Google has retired the Google Advertising Professionals (GAP) programme and replaced it with a new AdWords Certification programme.
Penry Price, Vice President, Global Agency Development for Google, writes:
We’ve had a lot of great feedback from agencies and today we’re announcing changes designed to offer them better training and more rigorous certification in AdWords proficiency, and to lower costs for those who help advertisers get the most out of AdWords…The new program provides agencies and their employees with more up-to-date, comprehensive, strategy-focused training and certification on the latest tools and best practices for managing AdWords accounts.
Recently, Google has released a new set of exams for the AdWords Certified Partner Programme.
Following on from being the first AdWords Qualified Agency in New Zealand under the old exams, First Rate are happy to announce that the entire consulting team has passed both the Fundamentals and Advanced exams.
The New Google AdWords Certification Exams
There are four exams in total, here is what’s covered:
- The Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam: Basic aspects of AdWords and online advertising, including account management and the value of search advertising.
- The Search Advertising Advanced Exam: Intermediate-to-advanced best practices for managing AdWords campaigns.
- The Display Advertising Exam: Intermediate-to-advanced best practices for advertising on YouTube and the Google Content Network.
- The Reporting & Analysis Advanced Exam: Intermediate-to-advanced best practices for maximizing account performance using Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, the AdWords Report Center, and other analysis techniques.
The ‘Display’ and ‘Reporting’ Exams are not yet available, but First Rate consultants will be sitting these as soon as they become available.
Google AdWords Search Advertising Advanced Exam
The following advanced Adwords topics are covered in this exam:
- AdWords Ad Formats
- AdWords Targeting and Placements
- Keywords and Keyword Targeting
- AdWords Language & Location Targeting
- Placement Targeting for the Content Network
- Location Extensions
- AdWords Bidding and Budgeting
- AdWords Policies
- Ad and Site Quality
- Invalid Clicks Issues
- AdWords Tools
- AdWords Editor
- AdWords Reporting
- Conversion Tracking
- Optimising Performance
- Optimising AdWords Campaigns and Ad Groups
- Optimising Websites and Landing Pages
- Optimising for Greater Conversions
- Managing Multiple Accounts
- Overview of Managing Multiple Accounts
- Managing Accounts with My Client Centre (MCC)
- Using AdWords API
