Strategies Revealed: Passing the GAP (Adwords) Exam

Published on August 12th, 2009.

Recently, I took the Google Advertising Professional (GAP) test- an examination from Google that determines your knowledge in Google Adwords advertising program. It was not that easy. The examination was a bit tricky but with the proper training I received, I was able to pass the test. And uh, click the image below to see my exam results.

In this article, I share to you some useful tips, strategies I used to successfully pass the exam. These are divided into two: (1) the pre-examination strategies (2) and the actual examination tips.

Pre-examination Strategies:

1. Adwords Learning Center. Study the Adwords tutorials in Adwords Learning Center. The ALC really is very essential to passing the GAP exam. All questions are extracted from ALC-  and  all answers are in that tutorials. ALC is generally divided into two types of tutorial: The multi-media and the text-based lessons. It is recommended not to watch just the video tutorials but study the text-based as well as topics in videos are explained in more details in the text version.

2. Quizzes. Answer the sample quizzes. Each topic has a corresponding quiz for you to answer anytime you want. It is important that you are able to familiarize the questions ( and the right answers). In my case, for instance, I did answering all quizzes over and over again. Take note also, most questions ( I think about 90%) are coming from the sample quizzes – but of course, rephrased, added with twists, and tricks. For instance, in the sample quizzes, you can encounter questions that are asked in  affirmative form, but in the actual exam, these are rephrased and are asked in  a negative approach. (See sample adwords exam questions)

3. Create a List of Answers. It is also a great help for you to list down ( you can put it in Excel file) all the right answers and their explanations. Uh, and how can you easily find the explanation of each correct answer?

Aside from scanning their corresponding topics, here’s an easy way to  list down the explanation of a particular right answer:

After answering a particular quiz, submit it – you can view immediately if your answer is correct or not. Now, here’s what you need to do – go back to your previously answered quiz, submit it again and this time, you submit it unanswered. After submitting an unanswered quiz, the system will return results with the right answers -and their explanations. Do this for all the quizzes and sort all the right answers in your file. There are more than 200 questions in ALC quizzes so it is expected that you are able to list down questions (with answers) at that quantity. Take a look at unanswered example quiz below submitted…

4. Study Tutorials Segment by Segment. Work on your ALC tutorials segment by segment ( not all at once). Ideally, if you allocate 2-4 hours per day, daily, you can finish all the ALC tutorials and quizzes in a month. When I was studying the ALC, I took, at most, 5 particular topics each day – and I made it sure that all the essentials are absorbed.

5. Review Your Answers List. Give enough time to browse through your lists of answers you have sorted. Analyze every questions and their corresponding answers. You can further validate the answers ( explanation given by ALC system) by referring to the tutorials. And, if ever you want further information on particular topics, you can always make use of the Adwords Help page.

6. Study the ALC tutorials – again. Watching all the videos and studying the text-based tutorials once does not end the process of learning from ALC – not yet. Do it once more…and more. Do it all over again until you are able to answer all the quizzes perfectly.

7. Familiarize the Adwords Account Navigations . Log-in to your Adwords Account and study its features and functions . Your actual experience of the Adwords account environment plays a very important role not just for passing the GAP exam but, more than that, for the success of your future Adwords Advertising Campaign.

8. Answer Quizzes Again. Answer the ALC quizzes again, this time, you do it by answering them minus the choices. You can do it by copying the questions and putting them in your file ( e.g. Document, Wordpad). Answer the questions in your own understanding…in your explanation (do not cheat, of course) and then check your answers by comparing them to the list of answers ( answers from the Adword system you have sorted previously).

I have just shared some of useful strategies you can apply in preparation for the GAP exam. There are still lots of strategies you can do during pre-examination period. In fact, you can develop your own learning strategies as you undergo the process of learning.

In my next post I will be discussing strategies you can apply during your examination day. So just keep on browsing!

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Some Useful Tips to Writing Ads for Your Adwords Campaign

Published on August 7th, 2009.

This article of tips is written for those individuals and businesses who plan to use pay-per-click advertising particularly the Adwords advertising for their product or service promotion. Below might not that comprehensive as you might have expected but it works for me, really.

1. Website Assessment

Review the web site first most especially those pages that will be used as destination URLls. This matters a lot since you need to write ads that directly relate to website you want to promote.

2. List down the very core of web site

During site assessment, list down the very core of the web site ( e.g. if a particular web site is offering web site maintenance service, then include it to your list of root keywords) for that will be used during keyword research.

3. Keyword Research ( Search for ‘Money Words’)

After site assessment, do the keyword research using the root keywords in your list. This allows you to find related keywords that are being searched by Internet users, useful for your Adwords campaign. I use Google Keyword Tool for keyword research. It is also recommended by other Google Advertising Professionals as it is proven to return comprehensive search results – and it’s free.

In keyword research, focus on keywords that are considered as ‘Money Word’. Please watch the video about it for better understanding on this topic.

After keyword research, you can now start your Adwords campaign. Use those ‘money word’ keywords for your ads campaign.

4. Naming a campaign

When naming a campaign, it is recommended to use descriptive words. This will help you to easily track/monitor your campaign most especially when you are managing lots of campaign ( e.g. 10+ campaigns).

5. Naming an Ad Group

Name your ad group according to its purpose. If you are trying to promote about ‘website designing’ then name it according to its theme. This will not just allow you to have a better ad group organization but it also affects your ads performance based on bids and quality score.

6. Writing an Ad Text

When writing an ad text, remember to always follow the Adwords Advertising Policy and Editorial Guidelines. This will help you to avoid ad disapproval. It is recommended to include the keyword you have searched in the title of your ads. This helps your ads achieve better quality score and achieve better ad performance.

7. Adding keywords

As part of your adwords campaign, you also need to input keywords – keywords used to trigger your ads to appear on the Google Network. Input keywords that are highly relevant to your ad text.

Example:

If a particular site is offering an SEO service, then you can develop the following:

SEO Services ( as your campaign name)

Under this campaign you can name ad groups like…

Link Building ( name of ad group)

and, if below is your ad text…

Link Builder for Hire
We help sites rank on search engine
1st page. Contact us now to avail!
www.siteupdateservice.com

..appropriate keyword is used in the ad title, which is ‘link builder’, assuming that keyword is competitive.

So you add the following keywords in the Ad group keyword list to trigger your ad:

link builder
‘link builder’
[link builder]

Once you have launched your ads into the Google Network, it is really very important to keep an eye on your ads campaign. Your ads need to be constantly refined to achieve better Return-on-investment (ROI).

Important: Organize or group your keywords according to their theme. Do not use a particular keyword more than one in a single ad group or campaign – they will compete each other and it will affect the overall performance of your ads.

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