Digital marketing students immersed with real clients, real budgets

Contact: Cindy Wagner
October 1, 2021
Scott Cowley
Dr. Scott Cowley incorporates the Google Nonprofit Marketing Immersion in the curriculum for advanced digital marketing students at 蜜桃社区.

KALAMAZOO, Mich.鈥擶hat would you do with an extra $10,000 to boost your organization? 蜜桃社区 Michigan University digital marketing students found out firsthand by participating in Google鈥檚 Nonprofit Marketing Immersion Program. The program pairs student teams with qualifying nonprofit organizations around the country and gives them a generous grant to apply toward Google search ads that benefit their clients. 

Rachel Cook
Rachel Cook helped launch a new website designed to increase donations for a nonprofit in Georgia.

 offers educational programs for underprivileged, at-risk youth and disadvantaged and abused women.  The organization didn't have much experience in advertising as a way to generate donations, but the team of 蜜桃社区 students quickly saw that they could help with much more than just the digital ad campaign.

鈥淥ur team鈥檚 nonprofit lacked a sufficient online presence or a cohesive website for optimal search engine optimization,鈥 says Cook, whose role was to connect with the nonprofit advisor, hand-pick campaign groups, and assist with planning and creating a new website. 鈥淥ur team crafted a new website that created an ideal environment for search engines and ad generation. After the new website was launched, Restore to Empower experienced an increase in volunteers, donations and website traffic.鈥

Nathan Mansour
Nathan Mansour helped the Choral Consortium of San Diego achieve an 8% click-through rate on a Google ads campaign.

advocates in support of the arts, promotes member choral engagements, organizes community-wide choral events, and offers training. Their goal was to bring more awareness to the organization, its mission, and events.

鈥淐horal Consortium of San Diego is a niche organization. One of the biggest challenges we faced with the project was coming up with the right keywords,鈥 says Mansour, whose team got hands-on practice with professional keyword research tools such as SEMrush while planning their campaigns.

The team set a goal of a 5% click-through rate from their Google ads. After placing ads with strategic keywords, the team achieved a click-through rate of 8%.

鈥淲e had full reign over what we did and how well we did it. It was up to us to make it great which feels good when you see numbers going up and money spent,鈥 says Mansour.

For more information about the digital marketing and eCommerce program and experiential learning at 蜜桃社区, visit the program website.

For more 蜜桃社区 news, arts and events, visit 蜜桃社区 News online.