For the last 15 weeks for my Digital Advertising class, I have been participating in Stukents’ Mimic Pro simulation for both paid search ads and email ads for a mythical camera company. For today’s post, I will only be talking about the paid search ads. So here are a few key points or features I will like to point out for anyone who may want or will be using this application.

Disclaimer all opinions are my own and are based on my own experience yours might be different.

The Intro Video:

So, like any good simulation Stukent’s Mimic Pro has an intro/tutorial video, which can be referred to at any time. This video… I’m going, to be honest, I did this simulation plus the intro simulation in another class and I can’t remember if the video I remember for the other class is the same as this one. So sorry I can’t be of help if you wanted a review for that.

What metrics are important (to me)

Okay first of there are many metrics that they give you and there is no one right metric to focus on for some people it profits, some it is conversions, ROI, etc. Here are a few I know I focused on.

Profit

Due to the fact that to continue to have a business the company must make money (profit is the money left over once you paid for everything).

Reach

This is the number of people that potential saw your ad. This then tells you the max potential of sales this ad could have had in a perfect world.

Clicks

Knowing how many people were interested in your ad/product it is important because if 100 people clicked but only 3 people bought this tells you your ad and your landing page may not line up at telling the same story.

Conversion

Ah, conversions the thing that some people get obsessed with, and don’t get me wrong they are super important, however sometimes an ad it about gaining awareness for the brands so things like impressions or clicks may be more important than people buying. With that said obviously the point of any business is to sell any products they want to sell in order to make a profit (see full circling this business).

Conversion Rate

The last and maybe least important metric that chose to showcase is the conversion rate which is just the rate of people who ended purchasing after clicking on the ad.

Conversions/clicks= conversion rate

My Tips?

Truthfully, I didn’t do the greatest on the ads portion of this simulation. However, I recommend using Google ad fundamentals to learn some of the general rules of ad creation.

Mimic Pro vs Google Ad Fundamentals Certification:

First off Google is a course with a mini test and Mimic Pro is a simulation. This means Mimic Pro you learn by seeing/doing and in Google, it is reading retention.

What would I improve?

While I really liked this simulation there is room for improvement. Personally, I would maybe add some more information to the summary pages, like devices used, etc.

I would also have your keywords be on the page for when you are creating the ad, so you can keep in mind how you planned on presenting each product and have it been the same or similar message the whole way through if that is how you want it.

I would add more keywords to the simulation, it was very limited. Mainly things like brand names misspelled words and best phrases. People search on many other search terms then what was offered.

I also think explaining why you scored the way you did, like why did people bounce right out or buy the thing, etc. would be beneficial.

Would I recommend this simulation?

Overall yes, I think it well created and gives students a chance to practice making ads and reviewing the data after each round. However, there is room for improvement.

Is it realistic?

 I think that for the most part yes it gave realistic character limits and layouts to my search ad.

So here it is my views and experience using this simulation. Please leave me a comment stating yours or leave any tips for future readers.

Stukent’s Mimic Pro posts part 1 of two complete, please check out part two for information on the email campaign.