As many of my connections have sent requests asking for an explanation about the challenge, I have decided to answer all of them via this blog post.

What is Google Ad Grants Online Marketing Challenge(OMC)?

Online Marketing Challenge is a unique opportunity for students to get real-world experience creating and executing online marketing campaigns for real nonprofits using a $10,000 USD monthly budget of in-kind Google Ads advertising credit through the Google Ad Grants program.

It helps students to get a real-world experience in market analysis, strategy management, resource allocation, consulting, finances, etc and it helps the non-profit to optimize their online presence with the help of Digital Marketing via Google Ads.

This global academic program brings two worlds together, partnering with students and nonprofits, to support digital skill development and drive positive change around the world. It basically is a win-win situation for both the non-profit and the student communities involved.

What are the eligibility criteria for teams to participate in?

• Any undergraduate / graduate student irrespective of the major

• A team of 2–5 members from the same region

Note: Team members may or may not be from the same institution

What is the deadline for the Challenge?

Unlike most of the challenges, the Google Ads OMC is open all year round for having a greater impact and wide reach. You can register at any time aligned at your convenience.

How does it work?

Step 1: Professor Registration — In order to get started, Professors must register for the Challenge, verify their account, and get approved by Google.

Professors need to create an account from the university domain email and basic professional information like employment id, university identity proof, etc will be asked for by Google in the professor registration form.

Step 2: Professor verification — After submitting the Professor registration form, Professors will receive a verification email in their university email inbox. Professors must follow the link provided in the email to verify they are the owner of the account before their registration can be reviewed and approved by the OMC Team. Professors should receive an email within 5 business days of verifying their account if they are successfully approved.

Step 3: Student Registration — Only the Team Leader from the team is allowed to fill out the Student Registration form. The professor’s university email address used upon registering will need to be provided in the Student Registration form for verification purposes.

Note: Kindly use the same email id at every step as all processes are linked to each other under the Google Ad Grants Online Marketing Challenge

Step 4: Student Verification — Once student teams begin registering, professors will start receiving an email per team to their university email address with a verification link to confirm that these teams are affiliated with them. Professors should follow the instructions in the email and click on the link to complete the student verification.

Step 5: Student Dashboard Access — After registering and getting verified by the professor, the Team Captain will be able to access the Student Dashboard.

Step 6: Adding Team Members — After getting verified by the professor, the Team Captain will be able to add their team members directly to the Student Dashboard.

Each team member will get the following email once he/she will be added to the team at the Student Dashboard.

Note: If the team members are not getting this email, the team leader should delete and re-enter the particular team member's details on the Dashboard.

Step 7: Google Ads Certification — As a team leader, you need to mandatorily pass at least the following two assessments for being eligible to get a non-profit.

1. Google Ads Search Certification

2. Google Ads Measurement Certification

Upload the compilation of your certificate in pdf format at the Student Dashboard as shown below.

Note: Kindly use the same email address to pass the examinations as provided in the Student Registration form

Step 8: Non-profit preferences — After submitting the certifications, fill out the preferred domain of the non-profit you need to work with(e.g. Education, healthcare NGOs, etc)

Note: It is advisable to request for the non-profit only when you are ready to work with them starting within the next 10 days.

Step 9: Non-Profit Match: Non—profit matching takes up to 1–2 weeks and you will get a confirmation mail, once you’ve been matched.

Note: Reach out to the Point of contact mentioned at the Student Dashboard within 7 days of receiving the email otherwise you will not remain eligible to work under this challenge.

Step 10: Pre-campaign marketing Strategy — Prior to getting started with the Challenge, you need to have a kick-start meeting with your assigned non-profit to know their mission for preparing and submitting a pre-campaign marketing Strategy for the same.

Make sure you get a confirmation email for your submission. If not, submit it again.

Step 11: Getting Started with your Google Ads Marketing Challenge — This step is completely custom based on the non-profit needs and mission.

Do read the official website guidelines very carefully and work on your initial 4 weeks campaign strategy to get the best results aligned with your client’s mission and Google’s guidelines.

Step 12: Post-Campaign Marketing Strategy — Once you’re done with your campaign, have a concluding meeting with your clients and analyze the results by preparing and submitting a post-campaign marketing analysis.

Based on your performance, the non-profit may continue with your marketing strategy and you will remain a Digital Marketer at the NGO even after completion of the campaign(Proud to share that my team was selected for this extended Digital Marketer position).

Make sure you get a confirmation email for the same. If not, resubmit the presentation on the portal.

Results

If your campaign has followed all the rules and regulations by Google at every step and received a positive response from your assigned non-profit. You will get an email within the next 2–3 weeks of your submission.

I hope this helps, if you still have any doubts, do check the official website of Google Ad Grants Online Marketing Challenge and feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

All the best!

Note: This article is for educational purposes ONLY and all the information, content, and images rights are reserved by Google and Google Ad Grants.

The new workshops of train-the-trainer are back for this year and I am more than happy to spread the word about it. This article covers all the doubts and guidelines regarding becoming a #IamRemarkable facilitator.

What is #IamRemarkable?

#IamRemarkable is a Google initiative, that started with the primary aim of empowering women and underrepresented groups but is now more open and versatile to celebrate anyone’s achievements in the workplace and beyond.

The major focus of this initiative is the self-promotion motivation and skills of women and underrepresented groups. It also breaks the taboos around the perception of self-promotion which the general public sometimes consider as bragging.

How does it work?

#IamRemarkable workshops are usually 90 min sessions run by facilitators trained by Google.

The workshop will highlight to participants the importance of self-promotion in their careers and provide them with the tools to practice this skill.

Steps involved to be a part of the #IamRemarkable

1. Sign up at https://events.withgoogle.com/iamremarkabletrainthetrainer/ to become an #IamRemarkable facilitator.

2. After registering, you need to book a slot according to your availability.

3. After the training, you will receive the workshop guides and resources to run your first workshop. You will then run a practice session for your team/peers within four weeks to become a fully trained facilitator.

4. Run the workshop and scale within your group or company. Stay in touch with the #IamRemarkable team for ongoing support.

Responsibilities of a #IamRemarkable Facilitator

As a facilitator you will be responsible for:

• Hosting workshops for your personal or professional networks

• Being an ambassador for #IamRemarkable

• Filling out the facilitator feedback form after each workshop

FAQ

All the FAQs can be found at: https://iamremarkable.withgoogle.com/faq

My experience of the #IamRemarkable workshop was one of the best sessions of my lifetime. It changed my way of thinking about my accomplishments and above all it taught me a very important lesson,

“If it’s based on facts, it is not bragging!”

I strongly suggest each one of you be a part of this amazing community. Join the LinkedIn group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12074882/.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter, LinkedIn or subscribe to get regular updates on my blog posts :)

Growing up watching Bollywood movies made me realize that Airports are meant to be dramatic. I felt it at that moment. I was the first member of my family to travel abroad. So, my parent’s proud yet concerned voice was continuously playing in the background of my mind.

Having done all the airport formalities, we finally boarded the plane. Throughout the journey, my excitement was way above my flight’s altitude (I suppose😅). I managed to get a window seat and remained awake for my urge to watch Burj Khalifa just before landing in Dubai. It was indeed one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen! 😍

We couldn’t explore Dubai Airport much as we were in a hurry to board our next flight. But the maintenance and handling even after being the world’s busiest airport was commendable.

The next pleasant thing I experienced was the Emirates services including the staff, food, entertainment channels, and their live telemetry of the information regarding flight status, surroundings, and forecasts.

We finally reached Frankfurt!

We used the Airport WiFi for installing all the necessary apps followed by reserving a cab to our hotel. We were lucky to get a Punjabi cab driver who cleared all our doubts regarding the general layout and workings of the city.

Frankfurt is the financial capital of Europe and it was clearly evident in its lifestyle and on its streets.

As soon as we all settled up, the next challenge for me was to find pure vegetarian food. It took me one complete day to find decent vegetarian food nearby. I was about to declare this as the most difficult challenge until I encountered the challenge of the unavailability of free drinking water. Though tap water is drinking water there but finding a tap again requires strenuous efforts.

Due to the Airport customs, our car shipment process was delayed a bit and our team was trying our best to resolve the issue. In the meantime, as we still had one buffer week before the competition, we started preparing more for the static events, i.e. Design Report, Cost Report, and Business Presentation.

Our team was divided into sub-groups and each of the groups was given a different responsibility according to their roles for better functionality and time management.

I, being in the Electrical and Electronics Department, was under the role of making the car competition ready and had to leave for Heilbronn, Germany.

We are all thankful to HHN Racing, the Formula Student Team of Heilbronn University, for hosting us and providing us with the workshop and the remaining resources to work on our car.

Here comes D-Day!

Formula Student Germany 2019!

My complete journey from the beginning had come to its final destination. All the efforts, contributions, hard work, and sleepless nights of the whole team were flashing in front of my eyes. I was astonished by the fact that how far I have come in these 2 years from knowing nothing about the Motorsport culture to participating in the biggest Formula Student event at Hockenheim Ring, Germany.

Formula Student Germany was definitely not just a competition for any of us; it had become an emotion we all love to live for.

FSG Organisation greeted all of us with an awesome Welcome ceremony!

On the very first day, the top 3 finalists among all the participating teams for the BASF Best Use of 3-D Printing Award were announced and we were extremely proud to be one of them. We prepared and presented the Final Presentation to the best of our efforts.

We completed the pre-inspection and the driver egress. Our next aim was to clear the Technical Inspection which includes mechanical scrutiny, tilt test, noise test, and brake test of our car. By then, all of our activities started complementing with a little bad luck in one way or another. We literally had to struggle a lot for getting even the minute things done.

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

I and my Electrical Department faced a very strange challenge where we were in shortage of a complete circuit board, as our spares were not working according to the expected functionalities. We realized the gravity of the issue as it would hinder the clearing of noise tests in the technical inspection, without which the car could not participate in any of the dynamic events.

In that panic situation, I was blessed to have the best teammates in my department. We all tried every possible way of figuring out the solution with the primary aim of having the circuitry with us as soon as possible.

Formula Student culture is outstanding when it comes to helping and cooperating. We asked for help with other teams as well as with the mentors. In the due course, we met Raftar Racing, the Formula Student Team of IIT-Madras. We were really thankful for all the help and guidance they provided us regarding the same. Having done all this, we finally solved the issue and cleared the BSPD rule in just one go. We had the following “BSPD Team” picture at the end of this accomplishment.

And then came Statics Day!

We had a Business Presentation in the morning, followed by engineering and cost analysis post-lunch. All the static events went well with minute shortcomings. The scope of improvements was informed to us via detailed feedback by FSG Judges which was followed by the “Team Photo”.

Considering my experiences until then, I’ve learned a very important life lesson that day:

Work culture of your organisation will make all the difference in the end.

If ever given chance to be at the top, Be Humble. Never let your superiority overpower the mankind.

As I finally stepped out of my pit after 3 days, I was extremely contented to experience the excellent efforts put up by the Formula Student Germany organization and all the sponsors. They had free food, beverages, free drinking water (my favorite!), outstanding mentorship, various career and sponsorship offers, fun games, photographic booths, and extremely useful and innovative goodies ranging from t-shirts, stickers, key rings, bags, caps, bottles, all kinds of stationery, pop socket, smartwatches, power bank, and whatnot. It was all for free and Trust me; it was the best part of the whole FSG. I wish I could go back and have them all again 😁

The power of communication and connecting to people is often underrated! Despite the diversity, do talk to people as much as you can. There is always something to learn from each and everyone.

After all the hurdles and challenges, we finally cleared Technical Inspection and got into the dynamics by the end of the 4th Day.

Our car competed in the Autocross and Endurance event but could not perform well because of some internal issues with the engine which we troubleshot and got it rectified lately.

Formula Student Germany is more about learning from our mistakes and improving them to be the best version of ourselves rather than competing with anyone else.

Results

We stood First in the BASF Best Use of 3D Printing Award and had our first-ever podium at FSG in the history of Pravega Racing. We scored 100/150 points in Design and Engineering event placing us in the 15th overall position. We stood 15th in Business Plan Presentation as well with 65/75 points.

And the event concluded with the “FSG after Party” having free food and beer and an unlimited dose of music, dance, and fun with all the excitement and joy. Everyone was happy as everyone had put their life out for this competition.

FSG was an amazing roller-coaster ride one could’ve ever been to. It taught me the engineering, team management, work culture required to be at the top, failure management, the power of strong connections and above all it taught me how important is it to have a competition with oneself before anyone else in the world.

As the competition ended, our team went back to Heilbronn for packing the car to ship it back to India. Later in the evening, I started my sightseeing journey to Munich and Paris.

Though Munich was my personal favorite among all the cities I’ve been to, Paris was a little more crowded yet more beautiful than the average European place.

European cities carry a different level of peace and history within them which cannot be explained by anyone. They are all amazingly pretty and well organized. We explored the places to the best of our extent with each passing day.

On my final journey back to India, I closed my eyes for a moment and thanked my super supportive parents, without whom this could never have happened in first place. My experience was way more satisfactory than I expected it to be considering the exposure and life lessons I got could not get any better.

I hope you will get a chance to visit any of the International competitions. If provided, utilize it to the fullest and explore as much as you can!

And above everything, do not forget to have Fun!

I am super excited to share that my article was featured and shared by the official Formula Student Germany LinkedIn page and can be found here.

Remember that:

The sky’s not the limit, you are. You set the bar!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this European journey with me. Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter, LinkedIn or subscribe to get regular updates on my blog posts :)