Students - frequently asked questions
- Who can enter?
- What if my class supervisor isn't a professor?
- When does the competition begin?
- Can student groups, under the umbrella of the student club, compete?
- What are my professor's responsibilities as supervisor?
- What is the competition goal?
- Is the Challenge all about Google AdWords?
- What if I have never used AdWords?
- What are the awards and recognition for the winners?
- What are the regions for this competition?
- How do I select a business or organization?
- Can multiple teams use the same business?
- What if we have trouble finding a business to work with?
- What obligations does the participating business have?
- What resources are available to help?
- What kind of AdWords advertising should I be running?
- Who judges the competition and how?
- Should I be working towards, clicks, CTR or Impressions, etc?
- Why do the reports submitted to Google need to be in English?
- Does the contest cost anything?
- What if we operate in a currency other than US dollars?
- Can students, or friends of students, click on their ads to improve the results?
- Can teams use a competitor's name in the keywords?
- When will we know the winners?
Who can enter?
Your professor, lecturer or whoever teaches you are the only ones who can enter. They must be an academic employed by a higher education institution and conducting lectures or seminars for students. Any higher education institute can enter any class, graduate or undergraduate, regardless of discipline.
Your professor is the one that will need to register. If you are thinking of asking them to register your class, they should consider two things to decide if the competition is right for you:
First, Google should be reasonably well established where your business has customers. With more people running search queries on Google, the likelihood is greater that your advertising will receive a sufficient amount of impressions and clicks. If Google is not well known in your region, you may have trouble competing on a level playing field with other, more established regions.
Second, support materials and required reports are only in English. While you can run advertising in your local language, you should be comfortable receiving support materials and submitting reports in English.
What if my class supervisor isn't a professor?
To keep things simple, we use the term 'professor' to refer to any academic supervising student teams in the Challenge. For example, you might have a lecturer or a researcher.
When does the competition begin?
The 2009 competition window is over any three consecutive weeks between January 26th and May 22nd. Teams may start their campaign at any time during this window. To help students succeed, professors must have sufficient class time to cover online marketing and Google AdWords, and time for students/professors to recruit their businesses.
Can student groups, under the umbrella of the student club, compete?
Student clubs may enter teams under the direction of a professor, given the following conditions.
- The students are enrolled in a higher education institution.
- The professor is affiliated with the higher education institution.
- The students are members of a recognized academic club or group.
What are my professor's responsibilities as supervisor?
Ideally, your professor will mentor and work with you to ensure you have a solid understanding of online marketing and the Challenge. They are responsible for ensuring you receive Challenge materials, select an appropriate business and submit your reports on time. Beyond that it's up to them. Some might like to run a competition among your class teams or invite the participating businesses to relevant class presentations.
What is the competition goal?
- The primary goal is for students to work with the selected businesses to create a practical and successful campaign. It's not just about people clicking on your ads - it's about setting up the right campaign that fits with the objectives of the business. Students should aim to maximize targeted and relevant traffic to the business' site, using optimization techniques to refine and improve the effectiveness of the campaign over the three-week competition period.
- The second goal is demonstrated learning. Student groups submit two reports - Before the campaign, they submit a Pre-Campaign Strategy. After the campaign, students assess their results, what they learned and how the business can improve their online marketing campaigns in the Post-Campaign Summary. Details of these reports are in the Student Guide.
An academic judging panel consisting of independent judges, in collaboration with Google, will choose regional and global winners.
Is the Challenge all about Google AdWords?
Google AdWords is a core part of the Challenge but it's more about teaching and learning effective online marketing. Google AdWords serves as a vehicle for gathering real world data and discussing online advertising's role in online marketing. Teams, however, must discuss other aspects of online marketing such as website layout and offline promotion, in both written reports. The competition is about real-world applications of online marketing; Google AdWords is merely the platform.
What if I have never used AdWords?
As Google's flagship advertising product, setting up and running an AdWords account is simple. You will have ample AdWords material in the materials sent to all registered professors to give to you. All things equal, the more you know about AdWords, the more fun you'll have and the better your chances to win.
What are the awards and recognition for the winners?
The global winners and their professor will receive a trip to the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California, to meet with the team that developed AdWords. Regional winners and their professor will receive a trip to their local Google office.
More importantly, students, professors and businesses are all winners. You gain practical experience in online marketing, teamwork and business consulting. The participating businesses have more website traffic and a better understanding of online marketing while the professors deliver a great teaching and learning opportunity.
What are the regions for this competition?
There are three competition regions - The Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Asia Pacific. In addition to an overall global winner, there will be three additional winners - one from each region.
How do I select a business or organization?
Selecting the right business is important. To help you make a choice, please review the 'Selecting And Working With A Business Or Organization' section in the Student Guide.
Professors or students can decide the business - whatever works best. In some cases, the school might have preferred candidates, or student groups might have friends or family with ideal businesses for the competition.
Please note that each student group must work with a different business. Groups may not use the same business.
Important: the business or organization should not currently use AdWords in any capacity and not have had an active account within the last 6 months.
Can multiple teams use the same business?
No. Each team must use a different business otherwise the effectiveness of your campaign may suffer directly from the efforts of external Challenge campaigns to yours.
What if we have trouble finding a business to work with?
Finding a business to work with might initially be a daunting task so here are some ideas to help you.
- Ask friends or family if they have connections with possible businesses.
- Check with your university alumni office if they have any connections with businesses that might be suitable.
- If you have a local Chamber of Commerce or Small Business Development Office, they always have businesses looking for assistance from smart people like you.
What obligations does the participating business have?
If the business agrees to participate, at a minimum, they must receive and agree to the 'Letter to Businesses', included with the Student Guide.
Ideally, the business will take an active interest in the campaign, such as explaining what they do, their online marketing objectives, and providing feedback on the proposed campaign strategy, interim campaign results and campaign changes.
Please note that you would be acting as online marketing consultants and your role is to provide a service to the business. They are under no obligation to follow your recommendations and you should not always expect them to do as you say. The implications associated with acting as business consultants are a key learning objective of the Challenge.
What resources are available to help?
There are ample resources available to help you learn about creating an effective online marketing campaign with AdWords. The best resource is the Marketing and Advertising Using Google textbook.
In addition, you will find key online resources in the 'Learning about Online Marketing and Google AdWords' section within the Student Guide.
What kind of AdWords advertising should I be running?
There are various ad formats available to AdWords advertisers but for this competition we will only evaluate your text ads. In some cases, your business may want to use other formats such as image or video ads, but please note that these results will not count in the Challenge and will cost you some of your budget. We encourage you to focus your efforts on text ads only.
Who judges the competition and how?
The competition has two components. The first component is the Campaign Statistics algorithm developed by Google. This algorithm examines over 30 factors within an AdWords account including impressions, cost-per-click, click-through-rates, keyword choices, ad creatives and budgeting to determine effective AdWords online marketing campaigns. The second component to judging is the written reports based on a template developed by the academic community.
At the end of the competition, Google will compare all the Campaign Statistics across the population of students taking part in the competition. Results from the Campaign Statistics determine the top five teams in each region. The Global Academic Judging Panel then chooses regional and global winners, based solely on each team's written reports – a four-page Pre-Campaign Strategy and a eight-page Post-Campaign Summary.
More information on the Pre-Campaign Strategy, Post-Campaign Summary and Campaign Statistics is in the Student Guide.
Should I be working towards, clicks, CTR or Impressions, etc?
Clicks and impressions are important elements of your campaign but there is no single, perfect AdWords account. The aim of the Challenge is to help you learn about developing sound online marketing strategies, so you should structure your AdWords account depending on the goals you agreed with your selected business. The amount of clicks you receive and the click-through rate (CTR) can be good indications of how interesting and useful users find your AdWords ads. However, in some cases a placement targeted campaign with a focus on accruing impressions on the right sites with the right audience can be equally important. As you see, it depends on what your selected business wants to achieve.
The competition is not about any one particular AdWords statistic, rather how you interpret and react to the results during the campaign, as well as afterwards in your Post-Campaign Summary. Think about how your results aligned with the goals of your selected business and changes you recommend.
Why do the reports submitted to Google need to be in English?
To standardize things for the Global Academic Judging Panel, all reports are in English. This ensures all teams are judged fairly and equally by a selection of academics from around the world. Remember, you can still run your AdWords campaigns in any language!
Does the contest cost anything?
No - student teams will receive free online spend worth US$200 to run their three-week campaigns. Instructions on how to setup your AdWords accounts will be sent to all registered professors to distribute to students prior to the start of the Challenge.
What if we operate in a currency other than US dollars?
Don't worry - even though the online advertising allocation is in US dollars, teams can still run ads in their local regions. AdWords will work out the currency differences. Keeping a single currency for the allocation ensures that all students compete on a level playing field.
Can students, or friends of students, click on their ads to improve the results?
No. Google has practices and procedures in place to detect invalid clicks as part of the competition. Student teams, classes and institutions risk disqualification for excessive invalid clicks. The Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center provides information on how Google detects and tracks invalid clicks.
Can teams use a competitor's name in the keywords?
Use of a competitors name can be subject to editorial and content restrictions, particularly if trademarked. Student teams should refer to the policies at the AdWords Learning Center to ensure their ads and keywords comply with these guidelines. Failure to comply with the guidelines penalizes a team's Campaign Statistics.
When will we know the winners?
Given the global nature of the contest and accommodating different class schedules, it will be July 2009 before announcing the regional and global winners.