Don't miss out on your chance to bring marketing theory to life through a practical hands-on learning experience. Over the past few months, we've been listening to your feedback and exploring opportunities to continue to engage, empower and grow students in the digital marketing space. Today, we are excited to announce that the foundation of the Online Marketing Challenge (OMC) will be returning in partnership with nonprofits from the Google Ad Grants program!
What is the Online Marketing Challenge again?
OMC is a unique opportunity for students to get real-world experience creating and executing online marketing campaigns for real nonprofits through the Google Ad Grants program. Ad Grants empowers over 38,000 nonprofit organizations with free in-kind AdWords advertising of up to $10,000 a month. The new OMC will pair student teams with Ad Grants’ nonprofit organizations for students to gain valuable real-world skills through working with nonprofits’ AdWords accounts and drive real social impact. OMC is a great way to increase your depth of experience on your resume and develop your skill set, all while helping nonprofits change the world!
Who can participate?
The Challenge is open to higher education students from undergraduate or graduate programs, regardless of major. Students must form teams of 2-5 members and register under a verified faculty member, lecturer or instructor currently employed by an accredited higher education institute. Google will partner student teams with select nonprofits that are a part of the Ad Grants program and have opted in to participate in the Challenge.
How does it work?
1. Student teams of 2-5 members review Online marketing trainings, build their digital skills and pass the Academy for Ads AdWords Fundamentals Exam.
2. Student teams partner with an Ad Grants nonprofit, meet with the organization to understand their cause, audience and goals, evaluate their existing campaign structure and performance, and develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
3. Using the free Google Ad Grants AdWords advertising budget — up to $10,000 USD per month — student teams develop and execute online advertising campaigns over the course of at least 4 weeks to help drive conversions for their nonprofit partner.
4. At the end of the partnership, student teams complete a Post-Campaign Analysis and deliver future recommendations to their nonprofit partner to help them continue to thrive online.
5. Student teams that demonstrate strong AdWords knowledge, develop a thorough online marketing strategy, execute optimized AdWords campaigns and provide a post-campaign analysis with future recommendations for their nonprofit partner will receive a personalized certificate from Google recognizing their academic achievement and social impact. Top performing teams also have the opportunity to submit their story to be featured in Google’s Social Impact Spotlight Series.
