QuestionsAnswered.net

What's Your Question?

What Is a Case Study?

When you’re performing research as part of your job or for a school assignment, you’ll probably come across case studies that help you to learn more about the topic at hand. But what is a case study and why are they helpful? Read on to learn all about case studies.

Deep Dive into a Topic

At face value, a case study is a deep dive into a topic. Case studies can be found in many fields, particularly across the social sciences and medicine. When you conduct a case study, you create a body of research based on an inquiry and related data from analysis of a group, individual or controlled research environment.

As a researcher, you can benefit from the analysis of case studies similar to inquiries you’re currently studying. Researchers often rely on case studies to answer questions that basic information and standard diagnostics cannot address.

Study a Pattern

One of the main objectives of a case study is to find a pattern that answers whatever the initial inquiry seeks to find. This might be a question about why college students are prone to certain eating habits or what mental health problems afflict house fire survivors. The researcher then collects data, either through observation or data research, and starts connecting the dots to find underlying behaviors or impacts of the sample group’s behavior.

Gather Evidence

During the study period, the researcher gathers evidence to back the observed patterns and future claims that’ll be derived from the data. Since case studies are usually presented in the professional environment, it’s not enough to simply have a theory and observational notes to back up a claim. Instead, the researcher must provide evidence to support the body of study and the resulting conclusions.

Present Findings

As the study progresses, the researcher develops a solid case to present to peers or a governing body. Case study presentation is important because it legitimizes the body of research and opens the findings to a broader analysis that may end up drawing a conclusion that’s more true to the data than what one or two researchers might establish. The presentation might be formal or casual, depending on the case study itself.

Draw Conclusions

Once the body of research is established, it’s time to draw conclusions from the case study. As with all social sciences studies, conclusions from one researcher shouldn’t necessarily be taken as gospel, but they’re helpful for advancing the body of knowledge in a given field. For that purpose, they’re an invaluable way of gathering new material and presenting ideas that others in the field can learn from and expand upon.

MORE FROM QUESTIONSANSWERED.NET

real marketing case studies

Oh no! We couldn't find anything like that.

Try another search, and we'll give it our best shot.

28 Case Study Examples Every Marketer Should See

Caroline Forsey

Published: December 27, 2022

Putting together a compelling case study is one of the most powerful strategies for showcasing your product and attracting future customers. But it's not easy to create case studies that your audience can’t wait to read.

Marketer writing a marketing case study

In this post, we’ll go over the definition of a case study and the best examples to inspire you.

Download Now: 3 Free Case Study Templates

What is a case study?

A case study is a detailed story of something your company did. It includes a beginning — often discussing a conflict, an explanation of what happened next, and a resolution that explains how the company solved or improved on something.

A case study proves how your product has helped other companies by demonstrating real-life results. Not only that, but marketing case studies with solutions typically contain quotes from the customer. This means that they’re not just ads where you praise your own product. Rather, other companies are praising your company — and there’s no stronger marketing material than a verbal recommendation or testimonial. A great case study is also filled with research and stats to back up points made about a project's results.

There are myriad ways to use case studies in your marketing strategy . From featuring them on your website to including them in a sales presentation, a case study is a strong, persuasive tool that shows customers why they should work with you — straight from another customer. Writing one from scratch is hard, though, which is why we’ve created a collection of case study templates for you to get started.

Fill out the form below to access the free case study templates.

Case Study Kit + Templates

Fill out this form to access free case study templates..

There’s no better way to generate more leads than by writing case studies . But without case study examples to draw inspiration from, it can be difficult to write impactful studies that convince visitors to submit a form.

Marketing Case Study Examples

To help you create an attractive and high-converting case study, we've put together a list of some of our favorites. This list includes famous case studies in marketing, technology, and business.

These studies can show you how to frame your company offers in a way that is both meaningful and useful to your audience. So, take a look, and let these examples inspire your next brilliant case study design.

These marketing case studies with solutions show the value proposition of each product. They also show how each company benefited in both the short and long term using quantitative data. In other words, you don’t get just nice statements, like "This company helped us a lot." You see actual change within the firm through numbers and figures.

You can put your learnings into action with HubSpot's Free Case Study Templates . Available as custom designs and text-based documents, you can upload these templates to your CMS or send them to prospects as you see fit.

case study template

1. " How Handled Scaled from Zero to 121 Locations with the Help of HubSpot ," by HubSpot

Case study examples: Handled and HubSpot

What's interesting about this case study is the way it leads with the customer. That reflects a major HubSpot cornerstone, which is to always solve for the customer first. The copy leads with a brief description of why the CEO of Handled founded the company and why he thought Handled could benefit from adopting a CRM. The case study also opens up with one key data point about Handled’s success using HubSpot, namely that it grew to 121 locations.

Notice that this case study uses mixed media. Yes, there is a short video, but it's elaborated upon in the other text on the page. So while your case studies can use one or the other, don't be afraid to combine written copy with visuals to emphasize the project's success.

Key Learnings from the HubSpot Case Study Example

2. " The Whole Package ," by IDEO

Case study examples: IDEO and H&M

Here's a design company that knows how to lead with simplicity in its case studies. As soon as the visitor arrives at the page, they’re greeted with a big, bold photo and the title of the case study — which just so happens to summarize how IDEO helped its client. It summarizes the case study in three snippets: The challenge, the impact, and the outcome.

Immediately, IDEO communicates its impact — the company partnered with H&M to remove plastic from its packaging — but it doesn't stop there. As the user scrolls down, the challenge, impact, and progress are elaborated upon with comprehensive (but not overwhelming) copy that outlines what that process looked like, replete with quotes and intriguing visuals.

Key Learnings from the IDEO Case Study Example

3. " Rozum Robotics intensifies its PR game with Awario ," by Awario

Case study example from Awario

In this case study, Awario greets the user with a summary straight away — so if you’re feeling up to reading the entire case study, you can scan the snapshot and understand how the company serves its customers. The case study then includes jump links to several sections, such as "Company Profile," "Rozum Robotics' Pains," "Challenge," "Solution," and "Results and Improvements."

The sparse copy and prominent headings show that you don’t need a lot of elaborate information to show the value of your products and services. Like the other case study examples on this list, it includes visuals and quotes to demonstrate the effectiveness of the company’s efforts. The case study ends with a bulleted list that shows the results.

Key Learnings from the Awario Robotics Case Study Example

4. " Chevrolet DTU ," by Carol H. Williams

Case study examples: Carol H. Williams and Chevrolet DTU

If you’ve worked with a company that’s well-known, use only the name in the title — like Carol H. Williams, one of the nation’s top advertising agencies, does here. The "DTU," stands for "Discover the Unexpected." It generates interest because you want to find out what the initials mean.

They keep your interest in this case study by using a mixture of headings, images, and videos to describe the challenges, objectives, and solutions of the project. The case study closes with a summary of the key achievements that Chevrolet’s DTU Journalism Fellows reached during the project.

Key Learnings from the Carol H. Williams Case Study Example

5. " How Fractl Earned Links from 931 Unique Domains for Porch.com in a Single Year ," by Fractl

Case study example from Fractl

Fractl uses both text and graphic design in their Porch.com case study to immerse the viewer in a more interesting user experience. For instance, as you scroll, you'll see the results are illustrated in an infographic-design form as well as the text itself.

Further down the page, they use icons like a heart and a circle to illustrate their pitch angles, and graphs to showcase their results. Rather than writing which publications have mentioned Porch.com during Fractl’s campaign, they incorporated the media outlets’ icons for further visual diversity.

Key Learnings from the Fractl Case Study Example

6. " The Met ," by Fantasy

Case study example from Fantasy

What's the best way to showcase the responsiveness and user interface of a website? Probably by diving right into it with a series of simple showcases— which is exactly what Fantasy does on their case study page for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They keep the page simple and clean, inviting you to review their redesign of the Met’s website feature-by-feature.

Each section is simple, showing a single piece of the new website's interface so that users aren’t overwhelmed with information and can focus on what matters most.

If you're more interested in text, you can read the objective for each feature. Fantasy understands that, as a potential customer, this is all you need to know. Scrolling further, you're greeted with a simple "Contact Us" CTA.

Key Learnings from the Fantasy Case Study Example

7. " Rovio: How Rovio Grew Into a Gaming Superpower ," by App Annie

Case study example from App Annie

If your client had a lot of positive things to say about you, take a note from App Annie’s Rovio case study and open up with a quote from your client. The case study also closes with a quote, so that the case study doesn’t seem like a promotion written by your marketing team but a story that’s taken straight from your client’s mouth. It includes a photo of a Rovio employee, too.

Another thing this example does well? It immediately includes a link to the product that Rovio used (namely, App Annie Intelligence) at the top of the case study. The case study closes with a call-to-action button prompting users to book a demo.

Key Learnings from the App Annie Case Study Example

8. " Embracing first-party data: 3 success stories from HubSpot ," by Think with Google

Case study examples: Think with Google and HubSpot

Google takes a different approach to text-focused case studies by choosing three different companies to highlight.

The case study is clean and easily scannable. It has sections for each company, with quotes and headers that clarify the way these three distinct stories connect. The simple format also uses colors and text that align with the Google brand.

Another differentiator is the focus on data. This case study is less than a thousand words, but it's packed with useful data points. Data-driven insights quickly and clearly show how the value of leveraging first-party data while prioritizing consumer privacy.

Case studies example: Data focus, Think with Google

Key Learnings from the Think with Google Case Study Example

9. " In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study ," by Switch

Case study example from Switch

Switch is an international marketing agency based in Malta that knocks it out of the park with this case study. Its biggest challenge is effectively communicating what it did for its client without ever revealing the client’s name. It also effectively keeps non-marketers in the loop by including a glossary of terms on page 4.

The PDF case study reads like a compelling research article, including titles like "In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study," "Scenario," and "Approach," so that readers get a high-level overview of what the client needed and why they approached Switch. It also includes a different page for each strategy. For instance, if you’d only be interested in hiring Switch for optimizing your Facebook ads, you can skip to page 10 to see how they did it.

The PDF is fourteen pages long but features big fonts and plenty of white space, so viewers can easily skim it in only a few minutes.

Key Learnings from the Switch Case Study Example

10. " Gila River ," by OH Partners

Case study example from OH Partners

Let pictures speak for you, like OH Partners did in this case study. While you’ll quickly come across a heading and some text when you land on this case study page, you’ll get the bulk of the case study through examples of actual work OH Partners did for its client. You will see OH Partners’ work in a billboard, magazine, and video. This communicates to website visitors that if they work with OH Partners, their business will be visible everywhere.

And like the other case studies here, it closes with a summary of what the firm achieved for its client in an eye-catching way.

Key Learnings from the OH Partners Case Study Example

11. " Facing a Hater ," by Digitas

Case study example from Digitas

Digitas' case study page for Sprite’s #ILOVEYOUHATER campaign keeps it brief while communicating the key facts of Digitas’ work for the popular soda brand. The page opens with an impactful image of a hundred people facing a single man. It turns out, that man is the biggest "bully" in Argentina, and the people facing him are those whom he’s bullied before.

Scrolling down, it's obvious that Digitas kept Sprite at the forefront of their strategy, but more than that, they used real people as their focal point. They leveraged the Twitter API to pull data from Tweets that people had actually tweeted to find the identity of the biggest "hater" in the country. That turned out to be @AguanteElCofler, a Twitter user who has since been suspended.

Key Learnings from the Digitas Case Study Example

12. " Better Experiences for All ," by HermanMiller

Case study example from HermanMiller

HermanMiller sells sleek, utilitarian furniture with no frills and extreme functionality, and that ethos extends to its case study page for a hospital in Dubai.

What first attracted me to this case study was the beautiful video at the top and the clean user experience. User experience matters a lot in a case study. It determines whether users will keep reading or leave. Another notable aspect of this case study is that the video includes closed-captioning for greater accessibility, and users have the option of expanding the CC and searching through the text.

HermanMiller’s case study also offers an impressive amount of information packed in just a few short paragraphs for those wanting to understand the nuances of their strategy. It closes out with a quote from their client and, most importantly, the list of furniture products that the hospital purchased from the brand.

Key Learnings from the HermanMiller Case Study Example

13. " Capital One on AWS ," by Amazon

Case study example from Amazon AWS

Do you work continuously with your clients? Consider structuring your case study page like Amazon did in this stellar case study example. Instead of just featuring one article about Capital One and how it benefited from using AWS, Amazon features a series of articles that you can then access if you’re interested in reading more. It goes all the way back to 2016, all with different stories that feature Capital One’s achievements using AWS.

This may look unattainable for a small firm, but you don’t have to go to extreme measures and do it for every single one of your clients. You could choose the one you most wish to focus on and establish a contact both on your side and your client’s for coming up with the content. Check in every year and write a new piece. These don’t have to be long, either — five hundred to eight hundred words will do.

Key Learnings from the Amazon AWS Case Study Example

14. " HackReactor teaches the world to code #withAsana ," by Asana

Case study examples: Asana and HackReactor

While Asana's case study design looks text-heavy, there's a good reason. It reads like a creative story, told entirely from the customer's perspective.

For instance, Asana knows you won't trust its word alone on why this product is useful. So, they let Tony Phillips, HackReactor CEO, tell you instead: "We take in a lot of information. Our brains are awful at storage but very good at thinking; you really start to want some third party to store your information so you can do something with it."

Asana features frequent quotes from Phillips to break up the wall of text and humanize the case study. It reads like an in-depth interview and captivates the reader through creative storytelling. Even more, Asana includes in-depth detail about how HackReactor uses Asana. This includes how they build templates and workflows:

"There's a huge differentiator between Asana and other tools, and that’s the very easy API access. Even if Asana isn’t the perfect fit for a workflow, someone like me— a relatively mediocre software engineer—can add functionality via the API to build a custom solution that helps a team get more done."

Key Learnings from the Asana Example

15. " Rips Sewed, Brand Love Reaped ," by Amp Agency

Case study example from Amp Agency

Amp Agency's Patagonia marketing strategy aimed to appeal to a new audience through guerrilla marketing efforts and a coast-to-coast road trip. Their case study page effectively conveys a voyager theme, complete with real photos of Patagonia customers from across the U.S., and a map of the expedition. I liked Amp Agency's storytelling approach best. It captures viewers' attention from start to finish simply because it's an intriguing and unique approach to marketing.

Key Learnings from the Amp Agency Example

16. " NetApp ," by Evisort

Case study examples: Evisort and NetApp

Evisort opens up its NetApp case study with an at-a-glance overview of the client. It’s imperative to always focus on the client in your case study — not on your amazing product and equally amazing team. By opening up with a snapshot of the client’s company, Evisort places the focus on the client.

This case study example checks all the boxes for a great case study that’s informative, thorough, and compelling. It includes quotes from the client and details about the challenges NetApp faced during the COVID pandemic. It closes out with a quote from the client and with a link to download the case study in PDF format, which is incredibly important if you want your case study to be accessible in a wider variety of formats.

Key Learnings from the Evisort Example

17. " Copernicus Land Monitoring – CLC+ Core ," by Cloudflight

Case study example from Cloudflight

Including highly specialized information in your case study is an effective way to show prospects that you’re not just trying to get their business. You’re deep within their industry, too, and willing to learn everything you need to learn to create a solution that works specifically for them.

Cloudflight does a splendid job at that in its Copernicus Land Monitoring case study. While the information may be difficult to read at first glance, it will capture the interest of prospects who are in the environmental industry. It thus shows Cloudflight’s value as a partner much more effectively than a general case study would.

The page is comprehensive and ends with a compelling call-to-action — "Looking for a solution that automates, and enhances your Big Data system? Are you struggling with large datasets and accessibility? We would be happy to advise and support you!" The clean, whitespace-heavy page is an effective example of using a case study to capture future leads.

Key Learnings from the Cloudflight Case Study Example

18. " Valvoline Increases Coupon Send Rate by 76% with Textel’s MMS Picture Texting ," by Textel

Case study example from Textel

If you’re targeting large enterprises with a long purchasing cycle, you’ll want to include a wealth of information in an easily transferable format. That’s what Textel does here in its PDF case study for Valvoline. It greets the user with an eye-catching headline that shows the value of using Textel. Valvoline saw a significant return on investment from using the platform.

Another smart decision in this case study is highlighting the client’s quote by putting it in green font and doing the same thing for the client’s results because it helps the reader quickly connect the two pieces of information. If you’re in a hurry, you can also take a look at the "At a Glance" column to get the key facts of the case study, starting with information about Valvoline.

Key Learnings from the Textel Case Study Example

19. " Hunt Club and Happeo — a tech-enabled love story ," by Happeo

Case study example from Happeo

In this blog-post-like case study, Happeo opens with a quote from the client, then dives into a compelling heading: "Technology at the forefront of Hunt Club's strategy." Say you’re investigating Happeo as a solution and consider your firm to be technology-driven. This approach would spark your curiosity about why the client chose to work with Happeo. It also effectively communicates the software’s value proposition without sounding like it’s coming from an in-house marketing team.

Every paragraph is a quote written from the customer’s perspective. Later down the page, the case study also dives into "the features that changed the game for Hunt Club," giving Happeo a chance to highlight some of the platform’s most salient features.

Key Learnings from the Happeo Case Study Example

20. " Red Sox Season Campaign ," by CTP Boston

Case study example from CTP Boston

What's great about CTP's case study page for their Red Sox Season Campaign is their combination of video, images, and text. A video automatically begins playing when you visit the page, and as you scroll, you'll see more embedded videos of Red Sox players, a compilation of print ads, and social media images you can click to enlarge.

At the bottom, it says "Find out how we can do something similar for your brand." The page is clean, cohesive, and aesthetically pleasing. It invites viewers to appreciate the well-roundedness of CTP's campaign for Boston's beloved baseball team.

Key Learnings from the CTP Case Study Example

21. " Acoustic ," by Genuine

Case study example from Genuine

Sometimes, simple is key. Genuine's case study for Acoustic is straightforward and minimal, with just a few short paragraphs, including "Reimagining the B2B website experience," "Speaking to marketers 1:1," and "Inventing Together." After the core of the case study, we then see a quote from Acoustic’s CMO and the results Genuine achieved for the company.

The simplicity of the page allows the reader to focus on both the visual aspects and the copy. The page displays Genuine's brand personality while offering the viewer all the necessary information they need.

22. " Using Apptio Targetprocess Automated Rules in Wargaming ," by Apptio

Case study example from Apptio

Apptio’s case study for Wargaming summarizes three key pieces of information right at the beginning: The goals, the obstacles, and the results.

Readers then have the opportunity to continue reading — or they can walk away right then with the information they need. This case study also excels in keeping the human interest factor by formatting the information like an interview.

The piece is well-organized and uses compelling headers to keep the reader engaged. Despite its length, Apptio's case study is appealing enough to keep the viewer's attention. Every Apptio case study ends with a "recommendation for other companies" section, where the client can give advice for other companies that are looking for a similar solution but aren’t sure how to get started.

Key Learnings from the Apptio Case Study Example

23. " Airbnb + Zendesk: building a powerful solution together ," by Zendesk

Case study example from Zendesk

Zendesk's Airbnb case study reads like a blog post, and focuses equally on Zendesk and Airbnb, highlighting a true partnership between the companies. To captivate readers, it begins like this: "Halfway around the globe is a place to stay with your name on it. At least for a weekend."

The piece focuses on telling a good story and provides photographs of beautiful Airbnb locations. In a case study meant to highlight Zendesk's helpfulness, nothing could be more authentic than their decision to focus on Airbnb's service in such great detail.

Key Learnings from the Zendesk Case Study Example

24. " Biobot Customer Success Story: Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida ," by Biobot

Case study example from Biobot

Like some of the other top examples in this list, Biobot opens its case study with a quote from its client, which captures the value proposition of working with Biobot. It mentions the COVID pandemic and goes into detail about the challenges the client faced during this time.

This case study is structured more like a news article than a traditional case study. This format can work in more formal industries where decision-makers need to see in-depth information about the case. Be sure to test different methods and measure engagement .

Key Learnings from the Biobot Case Study Example

25. " Discovering Cost Savings With Efficient Decision Making ," by Gartner

Case study example from Gartner

You don't always need a ton of text or a video to convey your message — sometimes, you just need a few paragraphs and bullet points. Gartner does a fantastic job of quickly providing the fundamental statistics a potential customer would need to know, without boggling down their readers with dense paragraphs. The case study closes with a shaded box that summarizes the impact that Gartner had on its client. It includes a quote and a call-to-action to "Learn More."

Key Learnings from the Gartner Case Study Example

26. " Bringing an Operator to the Game ," by Redapt

Case study example from Redapt

This case study example by Redapt is another great demonstration of the power of summarizing your case study’s takeaways right at the start of the study. Redapt includes three easy-to-scan columns: "The problem," "the solution," and "the outcome." But its most notable feature is a section titled "Moment of clarity," which shows why this particular project was difficult or challenging.

The section is shaded in green, making it impossible to miss. Redapt does the same thing for each case study. In the same way, you should highlight the "turning point" for both you and your client when you were working toward a solution.

Key Learnings from the Redapt Case Study Example

27. " Virtual Call Center Sees 300% Boost In Contact Rate ," by Convoso

Case study example from Convoso

Convoso’s PDF case study for Digital Market Media immediately mentions the results that the client achieved and takes advantage of white space. On the second page, the case study presents more influential results. It’s colorful and engaging and closes with a spread that prompts readers to request a demo.

Key Learnings from the Convoso Case Study Example

28. " Ensuring quality of service during a pandemic ," by Ericsson

Case study example from Ericsson

Ericsson’s case study page for Orange Spain is an excellent example of using diverse written and visual media — such as videos, graphs, and quotes — to showcase the success a client experienced. Throughout the case study, Ericsson provides links to product and service pages users might find relevant as they’re reading the study.

For instance, under the heading "Preloaded with the power of automation," Ericsson mentions its Ericsson Operations Engine product, then links to that product page. It closes the case study with a link to another product page.

Key Learnings from the Ericsson Case Study Example

Start creating your case study.

Now that you've got a great list of examples of case studies, think about a topic you'd like to write about that highlights your company or work you did with a customer.

A customer’s success story is the most persuasive marketing material you could ever create. With a strong portfolio of case studies, you can ensure prospects know why they should give you their business.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

New Call-to-action

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

What Is a White Paper? [FAQs]

What Is a White Paper? [FAQs]

What is an Advertorial? 8 Examples to Help You Write One

What is an Advertorial? 8 Examples to Help You Write One

How to Write a Case Study: Bookmarkable Guide & Template

How to Write a Case Study: Bookmarkable Guide & Template

28 Case Study Examples Every Marketer Should See

How to Create Marketing Offers That Don't Fall Flat

20 Creative Ways To Repurpose Content

20 Creative Ways To Repurpose Content

How to Market an Ebook: Don't Let Your Content Offers Collect Dust

How to Market an Ebook: Don't Let Your Content Offers Collect Dust

16 Important Ways to Use Case Studies in Your Marketing

16 Important Ways to Use Case Studies in Your Marketing

10 Pieces of Content Your Audience Really Wants to See [New Data]

10 Pieces of Content Your Audience Really Wants to See [New Data]

11 Ways to Make Your Blog Post Interactive

11 Ways to Make Your Blog Post Interactive

Showcase your company's success using these free case study templates.

Please enter a valid email address to continue.

10 Marketing Case Study Examples: Learn How to Master Them in Your Campaigns

Avatar

What is a marketing case study?

diagram of the elements of a case study

What are the different types of case studies in marketing?

Why should you use case studies, 1. email marketing case study: your therapy source.

marketing case study examples

2. Instagram marketing case study: Converse

marketing case study examples

3. Content marketing case study: porch.com

marketing case study examples

4. SEO case study: Zapier study by Ryan Berg

marketing case study examples

5. PPC case study: Google Ads and Saraf Furniture

marketing case study examples

6. Video marketing case study: L’Oréal and YouTube

7. Remarketing case study: AdRoll and Yoga Democracy

marketing case study examples

8. Influencer marketing case study: Trend and WarbyParker

marketing case study examples

9. Customer experience case study: App Annie and Coca-Cola

10. SaaS case study: Asana and Carta

marketing case study examples

Best practices: How to use case studies in your own marketing campaigns

best practices of using case studies in marketing

Include a dedicated case study/customer stories page on your website

Build ctas into your case study pages, share case studies as part of your email marketing campaigns, when you’re thinking about buying a product, it’s easy to talk yourself out of it., never miss an update, supporting you at every customer touchpoint.

Convert & Grow

Customer Experience Automation

Omni-channel Marketing

Getting Started & Resources

Apps & Integrations

Become a Partner

About ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign, Inc. BBB Business Review

 alt=

12 great case study examples (plus case study writing tips)

real marketing case studies

GatherContent Contributor, Writer

5 minute read.

Interviewed by:

Table of contents

Book Cover

Lead with Content

How to put content at the centre of digital transformation.

Profile Image

Padma Gillen

Digital Content Consultant

This long-form content style is also becoming more common as more marketers discover its value. According to Hubspot’s 2021 State of Marketing report , more than 30% of marketers use case studies as a primary marketing media—up from 13% in 2020.

If you’re new to the world of case studies, we’ll be diving into what case studies are, why they’re important, and how to create your own. We’ll also highlight some compelling case study examples that you can learn from.

What is a case study?

A good case study highlights customer stories showing the following:

While case studies are most often product or service-focused, sometimes businesses use them to share their brand or founder story.

These types of case studies typically focus on organizational progress, such as how they grew their revenue or website traffic. One example is this Outfunnel case study on how the team saved over 80% of its time with user onboarding.

Why are case studies important?

They may not suit every business. But case studies are beneficial, for example, for helping SaaS brands reach future customers.

If they make sense for your industry, case studies should be an important part of your content marketing strategy for many reasons.

Three reasons you should incorporate them as soon as possible are:

Good to Know: Not sure how to use case studies? They work well as lead magnets, landing pages, repurposed blog posts, and, if you have the capacity, even video content!

12 real-life case study examples to bookmark

Reading about the mechanics of case studies is more straightforward than writing case studies from scratch.

That’s why we’ve gathered 12 real-life marketing case study examples you can review before you embark on creating yours.

1. GatherContent | University of Edinburgh

GatherContent case study example

What works: In this great case study, GatherContent includes quotes from the client (the University of Edinburgh) about how their software has improved their content workflow. This adds a human element and will help readers with the same issues identify with the client.

View more GatherContent case studies .

2. Omniscient Digital | AppSumo

Omniscient Digital case study example

What works: Omniscient Digital includes client feedback in video format and shares the results they achieved in a digestible bullet point format.

3. Bit.ly | Vissla

Bit.ly case study example

What works: Besides hosting this case study on their website, Bit.ly provides a PDF link that can both be viewed online or downloaded. Plus, the PDF is visually appealing and easy to read.

4. Asana | Autodesk

Asana case study example

What works: Asana leads with their impact and includes basic information about their client to the right of the page so the reader immediately gets bite-sized background information.

5. Shopify | Bombas

Shopify case study example

What works: Shopify includes a video in their case study, as well as multiple eye-catching images of Bombas products. This ensures that the case study serves both companies, possibly generating customer interest in Bombas socks.

6. Outfunnel | Alight Analytics

real marketing case studies

What works: Outfunnel has repurposed its case study into a blog post, which increases its visibility. The study is also full of client quotes, which adds valuable social proof.

7. Sapling | Zapier

Sapling case study example

What works: Sapling also shares quick preliminary information about Zapier on the left panel and includes several screenshots to show the impact of their product on the company’s processes.

8. BigCommerce | Skullcandy

real marketing case studies

What works: The quick metrics in bold hit readers quickly and highlight BigCommerce expertise to potential customers even before they read the entire case study.

9. Google Ads | L’Oreal

Google ads case study for L'Oreal

What works: Video format. Few things beat hearing the client praise the service and explain the process and results of the campaign in their own words.

10. ActiveCampaign | Your Therapy Source

ActiveCampaign case study example

What works: ActiveCampaign efficiently showcases the problems and solutions before delving into how they helped the client achieve desired results.

11. Intuit | Xenex Healthcare

Intuit case study example

What works: The main benefit is highlighted on the first page of the PDF and the rest of the study delves into the process and the nitty-gritty of the product’s impact.

12. Grayscale | Upwork

Grayscale case study

What works: This page features minimal text. It focuses on quotes from decision-makers at Upwork and ends with a call-to-action that will likely drive conversions.

How to write your own case study

How can you write engaging, effective case studies like the examples above? Here are six steps.

1. Identify a worthy case

Think of projects—either for yourself or for clients—that got outstanding results. Then, whittle it down to the cases that your target audience is most likely to relate to , perhaps because they experience the same problem or have the same goal as in the case.

2. Reflect on your chosen case

Once you’ve decided on the case you’ll start with, do some deeper reflection on the details. What was the project goal? What challenges did you encounter along the way? How did you overcome them to reach your goal?

3. Think about differentiation

Take the last step even further and think of anything you did differently than others might. Did you an experimental tactic or strategy or create a custom solution? If so, use those details to subtly show potential customers why they should be interested in what you have to offer.

4. Gather quotes

Next, get hard-hitting quotes from project stakeholders or clients. Having their thoughts on goals, project obstacles, the solutions provided, and the outcomes will make your description of the case more credible.

5. Draft your case study

Time to turn the details you’ve compiled into a case study draft. How? We’ll talk about the best format for case studies shortly.

6. Add visuals

Next, create visuals that will reinforce the main points of your case study. These could include:

After any designated reviewers and approvers give their stamp of approval on the case study, it’s ready to be published and promoted!

What’s the best case study format?

We’ve seen A+ examples of case studies and gotten some more context on how to create them for your brand or organization. Now, it's time to get to work. As you do, remember to include the following vital sections in your case study format:

Ready to get started? Thankfully, you don’t have to go it alone.

GatherContent—a powerful tool for case study creation

GatherContent makes it possible to keep track of all your case study research —even while working with your marketing team. You don’t have to guess what stage the piece is at or consult another tool to know when your part is due or who to pass the torch to.

GatherContent is a content hub that helps you keep all your content creation in one place , whether you’re writing blog posts, email newsletters, social media posts, or case studies. With content modeling features like Components , you can effortlessly maintain brand identity throughout all your case studies.

Read more customer success stories here to learn more!

Techniques for collaboratively prioritising content

Learn six collaborative methods for prioritising content so your team can be aligned and have confidence in the content being published..

Download Image

About the author

Related posts you might like, platform features.

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Husson University Online

5 Unique Digital Marketing Case Studies that Every Marketing Enthusiast Should See

Published on: July 15, 2021

person giving a presentation on a projector screen

In many ways, effective digital marketing is a process of trial and error. For this reason, a digital marketing case study can be a valuable source of guidance for today's marketing students and professionals, enabling them to learn from the results of others rather than having to start their own trial-and-error process from the beginning. As a marketing management degree student, understanding and evaluating real-world marketing tactics is key to developing a solid foundation for your marketing career. With that in mind, let's take a look at five unique digital marketing case studies that you can use to inspire new ideas and hone your own future digital advertising strategy.

Explore Online Degrees

Case Study #1: Fanatics Boosts Traffic Through Content Marketing

When Fanatics—an e-commerce store focused on selling sports apparel and other sports-related products—decided that it needed to provide customers with more reasons to engage with the company website,  it turned to content marketing as a solution . Fanatics chose a three-pronged approach for their content marketing campaign, one that included timely sports articles meant to coincide with current sporting events, evergreen content related to various events throughout sports history, and articles that capitalize on new trends and developments in the world of sports as they happen.

This strategy of producing both evergreen and trending content enabled Fanatics to establish itself as a desirable news and entertainment resource for sports fans all over the country. Thanks almost entirely to their content marketing campaign, Fanatics saw a 1,100% increase in organic search engine traffic along with a 230% increase in the number of ranking keywords on their website. The company's content marketing efforts also enabled it to publish high-profile features on popular sites such as Yahoo Sports, The Score, and USA Today.

Case Study #2: Wholesaler Drives Visibility and Conversions with Social Media Marketing

Case study #3: amazon leverages crm to become e-commerce giant.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the process of managing interactions with customers to facilitate beneficial outcomes. Much more than simple customer management, CRM uses data processing to divide customer lists into a wide range of segments and formulate various interactions designed to speak to the needs and desires of each specific segment. If you would like a case study of a company that has leveraged innovative CRM with outstanding results, you need not look any further than the e-commerce giant Amazon.

As one of the first companies to really leverage CRM to its full potential, Amazon developed a CRM strategy that takes into consideration every possible interaction that the company has with its customers—from the user interface of the Amazon website to customer service interactions to data mining used for targeted marketing emails. Through this emphasis on CRM, Amazon has managed to create one of the most customer-friendly experiences you will find in the e-commerce sphere—and the results of these efforts are obvious. In 2020 alone, Amazon was able to boast a staggering $386 billion in revenue.

Case Study #4: The American Egg Board Boosts Organic Traffic Through SEO

Case study #5: revecent increases conversion rate with holistic ppc campaign optimization.

Earn a Bachelor of Business Administration and Marketing Management from Husson

In our increasingly digital world, digital marketing is now more important than ever before when it comes to reaching new customers. Whether you are seeking a rewarding career as a marketing professional or going into business for yourself, an education in digital marketing is incredibly valuable. At Husson University, our online marketing degree program covers everything you need to know about digital marketing and is taught by some of the most knowledgeable and experienced instructors in the marketing field. To learn more about enrolling in this exciting program and kick-starting your career as a digital marketing professional, contact us today!

Get Your Business Administration and Marketing Degree

real marketing case studies

Brand Marketing Case Studies

This collection features brands and content creators that used video and other digital tactics to drive innovation, connect with their consumers, and drive brand and business metrics. Learn about best practices, creative executions, and how brands achieved success through digital.

Share this page

Comedy central’s innovative search/youtube strategy sends fans on an internet-wide easter egg hunt, fiat's 500x crossover ad drives audience engagement on youtube, how orkin's youtube content strategy exterminated the 'ew'-factor and boosted brand awareness, gillette wins with a digital-first approach for gillette body, how maybelline new york's eye-catching youtube campaign dared consumers to 'go nude', driving sales for retailers with youtube's trueview for shopping, l'oréal canada finds beauty in programmatic buying, rosetta stone embraces mobile video to generate 10x increase in site traffic, new balance races past pre-order goal with youtube trueview and google lightbox ads, how budweiser won the big game with "puppy love", jcpenney optical boosts in-store traffic and brand exposure with google advertising, how activision reached over 2m subscribers on youtube, aéropostale partners with youtube star bethany mota to drive leads, sales and fans, mondelēz international improves campaign effectiveness with google's brand lift solution, visit california lifts intent to travel to california with a unique experience on youtube, toyota drives engagement with first +post ads campaign, brand usa boosts travel intent 22% with 'discover america' campaign, kraft serves up a fresh take on food with a side of google, hyatt brings its brand experience to life with google solutions, ehealth boosts brand awareness with google display ads, sunrun uses google's brand lift solution to measure campaign recall, topshop reinvents its london fashion week show on google+ and engagement triples, chevrolet drives brand awareness for its new traverse, unilever's 'project sunlight' shines with 77 million youtube views, mercedes-benz france's immersive youtube experience fuels shift in brand perception, youtube and broadway: a cinderella story, chef jamie oliver's food tube: a recipe for youtube success, the record breaking love affair between evian® and youtube, nextiva attracts new customers with youtube trueview ads, vice's youtube success: growing sustained viewership through breakout videos, land rover finds success with engagement ads.

real marketing case studies

We hope you're finding this blog helpful.

If you want our team to handle your marketing for you, contact us!

8 Real Digital Marketing Case Studies

December 24, 2021 ~

Last updated: October 16, 2022

digital marketing case studies

We’ve put out so many posts covering different marketing strategies and tutorials. 

In our Facebook ad examples post, we covered 7 of our clients’ top m ost profitable Facebook ads…

…and we broke the ads down to show what made them work.

You guys really seemed to find that post helpful.

digital marketing case studies

So in this post, we’re going to follow a similar format, but we’re not limiting the examples to Facebook. 

Today, we’re going to walk through some of our top digital marketing case studies using 8 real client examples.

Let’s get started!

8 Digital Marketing Case Studies From Our Clients

Case study #1: moto trax.

The first one on our list of digital marketing case studies is Moto Trax.

It is a snow bike company so he had specific products for a specific audience.

real marketing case studies

We performed SEO, social media marketing, PPC, and website needs for them. 

We got them 78 first-page Google rankings that resulted in over 77,000 new clicks to their website and $96,664.98 in revenue, in 5 months. 

digital marketing case studies

We know that’s a lot to unpack, so let’s start with the SEO process.

SEO is the process of making your website rank at the top of the organic Google search results page.

That is when somebody types in a keyword or search term that’s relevant to your business.

For example, if someone searches “atlanta social media management company” on Google/Bing/Yahoo (or any search engine)…

Let Us  Grow Your Revenue ... 

digital marketing case studies

…then the site that is search engine optimized the best for that keyword will be the first organic listing.

So we helped them appear on the first page of Google results for 78 keywords.

Now, SEO is usually a long-term approach, sometimes taking 12 months or more to see first page results. 

So the major key to achieving these results so fast was their site’s age and history.

Our client had already established some web authority over 5 years but was doing SEO wrong.

Our team was able to successfully come in to:

And while we did perform other services for them, which we’ll get into in a second…

…SEO was a big part of our strategy because of the nature of their business.

Because their products were so specific and niche, it made sense to put their business in front of people actively searching for those specific terms.

That’s what our SEO and PPC services did for them.

So just take a minute to think about your business. 

Is the problem your company solves or the solution that your product or service provides something that people Google often?

If you think so, you can confirm by using Google Keyword Planner (it’s free!) to see exactly how often any search term is searched a month. 

But for now, we just wanted to point out that even though SEO is usually a long-term approach…

…that shouldn’t deter your company from starting the process if your audience is on Google actively searching for what you offer.

Now as for the social media service we provided for Mototrax, it’s important to note that you can still target a specific cold audience on social media.

But, it’s not guaranteed that they’re actively searching for or in need of your product right then and there when you deliver the ad to them.

So on that note, let’s look at the social media marketing we did for them to see what worked. 

We drove over 49,000 Facebook page likes, over 205 thousand video views, and 1,718 leads at $2.00 per lead, from social ads.

digital marketing case studies

So how did we do this and what made it work? 

Well to answer the first question, we used specific objective-oriented ad campaigns to fuel their marketing funnel. 

We ran a page-like ad campaign…

digital marketing case studies

…that drove Facebook page likes at $0.19 per like – that’s less than a quarter per like!

digital marketing case studies

We ran a video views campaign…

digital marketing case studies

…that drove over 2-05K video views at $.001 per video view.

digital marketing case studies

We used the post engagement campaign to boost their posts…

digital marketing case studies

…and get over 300,000 engagements at $0.01 per engagement.

digital marketing case studies

And lastly, we ran a conversion campaign…

real marketing case studies

…to acquire over 1700 leads at $2 per lead.

digital marketing case studies

We’ve said this in other posts, but campaign objective selection is important because they’re optimized by goal. 

So a video views campaign is going to show your ad to people within your target audience who are most likely to watch your video. 

Whereas if you targeted the same audience with a page-like ad campaign…

…the ad is going to be delivered to people within that audience who are most likely to like your page. 

And this is all driven by Facebook’s AI and users’ behavior patterns on the platform. 

So that’s why we thought it’s important to show you all the different campaigns we used.

That’s because too often we see business owners who are new to advertising come in and start running engagement campaigns…

…when what they really want are website lead form completions. 

Now, the reason all of these campaigns worked is because:

Our client spent over $18,000 in those 5 months but was happy to do so given the returns. 

And if you’ve read any of our marketing funnel posts, you know there’s:

…that your audience usually has to go through in order to become a customer.

Our page likes and video views campaigns helped them garner brand awareness…

…that could later be retargeted to get further engagement out of their new followers and eventually, convert them into leads.

If you want to read more about these SEO results , you can head to our website after this.

And before we jump into case study #2…

…we also want to invite you to check out our new social media ads training course to fuel your knowledge in social media advertising.

Case Study #2: Royce Chocolate

The next one on our list of digital marketing case studies is for a famous brand of chocolate from Japan.

We helped Royce Chocolate generate a 225.25% return on investment using PPC.

We generated 287 conversions that resulted in $13,686.90 in revenue.

digital marketing case studies

So, a little background on the company, they were voted as the number one gift item in Japan’s gift-giving culture.

But after a few years, their products were eventually made available across 14 countries, including the U.S.

So, they hired us to help increase their brand awareness and online sales via Google Ads.

Similar to what we discussed regarding SEO in the last example…

…PPC is another way to put your website at the top of the search results for any given keyword that you feel is relevant. 

The main difference is that with PPC, you’re paying Google directly for that space, and this is reflected by users with the “Ad” symbol next to your website.

real marketing case studies

It’s a quicker route to get to the top of the search results…

…but the caveat is that it constantly takes money to fuel it. Soon as you stop paying for clicks, you stop appearing there. 

Having said that, it is often a great temporary option to start driving immediate sales and get some cash flow coming in…

…while you work on a more sustainable plan like SEO. 

For Royce’s Chocolates, they spent $4,208.14 and made $13,686.90 back! So let’s look at how we did it.

We broke their campaigns up:

…based on popular search terms we found in the keyword research we did prior.

Now some of the match types we used in their campaign are no longer available.

real marketing case studies

The match types available now are broad match, phrase match, and exact match.

keyword match types

So Google’s example here is for the keyword “lawn mowing service.” 3 words, 1 keyword. 

If you use “broad match” targeting, your ad will appear when related searches are made such as lawn aeration services.

This is probably the least popular type to use because it’s very loose targeting.

Phrase Match means your ad will only be shown if the search query includes the meaning of the keyword.

For instance, “lawn moving service near me” or “hire company to mow lawn.” 

This is the match type that replaced Broad Match Modifier which is what we used in Royce’s campaign.

And then lastly, we have the Exact Match, where your ads will only be shown on searches that have the same meaning as your keyword such as:

So that was our crash course in PPC match types for you.

And for this post, we wanted you to understand that we tested out multiple keywords…

…in addition to testing Broad Match Modifier and Exact Match to drive the results we did for Royce’s Chocolates. 

These were the top search ads we used that resulted in their 287 conversions…

real marketing case studies

…sending them right to the shop page for the collection of chocolates they were promoting.

real marketing case studies

Now let’s look at a PPC case study for a client from a totally different industry.

Case Study #3: Fox Cities Real Estate

Moving on to the next on our list of digital marketing case studies is Fox Cities Home Buyers is a company based in Wisconsin, USA.

They buy houses, pair up sellers with real estate experts, and help people with selling their properties.

They reached out to us for help with their Google advertising.

We scored 95 conversions for them at $16.05 per conversion…

digital marketing case studies

…which is nothing when compared to the revenue gained by any closed lead in real estate.

We followed a similar approach in that we tested a multitude of keywords and tested them with the BMM match type and exact match type.

digital marketing case studies

These were the top-performing ads. 

digital marketing case studies

All of them address pain points that are relevant to their target market including:

Using verbiage that is eye-catching for their target market, not only got them more clicks to their website, but it helped to acquire the right kind of lead.

People are who looking to buy a home are not going to click on those ads that all start out with “selling your home”, and that’s what our client wanted. 

Our ads resulted in almost a 40% increase in their conversion rate.

Now to learn more tips for your real estate marketing strategy , be sure to read this post next.

Case Study #4: Wingstop

Fourth on our list of digital marketing case studies is Wingstop.

It is a restaurant chain that specializes in chicken wings with has locations nationwide, as well as a few international locations. 

Wingstop came to LYFE Marketing with a goal to grow their social media.

Specifically, they wanted to increase their engagement on Instagram and Twitter so as to obtain new customers.

And we did just that. We grew their Instagram by over 1,300 and their Twitter by more than 1,200.

digital marketing case studies

Now, there’s a lot of ways to grow your followers organically, we’ve made a few posts about it that you can read. 

But the reason we specifically wanted to talk about this client as an example in this post is because:

We would look for people actively talking about wings or being hungry on Twitter.

We’d see if we could verify that they were in the local area, and if so, we’d engage with them from Wingstop’s account.

In this digital marketing case studies example, a local tweeted that they were hungry.

digital marketing case studies

We replied to them from the WingStop account and said, “It’s time to defeat that hunger!” with a mouth-watering picture of their wings and fries. 

The user tweeted back and said, “I’ll make a stop today! Omg. It looks so good!”

In a massively automated world, there’s still something to be said for personal, one-on-one engagement.

This is especially when you pair that with an enticing food photo that makes you hungry on the spot.

But for small businesses, and especially local businesses – restaurant or not – engagement methods like this can do a lot for your:

Case Study #5: Embroidery Store

The next company on our list of digital marketing case studies is The Embroidery Store which is a wholesaler for embroidery supplies.

They have a wide range of products and are known as the leading supplier of embroidery supplies to the commercial embroidery industry.

They came to us after failing to realize profitable sales via Google ads on their own.

Our ads produced 99 conversions which resulted in over $15,000 in revenue for them, so let’s look at how we did it.

digital marketing case studies

We ran ads for different keywords based on different products, again using different match types as well.

digital marketing case studies

These were the top-performing ads that sent people directly to their shop page. 

digital marketing case studies

One thing that’s important to note about PPC campaigns is that you’re putting them in front of people who you know ( are at least somewhat interested)…

…because they’re actively searching for a high-intent keyword that’s related to what you offer. 

That’s what we did with their ad group here to help them find their niche target audience. 

In the ad, you have a limited amount of character space to work with, and for search campaigns, in particular, there is no image.

So you usually want to get right to the point and that’s what our ads did here: “Embroidery Supplies. High quality, low prices.”

Our client spent $5,731.82 on these ads and made a 162.41% return on investment with $15,040.66 in revenue.

Case Study #6: Talijah Waajid

The next one on our list of real digital marketing studies belongs to Taliah Waajid.

This brand is a natural hair care specialist, a master cosmetologist, and a manufacturer…

…of the first complete line of natural and chemical-free hair care products. 

Her brand offers hair care products that are specifically created and formulated for naturally curly, coily, kinky, and wavy hair textures.

Taliah Waajid reached out to us to help them with their social media management.

We generated 54,874 fans for them, over 263,000 total engagements, and over 146,000 video views at $0.01 per view.

digital marketing case studies

 So let’s look at how we did it.

Similar to Mototrax’s social media campaign , we ran multiple ad campaigns for Taliah to accomplish these different objectives. 

We generated her Facebook fans (or page likes) at $0.16 per Facebook fan,

Her post-engagement at anywhere from 1 cent to $0.004 per engagement, which is very low, and her video views at 1 cent per view.

digital marketing case studies

But you can’t just throw some ads up on social media and expect these kinds of results. The magic ingredient was in our planning. 

We broke our strategy down into 5 phases.

The short version is that we found and targeted her ideal prospects, built a connection with them, and created engaging content…

…to keep them coming back to her page and brand for more.

Case Study #7: The Handkerchief Shop

Next on our list of digital marketing studies is the Handkerchief Shop.

They are a small business that produces custom handkerchiefs for weddings.

The shop has expanded its embroidery options over time so that customers can fully personalize their products.

They came to us to optimize and improve their search engine rankings.

They started with 185 first-page rankings, and we helped them get to 314 first-page rankings.

They even outranked Etsy here for the keyword “custom handkerchief”.

digital marketing case studies

So how did we do it? 

We performed thorough keyword research to see which search queries were being used most by their target audience.

Then, we helped them add hundreds of new Google keywords and rise to first page rankings for over 300 of their total keywords.

So again, you can see we’re working with a client that has a specific offering and target market, which is why utilizing SEO works so well here.

The key in this campaign was to be diligent in our keyword research and ensure we were going after industry-relevant keywords…

…while also following Google’s best practices.

If you don’t know, there are actually unethical ways to perform SEO. It’s called black hat SEO. 

Black hat SEO is a way to perform SEO in a way that violates the search engine’s policies.

And if the search engine catches you doing it, it is catastrophic for your campaign and business, to put it bluntly.

White hat SEO is what’s considered a search-engine-approved series of SEO tactics that you can follow.

We want to mention it because if you’re adding keywords to your website to rank higher, you don’t want to perform what’s called keyword stuffing.

This is where:

“keywords are loaded into a web page’s meta tags, visible content, or backlink anchor text in an attempt to gain an unfair rank advantage in search engines.” 

But we’re going to talk about this a little bit more in the next case study so let’s go ahead and move on to our last case study of the day,

Case Study #8: Egyptian Magic

Moving on to the last on our list of digital marketing case studies is Egyptian Magic.

This is a multi-purpose skin cream product made of all-natural ingredients.

Now if you read our top Facebook ad examples post, you’ve seen us talk about this client in that post as well. 

But we’re mentioning them here again because we did more than just Facebook ads for them.

We also performed SEO and organic social media management.

For SEO, we helped them achieve 53 first-page rankings.

digital marketing case studies

While for social media management, we helped them acquire 67,233 total new followers across all their platforms.

digital marketing case studies

And if you missed it in our other post, we helped them generate $10,062 in revenue from their social media ads.

digital marketing case studies

They began with 0 first-page rankings, so how did we get them to have 53?

Our main strategy was blog creation.

We wrote blogs for them, and in doing so, we added 1,500 new Google keywords to their content.

As a result, they saw greater visibility with these efforts and started continually yielding more organic traffic and sales.

So what we wanted to mention here from the last example about keyword stuffing is that…

…your content should be equally written for your audience as much as it’s written for Google. 

You don’t want to just stick keywords everywhere for the sake of sticking them there- that’s a quick way to be flagged by Google. 

What you do want to do is research to see which keywords are being commonly searched by your audience, and create blogs around those topics. 

Make sure that your blogs are just as helpful and valuable to your audience as they are optimized for Google. 

A lot of times, we see business owners making the mistake of only focusing on one or the other.

Now for their social media management strategy, we did a few things to engage their target market. 

Get Exclusive Marketing Tips!

We researched their audience and found that their consumers are influenced by and care about an aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed. 

So, we would send our client a mockup of what their Instagram feed would look like with our content for the month prior to publishing.

real marketing case studies

Now, we sent this to them in a Google doc because we were also planning out the copy, hashtags, stories, and more alongside the images.

But if you want a quick and easy way to plan your own Instagram feed, you can download free apps like Preview. 

We also reposted consumers’ posts of their Egyptian Magic photos…

real marketing case studies

…where they had tagged us to further encourage brand awareness and other customers to tag them in their posts.

And lastly, we boosted posts and ran giveaways to further drive post engagement and brand awareness.

digital marketing case studies

This paired with the social advertising strategy that we covered in our other post that helped them to continually find and convert new customers. 

And that about wraps up our 8 digital marketing case studies! We know it was a long post but we hope it was helpful to you. 

If you want results like these, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our digital marketing agency today. 17

' data-src=

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

If you want our team to handle your marketing for you and drive sales for your business, book a call!

close-link

WEBINAR: Triple Your Sales through Digital Marketing

5 Great Marketing Case Studies from Around the Web

Elisa Gabbert

One of my favorite types of blog post is the marketing   case study – a personalized story of success or failure (or otherwise interesting or unexpected results). As blog posts go, it’s not as easy to churn out as a “top 5” post (ahem), but you can learn so much more from them. It’s often easier to take something actionable away from specific examples and real stories than vague abstractions, so a well-written case study is a great way to get attention and links. As an added benefit, a case study is always unique, whereas standard tip posts are often just reproducing information you can find elsewhere on the web.

If you haven’t considered writing this type of content before, I encourage you to give it a shot! Think about a specific strategy you implemented recently that really knocked it out of the park – or completely flopped. Then share why you think it worked or didn’t work. Alternatively, write a case study from the outside – often, other businesses succeed or fail in the public eye, and an outsider’s perspective on the reasons is just as valuable as insider analysis.

To get you inspired, here are five great marketing case studies :

Marketing Research Case Study #1: Social Media’s Halo Effect on Organic Search

Is a mention without a link worth anything? It can be! This case study from the Level Ten Design blog recounts the effects on a client’s traffic after Selena Gomez mentioned the business on Twitter. The author guesses that the reach of that tweet, including retweets, was well over a million, and the site’s analytics saw a huge boost in organic traffic and brand-related keyword searches (what he called “a halo effect”).

Internet Marketing Case Study #2: Squeeze Page Optimization: How to Get 700+ Free Leads and a 64% Conversion Rate

Viper Chill (Glen Alsop) has written a ton of case studies on his blog – after a while, all his success gets annoying. (Just kidding.) This one is an analysis of a squeeze page he created that had an extraordinarily high conversion rate of 64%. The offer was a free e-book, but there was a catch: “In order for people to get the guide (you guessed it) they had to Tweet or Facebook share a link to my website.” This ended up sending hundreds of additional visitors.

Marketing Case Study Example #3: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

I’m sure you’ve heard of The 4-Hour Workweek , even if you haven’t read it – it’s one of those books that feels like it topped the bestseller lists on the basis of name alone. Did you know that Timothy Ferriss tested the title using Google Ads (AdWords)? He created campaigns for six prospective titles. The title with the best click-through rate was the winner. Read more about this clever idea on the weiji blog ( weiji is the Chinese word for crisis, formed from the words for “danger” and “opportunity”).

Marketing Tactic Case Study #4: Is Optimizing Photos More Important Than You Think?

This recent post from the SEOmoz blog by Kasy Allen addresses “the importance of correctly labeling your photos” as opposed to just using keywords: “if you fill the alt tag with nothing but keywords, how are people going to get the images that they really need? Do I want ‘world’s best tortilla soup recipe ever’ or do I want ‘thick tortilla soup recipe?’” She does a test search to discover what else Google is looking for when crawling and ranking images.

Conversion Psychology Marketing Strategy Case Study #5: Why Stealing Grapes is Good for Your Form Conversions

This case study by Oli Gardner describes a test that improved newsletter opt-in conversion by 12%. How? By including a preview. Oli attributes this to the same psychology that drives us to steal a grape before we buy a full bunch.

Want more? Here are some of our own case studies:

Meet The Author

Elisa gabbert.

Elisa Gabbert is WordStream’s Director of Content and SEO. Likes include wine, karaoke, poker, ping-pong, perfume, and poetry.

See other posts by Elisa Gabbert

real marketing case studies

More Articles Like This

How to Create an Editorial Calendar (Tips, Tools, & Free Template!)

How to Create an Editorial Calendar (Tips, Tools, & Free Template!)

Hit your content marketing goals with these pro tips, free tools, and a Trello template!

How to Measure Content Marketing ROI Right: Metrics, Math & Mistakes to Avoid

How to Measure Content Marketing ROI Right: Metrics, Math & Mistakes to Avoid

Metrics, mistakes to avoid, and examples to help you get the most out of your content marketing efforts.

7 Steps to Generate Leads With Gated Content (+Examples)

7 Steps to Generate Leads With Gated Content (+Examples)

Tap into one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to generate leads for your business.

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.

wordstream google ads performance grader

Sign up for our weekly newsletter!

Related articles.

The 4 Stages of a Supremely Successful Content Marketing Funnel

The 4 Stages of a Supremely Successful Content Marketing Funnel

We use cookies to enhance your experience when visiting our website. Our cookies policy describes how we use cookies and how to disable them.

8 Best marketing case study examples

Looking to drive your marketing strategy? Read our best marketing case study examples that show how global brands have used social listening and consumer intelligence to maximize their results. Can't wait? Download our most popular marketing case study here!

Social listening and consumer intelligence will knock your marketing campaigns out of the park. No question.

Don’t believe me?

The following types of case studies speak for themselves about why you should… listen.

Table of content

Grubhub marketing case study | Consumer insights feed the soul

When the world went into lockdown, food delivery services became an essential part of all our lives. But how to do it safely?

Based in the US, Grubhub is a food ordering and delivery platform that connects consumers with local restaurants and takeaways. To understand what people wanted and meet their new demands, the brand turned to consumer insights.

COVID-19 brought the world to its knees. People feared for their health and for their income. The challenge for Grubhub was how to address consumer concerns with regard to a restricted household budget, disinfection protocols, the mechanics of safe food delivery, and more.

Using our consumer intelligence platform, the Grubhub team monitored for diners' negative experiences, and countered with positive experiences.

When Grubhub's Belly Dance ad first aired on TV, it fell below expectations, receiving low engagement. Suddenly, in January 2021, the commercial became a viral meme, receiving over 40K mentions on social media in one month.

Working with Talkwalker, the brand created a strategy as to how to join this growing conversation .

Think you can make a commercial better than us? Prove it. Add your own music to it or suggest a song, then tweet it with #DeliverTheRemix . You could have your song featured in our commercial and win a YEAR of free food. Ends 1/19. No purch nec. 50 US/DC, 18+. Rules in bio. pic.twitter.com/cRxIFKAji9 — Grubhub (@Grubhub) January 16, 2021

As the campaign became more successful, the team launched the #DeliverTheRemix contest, asking followers to help choose the next song in the “Belly Dance” ad. Consumers loved it, creating a ton of fun and creative pieces of content.

To understand how Grubhub was able to turn negative community sentiment and drive a brand-amplifying strategy , read the Grubhub marketing case study.

Download the Grubhub marketing case study

UNICEF marketing case study | Fighting misleading information with conversational insights

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we've been bombarded with misinformation about the virus and the various vaccines. In this case study, we look at how UNICEF MENARO developed a communication strategy to battle the fake news that threatened to undermine the vaccine program in the Middle East and North Africa.

The pandemic caught us by surprise, and we lacked a reliable source of truth. This issue was exacerbated with the release of the vaccine, when we suffered a further deluge of fake news that fed the rising anti-vaccine mood.

It became critical for organizations promoting the vaccine to understand the concerns of the public , enabling them to put peoples' fears to rest.

For UNICEF MENARO this meant using Talkwalker's consumer intelligence platform to track misinformation keywords , along with mentions of COVID-19 in online conversations in the MENA region to see just how serious the situation was.

Sentiment analysis was used to find the overall sentiment around vaccines, with results showing that net sentiment was low, proving vaccine hesitancy.

UNICEF marketing case study -  sentiment at 11.5% positive, negative at 19.6%. Net sentiment -26.1%.

The net sentiment around vaccines from December 2020 - April 2021 demonstrated the overall negative view of vaccines.

To shift the sentiment, UNICEF in MENA activated the voices of community members to engage with people and allay their vaccine fears.

UNICEF'S communication strategy delivered a data-driven narrative using strategic partnerships, influencer marketing, and real-life testimonies. Short-form videos that were a strong part of the strategy, with the video for the #MaskUp campaign receiving over 136K mentions between April 2020 and May 2021.

Number of mentions of #MaskUp in the MENA region during the past 13 months. Showing a significant spike in late January 2021.

Number of mentions of #MaskUp in the MENA region during the past 13 months.

UNICEF continues to play a key role in monitoring conversation around the pandemic, whether it's positive or negative.

To understand more about how UNICEF used consumer intelligence to battle fake news , and the successful campaigns it launched, check out our UNICEF marketing case study.

Download the UNICEF marketing case study

University of Sydney marketing case study | Proves the value of social media

The secret to a successful social media strategy is ensuring it's aligned with your business goals.

This marketing case study explores how the University of Sydney used a combination of Hootsuite and Talkwalker and increased sentiment, engagement, and video views.

The university was looking to boost its reputation for research, entice a more diverse range of top-level students, and build a brand that would stand out in a crowd. A forward thinking university, social media would inevitably play a big part, so much so, it already had a Social Squad using Hootsuite, Talkwalker, and Adobe.

What did the squad do? Bringing the various faculty teams together, it created a social media strategy that aligned content, goals, and reporting across it's 36 official social channels.

Sentiment analysis and social media listening enabled the university to measure and manage its brand reputation . Collecting insights that informed the campaign strategy and boosted sentiment through social media communication.

When sentiment turned negative during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Stay Strong India campaign brought about a 30% increase in net sentiment score.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by University of Sydney (@sydney_uni)

“The insights that Talkwalker provides us have been incredible and have really informed our campaign strategy. Providing these insights to our stakeholders demonstrates what social media can do for our brand and helps us secure investment to increase our budgets and grow our team.” Liz Grey | Social Media | University of Sydney

In the past, when content was shared across multiple channels without a plan, reporting results was hard. The introduction of Hootsuite Impact meant that the team could efficiently report on engagement, campaign performance, and ROI.

A year into its successful social media strategy, the university continues to collect student insights, and is looking to recruit influencers to meet new goals.

For more details on how the university used social media to improve its reputation, download our University of Sydney marketing case study.

Download the University of Sydney marketing case study

Bella&Brava marketing case study | Image recognition sees all

I love pizza, you love pizza.

Even rats love pizza...

With a whopping 106.2K mentions on July 9th, 2019 on Twitter alone, it’s clear that everyone loves posting about pizza.

Data found using Talkwalker’s QuickSearch .

Pizza emoji cloud - Talkwalker analytics

The most popular emojis used when it comes to discussing pizza.

When Venice-based pizzeria Bella&Brava wanted to open restaurants in new locations, it partnered with digital consultancy company OpenKnowledge to harness the power of social media.

Using Talkwalker’s proprietary image recognition technology , OpenKnowledge analyzed data from user-generated content - UGC - created by the consumers Bella&Brava were looking to feed. Their hip, young target audience.

Using image recognition, photos of pizzas posted on social media platforms - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - were identified, along with background scenes and objects.

The consumer insights collected from social networks helped Bella&Brava make critical business decisions . Which cities to open in? Which brand partnerships to explore? How will cultural differences influence the design of each new menu?

Read Bella&Brava’s marketing case study to see how social listening and consumer insights will put your brand ahead of your competitors, purely by listening to consumers and meeting their demands .

Download the Bella&Brava marketing case study

“In the digital age, there are two types of organisations: those that collect data and those that transform it into opportunities” Ilaria Baietti, Director - Brand Interaction, OpenKnowledge

Speed up the growth of your business by closing the gap between your brand and consumers. Boom!

HelloFresh marketing case study | When social listening is the secret ingredient

When HelloFresh, the world’s leading meal kit company, was struggling with social media data, it was time to call Talkwalker. .

Previously, the brand had been manually collecting social media data. This was not only time consuming, but vital information was being missed .

Humans are great, but when you consider the amount of social data out there…

It was time to freshen up HelloFresh’s marketing strategy with social listening.

“At HelloFresh, data is at the center of everything we do. It was only natural for us to turn to social listening to improve the performance and efficiency of our marketing and communications teams. Talkwalker has allowed us to unlock access to a much larger conversation around our brand than ever before.” Jordan Schultz, Social Media Manager, HelloFresh

Talkwalker’s consumer intelligence platform was able to identify consumer insights , then translate into meaningful data. Moving forward, HelloFresh identified more than 400% more mentions per month.

With all these new insights to hand, HelloFresh began to develop a crisis management plan.

Take a look at our HelloFresh marketing case study, for more details

Download the HelloFresh marketing case study

Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study | How to turn a crisis into a soaring success

This is a case study from a few years back, so pre pandemic. But it remains a landing page that converts, bigly.

What’s every traveler’s dream and every airline’s nightmare?

When a Hong Kong Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai was mispriced at $561, consumers rushed to make the most of this mistake, with the Hong Kong Airline marketing team scrabbling for their oxygen masks.

Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study - The buzz from the mispriced tickets caused a huge increase in mentions, engagement and reach.

The buzz from the mispriced tickets caused a huge increase in mentions, engagement and reach.

What were their options in the face of this PR crisis ? Search for the nearest exit? Or, buckle up and go along for what was sure to be a bumpy ride?

Hong Kong Airlines decided to take another route. They chose to breeze right through it.

Luckily, they were prepared because of social listening and consumer intelligence. By using the insights from Talkwalker’s social media data and sentiment analysis , they were able to plan accordingly and protect their brand reputation .

“When we see what is happening in “real time” on social media we are better prepared to make timely and informed decisions and communicate those decisions well. Social listening and analytics tools are critical to success. In this case, we managed to turn what could have been a damaging issue, into a fantastic PR opportunity. With 4,900% more engagements created in a one week period.” Dennis Owen, General Manager of Branding and Social Media, Hong Kong Airlines

Read the Hong Kong Airlines case study to learn how they used social media data from competitors, and sentiment analysis to inform their strategic decisions. All while keeping customers and potential customers happy.

Download the Hong Kong Airlines marketing case study

Bonduelle marketing case study | Breaking down data silos to make critical business decisions

Bonduelle, a major French brand in the FMCG/CPG industry, was in the grips of optimizing its online brand strategy. The company that specializes in providing frozen and canned vegetables daily to over 100 countries, wanted to ensure that all its consumer data was readily available across its entire company.

The problem?

Image shows data silos in across the board - risk, legal, marketing, sales, product, image

Data silos in Bonduelle.

Each department was collecting its own data and interpreting it, without a platform from which to share the information with other teams. This is a common issue. The State of Social Intelligence Report points out that 31% of organizations offer their teams limited access to social data.

The crucial information was hidden away in the dark depths of the team’s computer folder – unable to be used across departments to identify added benefits.

Social listening held the key to knocking down these data walls. It brought together information from online, social media, and traditional press all on one platform . Allowing Bonduelle to find the topics that were being discussed alongside their products or services, images associated with the brand, their high-performing influencers, and how to protect their brand reputation from negative comments.

Talkwalker offered the perfect solution, giving the brand the opportunity to build their own dashboard and choose who would have access to the data.

Read Bonduelle’s marketing case study to learn more about how it...

Download the Bonduelle marketing case study

Lion & Lion and Rimmel marketing case study ­| Changing the face of Malaysian makeup

When faced with the relaunch of the British cosmetics brand Rimmel in Malaysia, the brand’s digital marketing agency, Lion & Lion, turned to social media.

With the increasing demand for authenticity and inclusivity, the beauty industry has been opting for social media and specifically, influencer marketing instead of traditional advertising methods.

Makes sense!

It’s a trend that resonates with Gen Z . Econsultancy states that 65% of this group rely on social media to find and choose beauty products.

Rather than listening to marketers telling you what to buy, social media posts and influencers become the cool friend with the inside scoop on the latest makeup trend. So, it’s no surprise that cosmetics brands are turning to social media and social listening for consumer insights into what people really want.

In a country where the k-beauty brands dominate the shelves, the first step was to make Rimmel stand out in the crowd.

The data showed that consumers believe beauty is more than skin deep. It’s all about being confident. They want bold, experimental makeup to create distinctive looks.

Women in Malaysia, expressing themselves through makeup.

Rimmel then launched the #MakeUpYourOwnRules marketing campaign which championed self-expression and all-inclusive beauty that radiates confidence.

“As a result, we saw an increase in branded search and share-of-voice, and gained around 3x of our initial market share target within the first year of launch” Cheska Teresa, Managing Director, Lion & Lion in Malaysia

For more details on how Lion & Lion took full advantage of social listening and consumer intelligence for Rimmel, read Lion & Lion’s marketing case study.

Download the Lion & Lion and Rimmel marketing case study

Drive your marketing with consumer intelligence

There you have it. 8 of our best marketing case study examples. Download them all to discover how some of the world's biggest brands use our consumer intelligence platform to drive their marketing strategies to success . Our industry-leading platform turns social and owned data into powerful and easy to action consumer insights. Don’t get left behind…

Call to action button to get a free demo of Talkwalker's consumer intelligence platform to find and analyze consumer insights.

Meg is a member of the Talkwalker content team. Walking to the beat of a different drum, she swears that she’s only wearing black until a darker colour is invented. She may dramatize, she may exaggerate, she’s always brutally honest, but she’s never ever ever sarcastic!

She hates writing about herself in the third person, but was persuaded by a small, blue Yeti.

How to create a social media report with Talkwalker - close up of pie chart and bar chart with a person holding a pen and pointing at results.

Copyright © 2023 Talkwalker Inc. All Rights Reserved Impressum Author Privacy Policy Privacy Policy Terms of service

Europe - Talkwalker Sarl: 33, Avenue John F Kennedy, L-1855, Kirchberg - Luxembourg

US - Talkwalker Inc: 7415 Southwest Parkway Bldg. 6, Suite 500 #131 Austin, TX 78735-8998

APAC - Talkwalker Pte. Ltd: 1 Wallich Street, Guoco Tower #09-01, Singapore 078881

Japan - Talkwalker K.K.: Ark Hills South Tower 16F 1-4-5 Roppongi, Minato-ku Tokyo, 13, 106-0032, Japan

Facebook

IMAGES

  1. 21 Best Marketing Case Studies images in 2020

    real marketing case studies

  2. Case Study: Marketing A Brand New Real Estate Business Mid-Pandemic

    real marketing case studies

  3. 7 Tips to Implement Case Studies in Your Marketing Strategy Effectively

    real marketing case studies

  4. Case Studies: How Content Marketing Benefits Companies

    real marketing case studies

  5. 7 Marketing Case Studies You Need in Your Life

    real marketing case studies

  6. Case Studies

    real marketing case studies

VIDEO

  1. Marketing Group Project

  2. Guochao Marketing 2022 Webinar by daxue consulting

  3. Take our hand, we will guide you l 7 Star Recovery

  4. Just the Right Painting l Promo

  5. Welcome to Reputation Rehab

  6. doss docs l Promotional Video

COMMENTS

  1. What Is a Case Study?

    When you’re performing research as part of your job or for a school assignment, you’ll probably come across case studies that help you to learn more about the topic at hand. But what is a case study and why are they helpful? Read on to lear...

  2. Why Are Case Studies Important?

    Case studies are important because they help make something being discussed more realistic for both teachers and learners. Case studies help students to see that what they have learned is not purely theoretical but instead can serve to crea...

  3. What Are Some Examples of Case Studies?

    Examples of a case study could be anything from researching why a single subject has nightmares when they sleep in their new apartment, to why a group of people feel uncomfortable in heavily populated areas. A case study is an in-depth anal...

  4. 28 Case Study Examples Every Marketer Should See

    A case study proves how your product has helped other companies by demonstrating real-life results. Not only that, but marketing case studies

  5. 10 Marketing Case Study Examples

    3. Implementation case studies: An implementation case study takes the average client case study a bit further, focusing on the actual

  6. 12 great case study examples (plus case study writing tips)

    Case studies have been hailed as a highly effective tool for content ... That's why we've gathered 12 real-life marketing case study

  7. 5 Unique Digital Marketing Case Studies that Every Marketing

    Case Study #1: Fanatics Boosts Traffic Through Content Marketing · Case Study #2: Wholesaler Drives Visibility and Conversions with Social Media

  8. Brand marketing case studies

    Brand Marketing Case Studies · Share this page · Comedy Central's Innovative Search/YouTube Strategy Sends Fans on an Internet-Wide Easter Egg Hunt · FIAT's 500X

  9. 8 Real Digital Marketing Case Studies

    Contact us: https://bit.ly/3RJiSTnThe best way to learn digital marketing is to see strategies put to use. In this video, we are showing you

  10. 8 Real Digital Marketing Case Studies

    8 Digital Marketing Case Studies From Our Clients · Case Study #1: Moto Trax · Case Study #2: Royce Chocolate · Case Study #3: Fox Cities Real

  11. 100+ Case Study Examples for Sales and Marketing

    Case studies are an indispensable tool for providing proof of quality and utility. They help demonstrate exactly what you have done to help other customers or

  12. 5 Great Marketing Case Studies from Around the Web

    It's often easier to take something actionable away from specific examples and real stories than vague abstractions, so a well-written case

  13. 7 Content Marketing Case Studies that Created Real Impact in 2023

    Table of Contents. 7 Impact Creating Content Marketing Case Studies. Conclusion. Content marketing is a powerful digital marketing tool that

  14. [Updated] 8 Best marketing case study examples

    Table of content · Grubhub marketing case study | Consumer insights feed the soul · UNICEF marketing case study | Fighting misleading information