ClickTecs is Now An Official Google Partner! What the

Google Partnership Means for Our Clients

We are pleased to announce today the final ‘inking’ of our Google Partnership. ClickTecs has now become one

of the few exclusive agencies headquartered in Mississauga, Canada and servicing the Franchise Sector, that is

an official Google Partner. Although this is a great achievement for our staff, we wanted you to know that it

was the trust and belief of our Clients that helped us get there. We wanted to briefly tell you what was involved

in the Google Partnership and more about what the Google Partnership means for you and your business.

What is a Google Partner?

Google has monetized its Search Engine by offering advertising opportunities. Over the years, Google has

invested a lot in making their system for Google Adwords more effective. Since advertising on Google is a

dynamic and changing area, it is often very time consuming for businesses to manage it in-house. This has led

to the emergence of many ‘Digital Marketing Agencies’ or ‘Online Agencies’. These agencies promise to help

get businesses to the ‘top of Google’ and leverage the other paid advertising opportunities offered by it.

Since there is no license requirement to advertise on Google, how does a business that wants to invest in paid

advertising differentiate between professional providers of this service and those who simply don’t know what

they are doing? In reality, anyone can spend OPM (Other People’s Money) in Adwords, for better or worst, so

what can Google do to prevent this Wild Wild West phenomenon?

The Google Partner Program offers every agency to prove they can meet the strict criteria set by Google to

qualify to sport the Google Partner Badge.

Here are the criteria for becoming an official Google Partner:

1) Google Adwords Certification Tests The first step to becoming an official Google Partner is to pass a series of tests. To fulfill the certification

requirement, your agency needs at least one of its affiliated members to be AdWords certified. To get certified,

an individual must pass the Fundamentals exam and one of the two advanced exams — either the Advanced

Search or Advanced Display exam. These exams are timed and the pass mark is not 50% like they did in

school. It requires you to get an ‘A’ in order to pass the exam.

2) Minimum Book of Business

Having an active and healthy book of business lets Google know that an agency will stand the test of time.

Google checks an Agencies My Client Center (MCC) account to see if it meets their criteria in the following

areas:

Min Spend : At least US $10,000 in total AdWords spend over the last 90 calendar days. This is

designed to ensure you are retaining clients and not having a high turnover.

Min Activity: Spend activity in at least 60 of the last 90 days. This is designed to show you are

constantly in the account updating and enhancing the campaigns. Simply put you can’t ‘set it and forget

it’.

Min Longevity: MCC is at least 90 days old. Shows you have been doing this for a while and are

consistent.

3) Best Practices and Audit

In the accounts an agency manages, they need to demonstrate that they are maximizing the ROI and

performance of the campaigns. Google watches the activity in the account to ensure that you are indeed

following best practices. They are looking to make sure that someone is not just using the basic setup and

dumping money into the account. They want to see some advanced techniques, calibrating the ad spend,

maximizing the CTR etc. Basically squeezing every ounce of juice out of client’s marketing dollars to

maximize clicks and conversions.

So for those businesses looking at investing in Google’s paid advertising program, you should definitely

consider working with someone that can brandish the Google Partner Badge and has earned Partner Status. This

can be determined by clicking on the badge and going to the companies Google+ Page which is linked to their

Google Partner Status. You can find ours here, ClickTecs Official Google Partner

The badge recognizes companies that excel with Google’s products. Their

businesses are healthy, their customers are happy, and they use Google

best practices.

http://clicktecs.com/