Our PPC specialist passed the updated Google Advertising Professional exam this week, continuing qualified status for another year. The qualification provides a genuine reassurance for clients that a Google PPC supplier is an expert in the field, and can provide the best campaign performance possible.

We’ve been creating and managing PPC campaigns for a number of years now, with accounts ranging from £10 to £1000 daily budgets, covering single day promos to 365 day permanent programmes. The Google Adwords system is constantly being refined so it makes sense that the professional qualification is an annual requirement - and we’re always happy for the opportunity to put our skills to the test, and officially prove them.

Tips on passing the exam

If you’re thinking about becoming qualified for Adwords here are some hints and tips on how to prepare for the GAP exam, and some issues that crop up in the exam itself.

Alternatively, if you’d like a qualified expert to take care of it all for you - get in touch.

1) The Google Learning Centre

Google’s Learning Centre is the first place you should visit if you’re thinking about taking the exam, as it provides a valuable and comprehensive resource for the system as a whole. The centre is updated regularly with the latest new features, and splits the modules into relevant sections - great for revising through one stage at a time.

Lessons can be taken in text, interactive video or quiz format, depending on your particular learning preference. While all three have their benefits and should be explored, I personally find the quizzes the most useful - they are presented in largely the same style as the exam itself, and offer clear explanations when you get a question wrong. In the pressure-free environment of the quiz, getting answers wrong is often the best way to learn.

2) Are you experienced?

No matter how much time you spend in the Learning Centre there’s no substitute for the real world experience of managing a campaign to see the mechanics of the Adwords system in action (It’s actually a prerequisite of the qualification to manage an account for at least 90 days).

Some of the questions in the new exam relate to case-study style scenarios and optimising campaigns based on fictional client requirements - neither of which can be researched through the Learning Centre.

3) Don’t just stick to what you know - look at the bigger picture

Just because you’ve run some campaigns it doesn’t mean you know PPC inside out. Google Adwords is an expansive system, and the exam covers every aspect of it whether you’re familiar with it or not. It doesn’t matter if you don’t create and manage mobile ads or you’ve never looked at the Local Business Listings - they’re on the exam so you need to know how they work.

If you’re severely lacking knowledge in a particular area you’re likely to fail the exam, no matter how strong you are elsewhere on the system.

4) Beware of ambiguous wording

While there aren’t any ‘trick’ questions on the exam, there is a fair amount of ambiguous wording and numerous occasions where several answers initially seem to be the right one. This is frustrating - especially when the clock is ticking down right above the questions throughout the exam - but it’s not an insurmountable issue. Just make sure you read the questions and all available answers clearly, and don’t be complacent with any of your choices.

5) Use the ‘check back’ function

Every question on the exam has a ‘check back’ option that allows you to return to it at any point. The obvious use for this is when you’re completely stumped, but it should also be employed when you think there’s a chance that one of the other answers might be appropriate (…the ambigious wording problem again). A question that might seem tricky at first glance might be glaringly obvious when you go back to it later.

6) Use the available time wisely

The exam runs for 1:30 and contains 110 questions. Some questions literally take 10 seconds while others can take a couple of minutes to run through the possible answers. Either way, there’s plenty of time and you should have some spare once you’ve answered all the questions. Use this time to think through your ‘check back’ questions, and generally run through your submissions to make sure you’re happy.

Contrary to popular belief, pay per click (PPC) isn’t about throwing money at your account until it gets to the top of your searches. This way you’ll end up spending way over budget for a lot of very general traffic, and your conversion/ROI rate just won’t stack up.

PPC also tends to be something that a lot of SEO “experts” and amateurs think is easy to jump into and get immediate impacts without any real knowledge of the systems or strategies that should be used, which more often than not results in poor performance.

However, PPC can be a really effective platform when it’s used to its potential. Here are some quick ideas to get your PPC moving in the right direction.

1. Use organic SEO priniciples

Think about how you create your keyword list - terms that are difficult to achieve on organic searches translate to being competitive and expensive to achieve on PPC. The answer? Go long tail and be specific - you’ll find that CPCs are lower and the quality of visitor is higher.

2. Cut poor performers out

If your campaign contains a straggler keyterm that’s generating nothing and getting a far lower success (clicks/impressions/positioning/conversions) rate than the others then get rid of it. Your Quality Score is based on the whole campaign and poor performers can drag the entire thing down.

3. Be creative with your ad copy

An obvious but often overlooked PPC issue. How to do it? Look at the competitor ads on any given keyterm, you’re sure to find at least a few that are basically saying exactly the same thing - avoid doing this at all costs. You need to make your ad sufficiently different to stand out, and get as many USPs in as possible to encourage a click. It’s amazing how much detail can be squeezed into those 70 characters.

4. Write lots of ad variations and use them all

The main PPC systems allow multiple ads to be assigned to campaigns, and they carry out their own “survival of the fittest” process to determine the most effective. The result? The best ads are shown the most. This is a great help to marketers, and there’s no excuse not to use it. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, get a load of ads written up and let them sink or swim on their own. Once you know which ad style works the best, refine and improve it even more.

5. Diversify with ad groups

Don’t lump all your keywords in together. If the scope of your campaign is broad enough, use ad groups to split it up. This will let you create more specific ads for each topic, and move away from being too general.

6. Make your display URL jump out

While the display URL is a fairly rigid element, why not try introducing capital letters to make individual words stand out more? Look at this example, it’s clear which one is more attention-grabbing;

www.freshredroses.com

www.FreshRedRoses.com

… a minor point? Maybe, but in a competitive market every tactic helps.

Green Media are Google Adwords Professional Qualified, which means that every single PPC campaign we create and manage is handled in the most appropriate and effective way. We employ all of the techniques described here, as well as some more advanced methods learned through years of experience to achieve the best results. Get in touch to find out how PPC by Green Media can help your business.