EMU Google Adwords Partnership

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The Organization for Bat Conservation is a non-profit that derives 40% of its revenue from the web.

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Filed under: Bloomfield Hills, MI | EMU Google Adwords Partnership | Network Businesses | Rob Mies | The Organization for Bat Conservation

The Organization for Bat Conservation incorporated as a non-profit in 1997. Its mission is to educate people about the benefits of bats and to help preserve them. From the start, Rob Mies, the OBC's executive director, realized it would be hard to solicit contributions for bat preservation. People are afraid of bats or have other negative feelings about them.

So, Rob began to think of the OBC as a business. What could the organization offer that people would be willing to pay for? He came up with three broad areas:

• Educational programs. Schools are willing to pay to have the OBC come and put on programs, and groups are willing to pay an entry fee to visit the OBC's traveling museum exhibit.
• Grants. Some organizations are willing to fund bat conservation even though it remains a small percentage.
• Ecommerce. Rob realized that, while the market for his services in any one state might be small, the web would allow him to address a national audience. He initially developed a bat house product to be sold over the web, and then branched out into other bat related products.

In future episodes, we'll discus how the OBC used Google AdWords to reinforce its online marketing efforts.

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I highlight different strategies I used to create pay per click advertising campaigns for the Arab American National Museums Adwords account.

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Filed under: Arab American National Museum | Dearborn, MI | EMU Google Adwords Partnership

Through the generous opportunity arranged by Eastern Michigan and Google, I was thrilled to have Google's Pay-per-Click advertising incorporated into my curriculum last semester. Our class was broken down into 5 groups with each group given a different account to manage.  I was assigned to manage the Arab American National Museums adwords account.  Initially, the account presented itself as a challenge to our group. We knew nothing about Adwords or the Arab American National Museum.

Success came after a stellar tour of the museum and a meeting with several different employees.  Once we understood more about the museum, it was easier to write ads to match their needs.  It might sound obvious, but the first step towards success is having open communication channels with your non-profit organization.

After understanding the company, it was time to make sense out of Adwords.  In an upcoming segment, I'll go into detail about the strategies I used to optimize campaign performance.

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In this segment of my case study, I continue describing the pay per click advertising campaign my Eastern Michigan University classmates and I developed for Dawn Farm. I detail the optimization strategies used to successfully bring Dawn Farm's online ad campaign on par with high performing commercial accounts.

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Filed under: Dawn Farm | EMU Google Adwords Partnership | New Voices in Innovation | Ypsilanti, MI

As I indicated in my previous post, I had a unique classroom experience working with Google to develop a pay per click advertising campaign for Dawn Farm, a local non-profit organization.  I created actual online ads that connected people to Dawn Farm's website, and I was able to monitor the progress of my ads daily and develop successful optimization strategies.

My project's success came from learning how to identify the specific target market for each of my ads and creating ads that focused on what people in those target groups were searching for on the internet.   I learned that by using strong, catchy headlines and descriptive words in the ad text, I was able to make my ads stand out and grab my target audience's attention.  I also learned that by keeping my ads focused on a very specific product, my target audience was more likely to click on my ad and become potential customers. 

As I learned to optimize my ads, the quality score of the ads increased.  This increase in quality score further improved ad visibility by causing the ads to be positioned at the top of the search page.  The project required a lot of work and attention to detail.  From my hard work came a lot of valuable knowledge and experience.  At the end of my experience, I was rewarded with the ultimate measure of success, my ads obtained a clickthrough rate comparable to that of a highly successful commercial ad.   

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In this first segment, I lay out the challenges one faces in developing pay per click advertising campaigns for non-profit organizations. I use the case of the campaign we developed for Dawn Farm as part of an innovative partnership between Google and Eastern Michigan University.

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Filed under: Dawn Farm | EMU Google Adwords Partnership | New Voices in Innovation | Ypsilanti, MI

Last semester, I participated in an innovative partnership between Google and Eastern Michigan University where my classmates and I developed Google Adwords campaigns for several local non-profit organizations. This is the first segment of a case study I have prepared about the challenges we faced and overcame as part of this experience.

My team had the pleasure of working with an Ypsilanti-based organization called Dawn Farm.  Dawn Farm works to assist alcohol and drug addicts obtain long-term recovery. This first case study segment that I'm presenting here provides an overview of the initial challenges we faced in managing this account.  New to the world of pay-per-click advertising, my classmates and I went through the growing pains of learning how to effectively market a company over the internet.  We found that trial and error, actively monitoring our progress, and good communication with our organization were all key to our Google Adwords success.

We were able to establish a strong working relationship with Jason Schwartz, the Clinical Director of Dawn Farm.  This relationship was one of the key elements that helped us figure out an effective strategy for Dawn Farm. Jason provided us with valuable insight regarding Dawn Farm's clients and the advertising needs of the Dawn Farm organization.  As my classmates and I worked dilligently at fine tuning the online ads we created for Dawn Farm, we observed how our efforts caused a significant growth in the amount of traffic that Dawn Farm's website received.  By the end of the semester, it was obvious that our efforts had paid off.  Jason Schwartz reported that the amount of traffic on Dawn Farm's website increased over 60%, and Dawn Farm noticed a growth in the amount of applicants.

Currently I am still maintaining Dawn Farm's Google Adwords account and am also a reporter in Michigan Innovators' bullpen section. In future segments, I will focus on how we brought Dawn Farm's Google Adwords campaign on par with high performing commercial accounts.