websites, and by displaying contextual ads using Baigoo, the search engine in the simulation.

You may have noticed that each page on your website has a progress bar next to it. This indicates the degree to which you have used the many content sections available for your web page. A well-designed page with informative content will generally produce better exposure and attract more traffic as a result of your website's relative position to other websites in the Baigoo search results pages. As a direct result of better placement of your website, you can generally expect to receive more organic (free) traffic, which is more diverse in terms of the originating audience and their preferences.

Search engines can change the rules of how content is ranked on their platforms, so you may want to consider additional methods for gaining exposure. One of them is paid advertising. In the simulation, you will work with placing different ads on the search results pages of Baigoo. You will learn how to do this step by step in the following subsections of the guide.

SEA simulation dashboard

If at any time you find that you do not understand a specific term related to search engine advertising (sometimes referred to by the following acronyms: SEA or Pay-Per-Click/PPC), please use the chat feature to ask the meaning of a term. You can also learn more by searching for these terms online. There is a dynamic tutorial available within the app that guides users into all the options found on the screen – this can be accessed by clicking on the lightbulb symbol in the top right of the screen.

3.2 Keyword Research

SEA Keyword Research Overview

A search engine advertising campaign will almost always include keyword research. Before you create your first ad campaign, take some time to familiarize yourself with the keyword level data in the simulation. Keyword research is also used when looking for ideas for writing content or articles for the website. You can access the Keyword Research facility either through the Planner or through the Ads sections of the simulation.

Since your main goal is to get as many responses as possible from the virtual visitors to your site, the Research section is helpful because it displays various data that will help you estimate how popular a search phrase is and how engagement would change over time, and you could use this information to determine the budget allocation of your ad campaign or even make changes by adding or removing new products from your website. Make sure you understand each data point associated with each keyword as it is presented here.

Note the market to which the keyword data belongs, the level of competition (how many other advertisers are targeting this keyword), the average search volume, which indicates how popular each keyword is compared to other keywords, the approximate cost per click (CPC) amount you will have to pay if you want to advertise using the keyword, and the seasonality of consumer behavior when searching for certain products or services, which is displayed under the round search trends column.

You can also filter keywords for specific terms or download the entire keyword set for further analysis.

Once your first campaign is set up, you will be able to add more keywords to your campaign from the list of keywords found in the Research section. Please note that each keyword can only be part of one campaign at a time and for each different market. This should make it easier to understand the results and write reports.

3.3 Search Ad campaigns

Each ad campaign requires the following minimum components to function: a linked landing page containing the product being advertised, at least one keyword, ad copy or creative for the shopping or retargeting ads, and the correct budget and cost-per-click parameters. All campaign components should be monitored and updated as the simulation progresses or if you make changes to any of the components.

To make campaigns easier to manage, it is a good idea to create campaigns based on a specific theme or purpose. Some ideas are: a campaign to promote a specific product or to reach a specific customer group or market, or a campaign to achieve specific results such as number of visits to the website or number of conversions.Ranking campaigns can help when managing multiple campaigns and monitoring progress and improving simulation results.

Create a search advertising campaign

New SEA Campaign

1. Click on the "SEA" section from the main dashboard or the vertical left menu. Then click on the "Campaigns" tab and launch the "New Campaign" functionality by clicking on the button located near the top of the screen.

SEA Campaign Overview

2. Name the campaign. This name will appear throughout the other sections of the Ad Simulation. Choose a name that is easy for you to remember and that points to a specific theme or goal. You can change the name of the campaign later as it progresses.

3. Location (Audience) of the campaign (this may vary from scenario to scenario). Once you select a market, this will load the keyword data for that market, grouped under closely related content themes.

4. Setting the campaign budget

This is the amount of money you want this campaign to spend in each round. The budget is consumed by the virtual visitors who click on your ads. Once the budget is used up, the system will stop showing the ads. The budget value you set in this step will continue to be the default budget for this particular campaign in all future 4 rounds. This means that at the beginning of the next round, this budget will be allocated by default, so you will not need to repeat this step. It also means that if you set the entire budget to just one (initial) campaign then you will need to re-allocate the budget by decreasing the budget value for the initial campaign in order to free up the budget required for the set up of additional campaigns.

It is recommended that you try to spread the total available budget across multiple campaigns. In other words, you should not allocate your entire available budget to just one ad campaign, (E.g. especially if this is the first one you are setting up and not entirely sure of the settings you are making). Try setting up several campaigns to compare their performance. The system will display the available budget as well as the budget that has already been allocated to other campaigns.

5. CPC Bidding

Manual CPC bidding allows you to enter a bid that will be the default value for all keywords in your campaign. This value is a global setting, which means it will be applied to all keywords, so you should check each keyword bid below by comparing the bid you entered to the value in the Top of Page Bid (Estimate) column. You can also find this value on the Keyword Research page. Checking bids and making any other adjustments to campaign settings should be completed before the round results are calculated.

If you are not sure what value to use for bids, you can select the "Automatic CPC bidding" checkbox. Be aware that in some cases this is a sub-optimal decision and does not guarantee optimal ad placement and results.

6. Adding keywords to your campaign

Select one of the ad themes below. Once you select an ad group theme, you will see information such as search volume, competition level, and approximate cost per click (CPC) for each keyword belonging to that particular theme.

Clicking the checkbox in the column header will select all keywords for that particular theme and add them to the campaign. You can add keywords from more than one theme – this will create additional ad groups. If a keyword is not available for selection, it is because it is already part of an existing campaign. If you want to add the keyword to the new campaign, remove it from the existing campaign first.

If you don't know which keywords to include at this point, it's a good idea to have a broad selection so you can test the response rates that different keywords generate. You can add or remove keywords even after you have created the campaign and the simulation is running. When done you should click “Next” to advance to the Ad creation step.

7. Finding new keywords (optional)

You can search for new keywords to add to your campaign by entering terms closely related to the scenario topic. One word keywords work best.

How the budget works in the simulation:

Any unspent budget in a round will not carry over to the next rounds of the campaign. This is considered a missed opportunity and can be caused by one or more of the following: not having enough keywords in the campaign, having keywords with low search volume, having too low a value for the CPC bid setting, or achieving a low quality score for your ads due to suboptimal ad copy and/or poor landing page experience.

Search Ad creative setup

8. Write the text for the ads

You can use the keywords you selected earlier as a starting point for creative ideas. You can also generate an ad text quickly by pressing on the “Generate Ad” button. In either case try to communicate the value a potential customer can expect if they visit the site by clicking on the ad. An ad that contains the exact match type of a keyword (or search phrase) will result in a higher engagement rate.

For best results fill out the entire space for the headline and the two description lines and avoid any spelling mistakes or excessive use of any symbols, acronyms or punctuation marks.

Tip: You can make use of the {keyword} tag in every line of the ad to help speed up the writing of ads. If you include this tag in the headline or the description lines the system will search for the best keyword to include in the place where the tag is present.

9. Select the ad destination URL

You will then have to select the most appropriate destination URL (page) for your ad, which is normally a landing page from where visitors will be able to find information about the products or services that are being advertised. By default, when setting up ads for different themes or products the system will try to link each individual ad to a different landing page that contains information about the product or theme. This feature will only work if you have previously set up pages which contain a single product. Once the campaign is set up you should go to the Ads section and review the ads.

10. Finally click “Save” in the top right corner to confirm the settings for your campaign decisions. You do not need to submit your decisions in any other way. The results of your campaign will be displayed when the current round deadline is reached, or when you choose to ‘Run the Simulation’ – if that option is made available to you.

Note: You will be able to edit the settings of the campaign even once the campaign has produced results by going to each of the sections for every Campaign component.

How to monitor ad campaigns

To evaluate the results of the ad campaign over time, you will need to refer to the data presented in the round progress chart and the data table found below.

SEA Campaign Overview

1. The full chart can be shown or hidden at the press of “Show/Hide Chart” The layout and data of the report is similar for each of the four subsections of the Ads Simulation: Campaigns, Ad Groups, Ads, and Keywords. The graph displays information about the accumulated clicks, impressions, clickthrough rate (CTR) and number of conversions. By default the visual chart will plot the impressions and clicks.

2. You can segment the data in the report and choose to view the results of the campaign over one or more rounds for a market and only for a selected campaign and all its components.

3. The data table displays additional data: cost, average paid CPC, average ad position, the gross profit value generated by the campaign, the average position of your ad in the search results page, and the average quality score of the keywords in your campaign.

4. If you click on the View/Target icon next to each campaign then you can move through the different sections – Ad groups, Ads, Keywords, etc. – and the system will display only the components of the selected campaign. - This makes it easier to identify decisions that should be improved or make adjustments more quickly especially if you have a lot of campaigns or campaign components.

Ad Campaign operations: Edit, Pause, Enable or Delete campaigns

Edit SEA Campaign

The simulation allows you to review and adjust the settings of each campaign and its components. This is an important and recurring decision that you will want to make each round if you want to improve your results. On the Campaigns page in the Ads section, click one of the following options for each campaign for which you want to change the settings. Campaigns are listed in the data table below the progress graph.

1. By clicking the Select box in the first column of the Campaigns table, you can select one or more campaigns, and then use the Status drop-down menu that appears above to either enable, pause, or delete the campaign selection. Enabling, Pausing or Deleting a campaign will apply to all of the campaign components.

2. The following campaign settings can be changed Name, Budget and Default CPC bid even if a campaign is running. Click the Edit (pencil) icon to make changes to a running campaign. Note that the CPC value setting will overwrite the corresponding CPC value for all keywords that are part of the campaign (see more on this rule below). The same operations can be applied to Ad Groups, Ads and Keywords of which you will learn more in the following pages of the guide.

Default Campaign CPC Overwrite Rule:

The default CPC value for a campaign will match all the keyword CPC values to the default campaign CPC. If the keywords in the campaign already have a lower CPC than the new default value, the existing CPC will remain the same. This lets you set a global CPC value while adjusting certain keywords to have a lower CPC.

In the following example the default campaign CPC value was set to 2.00 from an initial value of 2.15 for a campaign. This change was only applied to the first 2 keywords and not to the 3rd, which already had a Max CPC value lower than 2.00.

before cpc edit

Edit CPC

after cpc edit

This rule has the role to preserve the CPC settings that were made in advance to the keywords and will work in the same manner when changing the CPC setting of an Ad group of which you will learn more in the next chapter.

3.4 Ad Groups

The management of multiple ads with different themes is easier with Ad groups (also called Ad assets). Ad groups are created during the initial campaign set up and can be added later on to your campaigns. There needs to be an existing ad campaign before you can add a new ad group in the Ad groups section of the simulation. The process of setting up a new Ad group is very similar to that of setting up a new Search Ad campaign (read section 3.3).

Ad group setup

Set up a new Ad group

Click on the “SEA” icon from the dashboard then go the “Ad Groups” tab. The “ + New Ad group” button in the top right of the screen will launch a 2-step utility similar to that used to set up a new SEA campaign.

1. Review the campaign budget. Adding more keywords to your current campaign will very likely require a higher budget allocation due to the increased competition for keyword budget resources triggered by searches and potential clicks.

3.5 Ads

Each campaign must have at least one ad enabled for it to function and produce results. If you have followed all of the previous steps to create an ad campaign, you should have at least one ad for each of your campaigns and ad groups/themes. To get to the following decisions you should open the Ads section from the main dashboard and click on the Ads menu item.

It is recommended to experiment with different ad formats throughout the simulation to find out which ones perform better. Edit the ad to include the name of the product or the search keyword in the ad as well as the benefit or the value provided to a potential customer. Watch out for spelling mistakes. Do not use misleading words and avoid acronyms, excessive punctuation or strange expressions.

how to edit an ad group

1. You can edit the content of an existing ad by clicking the Edit (pencil) icon to the left of each ad, as shown above.

2. To add a new ad click on the new Ad or A/B Test button. This will bring up several options.

How to create an A/B test

Multiple ads can be ran at the same time for each ad group in order to see which version of an ad performs better. Within Simbound you are allowed to run 2 ads simultaneously for each ad group by means of setting up an A/B test (sometimes called a split test).

new ad group

3. Select A/B Test and select the campaign and the ad group that contains the ad to test against.

4. Set the exposure amount for each version of the ad. To obtain accurate and easy to compare figures for comparison you will want to set up a 50/50 or what is called an equal distribution. If not sure about the engagement level which the new version of ad will receive then you can allocate less exposure for the B version (or conversely more exposure if you think version B will outperform version A).

5. Write the test version of the ad - this has the label B on top. You can change this several times throughout the simulation and then use the filter of results option to compare results for every version. Please note that the system will only store the latest version of every ad you write.

ads page

6. Compare the test results of the ad

Once the round is over, the results of the two versions of the ad can be compared. If the test version of the ad was introduced in a later round, you will need to filter the results to show only the round(s) in which the test was introduced in order to get an accurate comparison. The text of the two versions can be further adjusted if needed.

How to create a Retargeting Ad

retargeting ads

7 First complete Step 2 (above) and then select Retargeting Ad as well as the campaign and the ad group that you want to follow-up on.

8 Write the retargeting ad version and add images and an optional video.

Editing the ad does not erase the data generated by the previous version of the ad. Therefore, you should be aware that the ad performance you see is the result of one or more versions of the ad after changes have been made to the settings of the ads and campaigns that were run throughout the simulation. To get an accurate picture for each round, you can use the Filter Results option.

3.6 Keywords

Selecting the right keywords and managing keywords are essential activities as the ad campaign progresses. The following performance data is made available for each keyword: how many times it has triggered an impression (view), the number of clicks on the associated ad as well as other indicators such as the Click-Through-Rate or CTR (Number of Clicks divided by Number of Impressions, rounded to 2 decimals), the average Cost-per-Click or CPC, the total Cost, the number of Conversions, the Average Ad position and the Keyword Quality score as well as the Gross Value this keyword has genereated in terms of profit.

Add new keywords to a SEA campaign:

Access the “Ads” section from the dashboard and click either on the “Keywords” or the “Research” buttons. Please note that the process of browsing and selecting keywords is similar to each of the sections.

how to add keywords

1. Click on the button with the label “Add Keywords” found in the top right and then select the market and the keywords which you will want to target with your existing ads. The filter option can be used to display closely themed and relevant keywords.

Please remember that if one keyword is already part of another campaign for the same market you will not be able to add the keyword to another campaign.

2. Click on the Download Keywords button with if you want to perform additional analysis before adding keywords to the campaigns you have the option of exporting data to a spreadsheet format on both the ‘Keywords’ and the ‘Research’ pages.

How to Edit, Pause or Delete keywords

Modify Ad

1. Select the Keywords that you want to modify

2. Select either Enable, Pause or Delete

Keyword results can be exported in an spreadsheet format for further data analysis and for appending notes. Go to the Keywords section and look for the Export keywords button.
When choosing on which keywords to remove from your campaigns make sure that there is enough results accumulated so that you can take an informed decision. This normally would involve using data from at least 3 simulation rounds, which have produced results. When deciding which keywords to keep you can perform costbenefit analysis if necessary.

Troubleshooting Search Ad Campaigns

You might notice a red symbol next to your campaign components such as keywords with the following messages:

‘Ad is not showing, Increase bid or check Ad/Landing Page structure’. This means that the system does not run ads for that particular keyword as it ranks other ads better in terms of engagement and relevancy for virtual visitors. Try a new ad format or increase the bid to match the threshold for the quality score (see the previous subsection on how to do this).

“Overbid” – this means that you are bidding more than you should on this keyword/campaign and that you could obtain similar results with a lower Bid amount

Website Guide

Case Study

Welcome to Tabletto

Tabletto is an online e-tailer which sells a wide range of Tablet PCs and accessories. Our mission is to make information easily accessible to people all over the world.

Tabletto is a founding member of the Read to Succeed Foundation, through which we donate tablets to schools in need. We also host a series of digital authoring workshops at our headquarters periodically.

tabletto logo

Task Overview

You will be responsible for promoting and selling our line of Tablet PC products online in two geographic markets. You can choose which products you want to promote and sell.

You will carry out this learning activity by creating websites and placing paid ads on a simulated search engine called Baigoo, as well as send email newsletters to eager Tabletto subscribers. You will also have the opportunity to set up affiliate partnerships and post updates and set up ads for social media users.

Your actions will be compared to the marketing done by the other teams in the game. There is a world of opportunity waiting for you, and there are many ways in which you can differentiate yourself and gain success.

Tablet on Desk

The simulation will provide you with specific success metrics for each channel, and you will need to analyze results and tweak your marketing assets on the fly as you progress through multiple rounds of the simulation.

Whether you play alone or as part of a team, it helps to plan ahead for the specific strategy you will be implementing for the company.

The market for Tablet PCs

Markets react differently and have unique preferences when it comes to each product in your portfolio, so one of the challenges is finding the best advertising and targeting method for each product brand and market.

Tablet on white desk

You will notice that the profit margin varies for each product. Pricing is the same for all companies in the simulation in the beginning. This can change depending on the strategy of each company. Sales are called conversions and each conversion is attributed the default profit amount as listed below.

Your decisions should be influenced not only by the market potential, but also by the other possible indications or objectives provided by your instructor in class.

Name Profit Default (Base) Price
Apple 70 350.0
Sony 60 330.0
Huawei 60 320.0
Samsung 60 300.0
Lenovo 50 290.0
Acer 50 290.0
HP 50 280.0
Toshiba 50 250.0
Archos 50 230.0
Nokia 50 220.0
Panasonic 50 210.0
PuroTab 50 200.0

Remember that you can decide to set new prices for each of your products in the simulation, thus increasing or decreasing your sales and profits.

Please note that the conversion value for the UK market tends to be lower with 5 currency units due to shipping costs, so you will want to periodically check the prices and results.

Your primary goal is to achieve the highest possible Profit for the company. For paid ad campaigns you can also use ROAS which is a marketing metric that measures the effectiveness of advertising campaigns by comparing the revenue generated against the amount spent on advertising.

Good luck!

The Tabletto Team

Website Guide

2.1 Introduction

Websites are the cornerstone of your marketing strategy. This section of the guide explains how to create a well-designed website that effectively reaches and engages your target audience using the appropriate types of content marketing and page formats. A professionally built website can boost brand awareness, showcase your products, and drive online sales. The overall quality of your website will directly impact your performance both within the website results and across other marketing channels in the simulation.

home page view with clickmaps

As part of the websites simulation activity, you’ll design and build various pages, including a Home page for each market, category pages, product landing (focus) pages, cart pages, and more. After setting up your site and completing the first round, you’ll receive results to track how each page’s content performs.

Why not pick a fun and easy to remember name for your company before diving into your website? It'll make developing your marketing content strategy much easier! Just click on your profile photo and head to the My Brand/My Team section. For more information, check out section 1.6 of the guide.

Here are some questions to help you choose a great website name: Why should customers buy from you? Who is your target audience? What makes your products or services unique? Picking an easy-to-remember name supports effective content marketing.

Here are a few names that Simbound students have chosen for their online stores in the past:

Tablet Outlet - Lowest Price Guarantee


LoveTab - We share our passion and expertise for tablets

Tabletto - The premium tablet provider

2.2 Building the Website

Each participant or team must first create a main webpage for their website, known as the home page. This page is usually the most visited, and it's where visitors learn about your business and its products. When designing each page of your website, including your home page, it is good practice to always have a particular audience or customer group in mind.

Here are the steps needed to begin building your website:

Website Section in Simbound

1 - Click on the “Web” section of your main Simbound dashboard. You can navigate to your Website from the sidebar menu as well.

Market selection for Home Page

2 - Select the market or audience for your page. The first page you create for each market will be the home page.

Product Selection in Simbound

3 - Choose the products to feature on the page. If you select multiple products, the system will prompt you to create separate landing pages for each, helping you build your website faster and more organized.

Website Name and Properties

4 - Enter the website name, page title, and page description. This short preview of what visitors can expect to find on the page is called a meta page description. For your homepage's meta description, try writing a general description of your website and its value proposition. Note that the webpage name and description will be picked up by the Baigoo search engine in the simulation. Once you’re done, don’t forget to click “Save” at the bottom of your webpage.

Please note that the name of the website in the simulation can be changed up until the actual round 1 deadline. Only the instructor is able to change names after this.

After saving your home page, the simulation will populate it with ready-made content. You can choose to add a visual theme to your website. Then, adapt the default content to match your brand identity. The interactive on-screen tutorial shows you how to edit the page's content.

As website managers, you have full freedom to choose the content your audience sees. Start by creating content for at least two or three different landing pages. Targeting multiple audience groups helps you gather valuable insights on how each segment responds to your sales offer.

Please note that there is a limit to how many pages you can build.

2.3 SEO

After creating your pages in the previous step, it's now time to optimize them so that search engines can easily find them.

SEO simulation dashboard

The SEO section of the Website simulation helps you track both On-Site issues and Off-Site SEO activities, like inbound links, along with your average search rankings for various keywords.

You will need to watch out for broken links on your website and also try to optimize pages which have long loading times, as well as have an understanding on how much time the virtual visitors will spend on your website. You should monitor your website's presence in search engine results pages and also mentions of your brand in AI-generated answers.

2.4 Analytics

Website Simulation Analytics

This section will help you better understand how visitors are interacting with your website and identify possible improvements. The data here can be segmented based on the source of traffic the market down to page-level data. Do check back here after every round to see how the numbers have changed and try to improve on key metrics such as: average session time, page views and returning visitors.

You will also have access to clickmaps which highlight where most user activity takes place on your website pages.

2.5 Products

Simulation Product performance overview

On here, you can track product sales and key e-commerce metrics to support informed decisions on website management.

Please note that you will need to add a cart type of page so as to be able to obtain sales (labeled as conversions)

SEA - Teaching Guide

1. Overview

This module uses Simbound’s SEA (Search Engine Advertising) simulation to teach students how to create, manage, and optimize paid search campaigns.

Students will:

  • Design and launch search and shopping ad campaigns targeting specific keywords/interests.
  • Manage budgets, bids, and ad quality scores amid changing market conditions
  • Carry out A/B tests
  • Analyze performance metrics such as CTR (Click-Through Rate), CPC (Cost per Click), and conversions.
  • Optimize spending and campaign assets using data-driven insights.

The goal is to help learners understand how paid search strategy and analytics impact digital marketing outcomes and how

2. Learning Objectives

By the end of this simulation, students will be able to:

  1. Plan and manage SEA campaigns using keyword targeting and ad structuring.
  1. Allocate budgets effectively and adjust bids for maximum ROI.
  1. Analyze key SEA metrics (CTR, CPC, impressions, conversion rate).
  1. Optimize campaigns based on performance data.
  1. Reflect on how SEA contributes to overall marketing strategy.

3. Proposed Schedule - 5 Rounds Learning Activity

Week Focus Instructor Tasks Student Tasks
Week 1 – SEA Fundamentals & Campaign Setup Introduction to SEA, keywords, and ad structure. Present SEA basics, campaign goals, keyword research, and bidding concepts. Demonstrate how to create and launch first campaigns in the simulation. Select target keywords, create first SEA campaign, and set initial bids and daily budget.
Week 2 – Ad Copy & Targeting Optimization Improve ad relevance and targeting. Demonstrate effective ad copywriting, keyword match types, and campaign types. Refine ad text, adjust campaign and keyword settings, and relaunch campaigns.
Week 3 – Budget & Bid Management Manage budgets and bids for optimal ROI. Explain bid strategies, daily budget allocation, and CPC vs CPA considerations. Analyze CPC, CTR, and conversions. Adjust bids and budgets to maximize ROI.
Week 4 – Performance Analysis & Optimization Use analytics to identify underperforming ads and optimize campaigns. Teach CTR, conversion rate, impression share, and quality score analysis. Present methods to identify ads needing improvement. Review campaign performance metrics, pause underperforming ads, implement optimizations, and document changes.
Week 5 – Multi-Campaign & Multi-Channel Insights Compare campaigns and explore cross-channel effects. Discuss how SEA performance complements SEO, social, and affiliate marketing. Facilitate multi-campaign comparison. Evaluate multiple campaigns, adjust strategies, integrate insights from other channels, and prepare a final performance report.

(Sessions can take place on different days/weeks or multiple sessions can take place during the same day)

4. Pre-Simulation Preparation

Instructor:

  • Create or select a course and activate the SEA simulation module
  • Prepare materials on: keyword selection, bidding strategies, ad quality, and CTR optimization.

Students:

  • Review course materials on SEA basics and keyword research.
  • Draft a one-page campaign plan outlining target audience, keyword strategy, and initial budget.

5. In-Class / Simulation Activities

🧠 Week 1 – SEA Campaign Setup

Objective: Launch first SEA campaign with selected keywords and initial bids.
Instructor Prompts: “Who is your target audience?” “Which keywords will generate high relevance?” “What is your campaign goal?”
Student Tasks: Create first campaign, select 5–10 keywords, set initial bids and budget.
Debrief: Discuss how keyword choice and bidding align with campaign goals. Troubleshoot potential issues.

🧠Week 2 – Ad Copy & Targeting Optimization

Objective: Improve ad performance through relevant copy and targeting.
Instructor Prompts: “Is your ad text compelling?” “Are your keywords properly matched?” “What are the landing pages which are most likely to convert, why?”
Student Tasks: Refine ad copy, expand campaign types/targeting, review landing pages, relaunch ads.
Debrief: Compare CTR and engagement before and after changes.

🧠Week 3 – Budget & Bid Management

Objective: Optimize campaign spending to maximize ROI.
Instructor Prompts: “Which keywords are driving results?” “Are you over- or under-spending?” “Would adjusting bids improve conversions?”
Student Tasks: Analyze CPC, CTR, and budget allocation. Adjust bids and budgets to improve ROI.
Debrief: Discuss trade-offs between bid levels, impressions, and conversions.

🧠Week 4 – Performance Analysis & Optimization

Objective: Use data to identify suboptimal ads and to optimize campaigns. Carry out A/B testing.
Instructor Prompts: “Which ads have the highest CTR?” “Where are conversions falling short?” “What patterns emerge across keywords?”
Student Tasks: Review performance metrics, pause underperforming ads, test new variations, and document changes. Include A/B variations of the same ad and monitor results.
Debrief: Reflect on how data-driven decisions impact campaign efficiency.

🧠Week 5 – Multi-Campaign & Multi-Channel Insights

Objective: Compare campaigns and evaluate cross-channel effects.
Instructor Prompts: “How does SEA performance complement SEO or social campaigns?” “Which campaigns deliver the best ROI?”
Student Tasks: Evaluate multiple campaigns, adjust strategies, and prepare a final performance report summarizing key learnings.
Debrief: Discuss integrated marketing insights and lessons learned for future SEA campaigns.

6. Assessment Ideas

Assessment Weight Description
Campaign Plan 20% Target audience, keyword selection, ad copy, and budget rationale for SEA campaigns.
Performance Report 40% Analysis of SEA metrics, campaign optimizations applied, and interpretation of results.
Reflection Paper 20% Insights on decision-making and lessons learned from campaign management.
Participation & Peer Feedback 20% Engagement in discussions and review of peers’ SEA campaigns.

Website - Teaching Guide

1. Overview

This activity uses the Simbound Website Management, SEO & Analytics simulation to teach students how to design, manage, and optimize a digital presence for a virtual company through data-driven decisions.

Students act as online marketing managers and make decisions on the following :

-Define Marketing Scope: Products and Markets selection, Prices, Promotion

-Website branding, content, layout and linking

-SEO and keyword optimization

-User experience design and defining conversion goals

-Creating content for an audience they must define/identify

- Analyzing web traffic and performance metrics

The goal is to help learners understand how website design and analytics impact business outcomes and how adhering to best practice can help reach business objectives.

2. Learning Objectives

By the end of this simulation, students will be able to:

  1. Plan and manage website content for different objectives/audiences which they must define
  1. Apply SEO decisions to improve visibility and relevance.
  1. Interpret key web analytics metrics (traffic sources, conversion rate, bounce rate, etc.).
  1. Use analytics data to inform their optimization decisions.
  1. Reflect on how data-driven decisions shape online business success.

3. Proposed Schedule - 5 Rounds Learning Activity

Week Focus Instructor Tasks Student Tasks
Week 1 – Website Strategy & Setup Website management fundamentals and the Simbound interface. Deliver introductory lecture on website objectives, UX basics, and SEO. Discuss user journey, audience characteristics, content structure, discovery and SEO foundations. Demonstrate how to create and publish website pages in Simbound. Explore simulation platform. Draft and implement initial website structure (home, product, contact, cart pages). Identify primary keywords and draft content aligned with brand goals and business objectives.
Week 2 – Performance Metrics & Web Analytics Website Optimization & Analytics Teach interpretation of key analytics metrics: traffic, engagement, conversion. Introduce the Simbound analytics dashboard and highlight the different sources of website traffic: Organic, Direct, Referral and reporting tools Analyze initial performance reports, identify strengths and weaknesses, make changes to content, layout and linking. Identify underperforming pages and propose hypotheses or a new strategy.
Week 3 – A/B Testing & User Behavior Analysis Introduce advanced methods for website testing and analysis Introduce A/B testing concepts (testing headlines, images, layouts). Emphasize iterative improvement based on data. Present heatmap analysis and advanced behavioral insights. Focus on how users navigate, click, and convert. . Design and implement an A/B test on one webpage element.Track changes in user engagement metrics. Evaluate simulated user interactions with the website using heatmap and visitor flows. Recommend UX and content adjustments.
Week 4 – A/B Testing & User Behavior Analysis Introduce advanced methods for website testing and analysis Introduce A/B testing concepts (testing headlines, images, layouts). Emphasize iterative improvement based on data. Present heatmap analysis and advanced behavioral insights. Focus on how users navigate, click, and convert. . Design and implement an A/B test on one webpage element.Track changes in user engagement metrics. Evaluate simulated user interactions with the website using heatmap and visitor flows. Recommend UX and content adjustments.
Week 5 External Traffic Sources & Advanced Insights Discuss multi-channel attribution and optimization. Link to lectures on SEA (Search Engine Advertising), SMM (Social Media Marketing), and Affiliate Marketing. Facilitate analysis of how new traffic channels impact engagement and conversion metrics. Analyze web analytics after integrating new traffic sources. Compare quality and behavior of different traffic types. Prepare and present a final report showcasing the decisional journey, the results obtained and the lessons learned.

(Sessions can take place on different days/weeks or multiple sessions can take place during the same day)

4. Pre-Simulation Preparation

Instructor:

  • Create or select a course in Simbound. The website simulation module is enabled by default.
  • Prepare a short lecture or slides on:
    - Web content strategy
    - On-page SEO and Off-Page SEO and GEO
    - Key website metrics (CTR, bounce rate, session duration, conversions)

Students:

  • Review course readings and videos on basic web design and analytics.
  • Draft a 1-page website strategy plan outlining a well defined target audience and their preferences, a unique value proposition, and at least 5 SEO keywords.

5. In-Class / Simulation Activities

🧠 Week 1 – Website Strategy & Setup

Objective: Build an initial website structure aligned to user needs and with business goals.
Instructor Prompts: “Who’s your target audience?” “What’s the site’s main conversion goal?” “Is your navigation intuitive?”
Student Tasks: Create 4+ core pages: Home, Product, Contact, Cart with SEO-friendly titles. Submit a short rationale for website structure and goals.
Debrief: What design or content choices best support your target users?

🧠 Week 2 – Analytics Review & Diagnosis

Objective: Interpret early analytics to assess site performance.
Instructor Prompts: “What do bounce and conversion rates tell you?” “Which pages attract or lose visitors?”
Student Tasks: Analyze first-round data. Identify top and weak pages; suggest quick fixes.
Debrief: Which metric was most revealing and why?

🧠 Week 3 – A/B Testing for Optimization

Objective: Test and evaluate one website element.
Instructor Prompts: “What’s your test variable and hypothesis?” “Did results match expectations?”
Student Tasks: Create A/B versions of a page (e.g., CTA or image). Compare engagement and report findings.
Debrief: How can testing guide future improvements?

🧠 Week 4 – Heatmap & UX Insights

Objective: Use heatmaps/user-flow data to refine site usability.
Instructor Prompts: “Where are users clicking most—or not at all?” “What friction points do you notice?”
Student Tasks: Review heatmap data. Recommend two UX/content changes.
Debrief: What behavior patterns surprised you?

🧠 Week 5 – Multi-Channel Traffic Analysis

Objective: Examine the effect of new traffic sources (SEA, SMM, Affiliates).
Instructor Prompts: “Which channels bring quality traffic?” “How did conversions shift across sources?”
Student Tasks: Integrate new channels in the sim. Compare pre/post-change analytics; summarize insights.
Debrief: Which channel mix delivered the strongest overall results?

6. Assessment Ideas

Assessment Weight Description
Website Strategy Plan 20% Outline of target audience, objectives, and initial content structure.
Analytics Report 40% Analysis of web performance, data interpretation, and optimization decisions.
Reflection Paper 20% Individual reflection on how analytics informed their website changes.
Participation & Peer Feedback 20% Engagement in discussions and peer review activities.