Optimizing ADWords Campaign for James Cook University

This assignment is related to an e-business plan that aims to promote James Cook University's Bachelor of Information Technology course among domestic and international students using Google AdWords. The plan involves optimizing the website for search engine results, blocking negative keywords, increasing keyword bid if ranking is low, and optimizing click-through rate (CTR) and landing pages using Google Analytics. The budget for a 3-week campaign is $250, with more emphasis on domestic ad campaigns as they are key elements of the university's student body. Proper planning and backup strategies are essential for the ADWords campaign.

Running head: E-BUSINESS PLAN
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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Aim of the report is to understand search engine optimization and relevance of ADWords and
to draw a campaign plan for online advertising of a newly created webpage for James Cook
University based on the knowledge. The IT department wants to use Google ADWords in
order the market the newly launched web page offering bachelor course for information
technology. Therefore a Google ADWords search network campaign plan has been designed
in the following report. The report concluded that planning of ADWords is critical as it is
associated with various factors like keyword bidding and others. Successful attempts of these
strategies can popularise a web page within a short interval of time.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...................................................................................................................3
A Business Profile:.........................................................................................................3
Webpage Overview:...................................................................................................3
B SEO and User Friendliness:........................................................................................5
C Proposed ADWords Strategy:....................................................................................6
ADWords:..................................................................................................................6
Promotion of ADWords:............................................................................................7
ADWords Campaign of James Cook University:......................................................7
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................8
D References:.................................................................................................................9
Appendix:.....................................................................................................................11

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Introduction:
Internet is the market of information now-a-days. A webpage contained in a website,
displays various set of information of different format like textual, graphical and audio-
visual. Specific information of any organisation is displayed in specific web pages. A
webpage needs to be optimized for better search engine result. People all over the world
generally use some common and most famous search engines like Google to find out
information. Better optimization places the website and the webpage higher than the other
results.
Google.com is the leading search engine in the world. From any country one can get
information by accessing it via Google. Any organisation can submit its content to Google
accepting the terms and condition. It is the general method for promotion of content or
information now-a-days. For this discussion, a webpage www.jcu.edu.au is related with
information technology of James Cook University is chosen that displays the content related
to the IT Bachelor course in that university ("Bachelor of Information Technology", 2017).
There is a requirement to improve the search engine optimization for the webpage and the
Head of the IT department is in need of a 3 weeks ADWords marketing plan within the cost
of $250.
The purpose of this study is to understand the requirements and develop a perfect
ADWords marketing plan within the budget for improved search engine optimization and
Google ADWords campaign.
A Business Profile:
A webpage is a Hyper Text Mark-up Language formatted document that is displayed
via website. It can be opened from an internet browser using specific URL address (Moreno
& Martinez, 2013). The contents of a webpage are certain information, different
advertisements, links for file sharing to social networking sites and most of all an option for
search.
Webpage Overview:
The second oldest public university in Queensland is James Cook University. The
university has its campus and study centres in various cities of Australia. Undergraduate and

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post-graduate courses are offered by the Brisbane campus of this university to the
international students. Courses offered to students are related with information technology,
engineering, law, business, biomedical sciences, pharmacy, nursing, healthcare sciences,
social work and some other. Research subjects of this university are associated with genetics
and genomics, marine sciences, engineering and information technology, biodiversity and
some other. Currently, number of domestic and international students of the university is
approximately 15.273 and 6.886 respectively. Consisting over 5000 academic and non-
academic staffs this university has proved to be a very profitable one as well-renowned on the
basis of their research papers, published books and journals.
The description of the university clearly describes its enormous structure and the
requirement for a website can be easily understood. The university possess a website from
where different information can be gathered (Carter, 2012). The website contains different
portal for students and staff members. Institution description like history, statistics, campuses,
annual report and university plans are given in specific web pages. University presents the
information about its specific courses in the website along with services like application
submission and support services. Fee and cost structures, scholarships and accommodations
are also presented through the website. Details of their various staff section and alumni
section are given in specific pages (Crawford-Ferre & Wiest, 2012). Finally the website
contains a search engine to ease the access of users.
Potential customers of this business are students, both domestic and international. The
university has developed its website to attract the attention of the students, for under-
graduation and post-graduation courses. The website also shares information about
scholarships, accommodation and facilities (McIntyre, 2015). The webpage for the course of
bachelor in information technology has been designed for both Australian and international
students.
The benefits for having a well-built and information filled website are numerous
(Skinner, 2016). Through different web pages an organisation can share its information and
offerings specifically to its targeted audiences. Providing origin, history, statistics and annual
report helps the viewers to develop a knowledge and trust about the organisation. Detailed
information present in the website helps a user to enrich his or her knowledge of the subject
or sometimes it may help a user to select between different subjects. The channel through
which a user can apply for something online to the organisation, reduces the physical effort

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and saves time and cost. Having a website for education purposes helps an institution to
become popular not only in domestic region, but also all over the world (Marshall, Rhodes &
Todd, 2014). Students can go through the information given in the portal and compare it with
other websites to choose the best for them. Links of research papers, journals and books are
presented in the websites of an institution which helps a student in his studies. A student can
get the information about cost structure, accommodations and other benefits from the website
which quickens their time of choosing. Students and staffs of an institution also get various
benefits from the website of the institution (Wilde et al., 2012). An institutional website often
contains different portals for students, professors and staffs. They can communicate as well
as get research materials through the portal. They can also view the results and rewards
through the website (McKeever, 2016).
B SEO and User Friendliness:
Optimization of search engine is known as SEO. Website ranking in search engine
can be improved by following a definite set of rules for optimization. These rules are also
used to make the website user friendly by providing ease of access and navigation (Sofronic,
2012). This optimization is very much essential for websites to gain competitive advantages
as most of the search engines users prefer the top 5 results of search. The benefits of search
engine optimization include high amount of search engine traffic and common framework for
publishing contents. Search engine optimisation can be categorised into two parts, White hat
SEO and Black hat SEO (Berman & Katona, 2013). First one follows the concepts of search
engine guidelines to improve the rankings in search engine results and the next one uses the
algorithms that do not follow the guidelines. White hat SEO utilizes development of high
quality content, reconstruct and optimization of website HTML, acquisition of high quality
content campaign link and research manually (Killoran, 2013). Black hat SEO uses link
spam, cloaking, hidden links and texts. A gradual improvement in search engine friendliness
and website ranking can be achieved by it (Tutaj & van Reijmersdal, 2012).
Website of James Cook University is pretty user friendly however it can be still
optimized a few level. A basic SEO audit helps a website owner to fix various elements that
resulting in website unfriendliness (Shyam , Jagannathan & Rajavel, 2013). This involves
eliminating duplicate contents, creating a short URL like <name of the website>/<subject
matter>, each and every page of the website should contain customizable title tags and
including search engine to index web pages (Geddes, 2014).

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To increase the user friendliness the titles and headings of each web page needs to be
descriptive and simple, without repeating keywords. Contents in web pages should be up-to
date and involved with limited keywords. Excessive keywords that make file name huge must
be avoided (McIntyre, 2015). Excessive page addition with no information should be
avoided. Sending manual link requests to manually researched websites, paid directory
submissions increases the value of the website. Linkable contents from different websites
also increase the friendliness of a website (Tutaj & van Reijmersdal, 2012).
Certain pages of the Website of James Cook University contain repetitive contents.
Course and study information are repeated in several pages (Yuan, Wang & Zhao, 2013).
Heading of the pages should be viewed more clearly. Excessive background should be
avoided as an institutional site must contain more information and study materials rather than
various graphical images not-regarding the studies (Weller & Calcott, 2012). Search engine
results for James Cook University is good but the applying some important SEO techniques
mentioned above optimization can be done.
C Proposed ADWords Strategy:
ADWords:
In order to promote a new web page the best online advertising technique is
ADWords. The technique is developed by Google, where paid advertisements are shown
partly developed on keywords and partly on cookies (Marshall, Rhodes & Todd, 2014). The
payment methods associated with is pay-per-click, cost per action and cost per mile. Text
advertisements in Google contains one headline of approximately 30 characters, 35 characters
based two text lines and a display URL consisting approximately 40 characters (King,
Abrahams, & Ragsdale, 2015).
A proper ADWords campaign can be developed applying certain step-by-step
method. After signing up for an ADWords account at first the campaign type and campaign
should be chosen properly. Next, the location has to be chosen where the ads will be
displayed (Carter, 2012). Larger the targeted area, larger the payment cost. Bid strategy
should be set as manual and maual payment and automatic payment must be done according
to the daily budget. Ad Extensions should be ignored in the first week, however the second
and third week can have Ad Extension added to the campaign objectives (Berman & Katona,

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2013). For better search ranking the headline should be aligned with campaign objective and
within 25 characters. Benefits should be assigned in second line for better customer review.
Promotion of ADWords:
For promoting ADWords profitably, market analysis is the key factor. A 360 degree
market review for the popularity of the product can be obtained from shopping insights
consisting of heat maps and graphs. Obtained data help in ADWords campaign (Geddes,
2014). To become familiar with consumer’s searching habit Google Trends is an effective
tool. In order to compare the performance metrics Google Benchmark tools are helpful
(McKeever, 2016).
ADWords Campaign of James Cook University:
Customer demand and target audience is the first objective of the campaign. The
specific webpage www.jcu.edu.au is related with information of the bachelor in information
technology course ("Bachelor of Information Technology", 2017). Therefore, the target
audience will be largely undergraduate students (Weller & Calcott, 2012). According to the
duration and study mode, the campaign needs to be divided in three parts. The 1st week
campaign will be associated with 3 years full time study for domestic students, 2nd week
campaign will be associated with off campus part time studies for domestic students and 3rd
week will be associated with on campus full time studies for international studies. Hence
forth the main objective is to set the keyword for the ADWords campaign (Shyam ,
Jagannathan & Rajavel, 2013). The budget for three weeks is $250. This budget is divided
into $100 1st week, $100 second week and $50 last week. Therefore the daily budget for the
1st two weeks becomes approximately $14.28 per week. According the market analysis the
conversion rate of consumers must be estimated. Cost per click (CPC) is the payment process
of the advertiser to the publisher (King, Abrahams, & Ragsdale, 2015). The CPC bidding
strategy is set according to the maximum cost-per-bid strategy. For this campaign, max CPC
is $14 per day. Estimating a starting customer conversion rate of 20% max CPC is calculated
according to the formula, Maximum CPC = {profit per customer} x {1 – profit margin} x
{rate of website conversation} (Sofronic, 2012). The target of the ADWords is to create more
traffic from the targeted audience and to gain competitive advantage from the competitors in
the basis of profit.
Each click on ADWords costs the advertiser. Therefore the main target is to take care
of that only the interested student clicks on the ad. In this case the attractive ads possessing a

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high click through rate (CTR) elevate the quality score of ADWords (Killoran, 2013).
Headlines should be ‘Apply to James Cook University’. Description line 1 and 2 should
contain ‘Bachelor of Information Technology’ and ‘Best Guidance and Environment
Guaranteed’. The structure of URL should be
‘www.jcu.edu.au/information-technology/bachelor degree (Crawford-Ferre & Wiest, 2012).
Matching the objectives a landing page has to be created before the main web page. In order
to start the campaign, tracking of conversion is must in order to know which keywords are
generating sales (Yuan, Wang & Zhao, 2013). For that condition, unique contacts have to be
given.
Negative keywords are blocked so that uninterested customers do not click on the ad
("Bachelor of Information Technology", 2017). Other course of the university has been
placed in the negative keywords. An increase of keyword bid has been planned in case low
ranking. Optimization of CTR and landing page with the help of Google analytics have been
planned during the campaign.
Conclusion:
Hence, from the report it can be deduced that e-business plan is an innovative plan to
promote a business profitably. The components of this promotional activity are search engine
optimization and ADWords. The highest ranking a website or web page can achieve in a
search engine result more benefit the marketer will achieve. The report is associated with the
promotional activities of a new web page of James Cook University. The course of Bachelor
of Information Technology has been developed for domestic students as well as international
students. In order to spread the popularity of the institution among the students all over the
world Google ADWords is the best network. Among the search engines Google is the most
popular. Therefore promoting through Google is most beneficial. The budget for the 3 week
ADWords campaign is $250. The domestic students are key elements of a university in that
region; hence, more budgets should be allocated for domestic ad campaign. Proper designing
of every steps and keeping a back-up plan for raise in keyword bidding is an essential part of
ADWords campaign, which has been followed here.

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D References:
Bachelor of Information Technology. (2017). Jcu.edu.au. Retrieved 9 September 2017, from
https://www.jcu.edu.au/courses-and-study/courses/bachelor-of-information-
technology
Berman, R., & Katona, Z. (2013). The role of search engine optimization in search
marketing. Marketing Science, 32(4), 644-651.
Carter, J. A. (2012). U.S. Patent Application No. 13/551,600.
Crawford-Ferre, H. G., & Wiest, L. R. (2012). Effective online instruction in higher
education. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 13(1), 11.
Geddes, B. (2014). Advanced Google AdWords. John Wiley & Sons.
Killoran, J. B. (2013). How to use search engine optimization techniques to increase website
visibility. IEEE transactions on professional communication, 56(1), 50-66.
King, M. A., Abrahams, A. S., & Ragsdale, C. T. (2015). Ensemble learning methods for
pay-per-click campaign management. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(10),
4818-4829.
Marshall, P., Rhodes, M., & Todd, B. (2014). Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords.
Entrepreneur Press.
McIntyre, E. S. (2015). Search engine optimization. ON October, 11.
McKeever, M. (2016). How to write a business plan. Nolo.
Moreno, L., & Martinez, P. (2013). Overlapping factors in search engine optimization and
web accessibility. Online Information Review, 37(4), 564-580.
Shyam, K. P., Jagannathan, S., & Rajavel, M. (2013). A New Technique for Ranking Web
Pages and Adwords. International Journal of Computer Applications, 82(12).
Skinner, D. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,311,662. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office.

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Sofronic, B. (2012). Search Engine Optimization.
Tutaj, K., & van Reijmersdal, E. A. (2012). Effects of online advertising format and
persuasion knowledge on audience reactions. Journal of Marketing
Communications, 18(1), 5-18.
Weller, B., & Calcott, L. (2012). The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords: Create Versatile
and Powerful Marketing and Advertising Campaigns. Apress.
Wilde, T., Morton, K. D., Lobacheva, Y., Zinovieva, N., & Meteer, M. (2012). U.S. Patent
No. 8,312,022. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Yuan, S., Wang, J., & Zhao, X. (2013, August). Real-time bidding for online advertising:
measurement and analysis. In Proceedings of the Seventh International Workshop on
Data Mining for Online Advertising (p. 3). ACM.

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Appendix:

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