The future of e-commerce

Since the web first ushered in a new era of e-commerce, marketplaces, payment services, and massive
scaling of shipping and distribution networks have made e-commerce successful. This reading considers
how e-commerce might change over the next decade.

Future trends for e-commerce

No one can say for sure which innovations today will be used tomorrow. However, a few e-commerce
trends stand out:

 Specialization of smaller retailers

 Immersive customer experiences
 Distribution and delivery innovations
Specialization of smaller retailers
Large online marketplaces and retailers will still probably account for most online purchases. Smaller
retailers may increasingly become more specialized by offering highly customizable products, niche
product categories not offered by the larger retailers, and more personalized service.

Immersive customer experiences

Today, many customers still like to go to a physical store because they want to handle or try on an item
before they buy it. Virtual and augmented reality can provide immersive experiences online so customers
feel like they’ve handled an object or tried on a garment without actually making a trip to the store.

Virtual reality (VR) is fully immersive. By putting on a VR headset, users are able to view a simulated
physical world with audio-visual feedback. Imagine putting on your headset and going to the virtual
dressing room to try on clothing items before buying them. That is an example of a VR experience.

Augmented reality (AR) is semi-immersive. Users may not need to enter a simulated physical world. AR
adds audio-visual feedback to your existing world. What if you could automatically view sunglasses in your
shopping cart overlaid on a virtual image of yourself on your phone? What if it saved items from any e-
commerce store so you could “try them on” again? This would be an AR solution to shopping at different
stores in person.

Chatbots are computer programs designed to simulate conversation with human users. They can ask you if
everything is fine and if you need help. This would be an online version of a sales associate asking you the
same questions in a physical store. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning by chatbots using data
from actual conversations may improve the overall experience for shoppers.

Distribution and delivery innovations

You might have heard or read about the possibility of drones or self-driving vehicles making the last-mile
trip between a warehouse and a residential home or office. These methods of distribution and delivery may
be commonplace in the next ten years.
Key takeaway
No matter which technologies end up being adopted over the next ten years, e-commerce will continue to
grow, and our daily lives and habits will change, too.
Terms and definitions from Course 1, Week 2
Awareness stage: The first stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer first
becomes aware of the product or service

Consideration stage: The second stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer's
interest builds for a product or service

Conversion: The completion of an activity that contributes to the success of a business

Conversion rate: The percentage of users or website visitors who completed a desired
action, such as clicking on a link in an email or purchasing a product

Conversion stage: The third stage of the marketing funnel, when marketers capitalize on the
interest people have already shown

Customer journey: The path customers take from learning about a product, to getting
questions answered, to making a purchase

Customer journey map: A visualization of the touchpoints a typical customer encounters

along their purchase journey

Frequency: How many times an individual encounters an ad

Impressions: The total number of times an ad appears on people’s screens

Inclusive marketing: The practice of improving representation and belonging within the
marketing and advertising materials that an organization creates

Lead: A potential customer who has interacted with a brand and shared personal
information, like an email address

Local search: A search query that generates local-based search results

Local SEO: Optimizing content so that it displays in Google's local search algorithms

Loyalty stage: The fourth stage of the marketing funnel, when customers become repeat
customers and brand advocates

Marketing funnel: A visual representation of the process through which people go from
learning about a brand to becoming loyal customers

Omnichannel: The integration or synchronization of content on multiple channels

Pain points: Problems customers want to solve

Reach: The total number of unique individuals who encounter an ad across their different

devices

Target audience: The group of people most likely to purchase a company's products; often
defined as the combination of customer personas

Touchpoint: Any interaction a customer has with a brand during their purchase journey

Terms and their definitions from previous module(s)

A
Agency: An outside partner that fulfills a company’s digital marketing and advertising needs

B
Business-to-business (B2B): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to other
businesses (when businesses purchase from each other)

Business-to-consumer (B2C): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to

consumers (when consumers purchase from businesses)

C
Consumer-to-business (C2B): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or
services to businesses (when businesses purchase from consumers)

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or

services to other consumers (when consumers purchase from each other)

D
Digital channel: Any communication method or platform a business can use to reach their
target audience online

Digital marketing: The practice of reaching consumers online through digital channels with
the aim of turning them into customers
E
E-commerce: The buying and selling of goods or services using the internet

Engagement marketing: (refer to experiential marketing)

Experiential marketing: The process of encouraging consumers to not only purchase a

brand or product, but to experience it

I
Influencer marketing: The process of enlisting influential people to endorse or mention a
brand or product to their followers on social media

In-house: Within a single company

S
Social media marketing: The process of creating content for different social media platforms
to drive engagement and promote a business or product

T
Transferable skills: Skills from other areas that can help someone progress a career in
marketing
Lectures week 3

Brand safety
Brand safety is a major priority for digital marketing teams. Ensuring a brand is in good standing with
consumers is important to the heart and the mission of a brand. In this reading, you’ll learn what brand
safety means, and how companies execute brand safety.

What is brand safety?

Brand safety refers to the practice of keeping a brand's reputation safe when they advertise online. This
might mean ensuring the brand’s ads aren’t placed next to or on inappropriate or inaccurate content and
making sure no copyrighted materials are used without permission.

If you place ads within the display network, and those ads appear on a website that is spreading
misinformation, your brand may be damaged because you are automatically associated with brands that
are pushing inaccurate information. For example, if your brand values inclusivity, you wouldn’t want your
brand’s ads to appear on a site that holds hateful or controversial views.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has designated 13 topics that brands should avoid associating
themselves with to maintain brand safety. Those are: military conflict, obscenity, drugs, tobacco, adult
content, arms, crime, death/injury, online piracy, hate speech, terrorism, spam, and fake news. In addition
to those, your brand might want to stay away from other topics. For instance, if your brand sells baby toys,
you probably don’t want to appear on gambling sites.

So, as a digital marketer, how do you make sure you’re avoiding being associated with topics you would
prefer your brand not be associated with?

Ensuring brand safety

As a digital marketer, there are steps you can take to ensure your brand is maintaining brand safety. First,
you’ll want to define what is considered to be “unsafe” for your brand. Consider what topics might be
harmful to your brand. Then, make sure you and your team understand that scale isn’t everything. Ending
up on every single website on the internet isn’t worth the risk and harm done to your brand safety. Next,
use trusted technology. When you’re submitting ads to display networks or social media, make sure you’re
using brand safety tools to maintain brand safety. For instance, with the Google Display Network, you can
opt-out of specific sites that you want to stay away from.

Some strategies marketers take to maintain brand safety are:

 Buy ad space directly from reputable publishers. This will ensure your ads aren’t placed where you
don’t want them.
o Note: doing this may mean you miss out on potential sales since you’re limiting yourself to
certain customers.
 Use image recognition. This will identify images that deem content unsafe for your brand.
 Select keywords to avoid. Publishers will allow you to choose keywords to avoid, so you can
include those when you submit your content.
  Apply geotargeting. This means making sure you know which regions your ads are running in,
which helps you make sure you are remaining sensitive and relevant to all your customers.

Key takeaways
Because it’s so integral to your brand’s success, brand safety is a topic that takes a lot of careful
consideration. Make sure you know what types of topics and content you don’t want your brand associated
with, and then take action. After you’ve carefully considered how to maintain brand safety, publishers and
tools will help you take your brand safety measures to the next level.

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1926878614264962?id=1769156093197771

https://support.google.com/displayvideo/answer/3032915

QUESTIONARY 1

1.
Pregunta 1
Which of the following describes a brand?
1 / 1 punto

The people that work for a business or organization

The services a business provides its customers

The perception the public has about a business or organization

The things a business sells, like clothing, software, or entertainment

Correcto
A brand is how a business or organization is perceived by the public.

2.
Pregunta 2
Which of the following are examples of factors that can influence a brand? Select all that apply.
1 / 1 punto

Culture
Correcto
Some factors that can influence a brand include values, culture, and design elements.

Values
Correcto
Some factors that can influence a brand include values, culture, and design elements.
Products sold

Design elements
Correcto
Factors that can influence a brand include values, culture, and design elements.

3.
Pregunta 3
Which of the following statements are true about the relationship between branding and marketing? Select
all that apply.
1 / 1 punto

A brand is the foundation of a successful digital marketing strategy, but digital marketing can also affect
public perception of a brand.
Correcto
It is true that a brand is the foundation of a successful marketing strategy, but digital marketing can also
affect the public perception of a brand. Additionally, a company can put many resources into a digital
marketing strategy, but without a strong brand identity, they will not be memorable. A company can have
great values and amazing products, but they still need marketing to build brand recognition and drive
sales.

A brand is the only thing needed to drive sales and sell products and services to customers, but many
companies use digital marketing when it is unnecessary.

A company can put many resources into a digital marketing strategy, but without a strong brand identity,
they will not be memorable.
Correcto
It is true that a brand is the foundation of a successful marketing strategy, but digital marketing can also
affect the public perception of a brand. Additionally, a company can put many resources into a digital
marketing strategy, but without a strong brand identity, they will not be memorable. A company can have
great values and amazing products, but they still need marketing to build brand recognition and drive
sales.

A company can have great values and amazing products, but they still need marketing to build brand
recognition and drive sales.
Correcto
It is true that a brand is the foundation of a successful marketing strategy, but digital marketing can also
affect the public perception of a brand. Additionally, a company can put many resources into a digital
marketing strategy, but without a strong brand identity, they will not be memorable. A company can have
great values and amazing products, but they still need marketing to build brand recognition and drive
sales.

4.
Pregunta 4
Which of the following is the value consumers attribute to one brand’s offerings when compared with
similar products from another brand?
1 / 1 punto
Brand personality

Brand identity

Brand positioning

Brand equity
Correcto
Brand equity is the value consumers attribute to one brand’s offerings when compared with similar
products from another brand. When a brand has positive equity, it means consumers feel good about the
brand.

5.
Pregunta 5
Which of the following describes the concept of brand equity?

How much customers are willing to pay for a brand that is on sale over a brand they know and trust

How much more customers are willing to pay for the brand they know and trust over another brand that
makes an identical product

How much customers are willing to pay for a brand they do not already know to try something new

How much customers are willing to pay for a new brand with interesting packaging over a brand they know
and trust
Correcto
Brand equity is how much more customers are willing to pay for the brand they know and trust over
another brand that makes an identical product. The trust people have in the familiar brand adds to its
overall value.

Find your audience and understand your

customers
In this reading, you will learn about creating customer personas to reach your intended audience. By
analyzing certain customer data points, you will be able to determine the type of content your audience
engages with. 

Why is it important to know your audience?

When you identify your audience, you can create digital marketing campaigns that interest and engage
them. This can lead to brand growth and increased awareness.
Knowing your audience involves learning details about their lives, such as their geographic location,
interests, online activities, and preferences. It’s important to understand what content your audience likes
and how they like to consume it. For example, do they enjoy receiving humorous content via email? Maybe
they like to be introduced to new products via social media ads. Perhaps they are more likely to engage
with an ad if they see it while they’re on a website they frequently visit. There is a lot to consider when you
are thinking about your audience, but start by learning who they are.

Who is your audience? 

Understanding customer personas
Customer personas represent a group of similar people in a desirable audience. They are profiles of your
likely customers, based on data and research. Creating customer personas can help a company figure out
how to reach people at the right time and with the right message, offer, or products. Personas allow you to
focus your time and energy on prospective leads that may actually turn into customers, rather than
random people who may not have any interest in your company at all.

There are a few ways to create customer personas. Marketing automation tools like HubSpot, Xtensio, and
Up Close & Persona have persona generators built in. However, if you prefer to create your own, you will
need to conduct some research. 

Asking the right questions

Using surveys, interviews, and/or data that already exists in your automation tools, you can find the
information needed to create your personas. That information will most likely be demographics like
gender, age, geographical location, income, education, and job type.

If you collect this information through surveys or interviews, it’s important you ask questions based on
your business’ goals. Sometimes, it’s as simple as finding out your customers’ personality traits, hobbies,
and which social media platforms they use to engage with brands. 

How to set SMART goals

Throughout this program, you will learn about SMART goals. In this reading, you will gain a very broad
understanding of what SMART goals are. Later in the course, you will build on that understanding with
more in-depth readings, videos, and activities.

What are SMART goals?

Before you create email campaigns, you need to evaluate what your company’s goals are. You may want to
grow your subscriber base, boost brand awareness, or increase conversions, but those hopes aren’t
necessarily your goals yet. For them to be goals, they need some additional details and specifications.

When you set your goals, you’ll want to refer to the acronym SMART. SMART stands for specific,
measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Ensuring your goals meet this criteria will help keep
you organized, give you a sense of direction as you move through your campaigns, and provide you with a
time frame to work within.

SMART considerations
To make sure your goals are SMART, consider the following factors:

 Specific: What do you want to accomplish?

 Measurable: What are the success metrics that will determine whether the objective has been
met?
 Attainable: Is this a realistic goal that you think you can meet?
 Relevant: Is this email marketing goal aligned with your company’s overall objectives?
 Time-bound: What is a realistic time frame that this goal can be met within?

Example scenario
You’re a digital marketer for a photography and photo sharing company. Users can upload their photos
onto your website and, using your design templates, make scrapbooks and other items to commemorate
events, trips, loved ones, and more. You are setting new SMART goals in preparation for the upcoming
financial quarter.

You know the company wants to focus on increasing scrapbook sales for this next quarter, so you start
thinking about goals. You decide to set a SMART goal to give you something to compare your progress
against. You come up with:

We aim to increase scrapbook sales by 15% by the end of the next quarter through a robust social media
campaign where we focus heavily on influencer marketing.

This goal fits all of the SMART goal criteria, which means you’ll be able to easily track your progress and
make adjustments as the social media campaign progresses.

Key takeaways
This is just the beginning of your journey in learning more about setting SMART goals. As you move along in
the course, you’ll gain some additional context for your SMART goals. For now, remember that SMART
goals should always be: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
Display advertising
The purpose of this reading is to introduce you to a common type of advertising: display advertising.
Display advertising is used by millions of companies around the world because of its effectiveness.

What is display advertising?

Display ads are visual ad formats placed on webpages or apps. Display ads are images, text, videos, or GIFs
that are submitted to display networks and then placed in front of your ideal audience to promote your
brand, service, or product.

A display network is a group of websites, videos, and apps where your ads can appear. Some display
networks may include up to two million websites. Display networks allow marketers to target ads to
particular audiences, contexts, locations, and more. Some examples of display networks are the Google
Display Network, Taboola, and Criteo. However, there are many options, and we encourage you to
research as many as you can in order to determine which is best for your company. 

There are also ad exchanges, digital marketplaces where buyers and sellers come together and enter into a
real-time bidding process to buy and sell ad space. Ad exchanges pool ad inventory from multiple
publishers and display networks. Agencies and advertisers typically bid on impressions from ad exchanges
via a tool called a demand-side platform. Xandr, OpenX, Magnite, Pubmatic, and Google Ad Manager are
examples of ad exchanges.

Types of display ads 

 Image ads are static JPG, PNG, or animated GIF files that appear on websites. Reaching customers
through visuals is an effective approach because users can see the usefulness of your product.
 Text ads are general ads that appear on websites as text only. These aren’t the most dynamic ads,
since they are text only.  
 Responsive ads automatically adjust their size and format to fit the available space around them.
The flexibility and capability of responsive ads makes them very popular. They can also appear as
native ads, which means they are designed and formatted to look like a native piece of the
website’s content.
 App promotion ads are ads that drive app downloads and engagement from users by getting
them to download apps. App promotion ads are great because when clicked, they send users
straight to their app store to easily get whatever app your company wants them to download.
These ads will only appear on devices compatible with your content. 

How do display ads fit into the marketing funnel?

As you create digital marketing campaigns and aim to introduce your company and engage with potential
customers, you may opt into using display ads to ensure an effective and successful marketing strategy. At
Google, display ads are employed during the awareness and consideration buckets of the funnel because
of the potential to drive awareness and increase the customer base. However, we also enlist display ads
further down the funnel to remarket. Remarketing delivers paid ads to customers who have visited your
website or social media profile. This helps increase conversions and keep loyal customers. 
Choose the right platforms for your target
audience
Even if you have used social media platforms personally, it’s important to understand that using them as a
digital marketer is very different. This reading will introduce how to set and achieve goals using specific
social media tools and platforms. 

Goal 1: Build connections with your audience

One goal of brands is to build relationships with their audience. If your brand or business has chosen to
prioritize this as a goal or objective, you will want to consider which social media platforms are best for
relationship building. For example, interactive, word-based platforms where people interact in short
messages and where open communication is encouraged—like Twitter—are well suited to relationship
building. This is because the art of conversation is so encouraged and prioritized on Twitter. It is perhaps
one of the only platforms where a brand may post dozens of times a day, without overloading its
followers. 

To build relationships with your audience on a platform like Twitter, you will want to be responsive and
engaging. If someone is interacting with your brand, feel free to reply promptly and keep the conversation
going. If they are mentioning you because of an issue with an order, provide them with helpful, empathetic,
and supportive customer service. Possibly the most important thing to remember while engaging with
users online is to always make sure you are being authentic to your brand’s voice. Your followers will come
to expect a certain voice, and they will recognize you for it. 

Pro tip: Sometimes, it’s best to be proactive about relationship building. Instead of waiting for users to
reach out to you, actively seek out authentic connections and communication within your community of
followers. 

Goal 2: Target new customers

If your goal is to target new customers, you may find some success on an image-based photo and video
sharing platform like Instagram. This is a good place to show people your product, rather than telling them
about it. To target new customers, it is a good idea to tell your brand’s and products’ stories using
interesting and dynamic visuals. 

Instagram is effective for telling your brand’s story because its users spend significant time on the platform
learning, being inspired, shopping, testing new things out, and so much more. And, it is a unique platform
because brands can leverage other users with large followings to tell their story as well.

For example, leveraging a strategy like influencer marketing is an effective tactic to target new customers.
Influencer marketing involves a brand collaborating with an online influencer to market one of its
products or services. When an influencer introduces your brand to their followers—a group of people who
may not know about you yet—this can be really helpful for targeting new customers. Another example of
an effective strategy is running social media ad campaigns, where your brand’s reach is sure to increase.

Pro tip: If you prioritize influencer marketing, make sure your partners have audiences that will be
interested in your product once introduced to it.
Goal 3: Drive traffic to your website
If you want to drive traffic to your website, consider a social media platform that allows you to share
articles, links, products, images, and reviews, like Facebook. If the content you are sharing feels fresh,
informative, and links back to your landing page, users will be more likely to click on it and end up on your
webpage. If users like what they see on your page, they may share your content themselves, possibly
resulting in even more website traffic. 

When using a platform like this, it’s especially important to couple your brand’s voice and visuals together
in a cohesive way. Your content all needs to feel purposeful and relevant, and draw users in, if you want to
encourage website visitors. 

Pro tip: Not all social media platforms allow you to easily share links to landing pages and other content,
but doing so can be a great way to drive traffic to your site. 

Key takeaways
You will likely choose to prioritize certain platforms over others depending on what your company’s goals
and objectives are. However, you should feel free to push the same initiatives and campaigns on varying
social channels as well. If you have goals that you think can be achieved on a few different platforms, you
will still want to customize the content to be exactly what your audience on each platform wants. 

Types of email campaigns

As a digital marketer, you will come across dozens of types of email campaigns that achieve different goals
for your company. The way you define and name them may differ from organization to organization.
However, this reading will give you an introduction to the main types of email campaigns and what they
accomplish. In later materials, you will go more in-depth about each type of email.

Real-life applications
As you are guided through the various types of email campaigns, think about emails you’ve received
recently or in the past. Consider what the sender was trying to accomplish in emailing you. Did it work?
Why or why not? 

Note: A large portion of email marketing is testing out different tactics to learn what works and what
doesn’t. You might use all or just a few of the email types below, depending on what is most effective for
your audience and marketing goals. 

Types of email campaigns

The following are the most common types of email campaigns: 

 Acquisition emails are sent out to acquire new customers. They fall into the awareness section of
the marketing funnel because they engage potential customers. 
  Welcome emails are sent out to brand new customers or subscribers. The welcome email most
commonly exists within the consideration stage of the marketing funnel because it encourages
deeper engagement and specific actions.
 Newsletters are sent to subscribers regularly. They contain news and informational content
relevant to the company and of interest to subscribers. Newsletters are versatile campaigns
because they can fall into several funnel stages. Newsletters fit in the consideration stage when
potential customers are getting to know your brand. They are part of the conversion stage when
customers have decided they like your brand and want to support it, and they fit the loyalty stage
when customers keep coming back for more products and content.
 Promotional emails are sent to inform subscribers of new or existing products or services.
Promotional emails usually fall into the consideration and loyalty buckets of the marketing funnel
because they encourage subscribers to take some kind of action.   
 Retention emails are sent to a current customer with the intent of keeping them as a customer.
This type of campaign fits into the loyalty portion of the funnel.

Key takeaways
Although these common email types are trusted by industry experts, you will still need to test out different
tactics to determine which types your subscribers engage with the most. Consider what you have learned
here, but make sure to be adaptable when something isn’t working. 
WEEK 4

Common metrics for success

Typically, when you set goals, you track your progress to see how close you are to reaching those goals. If
you set a goal to finish a book every month for 12 months, you will probably check on your progress every
now and then to see if you are accomplishing that goal. You may count pages with excitement as you go
from book to book, or keep a checklist of book titles. The same practices can be applied to measuring
marketing campaign effectiveness. 

In this reading, you will learn the importance of measuring success. You will get an understanding of what
you may want to track to measure success, and you will be reminded of what a metric is. Then, you will see
where various metrics fit into your marketing funnel.

Introduction to metrics
As you go through this certificate program, you will learn a lot about metrics. For now, know that a metric
is a quantifiable measurement that is used to track and assess a business objective. Metrics help determine
the success of marketing initiatives and campaigns. 

Why track metrics?

Tracking metrics helps digital marketers gauge how close they are to meeting goals. Each metric measures
something specific, and therefore each metric tells a marketer something different about their campaign.
Metrics can reveal important information about marketing campaigns, such as return on investment
(ROI), return on ad spend (ROAS), cost per sale, and online and sales revenue. 
Metrics in the marketing funnel  
You will apply different tactics to track metrics based on which stage of the marketing funnel you are
operating in. For instance, in the awareness stage, you’ll gather audience data and develop user personas.
This helps you get to know who your customers are. During the consideration stage, you will consider
metrics like cost of acquisitions and click through rates. During the conversion stage, you will track and
analyze sales conversion rates, average order values, and cart abandonment rates. And finally, during the
loyalty phase, you’ll want to consider customer retention rate and customer lifetime value. 

There are other factors to consider throughout the marketing funnel process, and these may not be
familiar terms yet, but for now, this is a good place to start. 

Key takeaways
Tracking metrics is critical to a campaign's success. Metrics help digital marketers gauge effectiveness and
audience contentment while a campaign is happening. They also help marketers gain information and
insights they can use for future campaigns. 
Data ethics
In a previous video, you learned that performance marketing requires a lot of data. Data can contain
information about user interests and behaviors and even individual customer purchases. This reading
introduces you to data ethics. Knowing how to work with user data responsibly and legally is critical to the
integrity of your organization, role, and projects.

Data ethics
Data ethics is the study and evaluation of moral challenges related to data collection and analysis. When it
comes to data, businesses apply ethical practices so they can:

 Follow regulations
 Demonstrate trustworthiness in protecting customer data
 Ensure the use of customer data is fair and without bias
Follow regulations
Many countries have laws regarding the generation, recording, curating, processing, sharing, and use of
personally identifiable data. Personally identifiable data (PII) is information that can be used to directly
identify, contact, or locate an individual. Make sure you are aware of your organization's data security and
privacy protocols. Data privacy refers to the proper handling of data. How you collect, process, analyze,
share, archive, and delete data should be in accordance with the data privacy laws of the countries where
your customers reside.

Protect customer data

One important way to protect customer data is data anonymization. Data anonymization refers to one or
more techniques to mask or remove personal information from data to protect the identities of people.
Data anonymization is often performed on data coming from multiple sources. After the data has been
anonymized, it can be more widely and freely shared in an organization. Types of data often anonymized
are names, telephone numbers, email addresses, photographs, account numbers, and purchase
transactions.

Use data fairly and without bias

Another ethical data practice is making sure that the data you collect and use is for legitimate business
purposes. Fair and reasonable use of data also means that you don’t use the data in a biased manner. Data
bias is a type of human error that skews results in a certain direction. Note that data bias isn’t the same as
selecting data from a target audience. For example, let’s say you want to review historical data from
customers between the ages of 21 and 45. That’s not data bias. What would be considered data bias is if
you exclude the data from customers who returned products because you don’t consider them loyal to
your brand. However, even when including all available data, you’re not always free of bias. This is possible
if historical data was from an audience that wasn’t representative of all potential customers. If you create
future ad campaigns based on previous customer behaviors, you could unknowingly perpetuate a bias.

Pro tip: To minimize the risk of data bias, ask for peer review of critical data that you intend to use so you
can incorporate different perspectives right away.
Key takeaway
Data ethics is important because it promotes the responsible use of customer data. Always be careful to
follow the data privacy laws in your country and the countries where your customers live, protect customer
data, and avoid data bias.
Story structure
In a previous video, you learned that without a story, data is just numbers. Data storytelling is the practice
of explaining data insights to a specific audience using a clear and compelling narrative. Formulating a
story from data is a very important piece of digital marketing. Each time you tell your compelling data
story, it should be structured using three elements. In this reading, you will learn the importance of
identifying story elements from data.

The three-part data story structure

Before you can tell your data story, you will need to analyze the data to determine the story hidden within
the data. In data storytelling, always remember that there are three elements to every story: context,
complication, and resolution. When you’ve thoroughly analyzed your data to determine each element,
you’ll be able to tell the whole story.

Context
Creating context is an important part of storytelling with data, because without context, you have no
starting point for your story. Think of your context as the framing of the situation. For example, imagine
your company had a decrease in both sales and their customer base last year. The company's goals are to
maximize profits and grow their customer base this year. Those goals may be the context of your story.

Complication
Next, you need to identify the complication in your story. This is typically the reason the situation requires
action. A complication isn’t always bad, but rather an explanation of how the situation has changed based
on your data. For example, if your company’s goals are to maximize profit and grow their customer base,
and the data shows you are on track to meet the first goal but not the second one, that is a complication.
Any kind of change in metrics would be an example of a complication.

Resolution
Finally, like any story, it should end in a resolution. The resolution of your data story is the necessary action
taken to solve a problem or leverage an opportunity. It answers the questions: How did the story end?
What were the results of the complication? What do your results tell you about the campaign? For instance,
if the results show that you are maximizing your profits but are not driving new customers, explain the
data-driven action you will be taking to change that.

Example story
Now, review an example data story. Using the graphs above as a reference image, recall the toy company
example from a previous video. Recall that in the video, you measured the results of a new social media
campaign for your toy company.

The context of the data story may be your past social media campaign’s performance. In this past
campaign, you aimed to increase sales by 5% over a three month period through the use of paid social
media ads. Unfortunately, you didn’t reach that goal during your last campaign, and you want to review
the data of your current campaign to see if it is performing better. Now, you’ve set the context for this data
story.

When you take a look at your past return on ad spend (ROAS) and conversion rates to compare them to this
campaign’s numbers, you notice an increase in both ROAS and conversion rates. That increase is the
complication of your campaign. Remember that although complication sounds unfavorable, this won’t
always be the case.

Finally, the resolution of your campaign tells the story of why ROAS and conversion rates are soaring. Did
the ROAS and conversion rates increase because you changed the copy, switched out the images, ran a
promotion in your ads, or something else? Your findings are your resolution.

Key takeaways
Data isn’t just numbers and figures. Data tells a story that can be integral to your company’s future
successes. To create effective campaigns, you have to find the stories in the data. Identifying your context,
complication, and resolution will help you get there.

Terms and definitions from Course 1, Week 4

Attribution: Determining which content and channels are responsible for generating leads,
conversions, or sign-ups

Change management: Methods, practices, approaches, and processes that organizations

take to ensure changes are implemented smoothly
Customer lifetime value (LTV or CLV): The average revenue generated per customer over a
certain period of time

Data: A collection of facts or information

Data analysis: Examining data to draw conclusions, make predictions, and drive informed
decision-making

Data analytics: Monitoring and evaluating data to gain actionable insights

Data anonymization: Techniques to mask or remove personal information from data to

protect the identities of people

Data bias: Human error that skews data collection or interpretation of data in a certain
direction

Data-driven attribution: Measures customer engagement with marketing content across

channels to understand what is motivating them to take action

Data ethics: The study and evaluation of moral challenges related to data collection and
analysis

Data privacy: Rights of individuals under the law to control how their personal information is
collected, processed, shared, archived, and deleted

Data pulling: Collecting data from analytics tools and putting it in a spreadsheet or database

Data reporting: Organizing and summarizing data to track performance across marketing
and sales efforts

Data storytelling: Conveying data insights to a specific audience using a clear and compelling
narrative

Data visualizations: Graphical representations of data that convey information

First click attribution: Assigns all the credit to the first touchpoint that eventually leads to a
conversion

Key performance indicator (KPI): A measurement used to gauge how successful a business
is in its effort to reach a business or marketing goal

Last click attribution: Assigns all the credit to the last known touchpoint before conversion

Linear attribution: Assigns equal credit to each touchpoint along the customer journey
Performance marketing: The process of using concrete information about customer
behaviors to plan and refine marketing and sales strategies

Performance reporting: (refer to data reporting)

Personally identifiable information (PII): Information that could be used to directly identify,
contact, or locate an individual

Return on ad spend (ROAS): How much revenue is gained versus how much was spent