wonder vision creative agency

Passing the Google AdWords Exam: Tips From an AdWords Qualified Individual

The Google AdWords exam is certainly a demanding exam, intentionally designed to ensure the average ‘PPCer’ doesn’t breeze through! I passed the exam a little while ago. I studied endlessly for the exam, searching the web for practice questions, sample tests and useful study advice. However, I soon discovered that there’s not much relevant information out there. Therefore, in this post I want to share my advice as a Google Qualified AdWords Individual to all potential test-takers.

Useful points to bare in mind:

- The Passing score is very high at 85%
- Test time limit is 3 hours
- Test includes 113 questions
- Testers can retake the exam once per 7 days at a cost or $50 each time
- The test includes many conceptual questions, with limited definitional questions.
- It appeared that some questions had many correct answers, but one ‘best’ answer
- You can strike out answers you think are incorrect with the right mouse button, clicking again will unstrike the answers
- You can skip questions and return later if time permits
- You can ‘mark’ questions which you are unsure, or need reviewing later, if time permits
- You can review the status of all questions at any time with the review button
- Its very focused on the small details of AdWords, rather than broad terms or meanings
- Questions also include billing, multiple account management concepts and payments
- Questions focused on the My Client Centre (MCC) uses, benefits and best practices
- The test is taken in a separate browser, preventing test-takers from opening other windows on their screen. This ensures test- takers cannot cheat!

Overall the AdWords Exam is designed to differentiate the people who understand the basics of PPC advertising from the industry professionals who truly understand and can explain the underlying concepts behind the questions.

My advice to anyone looking to take the exam is obviously read and study all the topics on the Google Ad words Learning Centre. It contains a wide variety of info and key principles which need to be thoroughly understood in order to answer conceptual questions in the exam. It should be noted that the included quizzes are not the same flavour as the exam questions, and by no ways as complex.

Time is a big issue on the exam, you have approximately 1 min 30 seconds per question. It sounds like ample time, but it soon runs down. Break the time down into small manageable milestones. I broke the exam into quarters to ensure I was on track to finish with a few minutes to spare/ review questions. For example, at 45mins into the exam, I wanted to have answered 29 questions and so on.

I would make an effort to answer every question as you go through, ‘marking’ those you are unsure about, with the intention of reviewing the questions at the end. That way no questions you have seen are left unanswered if you run out of time. I think it would be an inefficient use of time to move backwards and forwards during the exam until you answered all the questions and have finished the exam. Then you can review all marked questions.

Be sure to read through all answers as there are often multiple correct answers with a ‘best’ answer. Use the right mouse button to strike out incorrect answers.

To summarise, the Google AdWords exam isn’t deliberately trying to throw test-takers, but the style of questions are purposely designed to distinguish the people who grasp the basics of PPC advertising from the Industry professionals who genuinely understand the concepts and principles behind the questions.

If your thinking of taking the exam any time soon, please share your questions, thoughts and comments below and ill do my best to share my experiences, advice and tips.

Tweet