Overview of the Certification
Google Ads certification is a minimum requirement for most search marketing roles. It is one of the few standardized ways to prove a certain level of knowledge or topical relevance. While it isn’t an exclusive badge, it requires a certain level of work learning the concepts or experience in day-to-day Google Ads use to attain. Google Ads certification is a process by which Google recognizes marketers as experts in online advertising.
After passing two Ads certification exams, individuals get a personalized certificate and – if affiliated with a company – contribute to company Google Partner credentials. Having that base level of subject matter exposure from Google is much more specific than what a school textbook can provide on how Google Ads works.
Who is This Course for?
The Google Ads certification is a professional accreditation that Google offers to individuals who demonstrate proficiency in basic and advanced aspects of Google Ads. A Google Ads certification allows individuals to demonstrate that Google recognizes them as an expert in online advertising. You can earn the certification through Skillshop, Google’s online training program.
According to Google, these certifications ‘Validate your expertise using Google Display to deliver results that get the most from your display advertising investment. Certified users will demonstrate their ability to develop effective Display strategies and campaigns that achieve specific marketing goals.’ By earning the Google Ads Certification, Google recognizes your ability to:
- Translate a vision for online marketing into a coherent digital marketing strategy
- Develop a Google Ads strategy with wider company marketing plans
- Generate a plan to increase awareness, consideration, action and retention using Google Display
- Develop a plan to reach new and existing customers with Google Display Audiences
- Ensure Display marketing plan is in alignment with digital marketing budget
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About the Exam
You will need to have a score of 80% or greater on the certification assessment. You will have 75 minutes to take an assessment. If you don’t pass an assessment, you can retake it 1 day later. There’s a timer that will start to count down when you begin the assessment. You won’t be able to pause the timer once it starts. If you leave the assessment — for example, if you close your browser or your computer shuts down — the timer will immediately expire. You’ll have to wait 1 day to take the assessment again.
Your Google Ads certification will remain valid until the product area certification expires. The certifications are valid for 1 year. You’ll need to retake and pass the certification assessment in the respective product area to renew your certification. Your Google Ads certification demonstrates that you’re a certified online advertising professional. Here’s what you can say to current and prospective clients about this recognition:
- Your Google Ads certification recognizes that you’re a certified online advertising professional.
- You received this accreditation after successfully passing the Google Ads certification assessment administered by Skillshop.
Google places some restrictions on when and how to communicate the certification. They are
Here are some additional guidelines about communicating your certification:
- You may only refer to yourself as certified if you, personally, have passed the certification assessments. It’s not enough for a co-worker to be certified or for your agency to be badged.
- You can refer to yourself as “certified” as long as your certification remains in effect. After the expiration date, you won’t be able to refer to yourself as “certified” until you pass the assessments again.
- You’re allowed to mention your certification on your resume, business cards, LinkedIn profile, and other social media profiles. Keep in mind that Google Partners logos can only be used in accordance with our usage guidelines
About the Certifications
Google provides both basic educational info and their more extensive academy content. You can find all of the training content as well as the assessments themselves in the “Google Ads” tab from the Academy for Ads home page dashboard.
The sample questions are quite helpful – they are written in the same format as they appear on the real exams. To become certified, you are required to pass the Ads fundamentals exam plus one of the additional exams of your choice. Your certification will then be awarded for that specific product focus area of the second exam you choose. You can always choose more than one area of certification. However, to get certified, you need to clear only one additional exam.
The additional product advertising exams include:
| Certification | Description |
| Google Ads Search Certification | Demonstrate your mastery of building and optimizing Google Search campaigns. Certified users will exhibit the ability to leverage automated solutions like Smart Bidding and Audience Solutions to boost campaign performance for specific marketing objectives. |
| Google Ads Display Certification | Validate your expertise using Google Display to deliver results that get the most from your display advertising investment. Certified users will demonstrate their ability to develop effective Display strategies and campaigns that achieve specific marketing goals. |
| Google Ads Video Certification | Showcase your ability to get results from YouTube and Google Video advertising solutions. Certified users will demonstrate an understanding of how to tell effective stories on YouTube to reach potential customers along the entire purchase journey at scale. |
| Shopping ads Certification | Validate your proficiency with using and optimizing Shopping ads. Certified users will also demonstrate knowledge of how to create and optimize Shopping campaigns that maximize reach and conversions. |
The Google Ads certifications are available in 22 languages: Czech, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Dutch, English (UK), English (US), French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
[ Read: 15+ Smart Digital Marketing Apps for Freelancers this Year ]
Benefits of Google Ads Certification
- Show current and prospective clients that you’re a certified online advertising professional with a personalized certificate that you can print.
- Help your company earn the Google Partner or Premier Google Partner badge. To earn either badge, companies need at least one of their affiliated members to be Google Ads certified, in addition to other requirements
Salary and Job Prospects
The average salary for “PPC google ads expert” ranges from approximately $53,546 yearly for PPC Specialist to $67,299 yearly for Paid Search Manager
Where to Get Online Resources for Google Ads Certification?
You should pass the exam by creating an account with Google Ads partner program – Skillshop, its standalone academy. After creating the account, you can choose to affiliate yourself with a company or an agency. However, if you’re doing the exam for yourself, you must choose which email account you want to choose from. Most training firms provide you a short lecture and sample questions for the certification. Beyond that, there isn’t much training that can be done. Udemy and Skillshop both offer sample questions and short lectures that can be done within a span of few days to enable the candidate to be ready for attempting the exam.
