GUIDE FOR INSTRUCTORS

Table of Contents

About Simbound Welcome to Simbound Platform Overview

Course Setup

Getting Started Your first Simbound Course Initial Course Settings Enrolling Students into your course Course Management

Game Modules Website Management Search Engine Marketing

Assessment & Results

Analyzing Game Results

Appendix

PPC Model Diagram

WELCOME TO SIMBOUND

Welcome Instructor, you are running Simbound 1.2b – the leading e-Marketing simulation game.

Simbound and all associated materials are the property of S.C. Apollo Edtech SRL-D, registered in Saint-

George, (Transylvania), Romania, European Union. The original concept of the simulation is the work of

Louis Havriliuc - Simbound CEO. Feel free to contact Louis by e-mailing louis@simbound.com or

support@simbound.comshould you have questions regarding any aspect of operating the system.

Our vision is to become the world’s favorite solution for e-Marketing learning and assessment and go

beyond that with unleashing a superior approach to the practice of Internet marketing & communications.

PLATFORM OVERVIEW

The Simbound simulation game provides learners with unique insight into contemporary online advertising

practice. As an instructor you can setup and manage simulation games for your students with ease. The

Simbound system automatically computes student performance reports that can be used for assessment

and grading purposes.

Simbound operates with virtual funds and simulated shopper behaviour so there are no real financial risks or

concerns regarding potential brand damage when using the system. As such Simbound allows testing out of

ideas in an environment which is dynamic and fun. Although Simbound is realistic and is built as a result of

thousands of hours of research the system cannot predict results of a real marketing campaign.

Simbound Learning Takeaways typically

include:

- How to manage and optimize

online ad inventory

- How to administer a multi-channel

online marketing campaign (Web,

Search Engine, Social Media, E-

mail)

- How to develop online advertising

strategy focused on results

- How to interpret operational and

financial online advertising metrics

The learning outcomes depend on the selected game scenario or the learning goals that you set as an

instructor. The game scenarios usually involve selling technology products via online marketing channels,

working on campaigns tied to the product lifecycle or meeting a predefined challenge.

There are two categories of user access rights in Simbound: the Instructor and the Student. Some functions

are common for both categories of users such as system notifications, the community and user profile

settings while each account also holds their own, specific features.

Instructors set up and manage simulation courses, manage the enrollment process of students and provide

feedback on simulation game results while students have the role of operating online advertising systems,

usually as part of a team, while they check and compare their results against their peers.

GETTING STARTED

In order to start using Simbound with your students you will first need a valid Instructor Account. This will

grant you access to the system and the simulation game management & communications functions.

For now, Instructor access is limited to a select number of academics and trainers. You can request your

access credentials by sending an e-mail to contact@simbound.com

Check our website regularly for induction & training courses, which will introduce you to online marketing

teaching with our system.

LICENSING

Each individual registration to a course will require a single game license. The license is valid for one run of

the simulation game. These can be purchased either by the students when they sign up to the course or by

the instructor in advance. You will be prompted with selection of the licensing method each time you setup

a new course.

You can consult how your licenses were consumed by hitting the “Licenses” button on the home page of

your instructor account. You can also buy new game licenses from here.

Please Note: A license will not be consumed if the participant is removed from the course before the first

round deadline.

YOUR FIRST SIMBOUND COURSE

A course is a distinct simulation instance that has the following minimum required parameters: a name, a

content scenario (sometimes called case), a schedule, and enrolled students. Each course is assigned with a

unique ID by the system which acts as a registration token. The ID looks something like this: U3P7W6.

To create a new course log in to your instructor account and click the ‘New Simbound Course’ button from

the homepage. This will launch a course builder function which will guide you through the initial course

creation and student registration processes. There is also a tutorial of how to get started available at this

web address: http://www.simbound.com/en/instructor-tutorials

The typical course setup process

Course

Creation

Student Enrollment

Initial Briefing (can be done over Skype)

Course begins

INITIAL COURSE SETTINGS

The Simbound course builder presents you with several options such as course scheduling, student teams

structure and so on. These settings can be modified even after a course has started however it is important

to plan your course in advance. Some of the questions you should be able to answer before creating a

course are:

How much time should I set aside for briefing?

Simbound is an intense learning experience so make sure you leave enough time for preparation with your

students prior to commencing the simulation. Make sure everybody is well aware of the upcoming exercise.

Send them the guidebook a few days prior to the first game round. Schedule an initial meeting via

teleconference or video chat if you cannot be present in the same location as your students.

Simbot recommends: 1 Week Prep time for newbies, 1 hour for professionals

How many students will enroll in the course?

Plan the course structure by selecting the right number of teams and team size. Also make sure you have

enough student licenses in your account.

What will be the schedule of the simulation game?

You will have to select the timespan of the course and also the interval between the simulation rounds. The

optimum time will depend on many factors including: the skill level of the students, the time available for

the simulation game etc

Simbot reccomends: 8 rounds for newbies. Please allow at least 2 hours in between rounds to leave enough time for interpretation of results and new decisions. Professionals can play 5 rounds which are set as close as 10-15 minutes apart.

Simbot reccomends a maximum of: 4 newbies per team, 1-2 professionals per team

ENROLLING STUDENTS INTO A COURSE

Once your new course is created it’s time to invite students to sign up. To do this, either send them the

unique course code, presented to you at the final step of the course creation process (the ID looks

something like this: U3P7W6) or log into your account, click the course you want students to enroll in and

navigate to the “Students” tab. From here you will be able to invite students via e-mail to the course by

clicking on the “Invite Student” button found beneath each team name.

You can also publish your course on the Simbound.com website. Please Note: if you publish your course to

the Simbound.com website anybody visiting the website will be able to sign-up to your course.

Simbot reccomends: Post the unique course code on your organization’s intranet system along with the http://simbound.com URL. Alternatively you can communicate the unique course ID during the initial briefing seminar or via your social network streams.

COURSE MANAGEMENT

Now that students are enrolled in your new course it’s time to start the simulation. Running a Simbound

simulation course is easy as the system automatically calculates results at each preset round. To help with

course management each course is provided with the following functions:

Please Note: To access the settings log into your instructor account and click the course name

Info and Settings: Course Info, Course code, Course Language, Licensing, Share Course Management with

other Instructors, Course Description,Course Publishing to simbound.com website

Messaging: Message entire course, message only certain participants or teams

Students: List course participants and teams, Add new student, Add new team, Drag and drop students from

one team to another, Remove Student, Remove Team, Hover over a student’s name for more options: Info,

Remove and Login as (allows you to use the platform as if you were that student)

Scheduling: Course calendar with month, week and day view, Add New Round, Drag and drop game round

deadlines, Edit round schedule, Delete Round, Basic calendar view

Student Grader: Learning progress, Comparative analysis of teams results (with export options to PDF and

Excel file formats), Team activity: Engagement, Reach, Profitability

Resources: supports the upload of the following file formats: pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, xls, xlsx,

odt, ods, rtf, csv, jpg, png, gif, zip, rar for course participants, add weblinks with name, URL & description

GAME MODULES

The following Modules are available in version 1.2b:

Website Management

Website management deals with specific operations performed on a website in order to measure, test and

improve response rates from the audience who is visiting the website. Operations include: website graphic

design, writing commercial copy, digital asset optimization, testing different versions of a webpage and so

on.

Typical goals include improving the sales (conversion) rate, collecting customer lead data, reaching new

demographics etc.

In Simbound students manage landing pages with the goal of increasing conversions (clients). A landing page

is the first page that a potential customer gets taken to after clicking an ad. As such landing pages are an

essential part of an online marketing campaign.

Please Note: To access the game modules you will need student account credentials. You can also ‘Login As’

one of your students. To do this navigate to the ‘Students’ tab of a course and hover your mouse over a

student’s name for this option.

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is an umbrella term which includes Internet Marketing techniques that

promote website visibility in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Methods include: Paid placement - also

referred to as Pay-per-click (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Contextual advertising. With Simbound

students carry out PPC Marketing as well as monitor the rankings of their website pages in search results

(basic SEO).

The Search Engine Marketing dashboard allows placing and

managing paid advertisments on the simulated Search Engine

“Baigoo”.

Some of the features of the dashboard are:

- Research Search Keyphrases on several data points: Monthly Search Trends, Cost Per Click, Competition from other advertisers

- Create and manage a Search Engine Marketing Campaign: Keyword selection, Budget alocation, Bid Setting, Geographic Targeting, Ad copy writing, Ad copy testing of multiple versions (a/b testing)

- Data Table filtering options: by metrics such as Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Conversions, or by different round periods etc

Please Note: to explore the features you need to either click the ‘Check Demo Interface” button found on the Instructor home page or “Login as” one of the students in your courses.

The user interface is similar to that of many PPC commercial solutions and includes both graphic data

visualization as well as dynamic data tables that act as a control interface.

ANALYZING GAME RESULTS

As an instructor you can consult various reports that present you with student performance during the

simulation. The reports are computed automatically by the system. You can also download the data in

spreadsheet format for further analysis if you like. Just click the ‘Detailed View’ button above the

comparative Analysis section and then select between Export to Excel (or PDF)

To access the results you’ll need to click the Course Name and then ‘Student Grader’. From here click the

‘Detailed View’ button above the Team Activity graph. There are multiple dimensions, as follows:

Student Engagement

The indicators show student commitment to understanding and interacting with a new and complex ad

management system. The analytics collected by the Simbound system provides numerous opportunities for

longitudinal studies as the level of data is deep enough to undertake relevant research.

Time logged in - duration of active session initiated by student login to the system

Number of decisions taken - number of times student created or deleted a database entry - which can mean

adding a new advertising campaign, deleting a keyword or writing a new ad for split testing purposes

Community activity - number of questions and answers posted on the Simbound community

Marketing Reach

The metrics measure the ability to plan and implement a paid search campaign. These are basic metrics,

however they are relevant in terms of speaking about advertiser performance as they encompass many

processes and tactics. Following we'll explain what each metric is about and how the values can be

influenced.

Impressions Times an ad is shown to searchers. Important for brand awareness efforts. Many other metrics

are conditioned by the number of impressions a campaign accrues.

Keep in mind that not all impressions are of equal value for brand awareness purposes - top fold (ad

positions 1 to 5) are more visible. There is also a spillover effect from organic search results - where brand

awareness is enhanced when paid ad inclusions are close or above the regular search results - this situation

having a positive impact on combined Click Through Rate.

Reach (Impressions) is influenced by: Advertising Budget available, Selected keywords (high volume

searches will generate more impressions) , Maximum Bid per keyword (a higher Ad Rank means your ad is

winning more auctions) Quality Score (a higher Quality Score means it's easier to get a higher Ad Rank)

Impressions influence: Brand awareness, CTR Rates, Organic Search Results

Clicks Good indicator of purchase intent. If clicks are many and conversions seem to be far in between then

there is perhaps something wrong with the lower end of the purchasing funnel - such as the content on the

landing page. In these situations testing with different type of content is indicated.

Clicks are influenced by: Advertising Budget, Impressions, Ad position (higher placed ad will tend to

generate more CTR)

Clicks Influence: mostly purchase intent indicators but also other indices such as CTR and Conversion Ratio.

Conversions These are campaign goals that have been successfully reached by the advertiser. Most online

advertising campaigns have conversions defined as their ultimate goals. Conversions can mean: new clients,

demo sign-ups, newsletter subscribers etc. Stating your conversion objectives doesn't just help in measuring

and optimizing campaigns, it also has an impact on the costs of your advertising efforts. A successful

campaign in terms of conversions will most of the times cost less than an identical campaign with less

conversions (conversions take the form of client engagement and are used by search engines to compare

performance)

Factors that influence conversions: Budget Available, Quality of Ad Targeting, , Bottom of the Funnel

elements such as landing pages

Influenced by conversions: Quality Score (an advertiser performance indicator that impacts advertising costs,

only applies if conversion tracking is installed, in Simbound it is assumed this is installed), campaign costs,

campaign reach, ROAS (if goals can be attributed to a certain value)

Profitability

Online advertising channels are easy to track and measure for immediate financial results. The below

metrics speak about learner’s ability to meet business objectices.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) Cost per acquisition defines how much it costs an advertiser to meet a new

business goal - such as a new client, subscriber etc. Not all visits will complete the desired action on the

landing page and with a 1 – 5% conversion ratio being the benchmark for most industries it means most

money spent on clicked ads goes to waste. This in turn raises the cost of acquisitions because the cost of

clicks from all the visitors that didn't follow through the intended action path has to be included when

calculating the cost of a new acquisition.

CPA helps with comparing the performance of different advertising mediums and is also a metric that allows

advertisers to assess and optimize marketing performance. With Simbound Instructors can compare the CPA

values of teams in order to assess their performance.

CPA is influenced by: Average Cost Per Click (CPC), Average Conversion Value, Conversion Ratio (bottom of

the funnel optimization)

CPA Influences: optimization efforts, marketing channel audit and comparison,

Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS)

Return on Advertising Spend is a widely utilized metric but one that can be misleading for multiple

reasons. At a basic it measures Value obtained from marketing compared to the costs of marketing

(Value/Cost). If the ratio is over 1 then the marketing campaign is considered to be successful in delivering

measurable business value. If it is below 1 then the campaign was unsuccessful by this criterion. In

Simbound ROAS is measured by comparing sales margin to total marketing budget spent, without any long-

term benefit factor included. This could be added in a future version of the game when we'll try to include

more sophisticated analysis such as Customer Lifetime Value

What influences ROAS: The way you define and measure Value and Costs

ROAS influences: Perception on marketing efforts

APPENDIX