Carolyn:

So by now most former AdWords professionals have been faced with Google’s new certification requirements which entail passing the basic fundamentals exam and then passing one of the advanced exams. If you are new to AdWords, like me, then I’m sure you’re feeling a little overwhelmed with the vast amount of material covered by the exams. My company, FaceForwardMedia, had given me the opportunity to manage several accounts, with the help of an AdWords expert, so I did have a working knowledge to build from. But even with hands-on experience, the exam can still be quite a challenge. Let me give you an idea of what to expect.

Google AdWords Certification Exam Basic

The basic fundamental exam contains 120 multiple choice questions and you have a time limit of 2 hours to complete all the questions. You’ll need to score at least an 85% to pass. The cost is $50 and if you fail you cannot take the exam again for another 7 days, plus you’ll be charged another $50. Be sure you are ready and have a quiet, comfortable place to work. Once you enter the exam, you do not have access to anything else on your computer, so the days of splitting your screen to look things up are over. Truthfully, you really wouldn’t have much time to do that anyway, just one minute per question.

I learned a few things along the way taking the basic exam that absolutely helped me with the advanced exam. First, mark questions you do not immediately know the answers to and move on. I did not do this on the first exam and therefore felt rushed towards the end. Plus, as you move through the test, you will come across similar questions that often help you clarify your thought process to previous questions. Sometimes just having a question reworded can help you, and often the answer choices are different which can help eliminate a previous answer you were considering. In other words, use the test information to your advantage. I felt much better on my second exam getting to the end and then going back to review questions I had marked along the way. I also got a better score on the second exam. Finally, if you can, keep track of questions that you didn’t know the answer to, or weren’t sure about. This will give you a chance when the test is over to go back and look up the correct answers. If you don’t, you’ll want to kick yourself when a similar question shows up on your advanced exam and you’re still not sure what the answer is.

Google Certification Exam Advanced

The advanced exams contain 120 multiple choice questions and you have the same time limit of 2 hours. The cost is still $50, but the good news is that you only need an 80% on these exams to pass. If you fail, you have to wait 7 days again to retake them and it will cost another $50 per test. You can take any of the advanced exams to get certification and I elected to take the Advanced Search Exam. As I mentioned previously, I used the “marking” strategy on this exam and found it to be very beneficial, because the advanced search exam is exactly what you would expect, more advanced than the basic. For this exam it seemed to me that there were always two correct answers to many of the questions and I really had to zero in on the best answer. There was more intuition and reasoning required and sometimes the questions had to be solved in layers.

Just some final advice, put the study time in and yes even those demonstration videos in the AdWords Lesson. I put in about 15-20 hours for the first exam and then about 25 hours for the second. But again, I am a newbie! For those who have used AdWords for a long period of time, you may not find the test so challenging. If you’re not sure where you fit, check out http://www.ipassexam.com/catalogue/Marketing/Google-Advertising-Fundamentals-Exam-Revision. They offer a free demo to give you an idea of what the test will be like. If you get 85% of the answers correct, then you’re probably ready to test. If not, hit the Adwords Learning Center http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=examstudy.cs&rd=1

Daryl:

Carolyn did a wonderful job laying out what taking the tests were like so I only have a few things to add.

Google AdWords Certification Test

The tests are much harder than any of the previous Certification Tests. You really need to have in-depth knowledge about every aspect of setting up, managing and optimizing a Google AdWords account, from keyword research to Google’s Website Optimizer and don’t ignore the API study material. The word play Google uses in the questions to ferret out the depth of the tester’s knowledge is extraordinary so read the questions very carefully.

Google Certifications – Long Story Short

Along with the Search Advertising Advanced Exam, Google offers Display and the Reporting & Analysis advanced exams. The study material for all the tests are packed full of great information for AdWords neophytes and experts as well, even if you’re not planning on taking the tests read them it’s time well spent.

With the recent changes in Google AdWords certification exams, having a certified Google professional means more now than ever. Make sure the company that handles your Pay-Per-Click Advertising, or your in-house guru, has the new Google certifications.

Daryl’s Google AdWords qualification pdf
On-line Version

Carolyn’s Google Adwords qualification pdf
On-line Version

Google AdWord Quality Scores

To keep this as simple as possible were going to only talk about PPC on Gooogle’s “Search Network” as the QS (Quality Score) metrics change depending on the ad type. As most of you may know, Google rates the “Quality” of your keywords on a scale from 0 to 10. Many factors weigh into the scoring (many of them Google doesn’t divulge) but in short there are four main areas that Google looks at; Click through rate, the ads keyword relevancy, the keyword relevancy of the landing page and the landing page load time. An entire book that can be written about Google’s QS but explaining the QS process in detail really isn’t the purpose of this blog post.

Is B2B really different than B2C?

The short answer here is a big YES! – Especially in the PPC world… Typically B2B ads compete with B2C ads for space, but the desired traffic is very different. Take for example a wholesaler of widgets and a widget retailer. The keywords used in both campaigns are going to be very similar and overlapping especially if the retailer or wholesaler or both are using “broad match” search terms (a subject for another day). So what is a wholesaler to do so he isn’t buying worthless retail traffic? One effective method is ‘pre-filtering’ or ‘prequalifying’ the clicks they receive by writing ads that drive only qualified traffic; which brings us to QS and B2B campaigns.

Should you chase QS in B2B Ad Campaigns?

On the surface the answer here again is a yes but (you knew it was coming didn’t you) not with abandon. Yes, a QS of 10 out of 10 means you’re going to be paying less per click than someone with a QS of 4….but how many worthless clicks are you paying for to get that high QS? Remember that one of the metrics Google looks at for determining your QS is the CTR (Click-through rate) so to achieve that high QS score, your ad will have to be clicked on a lot, not something a B2B company is necessarily looking for… a B2B must focus on ROI rather than the number of click-throughs or the QS. So using the prequalifying ad writing method will lower your QS score and raise your per-click costs but, if done correctly, will actually lower your overall marketing spend per lead (ROI). You can’t let your QS fall too low so keep an eye on it but keep a closer eye on the “bang per buck” your AdWords Pay-Per-Click campaign is delivering.

Google Adwords, PPC for B2B, PPC Quality Score

Pay Per Click – Getting Started

You did your homework, created your ads, set-up a campaign or two, created some ad groups with a tight set of relevant keywords, crafted your ads, set-up your daily budget, set your max bid per keyword and even threw is some negative keywords then sent the traffic to your home page. Sounds like you’re ready to start your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign doesn’t it? If you do you’d be wrong! In most cases, sending the traffic to your home page is the worst thing you can possibly do.

When the Home Page Might Work as a Landing Page

Say you’ve just invented a backyard sprinkler like no other, saving time, water, money and this is the only product you have. Okay, you have it in different colors and maybe a few different sizes but basically a single product. If your home page is completely optimized with quality targeted text, nice product images, clear differentiators  (what makes your product better than other offerings) and a clear, concise, compelling call-to-action it might be okay to use the home page as your PPC landing page. Depending on how many different keywords people use to search for a sprinkler the home page may not be the optimal choice even with such a limited product offering. Consider these possible terms, “Garden Sprinkler”, “Lawn Sprinkler”, “Sprinkler Heads”, “Irrigation Sprinkler” and “Spray Nozzle” or “Drip System”. The first three you may be able to include into one landing page (in this case the home page) but it would be nearly impossible to work the last two into mix and still have relevant, compelling, readable content.

PPC Landing Pages (for the rest of us)

The landing page must be closely related to the keywords the searcher used to find and click on your ad. The link or relevancy between the search term, the ad and the landing page should be as tight or as relevant as possible. If the searcher used the term “Lawn Sprinkler” to find your ad, it would be best to have that term in the ad itself, and that same keyword should be prominently visible on the landing page itself.  Use the term in the page title, use it as the first words that appear on the landing page (usually using a H1 tag with it), use it in the landing page’s url and in the “display” url of the ad. Do everything possible to make sure you don’t leave the potential customer wondering if they are in the right place and that your product is exactly what they are looking for… The perfect solution. And, as mentioned in the above paragraph, make sure that all the elements of a proper landing page are there as well.

PPC Ad Done – Landing Page Done – Done? NO!

In short; test, test, test and then test some more. Any on-line advertiser worth their salt will tell you that testing different ad and landing page ideas is essential to finding that “magic” formula that brings the best ROI to your Pay Per Click campaign. Very few page formats, wording, images, or any other web page or ad content combination works across different markets or for that matter for different websites. Sure you can take the pundit’s advice in conversion optimization as a starting point but even if you followed their advice to the letter it isn’t going to guarantee success or be the best fit for your market niche – only testing and measuring that testing will insure a profitable PPC campaign.

Pay Per Click, ppc landing pages, ppc testing

PPC (pay per click) has  become a must for the serious internet marketer. So the quick answer is YES! PPC is an effective strategy. However, the long answer is yes, but… you need a well thought out strategy and analysis of the keywords and competition for those keywords to create a successful PPC campaign.

Before you just slap up some ads and start buying clicks, you have to determine some import factors, and here are just a few to think about:

What keywords do I want to purchase?

What are the average costs for those keywords?

How should my ads read?

How should my landing page present the offer?

What is a click worth to me and how does that to relate to my ROI?

When should I run my ads?

There are many more items to consider, but the fact is a successful campaign requires a well thought out plan and execution strategy that can be adjusted as more information is revealed from the initial clicks you purchase.

You can go it alone and learn from trial and error, but that can be very costly… or you can hire professionals that do this day in and day out to make sure you are getting the most for your advertising dollar.

Face Forward Media has a team of PPC professionals that can provide you with the plan and services to achieve your PPC objectives and spare you the costly time and quess work. Our PPC specialists have been running large campaigns for clients in many different industries since the very beginings of this medium, and in today’s internet climate PPC is very necesarry if you want to dominate your competition.

It used to be a very small percentage of internet traffic, but now PPC is gobbling up  almost half of all internet searches. You could very well be on the top of the organic listings and still not get the click…

If you would like to learn more about PPC, contact us for a free consultation to explore your potential opportunity to steal that traffic away from your competitors.