Here is an opportunity for businesses in State College (startups and established alike) to take advantage of free advertising on Google.

I am participating in the Google Online Marketing Challenge, which is an academic event that will take place this coming spring. This is an international competition where academic teams like ours at PSU compete to create a successful online advertising campaign over a span of 3 weeks. A team can choose a business to work with, and Google is giving each team $200 to use for free on Google’s advertising network.

There are 4 teams at Penn State competing in the Google Online Marketing Challenge, and they are seeking business clients to collaborate with. Are you a startup company that does not have a huge marketing budget and could use some free exposure on Google? Or maybe you are an established local business who would like to explore the possible use of search engine marketing.

If you haven’t tried promoting your business on the search engines, it’s definitely something to look into as more potential customers get online everyday. Advertising on Google allows you to get laser targeted traffic, since you get to specify exactly which search terms trigger your advertisements. Plus, you only pay for an ad when a customer shows interest (by clicking), which is totally unheard of in traditional advertising.

Try out Google Adwords today for free with one of our competing teams at Penn State University. Email Daehee at dap5100 (at) psu (dot) edu if your company is interested.