Fanshawe College is set to become one of just three Canadian colleges to offer the Google Advertising Professionals program with the support of the world's leading search engine company.

The pitch:

All participants in the program at Fanshawe would receive a Google AdWords (TM) campaign created for them, including keywords, ad copy and $50 US worth of sponsored listings.

The campaign would be executed by a team of 3rd year Fanshawe Business Administration - Marketing students for a day, testing out how the largest search engine in the world could bring traffic to your website.

The students would gain experience developing and managing campaigns as well as the practical application of those campaigns on the web. A hands-on learning experience for the students and a day of free promotion and advertising campaigns to keep for businesses selected to participate.

Sounds like a plan, doesn't it?

Well, we were one of the 30 companies who participated in Fall of 2006 and it was a wonderful experience.

Interesting fact: According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), Canadian and US advertisers spent $5.75 billion US on search engine marketing in 2005.

"Being found on the internet should be a top priority in any e-commerce strategy," says Fanshawe's Liz Gray, the course instructor. She adds: "Seventy percent of online transactions originate from a search query."

Liz Gray's students learned about keywords, what they cost, and how they enhance a client's chance of being found. They wrote ads for their clients and bid on keywords they gathered from the client's website, through the client's competitors' websites and through Wordtracker, another course sponsor.

"Wordtracker suggests derivatives and alternate words and phrases based on the terminology that searchers are currently entering into search engines," Gray said.

Wordtracker, based in the UK, helps website owners and search engine marketers identify keywords and phrases relevant to their client's business and most likely to be used as queries by search engine visitors. Wordtracker's database, which is updated weekly, contains more than 330 million search terms.

Through AdWords, Google allows advertisers to bid on keywords that are relevant to what they are selling. Google then displays text ads on its search engine results pages to connect advertisers to users interested in their products or services. These ads appear in the sponsored link areas at the top or on the right of the screen when you perform a Google search. An advertiser only pays when someone clicks on the ad which opens the client's website or landing page.

"For a company spending money on a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign, a click is only the beginning," says Gray. "You must then convince the searcher to perform the desired action, whether that be to purchase something online, sign up for a newsletter, or visit your store."

Each student had to develop a list of keywords for their client. Then, they set up a Google AdWords account on behalf of the client, set up a Google AdWords campaign, bid on the keyword list approved by the client and ran the campaign until the $50 coupon was depleted.

Students realize that they must manage their $50 voucher carefully. The speed at which it will be depleted depends on the popularity of the keywords they bid on. Students were taught to take advantage of keywords and phrases that may be searched less often but still generate qualified leads.

Participating source: Fanshawe College

Photo courtesy Fanshawe College