Dublin Core
Title
Business Intelligence Platform for PPC and Organic Marketing
Abstract
In the increasingly competitive higher education landscape, digital marketing plays a crucial role in attracting prospective students. However, institutions often face major challenges in tracking cross-channel performance and accurately attributing student applications to specific campaigns. Marketing platforms like Meta Ads and Google Ads often exaggerate campaign effectiveness by counting impressions, clicks, and superficial conversions that may not result in actual applications or enrollments.
This senior design project addresses that issue by developing a Business Intelligence Platform for PPC and Organic Marketing, aimed at providing real-time, actionable insights for the International Burch University (IBU) Marketing Team. The system enables end-to-end campaign tracking by integrating digital ad performance data with actual application data, using a unique medium URL parameter embedded in campaign links and captured during the application process to bridge external and internal data sources.
The platform uses Windsor.ai connectors to fetch ad data into Google Sheets, where a Google Apps Script automates data cleaning and merging. This data is combined with student application records from a MySQL database and visualized in real-time through Looker Studio dashboards.
Results demonstrate the system’s ability to provide clear, actionable insights, enabling the marketing team to compare channels, calculate cost per application, and evaluate the full applicant funnel across departments and academic cycles. In doing so, the platform empowers the team to optimize campaigns based on verified outcomes.
The project highlights the importance of reliable tracking infrastructure, disciplined use of URL parameters, and automation in marketing analytics. It represents a scalable, low-cost solution for improving data-driven decision-making in higher education marketing.
Keywords
Business Intelligence, Digital Marketing Analytics, PPC, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Looker Studio, UTM Tracking, Attribution, Marketing Funnel, Application Tracking
Language
English language