Hello, mellow fellows. Whether you’re an agency or a lone wolf Adwords guru or just an intrepid customer, you’ve probably heard that Google has revamped its Adwords certification process for agencies and professionals.
That’s great for Adwords customers.
It’s also great for competent Adwords professionals, because Google has made the new certification tests much more rigorous than they once were (they’ve always been very, very easy). I’m not exactly sure HOW rigorous the tests are since I myself haven’t re-certified yet, but I’m hoping they’re really, really hard and therefore will weed out some low-end competitors in the Adwords management business.
But in another way, it’s not so great for agencies like ours who are both very competent AND manage a large total spend. Previously, an agency had to manage at least $100,000 per quarter in Adwords spending to become a Google-certified agency. Now, they’ve dropped that amount to $10,000, so certainly there are a lot more opportunities now for smaller agencies to achieve certification. And since all these newly certified agencies will also presumably be pretty good with Google Adwords since they’ll have been required to pass the new, tougher certification exams, that’s more competition for us. It’s extremely fair and good for the customer, no doubt about it, but it does create a bit more crowding in the marketplace of Adwords experts.
We’ll post our lovely new logo here once we’ve passed the re-certs, but until then, be forewarned; those old, crusty, “Adwords Qualified Individual” and “Adwords Qualified Company” logos will be no more in six months, so be sure to investigate your prospective agency thoroughly and ask them if they’ve passed the NEW certification requirements with the Big G.
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