The Google Advertising Professionals Program has been replaced with the new Google AdWords Certification Program. With this change the qualification criteria has also altered.

With the Google Adwords Professionals certification program changing, current Google Advertising Professionals will have a 6 month grace period to meet the new criteria put forward to complete, in order to hold onto the certified status. During this grace period, everything will be the same as per normal.

For individual qualification under the new program, the criteria now are:

Individual Qualification

• No spend requirement (the old criteria was $1,000 over 90 days)
• Passing score on two exams: The Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam and one of the three advanced exams (the old criteria was Passing score on one exam)
• Agree to Terms and Conditions

For company certification under the new program, the criteria now are:

Company Certification

• $10,000 spend over 90 days (the old criteria was $100,000 over 90 days)
• One individually qualified employee (the old criteria was Passing score on one exam)
• Agree to Terms and Conditions

Under the old program of the Google Advertising Professional Exam, the required score to pass was 75%. Passing scores for the new Google Certified Partner exams are different for each exam. These are:

• On the Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam, a passing score is 85%
• On the Search Advertising Advanced Exam, a passing score is 80%
• On the Reporting and Analysis Exam, a passing score is 70%

The new Fundamentals exam covers the basic concepts of AdWords advertising and the second compulsory exam is a choice of one of three exams: Search Advertising, Reporting and Analysis and Display Advertising. This allows you to specialise in certain areas that relate directly to your role in your workplace.

The Fundamentals exam consists of a little over 100 questions of different types and has a time limit of two hours.

Each exam costs $50 US which is a non-refundable expense.