IT Milk: entry

The next Google Online Marketing Challenge is coming up for 2009. Based on my experience in the Challenge this year, I noticed three major ways to make sure your team has a much better chance of winning.

Keep in mind throughout that the Google Online Marketing Challenge is an “academic” competition. Professors are ultimately responsible for grading your pre-campaign and post-campaign reports, which seem to be what the final winners are judged upon. Campaign metrics are merely an elimination tool like your SAT scores when applying to college. So follow the strict guidelines set by Google’s Academic Guide, such as page length and content requirements.

If you have any questions or problems with the reports, go on Gomcha.com and post on the forums, because most of the professors on the Academic Panel are active on that site.

Next, form your team early and make sure all roles are filled with qualified candidates. You don’t necessarily need someone on the team who is experienced with Adwords, but if at all possible try to find a classmate who is active as an internet marketer. This will put you light years ahead of the other teams, because there are many subtleties with the Adwords platform that you would not be able to learn through any starting guides.

Also, extending the point about the “academic” aspect of the Challenge, you would also do yourself good by bringing in someone who writes well. Proofreading ability and creativity are key with the reports.

If I could do it over again, I would quickly seek out a team as soon as the Fall semester begins (which would be in two days for Penn State) and then work together as a team to become familar with Google Adwords. Read up on industry blogs and if possible take the Google Adwords Professional test.

Lastly, don’t settle for less with any client business that agrees. Really spend a lot of time doing research and seek out a business that will realistically benefit from Google Adwords and also be grateful of your team’s effort. For this past Challenge, we fulfilled the former point but did not actualize on the latter. It would have been much more motivating if the client regularly communicated success metrics and enthusiastically cooperated with our efforts. Also, it’s helpful if your client has a decent website, and you should pick a niche that is not too competitive or too dead and would be able to successfully compete in the local market

Feel free to comment below to correct or add to my points.