Redfly Ireland’s First Google Ads Certified Partner
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April 29th, 2010 
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It is with great honor and excitement that I can announce that Redfly LTD, Redfly Marketing, has become Ireland’s first official Google Ads Certified Partner. While we are still an official Google Ads Qualified Company, Google has introduced a rigorous new exam schedule for certified partners and actually reduced the required managed spend.
The new qualification, despite it’s teething problems is a welcome step forward as I can attest that the new advanced exams are just that, pretty advanced. The past few days have been spent up late, studying and studying some more to get the advanced exams passed but we did it and it’s a very welcome birthday present :) Thank you very much Google!
An Google Ads Qualified Company has to manage a minimum of $100,000 per 90 days of advertisers spend and pass some simple exams. Currently, including Redfly, there are only 6 verifiable qualified companies in Ireland. This is being phased out over the next 6 months and Google will be replacing it with the Google Ads Certified Partner program which although has a lower spend threshold, requires much more difficult exams to be passed to achieve it. We are very proud to be Ireland’s first certified partner in the new program.
More information on the certification can be found here. Seems like they are planning to release a lot more certification programs and consolidating them all into one area. Info on the future partner programs can be found here.
I’d like to thank Jen, Arnold and of course myself for working so hard on top of their existing duties to pass the advanced exams (which do include some pretty advanced API questions!) and get us certified. Although due to known issues with the program not all staff are showing on our company profile page, I have been assured they will show over the coming days.
I am sure there will be a lot more Google Ads Certified Partners appearing in Ireland over the coming months, we’re just delighted to be first. Thank you to all our clients for their patience (and use of their account spend) to achieve this qualification. It means a lot to us.
Everyone is allowed on self back pat post per year right? This is ours for 2010.
Note: To those who already hold individual qualification status and are part of a qualified company, check your emails, Google are sending out vouchers to take the new exams for free.
April 29th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Congratulations !
April 29th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Thanks Raul. Really wanted to be first and the exams are tough (but worthwhile). Reminded me of those college cram days ;)
April 29th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Congratulations! I’m not surprised you passed with flying colours :)
It can be a nightmare studying for exams when you’re out of the college cramming habit so well done to you all.
April 29th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Thanks so much Janine. Hopefully the public profiles will encourage the others on the team to start blogging more :)
Been meaning to mention to you how much I love the job you did on DanceIreland.ie, well done!
April 29th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Fantastic achievement, well done RedFly!
April 29th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Congrats Dave and the team, Google exams are always fun to take. I’ve always found myself learning at least one thing that I should have known!
April 29th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Thanks Dave. Lots to celebrate this month eh? ;)
Barry, thanks. Have you taken the new advanced exams? I’m delighted that they actually test practical knowledge rather than just theory. You’ll actually have to have managed a fairly large campaign and know what you’re talking about to get a pass. A HUGE step forward I think. Certified partners also get discounts on API usage now too. Expect to see us release some of our internal AdWords tool for free in the coming months :) BTW, are you guys doing EXIT this year?
April 29th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Thanks Dave :) The main credit for Dance Ireland should go to Pixel Design though, as I was just involved on the development side.
April 29th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Congratulations and Happy Birthday (not sure if it is yours or Redfly’s). Thanks for the Google Global extension too.
April 30th, 2010 at 12:47 am
Hi Neil,
Thanks, it’s my birthday today. Redfly’s 4th was last month. We wont celebrate until we’re past the psychological 5 year startup survival myth.
April 30th, 2010 at 2:57 am
Hi Dave,
Mate congratulations! Well done. Took the search exam last night – I agree it’s much harder & that’s a good thing (you tell me your score & I’ll tell you mine;)
I have to say though I’m pissed off that they’ve dropped the spend threshold to $10k/month… there will be squillions of ‘qualified’ agencies now instead of the few before (there were only 20 in Oz)
Gutted I missed you at SMX Sydney – we’ll have a beer next time you’re over this way!
Cheers,
Mike
April 30th, 2010 at 3:07 am
Congrats Dave. No surprise to me though of course because I already know you are brilliant ;)
Happy Birthday too!
April 30th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Happy birthday and Congratulations!
April 30th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Thumbs up dudes. Boldly going forward. :)
April 30th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Howdy Dave,
Congrats on passing the exam and the new certification. We’ve recently done the double too.
The 85% pass rate doesnt leave much room for error!
Is there really only you, us and 7 other companies in Eire who are certified?
Congrats on the forward momentum.
Best,
Alan
April 30th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
@Mike, Thanks. You’re right, there are going to be a lot more, that’s why it’s important to be first. ;) Gutted I couldn’t make Sydney myself. Damn volcano. I’ll be over that way towards the end of the year for…various reasons. so I’m sure out paths will cross.
Oh, and it was 97% on the Fundamentals and 91% on the Adanced. :)
@Kim, Seriously, if you were not married and we’re not so awesome, I’d swear you were looking for a date or looking for something from me ;)
@Andrew, thanks. Treating myself to a 1/4 day :)
@Nick, thanks. Sorry I missed you last night.
@Alan, congratulations! Well deserved! Had to pull a few strings to get the results posted early ;) And Yes, from my research there are (was?) only 7 VERIFIABLE qualified companies in Ireland including ourselves. With the reduced spend, there’s going to be a lot more.
May 1st, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Good stuff mate.. well deserved ;)
May 1st, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Christ, If I could become the millionth person in America to become a certified partner, I’d become a partner. But, that’s definitely a huge thing since you’re the first.
May 2nd, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Dave, awesome job. You are always on the cutting edge over there and this cert is indicative of that. Sounds like the test was super hard.
May 3rd, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Congrats!
I did the test myself last week, and we we’re the first austrian certified partner..
Totally agree with the comments above, that the tests are hard but fair! Having managed decent sized campaigns passing the tests shouldn’t be much of an abstacle..
Anyone already knows details about becoming certified reseller etc?
May 12th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Any idea what this means to the people who were already AdWords certified? Kinda pulls the rug out from under them…
May 16th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Finally got round to sitting the advanced search exam. Got 98%…I think thus means PPCNI.com is the first adwords certified partner in N.Ireland unless someone else up here has got certified already and then hid the fact really well…?
My experience was that if you spend 3 or 4 hours in the revision center beforehand, then it is pretty easy to pass, but it certainly is harder than the fundamentals exam… (for the record , I spent far longer than 4 hours revising, but I wouldnt waste more than 4 hours revising the next time. )
Also it said (on my exam anyway) that the pass rate was 80%. That means you can get a lot of questions wrong, and that is just well, e.g. What is 2+2?
A. 3
B. 5
C. 5.5
D. 2.5
That’s what some of the questions are like :-)
May 16th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Congrats Jordan! As far as I know, you are.
I know what you mean about the questions. Some are worse with multiple correct answers i.e,
“What would give the result 4? Please select the ONE correct answer.”
A: 1×4
B: 2×2
C: 3+1
D: 5-1
At least they have a question “feedback” button now. I’d imagine that the volume of people taking the new exams and missing the pass mark by one question may have some valid concerns.
Again, well done. Well deserved.
May 17th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Congrats to you guys. Have only been working with adwords a couple months now and thinking of going for my individual certification.From what I read, the exams for it are more straightforward.
May 18th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
thanks for sharing your experience Jordan mcclements . one month before i attempted for adwords exam but scored only 78%. I am all set for my next try.
May 19th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
great score and congrats – good post and advice
May 26th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Congratulations Dave. Always knew you’d pass the test but extra kudos being the first nationwide.
June 5th, 2010 at 7:35 am
I am studying right now to certify as an adwords consultant and have been running my own ads for my tutoring business for some time now. I am wodenring if anyone knows how many people are certified in adwords. I am trying to determine how competative the market is to get into and if it is already saturated.
July 20th, 2010 at 3:44 am
Hi Chad, sorry for the late reply.
You can check whoisagap.com or Google’s own partner search here: https://adwords.google.com/professionals/search/?hl=en
November 17th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Congratulations Dave!!
December 16th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Well done Redfly, keep up the good work your doing.
May 19th, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Congratulations to the whole team of RedFly!
January 5th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Well done Redfly – Hope Business is very good with Google giving you this honour
January 20th, 2012 at 11:24 am
First of all congratulations,
I can imagine the exam conducted by google that should be beyond my thinking’s. Can you please share how you prepared yourself and what sources you use for study materials? what is the minimum qualification needed for this exam or a seo who has less programming experience can attempt it or ? I hope you should clear my doubts?