Application Deadline: Student – April 20th 2016 | Professor Registration: April 6th 2016

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a unique opportunity for students to experience and create online marketing campaigns using Google AdWords and Google+. Over 100,000 students and professors from almost 100 countries have participated in the past 8 years.

With a $250 AdWords advertising budget provided by Google, students develop and run an online advertising campaign for a business or non-profit organization over a three week period. The teams that develop and communicate the most successful campaigns win awesome prizes, including trips to Google offices.

Students also have the opportunity to participate in the optional Google+ Social Media Marketing category by creating and managing a Google+ Page for their clients over a five week period.

Requirements

• The Challenge is open to student teams of three to six members from undergraduate or graduate programs, regardless of their major.
• All students must register under a verified faculty member, lecturer or instructor currently employed by an accredited higher education institute.

Student Team Registration

Students can register from January 26 to April 20, 2016 on this page.

Student Team Registration. Each student team can only register under one professor who has been verified and approved by the GOMC Team. The Student Registration form needs to be filled out only by the Team Captain. After getting verified by the professor, the Team Captain will be able to add his team members directly in the Student Dashboard.

The Team Captain will need to provide only one Google Account to register and participate in the 2016 GOMC. This account will be called the Dashboard Account (existing or a new one) and will be used to manage the GOMC Student Dashboard as well as to communicate with the GOMC Team.

Professor Registration

Professors can register for the Challenge any time from January 26 to April 6, 2016. Professors must register for the 2016 Challenge regardless of whether they participated in prior years or pre-registered for GOMC 2016. If a professor cannot be verified as being currently affiliated/employed by a recognized Higher Education Institute, he/she will not be approved.

NEW: In order to register, Professors need to use their existing Google Account or create a new one. This will also enable them to access our new Professor Dashboard, where they will be able to monitor their teams’ progress.

Prizes

AdWords Business Awards

There are four competition regions: The Americas, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific. In addition to an overall Global Winner, there is one winner from each of the regions.

Global Winner

The Global Winners and their professor will receive a seven-night trip to San Francisco, including one day at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California to meet with Googlers from the AdWords, University Programs and Marketing teams. The team will also receive computing devices, along with other prizes.

Regional Winners

Regional Winners and their professor receive a two-night trip to a regional Google office. The teams will also receive computing devices, as well as other prizes.

Google+ Social Media Marketing Awards

Each student in the Global and Regional Social Media winning teams will receive a computing device, as well as other prizes. Additionally, Global Winners and their Professor will get an exciting opportunity to participate in a Google+ Hangout with Google+ team members (to be scheduled at Google’s discretion).

AdWords Social Impact Awards

Each student in the three top performing teams will receive a computing device, along with other prizes. Additionally, Global Winners and their Professor will get an exciting opportunity to participate in a Google+ Hangout with Google Grants team members (to be scheduled at Google’s discretion).

Winning teams will also secure the following donations for their partners:

1st place – $15,000 donation to the non-profit partner

2nd place – $10,000 donation to the non-profit partner

3nd place – $5,000 donation to the non-profit partner

Competition Process:

Step 1: Registering for the Challenge. Professors register for the Challenge and get verified by Google. Students form teams of 3-6 members and appoint a Team Captain. The Team Captain registers under the verified professor, who in turn confirms each student team by clicking a verification link sent via email after the team registers. See Registration for more information.

Step 2: Accessing Dashboard. Once the professor has received a notification email and has verified the student team, the Team Captain can access team’s Student Dashboard with the Google account used during the initial registration. Next, the student team can add required information to the dashboard, move onto identifying the team’s competition partner and preparing the AdWords Pre-Campaign Report.

Step 3: Selecting a Business. All teams, along with the support of their professors, need to identify a client business or a non-profit organization. See Selecting a Business for more details.

Step 4: Learning about AdWords and the Client. We recommend reviewing the Digital Marketing Course and Educational Resources. Each student team needs to meet with their business or non-profit partner to determine their goals and to devise their online advertising strategy. The strategy will need to be outlined in the AdWords Pre-Campaign Report.

Step 5: Uploading Pre-Campaign Report and Requesting Crediting. Please note that after requesting crediting, there will be no further opportunity to re-upload the Pre-Campaign Report. Once we verify the request, within 5 business days we will provide the team with credited competition account and AdWords CID, solely for use in this Competition.

Step 6: Running Campaign. Once the student team receives credit in their AdWords account, they can start running their campaign over the period of up to 21 calendar days (example below). Campaigns which serve impressions on less than 7 calendar days or on more than 21 calendar days and/or spend beyond the provided US$250 (spending a few cents below/above US$250 is acceptable), will be deemed ineligible for the competition and as a result disqualified.

Step 7: Writing and Submitting AdWords Post-Campaign Report/Impact Statement. Student teams must submit their report(s) prior to the end of the Campaign Window (look top right: GOMC 2016 Timeline). If a team chooses a non-profit organization and wishes to be eligible for the AdWords Social Impact Award, they must append an Impact Statement to their Post-Campaign Report.

Step 8: Google+ Social Media Marketing Award (Optional). Student teams that wish to be eligible for the Google+ Social Media Marketing Award should work with their business or non-profit partner on creating and maintaining a Google+ page (along with the AdWords campaign) for five consecutive weeks during the Campaign Window (look top right: GOMC 2016 Timeline

Step 9: Judging and Awards. Google, and a panel of independent academics from all over the world, select the winning teams based on the success of their campaign and the quality of their competition reports. Winners will be announced in July/August 2016.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Google Online Marketing Challenge 2016