Team from Mbarara University emerge Semifinalists in Global Advertising Competition

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.

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

1. Noah Aboda (Team captain), Bachelors in Pharmacy 3
2. Mirembe Vaolah (member), BSc. Computer Engineering 2
3. Nestor Atukwatse (member), BSc. Computer Engineering 2
4. Byamukama Boniface (member), Bachelors in Business Administration 3
5. Katusiime Patricia (member), BSc. Computer Science 2
6. 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.

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 

1615550487

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)

Google AdClass Session 4

On the 2nd of March 2015, we had our fourth session of the Google AdClass here at Mbarara University of Science  and Technology.

We met as a small group at the Balcony of the Development Studies Block at 4:30pm. Some of our members could not make it due to ongoing lectures and other engagements.

Our main aim of meeting yesterday was to practically create an advertising campaign using Google AdWords. The Procedure is as easy as follows;

1. Go to the Google AdWords site
2. Login or signup or simply create a new Google account
3. Create a new campaign
4. Make it as descriptive as possible for your business
5. Create an Ad Group and create ads in it

We did create a sample campaign about a Boutique and created different Ad Groups about Fancy Tops, Ladies' shoes. 

We used the Google AdWords: Keyword Planner to help us on a few suggestions on keywords (words or phrases that trigger your ad to show).

We also formed two groups to participate in the Google Online Marketing Challenge. We have briefed them and i know this morning they will talk to the professors to sign them up. They are also going to talk to some local business to get their approval in order to advertise them.

I just can't wait to see what will come out of the current AdClass at Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Only God can tell. As of now i am hoping for great results.

As always here at Mbarara, we will continue to "Do Cool Things That Matter"

Google AdClass Session 3

On the 25, February 2015, Wednesday evening, we had our third AdClass session. I am personally grateful to all the students who showed up. They inspire me.

The event yesterday ended on time, just about 5 minutes after the ending time because we kicked off a little bit late.

The challenge of poor Internet connection got to us again. We were however able to cover how to structure one's account for success. We looked at why it is important to have ads as specific as possible because it helps the business to offer ads that are relevant to the user.

We looked at a few examples of bad ads (that are too general) as well as good ads (that are as specific as possible).

We also looked at the structure of your AdWords account and broke it down it into its' components ie the account, campaign, ad group as well as the different ads and their keywords.

By the end of the class, students were able to know how to structure their account for success as well the strategies that help to ensure success.

We also gave them information on why improving the ad quality as much as possible is the ultimate winning goal of any advertiser.

Of course this can be improved by ensuring you have a good landing page that your potential customers arrive on after clicking on your ad as well as ensuring that you create relevant ads that are as specific as possible targeting your potential customers.

We will have our fourth session on Monday 2 March 2015 hopefully in S210, Science Block, Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Incase of changes in location due to Internet connectivity, we will shift to the Development studies block and we will make sure everyone is informed.

Hopefully we will continue to "Do Cool Things That Matter" here at Mbarara University of Science and Technology.

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. - Harry Ford

Google AdClass Session 2

We had our second Google AdClass session here in Mbarara on Tuesday 24 February 2015. The location was Room S103, Science Block from 5:00 pm to 5:45 pm.

The turn up was about 15 students. The remainder seems to have been caught up in ongoing lectures as well as other engagements. We covered how to setup a new campaign on Google AdWords.

Our main challenge however still was the limited Internet connectivity that denied us access to the Google AdWords site. We however were able to cover all this in the session.

Google AdClass Session 2

We did have to review the previous session in order to better understand the second. Our next session is on today from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm in room S210, Science Block.

I have great hope in the current Google AdClass at Mbarara University of Science. These are some of the most brilliant students i have met. They do have the ability and potential to make it in life. They can achieve good results in the 2015 Google Online Marketing Challenge.

During the session

Only time will tell. We will still continue to "Do Cool Things That Matter" here at Mbarara University of Science and Technology

Google AdClass Session 1

It marks the dawn of a new era at the University here in Western Uganda. We are busy preparing the next marketers to send a shock wave throughout the world. We are preparing them for the prestigious Google Online Marketing Challenge.

We will be killing two birds with one stone; we will be getting more local businesses online as well learning how marketing is done using the most widely used search engine in the world.

We are kicking off a marathon of training sessions this week. We had a session on Monday 23 February 2015 from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm (ideal) Ugandan Time. However, we actually finished some minutes later. We hope to improve on this with time. The students were on time ready to learn. I was impressed by their zeal and desire to learn.

We learnt about an introduction to online marketing. We got to talk about the history of the World Wide Web, online adverts, why advertise on Google and the benefits of Online Marketing compared to the traditional forms of advertising.

Our next session is this Tuesday February 24 2015 from 4:30pm to 5:30pm in Room S103, Science Block at Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Nobody can stop us now. We are destined for greatness. So help us God.

#mbrAdclass15 #adclass #gomc #gomc15 #docoolthingsthatmatter