My pride and joy.
Adwords is a fantastic tool – it allows both clients and SEO companies to get the most bang for their buck by providing a platform to launch effective advertising campaigns online. The keywords tool enables us to analyse what people are searching for, how often and from where. We can also accurately monitor conversions and the costs of each part of the campaign, right down to individual search terms and phrases. To put it bluntly Adwords is an essential tool for any business with serious designs on becoming a success online.
In mid 2012 I started out upon a quest to become a fully-fledged Google Adwords professional. Before starting, I would probably have put myself in the category of ‘competent Adwords user’; which was probably why I grossly underestimated the difficulty of getting the qualification. I underestimated the task ahead yet further once I discovered that the exam was multiple choice. However, over the course of the next two months (I was studying intermittently) I realised just how big a miscalculation I had made.
It isn’t so much that Adwords is an incredibly complicated tool to use, instead it is the sheer amount of information that has to be absorbed in order to pass the test. At this moment I believe there are three ring binders, filled with the official Adwords Accreditation training packs that I dutifully printed off, in our office storeroom. Just a bit excessive.
So after printing off all 17 chapters of both the Fundamentals and Search Advanced exams I fell to reading them through and highlighting useful sections. I like reading, as my author bio points out I’m a self-confessed book worm; but reading the Adwords Accreditation material was the epitome of dry (bear in mind that this is from a guy who has battled through War and Peace).
I know it is there as an informative resource but seriously Google? You have a reputation as one of the coolest companies on the planet. Yet I frequently got to the point where I would rather have read my school French textbook than suffered through anymore of your ‘Program Resources’.
I’m not saying the information wasn’t of a high quality and I would never dream of telling Google what to do, but c’mon guys and girls take a leaf out of SEOMoz’s Beginners Guide to SEO. They managed to produce a wonderful resource that engages the reader instead of putting them to sleep. Even adding a bit of colour or a picture of cute cat would make it more engaging!
Something else that bugged me whilst looking through the resources is how parts of the material test were out of date. This means that those who take the exam after only using the resources – which, by the way, I do not recommend – will be in for a few surprises when they eventually sign in to Adwords.
However, a more common issue, which I suffered from, arises with those who are already familiar with Adwords before looking at the resources and taking the exam.
Let me set the scene; you are sitting comfortable at your desk with the resources laid out neatly in front of you, you have Adwords open on your desktop – perhaps you even have a hot cup of something you fancy to keep you company. You take a look at the resources, then you take a look at Adwords and then you do it again, and again, and maybe once more for luck.
“Hold on” you think “I can’t see that feature/tab/page/statistic/tool on Adwords or in the resources”.
So you Google it and find that the feature/tab/page/statistic/tool hasn’t been around for at least nine months so there is no need to learn about it.
You think “Hey, that’s a bit careless from Google but I’m sure they will have updated their test”.
You start the test. Google haven’t updated it.
You’re in trouble because you’re being tested on obsolete functions that Adwords no longer performs. This can throw an otherwise competent Adwords user completely off their game; and with a pass mark of 85% for Fundamentals and 80% for the Advanced Search every mark is important. At the end of the day, surely it isn’t too hard for a company worth $72billion to update the material as, and when, they update Adwords?
Don’t get me wrong having the Adwords Accreditation is well worth anyone within the SEO industry’s while. Granted it is by no means perfect, but then again what is? And potential clients like to have a tangible way of gauging a company or individual’s skill. However, there are some obvious flaws with the system that could so easily be addressed.
This isn’t me trying to take a cheap shot at Google, believe me, I have better things to do – it’s not as if they’d care anyway. I’m just pointing out that the Adwords Accreditation can result in people having to unlearn things they actually need to know and then to learn things they don’t. All before they are deemed worthy enough to pass. It’s a funny old world, isn’t it?
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