Having recently written and passed the AdWords Advanced Search Exam for the second year running, I wanted to share my experience – hopefully helping anyone who is planning to write this exam shortly.
This year was a bit different from last year in that to remain certified I only needed to pass one of the AdWords Advanced Exams. When you are first seeking Individual Qualification, you will need to pass both the Fundamentals Exam and one of the Advanced Exams. The fundamentals exam remains valid for two years, with the Advanced Exam expiring after one.
Your Advanced exam, then, needs to be passed before its expiry date which is exactly one year after you passed your most recent Advanced Exam. If you don't pass the exam by this deadline, your qualification will lapse and you will then need to pass the Fundamentals Exam and an Advanced Exam. If that's not motivation enough to study and get your Advanced Exam passed on time, I'm not sure what is!
Preparation:
If you wrote the Advanced Search Exam last year, you may notice that the study materials in the Learning Center have increased pretty significantly. What was 100 or so pages of A4 last year now came in at over 300 pages of content so make sure you give yourself enough time to review everything. I’ve been managing accounts in AdWords for over a year now so already have a pretty good level of understanding when it comes to AdWords’ functionality and features. Having said that, I don’t think you need to have a lot of experience managing accounts in AdWords to pass this exam.
My formal studying for this exam consisted solely of reading all of the study materials provided in the Learning Center. I made notes and highlighted the new bits as I went along, but didn’t watch the videos or do the “Try it now” exercises. After I’d read through everything once, I spent another hour or two reviewing everything again while focusing primarily on my notes.
Exam specifics:
The exam is comprised of 100 multiple choice questions that must be completed in 120 minutes. As soon as you download and open the Google testing area, you will be notified that you will not be able to access anything else on your computer for the duration of the test, including your browser(s).
Once you begin the exam, the timer starts and cannot be paused so it’s best to make sure you won’t be disturbed while you sit the exam. Time counts down in the top left of the screen so you will know if you are keeping a good pace.
You will also have the opportunity to mark any questions you’re not sure of for review later. When you click “next” on question 100, the testing interface will list the questions you’ve marked so you can return and answer them.
To use the available time in the most efficient way, I answered all questions I was sure of first and marked any that didn’t come mind right away. After reviewing 10 or so marked questions at the end, I managed to finish the exam with 10 minutes remaining. Luckily I passed, improving my score by 6% this year to 94%. Keep in mind that the passing score for the exam is 80%, so even if you are familiar with AdWords it’s important to review the Learning Center materials – they are a great refresher and contain useful info on the latest features.
Topics covered on my exam:
- Conversion optimizer & CPA bidding
- How to calculate lifetime value of a customer
- AdWords API - benefits and comparisons to AdWords Editor
- Search Funnels
- Where to find search term data
- Understanding the process of performance, profitability and growth
- Ad rank and Quality Score to determine bid and ad position
- Assisted clicks, impressions, conversions
- Landing page best practices
- Keyword insertion
- Site links & ad extensions
- Google Places
- Ad scheduling
If you have closely read the Google Learning Center materials for the exam, you should not have trouble passing. If you are writing this exam for the first time, I would suggest writing it as close to the Fundamentals exam as possible since there are some similarities in the questions.
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Photo courtesy of dcJohn on Flickr
