How To Tell If Someone Is Really A Qualified Google AdWords Professional
October 5th, 2008
Anyone can put a Google AdWords Qualified Individual or Company logo on their website. So how is a small business owner to know that the person or company who claims to be qualified is really actually certified by Google? (Note, I am no longer a Qualified Individual as I let my certification lapse)
There are several ways to check this out, and I strongly suggest that before you hire anyone that claims to be a “Qualified Individual” or “Qualified Company” that you verify this claim for yourself before you do business with this person or company. Read Google’s advice on how to verify this status.
1. Check the Professional Status Page. Try clicking on the logo or looking for a link that will take you to the “Professional Status page”. To see what one looks like, just click on the logo above to see mine. The professional status page should have the business or individual name and should start with “https://adwords.google.com/select/ProfessionalStatus?”, meaning it should be part of Google’s domain. If you don’t see this link, request it. If the company or individual won’t send it to you, take your business elsewhere.
2. Contact Google. You can also contact Google directly by filling out their online Adwords Support Form.
3. Look them up on WhoIsAGAP’s website. This is not an official Google website, and it seems to be sporadically updated since I’m not on the list and I was qualified in January of 2008 – but it doesn’t hurt to check.
In sum, your only solid proof is either looking at their Google Professional Status page or having someone from Google tell you they’re qualified (and have them send you the Professional Status page). Don’t hire someone who isn’t officially qualified. If you want to know what the requirements for qualification are, you can read the Google AdWords Qualified Individual Requirements and the Google AdWords Qualified Company Requirements.
Jill--------------
J. Olkoski
Aldebaran Web Design, Seattle
Jill Olkoski has a BS in Engineering, a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Clinical Psychology. She delights in using her advanced technical and psychological skills to help small business owners develop cost-effective and successful websites.
January 14th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Help! We are seeking professional assistance with adwords advertising. Despite updating our listings and preferences none of our ads are showing on the first page. Can you help us? We do have a rather limited budget, but would love to see our listings consistently reaching the first page.
Thank you!
Kate
January 14th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Hi Kate,
(The best way to reach me is to email me, versus leaving a comment in my blog – I’ve emailed this to you as well)
At the moment, I’m not offering any more AdWords consulting, but there are a few things I can recommend you do:
First off, make sure you have this link to the AdWords Learning Center:
http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?page=guide_toc.cs&path=complete&id=default
Look under Tracking and Performance and “Ad Visibility and Troubleshooting”.
If that fails, then I suggest you contact AdWords. If you login to your account, sometimes I’ve been able to find a Chat button, which connects with an AdWords person, and this is the fastest way to figure out why an ad isn’t showing, but sometimes it’s hard to figure out which page the button is on. But it’s worth the hunt.
The most often reasons for an ad not showing that I’ve found are:
1. too soon – it takes quite a few hours for things to get started
2. looking in the wrong place – Make sure you’re using this tool https://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool to look for your ads. If you use regular Google on your computer, it might have some settings that make your results different from what other folks see.
3. bidding too low
4. something about ad that violates their policy
5. running out of money too soon so ad stops showing
But if you can find that chat button, the folks at AdWords can look right into your account and trouble shoot it.
J
March 19th, 2012 at 9:22 am
If you click on your certified logo it shows your not certified. Just thought you would want to know.
March 19th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Hi Alan,
Thank you!. Yes, I let my certification lapse (it costs $100 a year) since I was doing so few consultations. Thanks for reminding me.