Google Ads don’t just allow anybody to be a Google Partner, and so if you see the Google logo on someone else’s website here’s how you check if they are actually a partner or not.
To become a Google Partner at least half of the people working on the accounts the agency holds in Google Ads needs to be certified with at least one certification in each product area. The main product areas you can show off your Google Ads expertise are in Search campaigns, Display campaigns, Video, Shopping or Apps advertising on the Google Ads platform.
Being a Google Partner means that the company has been recognised for being able to drive client growth through their ad campaigns and can demonstrate they have the Google Ads skills to back this up. They also need to maintain budget management of at least US$10,000 over a 90 day period on a consistent rolling basis on their accounts, demonstrating that they work with a broad range of clients on PPC.
Operationally, each of the Ads accounts also need to maintain a minimum optimisation score of 70%. Anyone who has spent any time managing a Google Ads account will know that the platform is always changing and that you need to check in regularly to maintain good performance on this platform, so staying above this bar means that the agency is repeatedly checking back in on accounts to keep them healthy and is actively working them.
Once upon a time, you were given the logo by Google and were able to display it on your website and that was kind of the end of the story. The Partner program has changed in 2022 though with new-style logos that are downloaded from the agency’s Google Ads Partner page and placed via a snippet of code on the website which cross checks back to the Partner’s website.
Here is our badge, and what all the new badges look like:
If you click through on the button above you will be taken to our agency page on the Google Partners website.
If you want to check out a PPC agency who you are thinking of asking to look after your Google Ads account, then you can also search on the Google Partners directory website to see if they are there. To do this, visit this page:
https://partnersdirectory.withgoogle.com/
In the top right corner of this website you will see that you are able to search for agencies by name. You will then be taken to a landing page that verifies that agency has current certification. Here is our page on the directory:
https:///partnersdirectory.withgoogle.com/partners/9320868825
On these individual landing pages, you will then be able to see the certifications that agency holds.
The main difference is size! To become a Premier Partner, the agency needs to be in the top 3% of agencies within a particular country.
This means that they have to have demonstrated year-on-year growth in ad spend that they manage, and they have to work across a wider product mix beyond just running Search ads. The total annual ad spend is also taken into account, and so therefore larger agencies will by default fall into this category more frequently than a small business like ours. So you could consider the Premier Partners to be in a sort of league table with each other in that country and are the biggest agencies running PPC. But as we all know, with big agencies comes big agency charging mechanisms and contract lock-ins, so it doesn’t always mean that they are the best fit for your company!
So there you go, we hope this has been educational. And of course, if you would like help with PPC then please do get in touch.
We’re Google Partners, so if you’d like help with Google Analytics, Google Ads, marketing data analysis or digital marketing strategy, please email us on info@destination-digital.co.uk or give us a call on 01629 810199.
If you’d like help with digital marketing, ads management, SEO, copywriting, websites, branding or social media management… or anything else related to the internet and digital, then get in touch with us. We’re a friendly bunch.
You can email us on info@destination-digital.co.uk or give us a call on 01629 810199 or you can use the contact form at the bottom of this page.
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