Google awards

KATHMANDU, Jan 26: Here is a chance for students to hone their marketing skills and help an NGO at the same time.

Sign up for the Google Online Marketing Challenge and compete for the NGO Impact Award. The Challenge is a global student competition open to any higher education institution anywhere in the world.[break]

The 2010 Challenge had over 12,000 students in 60 countries competing.

For the first time ever, the challenge will allow student teams from across the world to receive US$200 of free online advertising with Google AdWords and then work with local businesses or NGOs to create effective online marketing campaigns. Google.org will make a donation in the name of the top three winning student teams to their nonprofit partners. Prizes for the winners include:

1st place: $15,000 donation to the nonprofit partner

2nd place: $10,000 donation to the nonprofit partner

3rd place: $5,000 donation to the nonprofit partner

How can you help to get the word out?

Professors or lecturers need to register on the Google website by mid-April in order for their student teams to participate, so contact any former or current professors you know to alert them to this great opportunity.

The academic guide will provide professors with all the details they need to help them decide if the Challenge is right for their class. The Challenge is open to any university and any discipline around the globe, at graduate or undergraduate level. Registration is now open to professors till mid-April and students can compete from January 31 until the June 10, 2011. Winners will be announced in July 2011.

The global winners and their professor receive a trip to the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California, to meet with the AdWords team. Regional winners and their professors receive a trip to a regional Google office.

Student teams receive US$200 of free online advertising with Google AdWords and then work with local businesses or NGOs to create effective online marketing campaigns.

What is the NGO Impact Award?

This year, Google has announced a new award for the Online Marketing Challenge to support Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). This can be an excellent way for student teams to not only hone their online marketing skills, but also give back to their favorite NGO in a meaningful way.

Student teams may select an NGO in their community instead of a business to set up an AdWords account following the same instructions for the Challenge. Student teams have the opportunity to win a donation made in their name to their nonprofit partner.

Judging for the NGO Impact Award will be based on two factors:

- The effectiveness of the campaign.

- A 200-word description of the impact achieved by the nonprofit due to the AdWords campaign. This could include general outreach, fundraising activities or volunteer recruitment.

Examples of these testimonials can be found on the Google Grants page. Submissions will be judged by an independent panel of nonprofit leaders.

If you’ve ever search on Google and seen a column of sponsored links just to the right of your search results, that’s Google AdWords. It is separate from Google’s search rankings, and lets businesses advertise just to the people they want to reach.

How does it work?

Advertisers choose a few search terms related to their business, plus a daily budget and the amount they are willing to pay when someone clicks. When customers search one of the terms or keywords, their ads may appear next to the search results.

In the Google Online Marketing Challenge students will be creating effective, well-structured AdWords campaigns to drive traffic to their selected business’ websites.

How do you get started?