AdWords has changed a bit over the years. The interface changes, functions come and go, new settings appear…
The problem is that not everything changes at the same time, meaning AdWords Help might not immediately reflect shiny new features. The AdWords exams – and the Exam Study Learning Center – are always behind on something.
It’s possible that some things are left out for simplicity. For example, it’s possible they left out some of the many and varied targeting methods for the Display network in the Fundamentals sections to avoid over-complicating things. But some things are just plain wrong.
If you use AdWords quite a lot but are just studying for the AdWords exams, it’s useful to know what the exam thinks is the case and what actually is the case. Or if you’re using the Learning Center to teach yourself about AdWords, you may be wondering why what you’re reading doesn’t match the real thing. Here’s a rough guide to where the Learning Center and exams are behind.
The Networks Tab
This has, more or less, been replaced by the Display Network Tab. The Networks tab used to give an overview of traffic on the different networks, as well as a list of automatic and managed placements. The Display Network tab doesn’t have that overview, and covers all targeting options (keywords, topics, interests, and now age and gender).
Devices
Section 4, Device Platform Targeting mentions “desktop and laptop computers” and “iPhones and similar mobile devices”, but neglects to mention tablets (which have been an option since July 2011).
Also, it claims statistics are available only in aggregate: “If you’d like to see performance statistics broken out by device platform type, we suggest creating two separate, identical campaigns and targeting them to different device platforms.” This is wrong; to see performance broken out by device, use the Device segment.
Close Variants
This might be left out to keep things simple; it’s easiest to explain exact match as the ad appearing “only on a query that precisely matches the keyword”. But, seeing as the “include plurals, misspellings and other close variants” campaign setting is turned on by default, this actually isn’t how exact match works on most campaigns. You’d think they’d mention this somewhere.
On the subject of match types, there isn’t any mention of broad match modifier either, even though it’s been around for about two years. Not sure why embedded match would make the cut but BMM wouldn’t…
Demographic Performance
Section 11.2, AdWords Reporting will tell you there is a ‘Demographic’ view in the Dimensions tab “packed with information about the gender and age groups of your users”. There isn’t. There hasn’t been since March.
Before March, if you were on the Display Network, there were campaign settings to exclude age groups or specify a percentage by which to alter bids for particular age groups. Now you can’t alter bidding, although you can exclude ages and genders at ad group level (in the ‘Gender’ and ‘Age’ parts of the Display Network tab). You just can’t see your performance data split by demographics any more.
The section also says the Geographic Performance report in the Dimensions tab shows the ‘geographic origin’ of searches. This isn’t quite accurate; the ‘User locations’ report shows where searchers actually are, the Geographic report shows either their location or the location they’re searching for.
Wonder Wheel
Not actually part of AdWords, the Wonder Wheel was an option in the sidebar of Google Search. It would show your search term, with spokes sticking out showing closely related concepts. You could click on a concept and it would expand, gaining spokes and related concepts of its own.
This one went away in July 2011.
(If you miss the Wonder Wheel, or want to find categories Google thinks are related to your keyword, try the Contextual Targeting Tool – it uses the same engine.)
The Video Targeting Tool
There used to be a standalone tool for finding suitable placements on YouTube. Now there’s just the Placement Tool. There are Placement Types in the sidebar, and you can uncheck them all except Video to get YouTube placement ideas.
Report Center
The Reporting lessons sometimes mention the Report Center. It was retired two years ago. It used to be where you could download a variety of reports, which nowadays you get from the Campaigns tab or Dimensions tab. Some things – like the Conversions page – have moved to the Tools and Analysis menu.
Anything Else?
I’m sure there are many more things that I’ve missed – if you can think of any (or just fancy a rant on how inaccurate the exams are), feel free to comment!
Image credit: Alexandre Dulaunoy.
Good round up – I feel sorry for any relative newcomers wanting to do the AdWords exam. Yeah I know you shouldn’t be able to become certified in a day without ever doing any PPC, but it doesn’t really show that we can do our jobs if we know about outdated features. I recently had questions about position preference, which was retired maybe 2 years ago? Stupid.
Nice post – and good point! Why the hell do we have to jump through the hoop of resitting at least one exam in order to renew our adwords professional qualifications every 12 months when the subject matter is at least 18 months out of date?!
Very timely, I’m revising for the reporting exam at the moment and they have a whole section dedicated to the website optimizer. Doesn’t even exist anymore!
I am studying for the exam right now and it is very difficult to do when it doesn’t match. I took the first test once and got an 82% but some of the questions made now sense. How does one get past that?
This is so true!! I just started offering PPC to people and I am relatively new with Adwords… I’ve studied like probably no one else for this exam and I’ve taken it twice already and both times gotten around 70-75%. I tried contacting Adwords because i’ve been paying for this exam and the least they could do is tell me on what subjects I’ve been failing so I could check if I got it all wrong, but no one knows. It’s pretty upsetting because I’ve taken webinars, certification courses, read the whole Learning Center for the Search Exam and everything i know it’s relatively new, but when i get questions like the Website Optimizer (which doesn’t exist anymore) or the Insights for Search (that now it’s merged) I get confused and I cant even practice with them anymore.
Seriously, thanks for this. I’ve been looking for info about what is out of date as I study for this exam. I know the Google Analytics learning materials and exam are also out of date. I think they need to keep on top of these things if they are going to charge as much as they do for an exam. It’s deceitful to have outdated and incorrect information on a test for which people have to pay.
After re-taking all 4 of the exams recently to keep my qualification I was most disappointed to see that things out of date last year where still included!! I always make a point of commenting throughout the exam when I spot things and I also give feedback at the end that I believe the exam requires updating.
I am currently training a colleague and I have now put his exams on hold as some of the out of date subjects are no longer in the learning centre so he stands no chance of knowing some of the out of date questions as a new user of Adwords.
I have been in conversation with a Google representative regarding this and they have informed me that the learning materials are being brought up to date as we speak, but when I questioned about the actual exam questions I received this reply this morning…
“I have an update for you from our editorial head office based in Mountain View and unfortunately, for security reasons, at this time, we are unable to disclose that kind of information. They have also seen your prior email and they have mentioned that the team is working hard to update the study materials quickly so they better align with our Help Center. However, we cannot release information at this time on whether the exams have been updated or not.
I am really sorry for the inconvenience Helen as this is a directive from the head of the exam department. However, my piece of advice would be to consider holding off on taking the exam until next quarter. ”
Not really acceptable for those not aware the exams are out of date. This infuriates me as this is a PAID exam and should be kept up to date!
Whew, I’m glad I found this post — thank you, Tamsin.
My qualification just expired and I thought I’d study for the exam like I did two years ago: by reading the study guide in the learning center. I don’t know if anyone on here has looked at what’s there now, but it’s a mess. Completely unorganized and several links take you to pages you’ve already visited.
I did notice many of the pages had been updated as recently as last week, so it’s safe to say it’s still work in progress. Per Helen’s invaluable comment, I think it’s best to give Google at least until the end of this quarter to get their act together.
There is also no material for Reporting and Analysis advanced exam in the new Certification Help Center. Are they planning to renew the syllabus? It was my first advanced exam experience and i had to learn about things that were no longer supported (Website Optimizer). In fact there were A LOT of applied questions about this tool which made this exam even more complicated.
By the way, if anyone is interested in testing your knowledge in Google Fundamentals, you can try http://teachmegood.com. It’s one of the most affordable services and gives a good example of what the actual exam will be like. I would very much appreciate any feedback from the takers.
Good Blog. I started studying casually for the fundamentals exam about 1 month ago, havent got too far with it because I can only fit in 1/2hr – 1hr per day and most of it is wondering where the so called ‘Networks tab’ is or how to change the demographic to exclude certain ages. Even my managers are confused.
I called up and they had no answers, i even asked if it would be updated. Then I go on today to find the material I had been printing out and annotating was now invalid and it has finally been updated – great so do I have to start over again! Might take me until December to do these exams.