Acquisition and retention · Quantitative real-life experiment using a customer-acquisition decision-support system. Predictive models ranked prospects using commercially purchased prospecting data, website data, and Facebook data; calling lists were generated and prospect-to-customer conversion compared.
The added value of social media data in B2B customer acquisition systems: A real-life experiment
Matthijs Meire, Michel Ballings, Dirk Van den Poel (2017). The added value of social media data in B2B customer acquisition systems: A real-life experiment. Decision Support Systems. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2017.09.010
Plain-English take
Facebook data were the most informative source for qualifying prospects and complemented the other sources, further improving predictive performance; results were reported in prospect-to-customer conversion.
How much weight to give this
4/5 Field or experimental evidence with bounded scope
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Quantitative real-life experiment using a customer-acquisition decision-support system. Predictive models ranked prospects using commercially purchased prospecting data, website data, and Facebook data; calling lists were generated and prospect-to-customer conversion compared.
Nearly 9,000 beverage-serving outlet prospects for Coca-Cola Refreshments Inc.; the system generated ranked calling lists for customer acquisition.
Check comparison conditions and analysis in the paper.
Publisher record checked; full-text methods were not verified.
Double-blind? Blinding details were not established from the checked publisher page.
Research question
What the authors investigated
What does the added value of social media data in b2b customer acquisition systems: a real-life experiment show about customer behavior or marketing outcomes?
Design
Quantitative real-life experiment using a customer-acquisition decision-support system. Predictive models ranked prospects using commercially purchased prospecting data, website data, and Facebook data; calling lists were generated and prospect-to-customer conversion compared.
Sample and setting
Nearly 9,000 beverage-serving outlet prospects for Coca-Cola Refreshments Inc.; the system generated ranked calling lists for customer acquisition.
Reported result
What the study found
Facebook data were the most informative source for qualifying prospects and complemented the other sources, further improving predictive performance; results were reported in prospect-to-customer conversion.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
The accessible publisher abstract does not expose the article’s complete author-stated limitations section; no additional limitation is asserted here. Full-text methods and correction history were not independently checked.
Possible founder application
Use this paper as evidence about the added value of social media data in b2b customer acquisition systems: a real-life experiment in the stated context; compare its population, treatment and outcome with your own decision.
Evidence access
Publisher page; full-text availability varies and was not established.
Candidate study metadata and reported evidence were cross-checked against a direct publisher-page retrieval; the full article was not independently reviewed.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.