News for me too. I don't think the Advanced exams have launched yet, though. [adwords.google.com...] says "we will have three advanced exams launching soon" and there's no other mention of "advanced" in the GAP help pages, but they do mention "new exam" (meaning the Fundamentals one) a bunch of times.

I did the fundamentals exam last week (got through it OK) and the search advertising advanced exam is in my list of available exams in the testing center.

I'm pretty sure I got an email about this. You need to subscribe to something - maybe the AdWords blog.

It was an email from Dec 18, 2009 that I did not read. :o

Another news is that the new exam is valid for one year only, opposing to the previous two years validity.

Also, now when I visit the company page in Pro center, the new passed exam is listed under "Associated Individual Qualifications", while under "Professional exam passes linked to MCC" I still see an old exam and the statement:

The total exams passed for MCC AAA-AAA-AAAA; linked to your Company: 0

And then only the old expired exam is listed below.

I'm not sure if more time is needed. Email from AdWords has already arrived confirming that Pro page has been updated with newly passed exam.

It's bit confusing at this moment and online help does not shed any light onto it.

I just took the Search Advertising Advanced Exam exam and I have to say they aren't making it easy. I passed OK but the questions are much harder than I thought they would be.

What kind of questions? Are there still lots of tricky questions about obscure sections of adwords that only 1% of users go.

Yeah, that's right. Some were about things I have never used or plan to use in the future. As well as that you have some questions which have more than one correct answer making it hard to decide which one Google thinks is correct.

All in all I think these new exams are a step in the right direction from the old GAP, but most people who use AdWords on a daily basis and manage other people accounts properly shouldn't have a problem getting through the advanced ones.

What I want to know is what you get for each exam. Will I get a different badge to put on my site for each one? Will there be a link to publicly show that I passed each one like I have for the current one?

This is great news in my opinion, as long as corresponding public recognition is given for each. The old exam bestowing "professional" status was FAR too easy. I'm guessing Google know this now.

Not happy to hear about the questions with the "multiple correct" answers. I've had staff screenshot questions like this when they took their exams and there are a LOT. It's a real pain and a huge problem for someone on the line.

I'm guessing we'll hear a lot more about this in the coming weeks. Thanks for letting us know SmallCompany.

I remember when I started my first Adwords campaign about seven years ago. I signed up, the interface was very easy to use, a few minutes later my campaigns ran. And actually some of them are still running today. Unchanged and still sucessfuly.

And today you need a Qualified Google Advertising Professional that has passed four exams to find his way through the jungle of features nobody really needs to do the same a random guy you took from the streets could do in five minutes with no training at all seven years ago. Way to go Google.

There are several problems with the so-called "Google Certification":

1) The exam was clearly written by someone who isn't an expert experienced user of Adwords. This is obvious because many questions are irrelevant and important issues aren't addressed.

2) Google doesn't promote the certification. Other corps (Oracle, Microsoft, SUN, Cisco, etc.) have built extensive relations with their certified service providers. Google has done nothing in this direction. Just as Google has no customer support or marketing, they don't have a strategy for certified service providers.

3) Our agency has been using Adwords for clients since 2002, the very beginning. We were one of the first few dozen to be certified. We've displayed the Google Certification logo on our site, in our brochures, and in our proposals. In all that time, not once, really, not a single time has a client asked about Google certification.

Google doesn't care about this and clients don't care about this.

Google doesn't promote the certification.

It's probably that Google applies same concept throughout all of the parts of their business, including certifications.

And that concept is to be in its own shell, rarely sticking its head out and talking to people.

They're used to be found, not really to stay out and call "Hey, I'm here!"

I agree that they should actually promote certifications in outer world if they want that to pay for itself.
Otherwise, why would anyone bother about it?

Pro support

It's been more then a week I asked why my Pro section is still showing only expired exam under "connected to MMC" which states 0 (zero), even though I passed the Fundamentals, and got the vouchers for new clients.

There is nothing in the help to explain how that works.

Then I sent another email at the end of last (working) week, expressing my dissatisfaction how long it takes them to reply.

I'm still waiting for reply. I'll call them tomorrow. Uh...

I can already see University level CS classes like: "Analytics and AdWord CS-101"

I believe that Google runs or sponsors an AdWords class in at least one of the high schools here in Ann Arbor.

> I can already see University level CS classes like: "Analytics and AdWord CS-101".

I wrote one of the main books on the market. The book is being taught at several MBA schools and universities.

yrs,
andreas

The previous learning center is still active;
[adwords.google.com...]
I was planning to get the certification shortly - which learning center should I refer to?

Update:

Initially, the Fundamentals exam was showing 1 year of validity - today I see it increased to 2 years.

----------------

On a Pro Support side.

My question about 0 exams under company name (linked to MCC) is still unanswered.
After talking to a nice lady at Google's front line yesterday, she checked on my behalf, and got back to me with that Pro Center has moved and that I should use a link posted in my MCC.

Buahhhahhaaahhaaaaa..... cry, cry, cry... what the heck I was writing and talking about all the time.

So I wrote back... and explained again... 0 exams are showing under "linked to MCC"... copy/paste... I did everything I could.

And I'm sure it's more the fault of the person that she has contacted in Pro support team. His/her ignorance about how some "idiot" does not know how to follow links in MCC is tremendous.
I mean, it's huge, really huge. Or he/she was just lazy. Not sure.

Where is that damned JD, no ice, room temperature so it hits right away.