To Search or to Socialize: Comparing the Effectiveness of Digital Marketing Technologies with Kenyan Entrepreneurs

Last registered on January 23, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
To Search or to Socialize: Comparing the Effectiveness of Digital Marketing Technologies with Kenyan Entrepreneurs
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010440
Initial registration date
December 21, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 23, 2023, 7:58 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Laura Zimmermann
Affiliation
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Stephen J. Anderson
PI Affiliation
McCombs School of Business, UT Austin
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PI Name
Pradeep Chintagunta
PI Affiliation
Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
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PI Name
Naufel Vilcassim
PI Affiliation
London School of Economics and Political Science
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-09-01
End date
2023-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
Firm Growth, Business Training, Technology, Digital Marketing, Social Media
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
In this RCT, we address the critical question of how to effectively spur business growth with digital technologies, particularly digital marketing techniques, among entrepreneurs in emerging markets (in our case, Kenya). Small-scale businesses are important players in the social ecosystems of developing countries. In today’s digital society where most businesses connect with customers digitally through social media or search engines, training on how to use these digital technologies for business growth has the potential to lead to faster growth at a lower cost. In our randomized control trial (RCT) we investigate how in-depth training on how to use social media vs. search engines for business purposes can impact firm performance outcomes compared to a control group. In addition, our research aims to shed light on whether skills training is sufficient to drive business growth, or whether firms in addition need a marketing budget to promote their businesses online.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Anderson, Stephen J. et al. 2023. "To Search or to Socialize: Comparing the Effectiveness of Digital Marketing Technologies with Kenyan Entrepreneurs." AEA RCT Registry. January 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10440-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will combine longitudinal field survey data of entrepreneurs with a randomized control trial. We will evaluate the effectiveness of offering an in-depth training on how to use social media vs. search engines for digital marketing purposes and compare this against a control group (that receives no intervention during the study period). The interventions will contain the following elements:

Both treatment conditions will receive an in-class digital literacy training of 30 hours on general topics of business digitization. In addition, expert technicians will regularly visit entrepreneurs onsite to help digitize the business (around 6 visits over 3 months).

After this basic digital literacy training, firms in the "SOCIAL" treatment will received 1) tailored follow-up support and implementation assistance by social media experts on how to leverage social media for digital marketing purposes and 2) a budget for social media boosting.

After this basic digital literacy training, firms in the "SEARCH" treatment will received 1) tailored follow-up support and implementation assistance by search engine experts on how to leverage search engines for digital marketing purposes and 2) a budget for search engine boosting.
Intervention Start Date
2023-01-15
Intervention End Date
2023-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
firm performance measures (sales, profits)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
index of digital marketing performance
index of social media performance
index of search engine performance

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
In addition we will explore customers' perception of the firm (trustworthiness, accessibility, responsiveness etc.)
We will also aim to obtain secondary (e.g., scraped data on digital footprints; customer data) to explore firms' digital marketing activities and outcomes (e.g., number of followers, number of likes etc.).
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Baseline data collection: During the recruitment entrepreneurs’ and business details will be captured using a survey including sales and profit, business main product and services, customer profiles, level of business digitization and use of digital marketing.

Randomization: Participants will be randomly assigned to 1 out of 3 conditions:

1) SOCIAL treatment condition
2) SEARCH treatment condition
3) Control condition

The control condition will not receive any intervention until after the study (i.e., after all follow-up data have been collected). This control group is part of a larger project (RCT ID: xxx) that is happening in parallel to this Search vs Social study.

The treatment period will be around 2 months. We will monitor the intervention using field surveys.
Throughout the intervention period data will be collected on the entrepreneur’s compliance and skills gained.

Endline: A post intervention survey will be conducted after the 2 months of intervention assessing the various changes that have occurred at the business in using search engine and social media as tool to attract customers and improve firm performance.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization completed with Stata,
stratified by trainer, business digitization level (high vs. low), and previous loan (yes, no)
Randomization Unit
Randomization at the firm/individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
-
Sample size: planned number of observations
N=852 entrepreneurs
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Control: N=284 entrepreneurs
Treatment 1 SOCIAL: N=284 entrepreneurs
Treatment 2 SEARCH: N=284 entrepreneurs
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IE RESEARCH COMMITTEE-IE UNIVERSITY
IRB Approval Date
2022-12-19
IRB Approval Number
IERC-24 /2022-2023
Analysis Plan