Week 8: Capstone Pitch & Project Review
This is the culmination of the module. You have built a digital sandbox, optimized it for search, mapped out paid acquisition campaigns across Google and Meta, established an email retention sequence, and learned how to measure the results.
View lecture slides: Week 8 Slides
Today, you put it all together and pitch your integrated digital marketing strategy.
1. Pre-Work: Preparing the Pitch
As a future manager or business leader, your ability to execute a campaign is secondary to your ability to communicate the strategy and defend the investment.
You will prepare a 7-10 minute presentation. Use Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Canva.
Pitch Deck Structure
Your presentation must cover the following elements:
- The Business Objective: What is the concept and what is the North Star metric?
- The Target Audience & Journey: Who are you targeting? Walk us through their journey from Awareness to Conversion.
- The Owned Asset (Live Demo): Show us your live digital sandbox. Highlight the Value Proposition and CTA.
- Acquisition Strategy (SEO & SEM): What keywords are you targeting? Show your Google Ads mock-up.
- Acquisition Strategy (Paid Social): Who is your Meta audience? Show your visual ad mock-up.
- Retention Strategy: Walk through the logic of your 3-step email sequence.
- Budget & Measurement: If you had a NPR 150,000/month budget (~USD 1,100 at illustrative rates—state your assumption), how would you allocate it across channels and why? How will you use Analytics to measure success?
Sample budget allocation framework:
| Channel | Allocation | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads (SEM) | 40% | Highest-intent demand capture |
| Meta Ads | 30% | Demand creation & retargeting |
| SEO/Content | 20% | Long-term compounding asset |
| Email/Tools | 10% | Retention, near-zero marginal cost |
You may adjust allocations — but you must defend each line with a KPI. “I put more on Google Ads because it captures people already searching for our service, and I can measure CPL directly in the account.”
Real-world proof (capstone standard)
Defend like the home services stack: cite Ads and SEO as separate evidence layers, not one made-up blended ROAS.
- Teaching brief: Stack case
- Week map: Case readings
Strong pitches name the URL and the number. Weak pitches say “studies show digital works.”
2. Lab Session: The Capstone Pitch
During this session, the instructor (and potentially guest judges) will act as the “Investment Committee.” You are pitching for budget approval.
Peer and Instructor Q&A
Be prepared to defend your choices. Common questions you might face:
- “Why did you allocate 70% of your budget to Google Ads instead of Meta?”
- “Your landing page CTA is below the fold. Don’t you think that will hurt conversions?”
- “How are you planning to lower your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) over time?”
- “What happens to your strategy if your Google Ads account gets suspended or Meta changes its algorithm?” (Channel diversification is a key MBA-level concern.)
- “At what ROAS or CAC payback period would you recommend the business scale up vs. pause paid spend?”
Feedback will be framed around business impact, feasibility, and strategic cohesion.
Self-check: Pitch rubric
Which evidence set scores highest with the investment committee?
3. Deliverable
Use the MBA DM Deliverable Toolkit (Templates + Samples) before submitting.
Final Pitch Deck and Live Sandbox URL.
- Ensure your website is live and functional.
- Submit the slide deck used for your presentation.
- (Optional) Include a 1-page executive summary.
Submit immediately following your presentation.
Congratulations!
You have successfully completed the MBA Digital Marketing module. You now possess the strategic framework and hands-on experience needed to lead digital initiatives, evaluate marketing talent, and drive measurable business growth.
