More than 700 teams in U.S. have registered for the Google Online Marketing Challenge. Students would be provided $200 to spend on Google AdWords. Students have to work with various local businesses according to their preference and advertise online and track visitor trends and profit analysis.
Vice President of Product Marketing in Google, David Lawee informed that this challenge would give students great experience and help local businesses use the power of web to attract more customers. He also mentioned that, the organizers expected a participation of around 200 classes. However, they are amazed at having more than 700 university teams already signed up.
The participating universities would have professors divide students into groups and would receive free advertising vouchers of $200 for Google AdWords marketing. The group would have to select a small – medium sized business that have under 100 employees. The business should already have a website. However, should not have used online advertising or are involved in any online advertisement.
A three week duration is provided in which the competitors provide an analysis report of how the performance was before and after they ended the advertising campaign. Students can compete during any consecutive weeks between February 10th to May 24th of 2008.