JESSICA SAFIR: All right.
We are live.
Hello everyone who's tuning in.
My name is Jessica.
I work on the University Programs team here at Google.
And I manage our Google Students page which you've
luckily found on Google+.
And I'm joined today by two of my favorite Googlers who are
going to talk a little bit about the Google Online
Marketing Challenge, which is hopefully something you've
heard about, and are interested in learning more
about since you're tuning in now.
So I'm going to kick it off to AJ and Andrea who are going to
introduce themselves.
AJ PASCUA: Sure.
So my name's AJ.
Hi, everybody.
I'm a part of the AdWords team, here at Google.
I'm based in Mountain View.
And I'm also a part of the Google Online Marketing
Challenge team.
So as you know, we put this program together.
And we hope that you'll find it of value and learning a lot
about online advertising.
JESSICA SAFIR: And AJ, give us some more background.
Where did you go to school?
And how long have you been here?
What was your path to Google?
AJ PASCUA: Sure.
So I'm originally from the San Francisco area.
I went to Columbia for college, so I went to New York
for four years.
I studied psychology there.
And then I worked at Google as my first job, so I've been
here ever since.
Psychology brought me to AdWords where I'm able to
understand my customers, segment them, research their
needs, and then present to them the best tools and the
best ways so they can best grow their business.
So it's a lot of fun so far.
JESSICA SAFIR: Very cool.
ANDREA: Hi, everyone.
My name is Andrea and I work with AJ on the
Google AdWords team.
And I also participate and help out with the Google
Online Marketing challenge.
So I'm very excited to be having this Hangout with you
guys because we really do hope that it's beneficial for teams
participating in the challenge, and then also,
anyone that is interested in participating this
year or next year.
ANDREA: A little bit more about me.
I'm from Ohio.
I went to the University of Cincinnati.
I did work at another company before coming to Google, but
I've been having a great time since I've been here.
Also, I majored in Marketing and International Business.
JESSICA SAFIR: Awesome.
So I guess we'll just start right in.
Why don't you guys give us some sort of background on the
Google Online Marketing Challenge.
Tell us what it's all about for maybe some of those
students who are tuning and interested, but don't know too
much about the program.
ANDREA: OK.
So I'll go ahead and I'll take that question.
So the Google Online Marketing Challenge started in 2008--
that was our first year.
Back then there were about 500 professors that were
registered, and now we have over 1,000.
So that shows you that the challenge has been growing.
The purpose of the challenge is to really give students
real-world experience working with AdWords and with online
advertising.
So really introducing them to the space and giving them the
opportunity to see how they can really grow real
businesses and non-profits by using online advertising.
JESSICA SAFIR: Great.
And so who can participate?
Is this open to students only in marketing or--
I mean what's the process if someone wanted to get involved
in the program?
ANDREA: OK.
So it's open to any student around the world.
So this is a global challenge.
You can be basically any major that you want to be, as long
as you have a professor that's willing to register for you.
And then you will register under the professor to
participate.
And registration does happen online.
So www.google.com/onlinechallenge
is where you would go.
And you click the big blue button that says register.
AJ PASCUA: And just to elaborate a little bit
[INAUDIBLE]
and what Andrea was able to point out.
So we do ask that teams register underneath
professors.
But by professors, we can also include lecturers or
researchers.
So if you don't have an individual professors that can
register for you, at least somebody who is affiliated
with the institution like a researcher, can be supervisor.
JESSICA SAFIR: Great.
So you said the professors have to register first, right?
ANDREA: Mhmm.
JESSICA SAFIR: And is there an upcoming deadline or when--
what is that--
the timeline look like for the program?
ANDREA: So professor registration has been open
since November of last year, and it will go to
May 1 of this year.
So you still do have a few months to put together your
team, get your professor to register, and participate in
the challenge.
So May 1 is the deadline.
JESSICA SAFIR: For the professors, right?
ANDREA: For the professor, yes.
JESSICA SAFIR: OK.
And how many people are usually on these teams?
ANDREA: The teams can be anywhere from 3 to 6.
And we feel that a team of that size is
probably the most effective.
JESSICA SAFIR: OK.
And then once their professors get registered, the students
can now register under their teams.
AJ PASCUA: M-hmm.
It is a two-step process.
So professors must register first.
After professors register, then students can register--
because they'd have to register underneath their
professors.
After students register, then professors simply have to
verify the teams.
And then at that point the teams are able to sign up for
an AdWords account, link it with their challenge account,
and move forward from there.
JESSICA SAFIR: OK so for those who are just tuning in--
we're live talking about the Google Online Marketing
Challenge with two experts in the field here, who help
manage the program.
And if you don't know too much about the challenge you can
learn more information at the website
google.com/onlinechallenge and it'll give you some background
on what the program is all about.
So for these students, what's in it for them if they win?
And its global, too, right?
So is there a global winner, and how does that work?
AJ PASCUA: So there are a number of winners, yes.
There are both global winners and regional winners.
And we have winners in a couple different areas.
So we have winners for the challenge.
We have winners who participate in the Social
Impact Award-- so those that help a nonprofit.
And we also winners for Social Media.
So teams that are able to create Google+ pages and
maintain those.
The prizes are awesome.
The prizes range from a 7-night stay in San Francisco
to free tablet devices, free laptops, up to $15,000 in a
donation to your nonprofit partner.
So Google has a lot to give.
And we hope at the same time that students are motivated to
learn about online advertising and become those true
marketing consultants.
JESSICA SAFIR: Yeah, and it sounds like something that
students could put on their resume that they
participated in.
And it's definitely something to supplement what they're
already learning, maybe in an advertising class.
AJ PASCUA: Definitely.
Especially because this challenge-- as Andrea pointed
out before-- is global.
Right?
So you're competing with students
over the entire world.
So certainly ranking at one of the top is an accomplishment
worth mentioning.
JESSICA SAFIR: And so teams can be three to six.
They have to register under their professor names.
Sounds like there are some awesome prizes.
We're going to look at some of the questions that we got from
Google+ and Twitter.
One of them from Clayton-- he asked if he needs a professor
to be participating.
And we've already answered that.
Yes, you need to be registered under a professor or a
researcher or someone who's associated with the
institution.
Someone asked if they can do the challenge
for a personal blog.
So maybe explain a bit more around the structure of what
exactly you're working on during the challenge.
And also, I'm not sure if we mentioned what the time frame
is for competing in the challenge itself.
ANDREA: So I'll just go ahead and take that question.
If the personal blog would be a business or a
non-for-profit, then, yeah, they can definitely advertise
for their personal blog.
We just ask that it is a business or considered to be a
nonprofit work organization.
As far as a challenge and how the students actually run
their campaign.
You have a three-week timeframe to use the $250
credit that we give you.
So you can take anywhere from about seven days to the full
21 days, but you do only have that three-week timeframe.
And then once your budget is depleted--
the $250--
then we'll consider that the end of your campaign.
JESSICA SAFIR: And then you guys play around with the
numbers and figure out who did the best.
ANDREA: Right.
We look at a number of metrics to determine regional winners
and the global winner.
JESSICA SAFIR: OK.
And when do they have to finish the challenge by?
So they have three weeks to do the entire thing, but how much
time do they have to complete those three weeks?
When does it officially start?
AJ PASCUA: So the last day is June 8.
So that's the last day of the three-week consecutive time
that you're allowed to continue
running your campaigns.
But as you know, after you complete running the
campaigns, you also have to submit that Post-Campaign
Report or the Impact Statement or the Social
Media Execution write-up.
And you have until June 15 for those pieces.
So like Andrea pointed out before--
one thing we look at in order to determine the winners are
the metrics.
Right?
How successful was your AdWords campaign?
But we also look at those write-ups that you submit once
the campaign is done.
So we want to know, what did you learn, how did your
campaign grow, how were you able to drive success for the
business you worked with?
JESSICA SAFIR: And this is something they typically work
with their professor sponsor on putting this together?
AJ PASCUA: Yes, especially before the competition.
They ask the professor for guidance, but who we think
they can play a greater role with, is
actually the business.
So the pre-campaign strategy is supposed to demonstrate an
understanding of how the business works so that they
can move the business successfully, market it
successfully online.
So especially for the pre-campaign write-up--
students should be working closely or have a great
understanding of the business that they're working with.
JESSICA SAFIR: Great.
Are there any sort of tips or maybe areas where students can
find resources to learn a bit more about the challenge.
Or maybe their professor's registered, they know they're
going to do it-- where can they find some resources that
may help them get a better understanding or better
prepare them to compete in the challenge?
AJ PASCUA: Sure.
So I can take that question.
There are a couple that come to mind.
One, for instance, is the AdWords Beginners Guide.
So you can find that on google.com/adwor
ds/beginnersguide in order to get extra information about
the metrics you see in the account, how to better
structure your ad groups in order to
successfully run a campaign.
Another important thing to look at would
be short video tutorials.
And that's on google.com/ads/learn.
So there's visual learning resources to use, in order to
better understand how to run and how to
manage and AdWords campaign.
JESSICA SAFIR: Great.
And it sounds like all the information for anyone who
wants to know about the challenge is at
google.com/onlinechallenge.
AJ PASCUA: Definitely.
JESSICA SAFIR: Great.
We haven't gotten any more questions since we started.
And it looks like we covered a lot the FAQs.
Do you guys have anything else you wanted to add?
Any parting words for what students should
know about the challenge?
Maybe why they should be interested in competing--
anything they can use to sway their professors to help sign
up and get involved.
ANDREA: I guess the one thing that I would offer as a tip or
advice for the students already participating and
maybe getting ready to run their campaign--
is just to make sure that the way you structure
[? accounts ?] should be focused on a certain theme.
S, just to give an example--
I have a shoe business, right?
So I sell boots, I sell tennis shoes, and I sell sandals.
So the way that I would want to structure my campaign is
that I want to have an Adgroup for boots, an Adgroup for
tennis shoes, and an Adgroup for sandals.
And then the keywords within those individual Adgroups
should be all centered around the boots theme, the sandals
theme, or the tennis shoes theme.
I think initially, what we see with student teams, and even
just with real world advertisers that use AdWords
is making sure it's structured the correct
way from the beginning.
So that's just one tip and advice that I
would like to offer.
AJ PASCUA: Sure, and my takeaway tip is--
do as much as you can to invest preparation upfront.
So as you know, the competition is only three
consecutive weeks long when you're
allowed to run your campaign.
So it's the campaign's performance within those three
weeks that we're going to look at.
So before you start that campaign, do as much learning
as you can so you don't have to waste time during those
three weeks catching up on things that you could have
learned before the campaign even started.
On that note, too, make sure that when you add your coupon
code into your AdWords account that your campaign is paused.
Otherwise you run the risk of your campaign going
immediately online because you added a [INAUDIBLE] account.
So those are my parting words of advice.
And we know from talking to past participants that it is a
lot of fun.
So we really do encourage you guys to have as much fun as
you can when working with these businesses and writing
the AdWords account.
JESSICA SAFIR: Yeah, it sounds like the more prep work they
can put in before hand the, better prepared they will be.
AJ PASCUA: Definitely.
JESSICA SAFIR: Great.
Well thanks for joining us.
It sounds like we answered a lot of the questions and
hopefully students will get excited about this Online
Marketing Challenge.
And if anyone out there who's watching wants to learn more
just head over to google.com/onlinechallenge.
And I believe if you have any questions, we're going to post
this video to our YouTube channel.
We have a playlist for all working out there it's at
youtube.com/googlestudents And If you have any questions you
can continue using the hashtag gomchangout and we'll try to
answer those.
And if not, hopefully you can watch the video and get
anything else answered or go over to their website at
google.com/onlinechallenge.
ANDREA: Thanks.
AJ PASCUA: Thank you.
JESSICA SAFIR: All right, we'll see you guys.