Mbarara University of Science and Technology should be glad. Uganda must celebrate. A team of six students from the University recently emerged as AdWords Business Semi-Finalist in the Google Online Marketing Challenge 2015.
The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an annual global advertising competition. Here a University team of 3 to 6 students with the guidance of a University lecturer sets out to market a local business online using Google AdWords over a period of 21 days maximum under a budget of 250$, which is provided free by Google.
Google AdWords is the platform that lets businesses show their ads alongside Google search results, on YouTube, inside mobile applications etc. The beauty about it is that businesses only pay once the user clicks on the ad and is then taken to the business' website.
The team advertised a local business http://masanyu.com/, which sells computer devices and appliances during the competition.
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| The team shows its' swag at the start of the campaign [12-April-2015] |
The competition brought together a total of 1761 teams from the four regions ie 584 from Americas, 199 from Asia & Pacific, 811 from Europe and 106 from Middle East & Africa.
Of these only 5 teams represented Uganda, 2 being from Mbarara University of Science and Technology.
The team was ranked as AdWords Business Semi-Finalist which means "they demonstrated very good AdWords proficiency and understanding of online advertising and were among the Top 15 teams in Middle East & Africa." according to the official website; http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/past/winners-2015.html
In other words, they were among the Top 60 teams in the whole world.
The team comprised of
- Noah Aboda (Team captain), Bachelors in Pharmacy 3
- Mirembe Vaolah (member), BSc. Computer Engineering 2
- Nestor Atukwatse (member), BSc. Computer Engineering 2
- Byamukama Boniface (member), Bachelors in Business Administration 3
- Katusiime Patricia (member), BSc. Computer Science 2
- Kagimu Brian Vicent (member), BSc. Computer Engineering 4
Our team Professor was Dr. Annabella Habinka Ejiri, the Director- Institute of Computer Science.
Am so glad to have been part of this amazing team. We are so grateful for the opportunity to learn digital marketing skills together as one. We hope to apply the acquired knowledge and expertise to help more local businesses meet their customers online.
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| Noah and Vaolah set up the campaigns |
To the winners of the competition, congratulations. For more information; go to http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/past/winners-2015.html.
To see the ranking of our team,
Use the ‘Find’ function in your browser.
Windows users: Press the Control key + F and type
Mac users: Press the Apple key + F and type 1615550487
Next week's article will be an interview with the team members. Stay tuned!
by Kagimu Brian Vicent, Google Student Ambassador (2014/15)