Gettin’ Certified: Google Analytics & AdWords

Observations on Google Analytics IQ and Google Advertising Professional Qualified Individual Exams

In the search marketing business we all work hard to deliver the goods and continuously improve our skills – we need to in order to  stay relevant in a rapidly changing environment and to demonstrate our value to our employers/clients.  We can let the quality of our work speak for itself, but  it can also be useful to have some more official validation of our general knowledge of our domain.  Which is where certification fits in.  Sometimes required by employers,  sometimes essential in establishing credibility with clients, and sometimes just good to have in the back pocket.

Recently I completed two certification exams in order to ‘prove my proficiency’ in the wonderful world of Google: Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) and Google Advertising Professional Exam.  So I thought I’d share my experiences and observations with others who may be pursuing either or both of these designations.

Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ)

The Google Analytics Individual Qualification was announced on the Google Analytics Blog in March, 2009.  It is earned simply by passing the Google Analytics IQ test.  This is meant to prove that you have proficiency in using Google Analytics.  The idea is to separate beginners/casual users – who can, after all, make quite effective use of Google Analytics due its user friendliness – from those that leverage GA more fully to enhance organizational performance and teach others to do so.

In order to prepare for the test, Google offers ‘Conversion University‘, delivered via a series of free, short, on-demand online videos.  This is a pretty comprehensive look at most of the key features of GA and provides a good grounding in how to use the program.  It is useful to go through the videos even if you have no intention of the writing the test, especially because the broken into highly digestible chunks.

Although recommended, you don’t need to go through Conversion University to get to the test – you can write the IQ Test anytime.  It is delivered online at your convenience, costs $50 and you have 90 minutes to complete about 100 multiple choice questions.  Once you pass, they send you a colorful certificate that you can print out and hang in your cubicle. Ta da…

Google Advertising Professional Exam

The Google Advertising Professional Exam is one of the requirements for becoming a Qualified Individual in the Google Advertising Professionals program.  (The other requirements relate to mainly to maintaining a minimum level of AdWords account activity.)

Again, Google provides some thorough resources for exam preparation through the AdWords Learning Center.  The Learning Center has a series of online lessons in 9 sections that are available both as video or text lessons.  Personally, I focused on the text lessons, which I expedited by clicking on the ‘Print Section’ link to see the whole section on one page, rather than broken up into a bunch of short pages.  A nice feature of the Learning Center is that there are short multiple choice quiz questions at the end of each lesson, which helps to a) reinforce the learning and b) prepare for the exam, which is very similar in style and content.

As with the Conversion University, the AdWords Learning Center contains a lot of good information on getting the most from AdWords and is useful even if you are not planning to write the exam.  It does, however, also have a lot of information that may not be relevant to you – such as billing policies in foreign countries or tactics for ‘selling’ AdWords to potential clients.

If it is recommended to take review Conversion University prior to taking the Google Analytics test, I would rate is as HIGHLY recommended to go through the Learning Center – at least the quizzes – before taking on the AdWords exam.  When you are ready, you can jump into the exam via the ‘Pro Center’ tab in your My Client Center.

The AdWords exam has a bit of a bad reputation for being sprinkled with questions that are of limited relevance and/or trickily worded to create ambiguous meaning.  This was an assessment conveyed to me by both colleagues and others in the industry, such as the bloggers at SEO Speedwagon (which is the best seo-related blog name I’ve come across in a while).  While there were definitely some of these questions cropping up, I seemed to me that Google may have responded to some of the criticisms and tightened up the test to make it a more accurate reflection of professional competence.  Overall, I found it a pretty accurate reflection of the Learning Center – even to the extent of some Learning Center quiz questions showing up in the exam.

Bottom Line

Based on my experience, and discussions with colleagues, there is about 9-12 hrs of study involved in each of these exams, but may be less depending on your level of knowledge/experience with these programs.

Both Google Analytics IQ and Google Advertising Pro qualifications have an expiry date: AdWords offers a better deal because it is good for 2 yrs, while you will have to retake the Google Analytics IQ exam in 18 mths to retain your status.

Hard to put a value on these certifications but they do represent tangible evidence that you probably know what you are talking about and can enhance the credibility of yourself and your organization.  Hey, if you can get Google to vouch for you, why not go for it?

Omniture & New Google Referrer String: Position Report, New Patch

The past couple of weeks have seen some announcements from Omniture Industry Insights blog that are of interest and importance to SiteCatalyst users.  These items relate to the new referrer string that Google is rolling out, which carries richer information about the search conducted.  The announcement back in April on the Google Analytics Blog of the upcoming change showed the following example of the new referrer string:

Two things to note:

1. Introduction of a new parameter, ‘cd=7‘, in this case identifying that the site was in the 7th position on the page for the search term ‘flowers’.

2. Due to the extra detail in the query string, the ‘q=flowers’ that identifies the search term appears much later in the referrer string than in the past.

Correspondingly, there are 2 implications for SiteCatalyst:

1. On May 8, Jordan LeBaron explained how users can take advantage of SiteCatalyst’s new ability to track organic keyword rankings in Google for your site.  He provides a screenshot of the report, although this is an early iteration and Omniture is “actively testing new advanced solutions to make this data more actionable…”  There is no extra cost for this reporting, but you will need to talk to your account manager to get it set up.

2. On a separate but related topic, Ben Gaines blogged on May 15 about a patch that Omniture is recommending SiteCatalyst users apply to their Javascript code file in order to avoid potential loss of the search query term caused by the new Google referrer string.  Due to the length of the new referrer string, sites with long URLs may find that the query term in the referrer string ends up past SiteCatalyst’s 255 character limit, thus preventing SiteCatalyst from identifying the search term that visitor has used.  Result: search term won’t show up in the Search Terms – Natural report under Traffic Sources.  The patch ensures that the search term is captured from the query string.  There are a few steps involved, but Ben provides what looks like thorough instructions.

As Ben points out, there is no need for SiteCatalyst users to panic, as this new referrer string is being introduced gradually by Google (currently being used on an estimated 10% of searches) and in any case most sites shouldn’t have a problem even without the patch.  Also, sites that employ a version of the SiteCatalyst code that is H.20.2 or later won’t need the patch, as this functionality to deal with the new Google referrer is built in.  Good excuse to upgrade your SiteCatalyst code!

New Google AdWords Interface: Countdown is On

Not quite ready to switch over completely to the new Google AdWords interface? Better get ready, because Google is advising advertisers that in 30 days (give or take) the old interface will be gone for good.

Google has been rolling out the new user interface for AdWords over the past 6-8 months, offering advertisers the opportunity to switch back and forth between the traditional interface and the beta version of the new interface.  The new interface has some attractive features and makes it much easier to move around from campaign to campaign, ad group to ad group, for example.  Some users prefer it to the traditional interface, some not so much. But whatever your preference, the old interface is on it’s way out.  Google is sending out emails to account holders advising them of the upcoming upgrade but stating that “you’ll have at least 30 days from the date of this email before you’ll be required to use the new interface.”

Old AdWords Interface

New AdWords Interface

Google has also provided some helpful resources to assist users in making the switch, these suggestions mentioned in the email:

* Review the new interface microsite to get a quick overview of the changes and watch videos demonstrating the improvements: http://www.google.com/adwords/newinterface/

* Our “Getting Started Guide” will give you an overview of major new features and their benefits. You can download a PDF at: http://www.google.com/adwords/newinterface/new_interface_guide.pdf

* Wondering how to complete common AdWords tasks in the new interface? Visit our “How to” guide at: http://www.google.com/adwords/newinterface/standard/ads-and-keywords.html

* Search a full set of frequently asked questions in the Help Center for the new interface: https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/

Despite some dissatisfaction, on balance this can be seen as an improvement that enables advertisers to more easily manage campaigns.  If you have any particular complaints or tips to offer, please let us know!