Business Analytics Capstone

Framework for Strategy

Prarthna Tandon
12/10/2020
Problem Statement
Problem Statement–
Describe the Problem Adblockers present to GYF

In the coming future, Adblocking services are going to pose a problem for GYF as it faces the problem of not being able to provide its users with free
access to their platform. Seeing the annoying or inappropriate ad content by end users are the main problem for the industry that degrades user
experience through internet and motivates them to use different tools and software to improve the experience. That's where ad blockers came into the
market and continue gain popularity among customers. 198 million active ad block users were estimated by Adobe and PageFair globally in 2015 that was
41% up comparing to year 2014. That’s quite terrifying numbers for companies like GYF
This problem culminated from several advertising companies refusing to advertise and pay GYF if more and more user are using adblocker while visiting
the platform. They realized that they would not be able to achieve their aim of showing advertisements to users if they were using adblocker. However,
from the point of view of GYF, users may be happier as their experience improves and privacy standards are maintained. Further the site can load faster
and use less data with fewer advertisements. Thus there was a tradeoff. To be able to understand how having AdBlock or not having AdBlock affects the
users. Causal research must be carried out by using focus group, social media analysis to get quantitative data
Problem Statement–
Application Exercise 1 – Research Methods and Tools (Optional)

• Causal Research methods can be used since the problem of the effect ad blockers have on free websites,
companies who advertise on free websites and the user themselves. Having already defined the problem,
gives us the ability to ask the right questions. Descriptive Research can also be used as this the way the
DATA team will better understand end users’ behavior and what drives them to use Adblockers
• Focus groups can be used to get a fair idea. Social media data and mobile data will show how many people
are using ad blocking services and if they are enabling it more for certain websites as compared to another
Descriptive Research:
• Mobile Surveys as well as desktop
• Scanner data for web surfers
• Social media analytics
• Web Data
• Mobile data
Causal Research:
• A/B Testing
• Pricing
Strategy
Strategy
Describe your proposed strategy

Companies such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, GYF need to be agile and come up with innovative solutions to this
Adblocking problem
Strategies:
1. The first strategy is to “Go Native”. To achieve this we would only allow the advertisements that are
relevant to the material on the particular website. For e.g. If someone is reading a lifestyle blog then the
advertisement can be from companies that sell furniture or other homeware items. This improves user
experience and makes the website less disruptive and more relevant to the user
2. The second strategy entails listening to the users directly. We need to figure out straight from the user
whether they want an experience with no ads at all or minimal specific ads. This can be done by organizing
a short survey sent to the users email id or by conducting focus groups which will produce genuine
answers from the users themselves.
3. Third strategy can be to simply pay AdBlock so that none of the advertisements on the GYF platform are
blocked. This does not reduce customer acquisition. The cost of this is paying AdBlock to exclude GYF
from its effects
Strategy
Application Exercise 2 – Hiring a Team Leader (Optional)

I will hire Peggy Prospect as the Senior Associate Director of Digital Advertising Strategy. My reason for hiring her over Carrie Candidate is a
follows:
• Peggy has experience in dealing with a lot of the pressures that the team at GYF face with Adblocking with her previous employer
• She exhibited skills that would make her an exceptional team player
• At the interview, Peggy had a complete idea about what was to be accepted from her if she were to accept this job position

Reasons for not hiring Carrie are as follows:

• She lacks the years of experience required for the job
• She scored higher than Peggy on the cognitive ability test and in some cases that may be a deal breaker. But in our case, Peggy’s experience
was more valued
• Carrie did not demonstrate as many team work skills as Peggy. It is important for everyone on the Data team to work together and
communicate as one missed detail can cost GYF a lot of potential revenue
Effects and Measurement
Effects
Describe the anticipated effects of your strategy

Effects of Strategy:
Customers:
• If strategy 1 is implemented, customers will have a much better experience while using the platform as we the platform will be designed in
a way where advertainments are relevant to the material being read by the user
• For strategy 2, some customers may not enjoy getting emails asking them to fill up an online survey, but if they are selected for a focus
group the they could be compensated for their time.
• If strategy 3 is implemented, we may lose some users depending on if they were using AdBlock services in the first place to block all
advertisements
Internal Organization:
• Strategy 1 would require GYFs data team to collaborate with the IT department so that codes can be produced which will put the right
advertisements on the right pages and improve the platform
• For strategy 2, GYF would require extra personnel to conduct focus groups and create online surveys that can be sent through to the users
email.. Additionally personnel would be required to gather social media data
• For strategy 3, GYF would have to assess the number of visits to the platform have decreased or not. If they have decreased the this may
not be the best strategy. It is important to assess how many users are actually using AdBlock. This is because if only a small percentage of
the population is using AdBlock, then GYF may not need to pay AdBlock just for a small majority of users

Revenue:
• Strategy 1: This strategy should increase revenue if more advertisers want to advertise if there is a certain level of increase in customer
acquisition due to better user experience
• Strategy 2 – Will incur costs as hiring extra personnel or hiring an outside firm will cost us money
• Strategy 3 - This will also cost us as we would be paying AdBlock for their services.
Effects
Application Exercise 3 – Designing a Deterministic Optimization Model

Optimization Model Scenario:

• Our budget is equal to the Internal plan + the External plan which is ≤ 65k
• Hard Skills Internal Expenditure*.2 + Hard Skills External Expenditure*.7 ≥ 20k
• Soft Skills Internal Expenditure*.6 + Soft Skills External Expenditure*.4 ≥ 12k
• Hard Skill Internal Expenditure*.2 + Soft Skill Internal Expenditure*.6 ≥ (Hard Skill External Expenditure *.7 + Soft Skill External
Expenditure*.4)*60%
• All numbers are required to be an integer and greater than 0.2
Measurement
Describe the anticipated effects of your strategy and how you will measure them

1. Customers:
• Out of the 3 potential strategies, we need to measure which one works best in terms of customer acquisition and retention along with it
being cost effective. This can be measured by collecting data and analyzing whether we are having higher traffic or lower traffic depending on
the different strategies. If our costs are too high and there is not much increase in traffic/peaked interest in advertisements, then we need to
find a new strategy.
• Collecting data from online surveys and focus group meetings can really help us understand how the users feel about advertisements and if
they prefer good/relevant advertisements, to no advertisements at all.
• By tracking the users activities, we can learn what they like and dislike hence helping us improve their experience on our GYF platform.
2. Revenue:
• To implement the strategies there is a need to collaborate with other departments in the company. We would need to keep track of all the
extra money that we will be spending.
• The company will need to decide whether we want to hire extra personnel to conduct surveys/focus groups or hire an outside company to do
it for us. The cost to hire and train new personnel and to organize and conduct focus groups may cost us more than to just hire an outside
company.
• We would need to keep track of all the extra spending on marketing to let our users know that we are working on improving their experience
on our platform.
3. Internal Organization:
• Make sure that the plan is explained thoroughly and clearly through chain of command.
• Conduct employee surveys on how they feel about the new strategies and open a portal where employees can submit ideas on different
strategies that we should consider.
• To better understand how much work is going into these strategies, we need to measure the amount of time spent on employee discussions,
developing ideas and plans and implementation.
Measurement
Application Exercise 4 – Identifying Key Drivers

1. Customers:
• Out of the 3 potential strategies, we need to measure which one works best in terms of customer acquisition and retention along with it
being cost effective. This can be measured by collecting data and analyzing whether we are having higher traffic or lower traffic depending on
the different strategies. If our costs are too high and there is not much increase in traffic/peaked interest in advertisements, then we need to
find a new strategy.
• Collecting data from online surveys and focus group meetings can really help us understand how the users feel about advertisements and if
they prefer good/relevant advertisements, to no advertisements at all.
• By tracking the users activities, we can learn what they like and dislike hence helping us improve their experience on our GYF platform.
2. Revenue:
• To implement the strategies there is a need to collaborate with other departments in the company. We would need to keep track of all the
extra money that we will be spending.
• The company will need to decide whether we want to hire extra personnel to conduct surveys/focus groups or hire an outside company to do
it for us. The cost to hire and train new personnel and to organize and conduct focus groups may cost us more than to just hire an outside
company.
• We would need to keep track of all the extra spending on marketing to let our users know that we are working on improving their experience
on our platform.
3. Internal Organization:
• Make sure that the plan is explained thoroughly and clearly through chain of command.
• Conduct employee surveys on how they feel about the new strategies and open a portal where employees can submit ideas on different
strategies that we should consider.
• To better understand how much work is going into these strategies, we need to measure the amount of time spent on employee discussions,
developing ideas and plans and implementation.
Conclusion
There are 3 strategies that are being proposed in this PPT