In the last blog post, I gave you the run down and tips for taking the Google Analytics certification exam. This post will give you an overview of the Google Adwords exams and my tips for studying and passing them.
As I said in the previous post, before you can take the exams, you are required to sign up for Google Partners. Google Partners is Google's free program for agencies and other digital professionals designed to give you access to special events, Adwords and Analytics updates and free certification exams. Once you have registered, you will have access to a copious amount of study materials for both the Adwords and Analytics.
The Google Adwords Certification
Overview:
Between the Analytics and Adwords certifications, the Adwords certification is more challenging and time consuming to obtain, but extremely beneficial if you manage PPC accounts. In order to become certified, you have to pass two of the six exams offered. You are required to take the Adwords Fundamentals exam and then you get to choose the other. The other exams include advanced search, display, video, shopping and mobile.
Since I manage shopping accounts at True, I chose to get Google Shopping certified as my second exam. Like the Analytics exam, once you start, you cannot pause or skip questions so allow yourself enough time for completion.
Each exam includes a study guide with various lessons and videos to prepare. There are many online resources at your disposal, but Google's study guides proved most effective. What sets apart the Adwords study guides from the Analytics study guides is there are no practice questions associated with the Adwords study material. Going into the Adwords exams, I felt a little less prepared not knowing what the questions were going to be like. However, Google provides so much information for you to read and study so passing is still very achievable. Once I completed the exam, it instantly told me I passed, but Google says it can take up to 48 hours for exam results to appear.
Tips
The Adwords Fundamentals exam is 100 questions in 120 minutes. You will not have enough time to look up every question in the study material as the exam goes on, so I definitely suggest studying as you would in college for an important exam. However, you do have enough time to think about the hard questions, when easier questions become faster to answer.
The questions span the contents of every lesson, but I would focus on the overall concepts instead of intricate facts and details. Many questions in the exam take a concept you learned and asks you to apply it to a potential client situation
The Google Shopping exam is 63 questions in 90 minutes. Of the two exams that I took to become Adwords certified, this one was definitely the easier of the two. Google provides plenty of information in their study guides for you to adequately prepare for the exam.
The questions primarily focus on the "do's and don'ts" of the Google Shopping platform. Since there are a lot of requirements and rules to be qualified for Google Shopping, the exam places heavy emphasis on the fundamentals and building high-quality data feeds.
Are You Ready?
Go through all of the reading supplements and videos Google provides for each exam and you should have no problem passing. Remember, the majority of the Fundamentals exam questions are on high-level concepts based on the structure, targeting, bids and budget parameters of Google Adwords. Once you pass your exams, you will have the opportunity to print your certifications and display them loud and proud. Good luck!
Questions on how to prepare? Visit our search and display advertising pages or contact us today!
