Blog Minx

I am a Google Advertising Professional, meaning I am qualified to manage my own or other people’s AdWords accounts. I became one last year so I beat MsDanielle’s challenge but that was before we knew of each other so it doesn’t count.

If you are unsure what Google AdWords is, and whether it’s worth signing up, click here to see a post I wrote about it a while back. But basically it’s paying (per click) to advertise on Google or on sites that run Google ads. You control the keywords and your daily spend, among other things.

What is a Google Advertising Professional?

A GAP is someone who has enough experience with AdWords to take a test and pass it, as well as meeting the other requirements. Once that’s done, they’re officially recognized by Google as a Qualified Individual (see below for the benefits). The procedure is:

• You pay $50 to sit the test and you must pass with 75% or higher.
• Visit their Learning Center and read/watch the tutorials about AdWords, AdSense and Analytics.
• Set up a My Client Center page in Your AdWords account where you manage your own campaigns and/or someone else’s for at least 90 days.
• Have spent the equivalent of about $1000 on the campaigns during that time (if you are an experienced AdWords user you should at least make that money back through whatever your conversion goal is – subscribers, sales etc).

Why bother?

• It’s another income source.
  
• More and more businesses want to advertise on Google but don’t have the pay-per-click advertising know-how. Help them!
• It’s a qualification that isn’t too hard to achieve if you’re familiar with AdWords or are willing to learn, and gives you more knowledge about how to run Analytics and AdSense as well.
• You’ve given access to an official logo, your own Status Page and marketing tools to help with future campaigns and attract more clients.
• If you enjoy stuff like affiliate marketing, PPC advertising, checking stats, selecting keywords and all that sort of geekery, you’ll have fun!

How do you use your qualification, Rich Minx?

To be honest, I haven’t really built up my Status Page or worked very hard on my own campaigns lately (which are affiliate-related) since taking off on this world trip I’m on, but my GAP has helped me market myself on my resumé and meant that a few people/companies have trusted me to manage their campaigns this year.

Interested? Sign up for the GAP exam, or sign up for AdWords.