Google AdWords Certification Advice

May 2010 - I (Ben) just completed my exams for Google AdWords Certification, we're just waiting for the professional status screen to update with the new Google AdWords Certified Partner logo to show up.

Tips?

A mate of mine in London saw the tweet (via LinkedIn) about the re-certification and asked if I had any tips. The first thing that springs to mind is study like crazy. You need to live and breathe AdWords to do really well.

Having a wide variety of AdWords campaigns underway helps with this.

I'm pretty sure it was harder than last time I did the exams 2 years ago. I'm pretty sure I only did one exam back then and this time there were two.

1. Google AdWords Fundamentals Exam (Pass rate is 85%)
2. Search Advertising Advanced Exam

Instead of the Search Advertising Advanced Exam you can choose a different "advanced" exam. I chose "Search Advertising" as this is my bread-and-butter helping clients achieve better click through rates (CTR) and returns on investment (ROI) through landing page quality, AdWords ad optimisation and clever keyword selection.

Another AdWords Certification Tip...

Even if you don't use something in the syllabus make sure you learn it. As an (almost) one man operation until March 2010 I had no experience of "Sub MCC" (My Client Center) accounts. I have no need to transfer clients around when there's just me, so I'm pretty sure I dropped a few points here.

AdWords editor too, I've used it a fair bit in the past but I like the new AdWords Web interface so I actually use that most of the time. Learning about AdWords editor means downloading installing and playing with it - you can't just read this stuff.

Want to get certified. This is the best place to start....
https://support.google.com/google-ads/?hl=en&page=examstudy.cs&exam=fundamentals#topic=10286612