| Course | MKT 443 Social Media Marketing (MKT/443) |
|---|---|
| Week | 4 |
| Paper type | Social media advertising plan |
| Length | about 1,095 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Business |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MKT 443 Week 4
Paid Posts, Local Creators and Targeted Ads: Planning Online Advertising on Social Platforms for a Bismarck Baseball Team
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
MKT/443: Social Media Marketing
Week 4 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The Missouri River Hawks, its creators and its budget are composites written for a model paper.
So far this course has given the Missouri River Hawks, an invented summer baseball team on the Missouri River, a plan for organic social media aimed at young families, college students and lifelong fans, and a community for season ticket holders. Organic posts now reach mostly people who already follow the team. To reach new fans, general manager Tom Reinholt has approved $14,000 for paid social advertising this season, up from about $2,000 spent on boosted posts last year. This paper explains how social media advertising works, reviews research on targeting and creator partnerships and recommends how the Hawks should spend the budget.
How Social Ads Work
Social platforms sell ad space through automated auctions. Each time a user opens a feed, the platform chooses among advertisers who want to reach that person, considering their bids and how likely the ad is to interest the user. Advertisers pay per thousand impressions or per click, depending on their objective. Formats include single image ads, short videos, carousels of several images and full-screen story ads.
Targeting Options
Advertisers can target by location, age, gender, interests and behaviors that platforms infer from activity. They can also upload customer lists to reach existing customers or create lookalike audiences of people who resemble them, and they can retarget people who visited a website. For the Hawks, location is the most important filter, since few people drive more than an hour for a summer baseball game.
Personalization and Privacy
Tucker (2014) studied a nonprofit's ads on Facebook before and after the platform gave users more control over their privacy settings. After the change, personalized ads that mentioned users' interests became about twice as likely to be clicked. The study suggests that people respond better to personalized advertising when they feel in control of their information. For the Hawks, the lesson is to use targeting that people expect from a local team, such as location and family status, and avoid ads that reveal surprising knowledge about individuals.
Sponsored Creator Campaigns
Hughes et al. (2019) analyzed sponsored blogging campaigns and found that the effect of an influencer's posts on engagement depended on the platform, the campaign goal and the content. A blogger's expertise mattered more for posts aimed at building awareness, and posts offering hedonic value worked better on some platforms than others. In short, the right creator depends on what the brand wants the post to do.
Why Audiences Trust Some Branded Content
Lou and Yuan (2019) surveyed followers of social media influencers and found that the informative value of a creator's posts and the creator's trustworthiness, attractiveness and similarity to followers increased trust in branded content, which in turn affected brand awareness and purchase intentions. Similarity matters for the Hawks: a Bismarck parent who posts about family weekends will seem more relevant to local parents than a national sports personality.
For a team that sells a night out in one city, a creator with 6,000 local followers is worth more than one with 600,000 followers everywhere.
The Budget Split
The plan divides $14,000 into two parts. Targeted ads receive $8,400, or 60 percent. Creator partnerships receive $5,600, or 40 percent.
Targeted Ads
Ads will run in three sets matching the segments. Family ads, $4,200, will use short videos of children on the field and target adults within 60 miles who are parents of young children, promoting the Sunday family package. Student ads, $2,100, will target ages 18 to 24 within 15 miles of the two colleges, promoting $5 student nights. Retargeting ads, $2,100, will reach people who visited the ticket page without buying, with a reminder of the next promotion. Each set will run only during the four weeks before the nights it promotes.
Creator Partnerships
Three local creators will be paid for a set number of posts. A Bismarck mother whose family activity account has about 6,000 followers, most nearby, will receive $2,400 for six posts and stories from family days. A college student who posts comedy videos with about 11,000 followers will receive $2,000 for four videos at student nights. A local food reviewer will receive $1,200 for two posts about the ballpark's new menu. Each creator keeps a personal voice, since forced scripts reduce trust.
Disclosure Rules
Every paid creator post must state clearly at the start that it is a paid partnership with the Hawks, using both the platform's paid partnership label and plain words in the caption. Free tickets given to any creator count as payment and must also be disclosed. The marketing coordinator will check each post before the team shares it.
Testing and Measurement
Each ad set will start with two versions, such as a video and an image, and after one week the weaker one will be paused. Ticket links in ads and creator posts will carry tracking codes so that sales can be traced. The weekly report will show spending, clicks, tickets sold and cost per ticket for each ad set and each creator. Any ad set that costs more than $8 per ticket sold after two weeks will be paused and its money moved to a stronger set.
Risks
Paid social carries risks the plan must manage. Platforms change their targeting rules and prices without notice, so the weekly report will watch cost per ticket closely. A creator could post something offensive unrelated to the team, so each contract will allow the Hawks to end the partnership and remove shared posts. Ads that run too often irritate people, so frequency will be capped at about three views per person per week. Finally, a losing streak may hurt sales no matter how good the ads are, which is why results will be compared across similar nights rather than judged one game at a time.
Connecting Paid and Organic
Paid content will feed the community built earlier. Families who buy through ads will be invited to share photos for the fan feature, and creators' posts will be shared on the team's own accounts. Over time, the goal is for paid reach to bring new fans into the organic conversation where loyalty grows.
Conclusion
Social media advertising lets the Hawks reach nearby families and students who do not yet follow the team. Research on privacy and personalization, sponsored campaigns and creator trust supports a plan built on local targeting, creators who resemble their followers and clear disclosure. With testing and a cost-per-ticket standard, the $14,000 budget can be judged by seats filled rather than impressions bought.
References
Hughes, C., Swaminathan, V., & Brooks, G. (2019). Driving brand engagement through online social influencers: An empirical investigation of sponsored blogging campaigns. Journal of Marketing, 83(5), 78-96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242919854374
Lou, C., & Yuan, S. (2019). Influencer marketing: How message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), 58-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/15252019.2018.1533501
Tucker, C. E. (2014). Social networks, personalized advertising, and privacy controls. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(5), 546-562. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.10.0355
What the MKT 443 Week 4 instructions ask
The fourth MKT 443 assignment often focuses on online advertising techniques in social media, sometimes framed as a paid social campaign or an influencer strategy for an organization. Typical requirements include explaining ad formats such as image, video, carousel and story ads; describing targeting options such as demographics, interests, lookalike and retargeting audiences; discussing influencer or creator partnerships; setting a budget; and explaining the measures of success. Ethical and legal questions often appear as well, such as disclosure and privacy. Ground recommendations in research rather than platform promotions, apply them to the segments the organization serves and show how paid efforts connect with the organic content and community built in earlier weeks.
How this MKT 443 Week 4 example is built
With $14,000 and a season of 50 home dates, the Missouri River Hawks need paid social to fill specific nights, not to raise general awareness. The paper first explains that platforms sell ad space through automated auctions and that advertisers choose audiences by location, age, interests and past behavior. Research on personalized advertising and user privacy controls, on sponsored blogging campaigns and on credibility in creator content shapes three decisions: target narrowly by location and life stage, choose creators whose followers match a segment, and require clear disclosure. The budget gives $8,400 to targeted ads and $5,600 to three Bismarck creators. Testing, a weekly report and a simple rule for pausing weak ads complete the plan.
MKT 443 Week 4 grading rubric: where the points go
Faculty assess advertising plans on accuracy, fit and accountability. The higher scores go to work that explains ad formats and targeting correctly, chooses them to fit defined segments and objectives and uses research to judge what works, including the limits of targeting and influencer reach. A budget with a clear rationale and a measurement plan that tracks outcomes such as ticket sales, not only impressions, shows business judgment. Disclosure and privacy deserve accurate treatment. Instructors also value integration with organic content and the community efforts from earlier weeks. Organization by decision, scholarly support, correct APA citations and concise professional writing round out the assessment.
MKT 443 Week 4 help: mistakes to avoid
A common issue in paid social papers is recommending broad awareness ads with no defined audience or outcome. Tie each ad set to a segment and a measurable result. Another is choosing influencers by follower count alone; for a local business, the share of followers who live nearby matters more than total reach. Students also skip disclosure or describe it vaguely; explain exactly how paid posts will be labeled. Some papers ignore privacy concerns raised by detailed targeting. Others set budgets without explaining the split. Show the reasoning and include a test, such as two versions of an ad, so the plan learns as it runs. Finally, report results in business terms, cost per ticket sold rather than likes alone.
Related MKT 443 sample papers
Other MKT 443 week samples
- MKT 443 Week 1: Social Networks and Interaction
- MKT 443 Week 2: Social Media and Customer Loyalty
- MKT 443 Week 3: Social Media Tactics by Segment
- MKT 443 Week 5: Micropayments and the Final Plan
More BS in Business sample papers
- MKT 431 Week 4: Pricing Strategy
- MKT 435 Week 4: Family, Social and Cultural
- MKT 438 Week 4: Crisis Communication
- MKT 440 Week 4: Ethics in Digital Marketing
MKT 443 Week 4 questions, answered
What does MKT 443 Week 4 usually cover?
It usually covers online advertising techniques on social media, including ad formats, audience targeting, influencer or creator partnerships, budgets, disclosure and how results are measured.
Where can I find a free MKT 443 Week 4 sample paper?
The paid social and creator plan for a composite Bismarck baseball club shown above is a full Week 4 example, with its budget split and testing plan.
How does targeting work in social media advertising?
Advertisers choose audiences by location, age, interests and behavior, or upload customer lists and build lookalike or retargeting audiences, and the platform shows ads to people in those groups through an automated auction.
Are micro-influencers better than large influencers?
For local or niche businesses they are often a better fit, because their followers are concentrated in the right place or interest and tend to trust them, though results depend on the match with the audience.
Do influencers have to disclose paid partnerships?
Yes; when a creator receives payment or free products from a brand, the relationship should be clearly disclosed in the post itself so followers can recognize it as sponsored.
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