For the fifth year, Grady College and Performics, a marketing agency specializing in paid search, display and mobile marketing, partnered to offer the Performics/AdWords program for Grady students who wanted an in-depth study of the growing field of mobile advertising and search.
Twelve Grady College students participated in the program that met regularly throughout the Spring 2017 semester. The program was led by two Grady College professors, Elaine Lin, assistant professor in advertising, and Karen King, the Jim Kennedy New Media Professor in advertising, as well as Brittany Busik (ABJ ’14), a media manager from the Performics office in Atlanta.
“This is one of the best classes we have had,” Busik said to the students at the closing presentation. “Your insights were way past the level of what we have seen in the past.”
The program followed the educational steps laid out by AdWords certification and included an in-depth study of analytics from copywriting ads, to researching key words and studying search metrics. The students were provided a budget to purchase online ads for Grady College and Talking Dog as part of their study. Busik and other Performics employees served as mentors to the students, making on-site visits and leading them through the process. At the end, each student took the exam and earned their certificate upon passing the test.
For recent advertising graduate Dejana Peric (ABJ ’17), the program exceeded her expectations.
“I wanted to refine my analytical skills, but I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I did,” Peric said. “Optimizing is so much more than what I expected. It ended up being really dynamic.”
While some of the students have aspirations of working in the field of paid search, others participated in the program to ensure they have a broad range of skills so they are more marketable as they search for their first job out of college.
Several alumni of the Performics/AdWords program have earned jobs in paid search as the result of this specialized education.
Applications for the program next spring will be available early 2018.