“She’s a goner.”
“Time of death?”
“Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 3:01 AM.”
And thus was the end of the Google AdWords Professionals (GAP) program.
New – Google AdWords Certification
Before the body was even cold, Google already had their new bride at the altar; Google AdWords Certification. According to the post on the Official AdWords Blog “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.” Here are the highlights:
- More training materials for agencies so they can sell AdWords more effectively
- Tougher certification tests
- Advanced-level tests
- New badges that link to a verification page
And here is what I think of them:
- Training agencies better produces an army of volunteer AdWords sales reps who already have relationships with the clients. They’ve been trying to do this with Agency Land but this has a much larger scope. Makes great business sense.
- The test is tougher than the previous test. The test browser doesn’t let you access the internet to teach, it’s 120 questions long and you only have 2 hours. However, I took the Fundamentals test in less than 1 hour, with no studying and passed easily. This should be no sweat to experienced PPC wizards.
- I like this idea because it allowed them to ask very in-depth questions about more advanced features of AdWords. Still passed the test without studying, but it was a better test in my opinion.
- New badges. Cool. Click to verify option. Cool. Anything that helps me sell my services to a client I welcome.
What have been your thoughts/impressions on the new Google Certification Program?
