Week 12- MKTG 349- Officially AdWords Certified

I took the additional Search Advertising exam that was needed to become certified. It took a couple tries to pass, but I did it! Similar to the main AdWords Fundamentals test, the Search Advertising test had 100 questions and needed an 80% to pass.

My test score

The Google Partners AdWords certification expires in 1 year. If I want to keep the certification, I must study for the tests and take them again. The reason for this is because technology is forever evolving, and we must be up to date on the latest trends to manage our campaigns online. 

In addition, adding the AdWords certification to your resume can boost your chances of landing and interview, or even a job!

Week 11- MKTG 349- CPC Bidding

CPC bidding means cost-per-click. It's primarily used when you want to drive potential customers to your website. It is best to maximize your CPC so you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. You can set the bid (Manual bidding), or just select "max. CPC" when editing your Google AdWords campaign. By selecting "Automatic bidding," Google can set a bid for you based on your total budget.

The goal is to get as many clicks as possible. Based on your overall quality score, your ad rank can surpass other competitors and lower the amount you actually have to pay. This is known as your Actual CPC. The image below is a great visual representation of how the components intertwine with each other.

Maximum bids don't necessarily mean that your ad rank will increase. Depending on your company and budget, you can control your bidding for individual keywords and Display Network target settings. The only bad thing about Manual bidding is the time and maintenance it takes.

Week 10- MKTG 349- Nature Conservancy Campaign

As a different approach on Google AdWords, I decided to create a campaign promoting The Nature Conservancy. I decided to create an entirely new campaign (my first one was Bailey's Facebook page) because it is an completely different category of what the first one was. I also felt that that growing concerns about climate change and carbon emissions have increased the search rate on Google to help solve these issues.

I set the campaign type to be a Search Network only with all features, targeting locations all over the globe. The bidding strategy is to maximize clicks with a budget of $5.00 per day.

Campaign Ad

So far, I included 14 keywords to help boost my quality score compared to other competitors. Most keywords are simple and straight forward, but others have more specific short sentences asking how to help conserve resources. Based on the performance of each keyword, I will keep track of which ones to keep and which ones to discard or add to negative keywords. Once I can determine that, my Actual CPC should be lower than my Maximum bid on the campaign.

Keywords for The Nature Conservatory Campaign

Week 9- MKTG 349- Passing the AdWords Fundamentals Exam

It took a lot of time and effort to prepare for the exam. After the third attempt, I passed on October 24th, 2016 with an 85%! An 80% is needed to pass the exam.

The Fundamentals exam isn't the only test you need to pass the get certified. One more specific category (Search, Display, Video, Shopping, or Mobile) is required to officially add it to your resume. In this case, I will now be preparing for only passing the Search Advertising category in order to get my certificate. You can find these categories located directly under the AdWords Fundamentals exam when you click on the AdWords tab in your Google Partners account.