We are excited to announce the launch of the 10th edition of the Google Online Marketing Challenge! Professor and student registrations for the 2017 GOMC are now open.
What is GOMC?
GOMC is an annual global online marketing competition for students from higher education institutions around the world. Google provides student teams with a $250 Google AdWords budget to develop and run an online advertising campaign for a real business or nonprofit organization of their choice. An independent Academic Panel, along with AdWords experts at Google, review the campaigns and select winning teams based on the success of their campaigns and the quality of their competition reports.
Why GOMC?
GOMC gives professors a chance to bring marketing theory to life by engaging students and allowing them to:
- Gain relevant and valuable skills through a practical hands-on learning experience
- Build a true relationship with a client and make a real-life impact in their community
- Gain exposure to the digital marketing landscape using real money on a live advertising platform
- Become AdWords Certified as a way to showcase their AdWords knowledge to potential employers
- Win awesome prizes like a trip to the Googleplex, a donation for their nonprofit partner, digital devices, cool Google swag and more
2016 GOMC Regional Europe Winners visiting the Google Ireland office.
Many students have found a real passion for helping businesses/nonprofits build awareness and find new customers by growing their online presence in this fast-paced digital world. Students have graduated and continued to work with their GOMC competition client, some have launched their career at a digital marketing agency, others have become entrepreneurs and used their skills to market their own business (or even start their own digital marketing agency to help local businesses in their community), and others have embarked on a career path at Google. Whether students find that digital marketing is the career for them or not, the valuable business, consulting and communication skills gained from working with their team on a comprehensive project, from strategy development, to execution and analysis, and working with a real business or nonprofit will help them prepare for a successful career.
To learn about the impact of the GOMC, check out the video below.
What's new?
Over 110,000 students and professors from almost 100 countries have participated in the past 9 years, and this year GOMC is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary with some exciting updates to the competition:
- The optional Google+ Social Media Marketing category is being replaced with a new and exciting AdWords Certification Award.
- In addition to all Winners, Finalists and Semi-Finalists, student teams completing the Challenge with a Strong performance rating will also receive a personalized certificate noting their status in the competition this year.
- The algorithm has been updated to evaluate AdWords performance beyond text ads with a primary focus on the Search Network, and will now factor in the structure and performance of the following campaign types: Search Network Only Campaigns, Display Network Only Campaigns, Video Campaigns, Shopping Campaigns and Mobile App Promotion/Universal App Campaigns.
- This year campaigns do not need to serve for a maximum of 21 consecutive calendar days and instead student teams have the option to pause their campaigns to optimize for their client’s business needs. See the competition Terms & Conditions for more details.
- The Digital Marketing Course content has been completely revamped and includes new resources like the Digital Garage, a one-stop shop for mastering digital marketing with free courses on everything from search to social media, the Analytics Academy and resources on Google My Business.
How do I sign up?
In order for a student team to participate in the competition, they need to have their professor register first. Professors can choose to incorporate GOMC into their curriculum or informally support a group of interested students. Once the professor has registered, students can develop teams of 3-6 members and elect one team captain to register their team for the competition.
Professors Registrations Open: October 5, 2016 - March 22, 2017
Students Registrations Open: October 5, 2016 - April 5, 2017
For more information on the competition, please visit www.google.com/onlinechallenge and add our Google+ Page to your circles (google.com/+googleonlinemarketingchallenge) to receive regular competition updates and reminders.
The Google Online Marketing Challenge Team