Your Guide on How to Get Google Ads Certification for Individuals

If you are a Google Ads consultant or aspire to provide PPC ad management services to your clients, then it is highly advisable you get Google Ads Certified as soon as possible. Honestly, without the certification it would be quite difficult to land customers or even get a job at a digital marketing agency.

Google Ads Certification has become a prerequisite for most agencies. Customers who work with freelancers also prefer contracting certified professionals as they do not want to risk their marketing budget on unknown service providers. Google Ads Certification provides an instant recognition and trust for the professional that otherwise cannot be gained overnight.

So what exactly is Google Ads Certification?

Well for that, I am giving below the definition provided by Google themselves:

“The Google Ads certification is a professional accreditation that Google offers to individuals who demonstrate proficiency in basic and advanced aspects of Google Ads. A Google Ads certification allows individuals to demonstrate that Google recognizes them as an expert in online advertising.”

Note the above quote is directly taken from Google’s Support Page found here.

I strongly advise you go through that page as it contains some valuable information on the Google Ads Certification program and how it works.

Steps to Get Google Ads Certification for Individuals

There are four steps involved in getting certified in Google Ads. Note the steps below are mainly for individuals, freelancers and professionals who want to get certified on their own without being tied to a particular agency.

1) Register for Google Academy for Ads: The first step in getting your certification completed is registering for Google Academy for Ads. Registration is free and quite simple.

Simply visit the Google Academy site here. Once there, click on the “Start Now” button you will find on the homepage.

Click on the “Log in” button on the next page. This will be on the top right of the webpage.

Now if you already have a gmail account or any email account linked to Google, use this to login. Note the email you use will get tied to your Google Ads Certificate so choose accordingly.

If you do not have a gmail or Google linked account yet, it is advisable to first create an email id at gmail.com before proceeding with step 1.

Once you login to Google Academy for Ads for the first time, agree to all the terms and conditions that come up.

You will be back to the screen with the login option with tabs for all Google certifications. You will see “Google Ads” on the first row itself. Click on that.

2) Complete the Google Ads Fundamentals Course: In order to get your certification, you need to study and pass the Google Ads Fundamentals Course.

Now Google Academy for Ads interface has gone through a few updates over the past few years and just in case you cannot find the Fundamentals course link, simply click here.

The above link will directly take you to the Google Ads Fundamentals course page. Make sure you are logged in to Google Academy before clicking the link.

You will see the option to take the assessment and also links to the course. Please go through the course and study well before you take the assessment.

3) Google Ads Fundamentals Assessment: Once you have gone through the entire course and are ready for the exam, get started with the Google Ads Fundamentals Assessment. The assessment link is on the same page as the link above for the fundamentals course.

You will get 90 minutes to answer all multiple choice questions and will need to score over 80% to pass the assessment.

As of now, there are 65 questions in total in the exam.

4) Study and Give One More Exam: To be officially Google Ads Certified, you need to study and give one more exam after the Google Ads Fundamentals assessment.

You have a choice between several specializations such as:

• Google Ads Display
• Google Ads Search
• Google Ads Mobile
• Google Ads Video
• Shopping Ads etc.

Choose any one that you want to specialize in and go through the course. After the course is completed, you are ready to give the exam.

Moment you pass the fundamentals exam and one more assessment as given above, you will receive your Google Ads Certification.

The link to the exams shown above are available on the main Google Ads page that you see after logging in to Google Academy for Ads.