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If you’re an ad agency, the chances are that you’re already eager to join the Google Premier Partners list. After all, it’s the ‘IT’ thing in the world of paid advertising.
However, the Google Partners program has changed a lot ever since its launch — and many advertisers aren’t too happy with the changes. But, even so, it’s hard to say no to Google. If you wish to run ads on the world’s dominant search engine and advertising platform, you must play by the book, right?
In this article, you’ll learn how to grab a spot on the coveted Google Premier Partners List. Plus, you’ll also get familiar with the most significant changes in the Google Partners Program, so you aren’t taken by surprise.
The Google Partners Program is a marketing program for ad agencies or third-party organizations that handle Google Ads accounts on behalf of other companies or businesses. It was launched in 2013 to help advertising agencies to improve their reputation. When an agency is on the Google Premier Partners list, it offers their clients more confidence in the agency’s services.
Following the massive popularity of the Google Partners Program, many individual advertisers and ad agencies joined this platform. Amid the sea of partners, Google had to go one step further and launch a separate category called Google Premier Partners.
Those agencies on the Google Premier Partners list have added responsibilities and bigger targets to achieve. This esteemed class of partners not only enjoys a good reputation in the industry but also enjoys several added perks from Google.
Before you join the Google Premier Partners list, you must be a member of the Google Partners Program. So, you’ll need to keep an eye on the upcoming changes to this program which were expected by the end of June 2020. But now Google Ads sent an announcement they are suspending the planned changes to their Partners program until 2021 due to the rapidly changing events around COVID-19.
Here are a few current requirements that you must fulfill to become a member of Google Partners Program:
Previously: You had to generate solid overall ad revenue and growth as well as maintain and grow your customer base. The program used to evaluate the client accounts associated with your manager account over an 18-month period. Plus, you needed at least 12 months of spend activity in your manager account.
Now: Set up your Google Ads effectively to meet the performance requirement to run campaign to maximum output.
Partners are not required to adopt all recommendations or achieve a 100% optimization score for the new Google Partners badge requirements. The threshold for the new Google Partners badge requirement is 70%. Google has introduced optimization score to help customers understand if their campaigns are set to achieve high performance and to offer actionable recommendations for improvement. It is observed that advertisers who increased their account-level optimization score by 10 points saw a 10% increase in conversions, on average.
You can access the ‘Recommendations’ tab to explore the measures that enhance your performance.
Keep in mind that for the company performance requirement, the Google Partners Program evaluates the optimization score, excluding dismissed recommendations.
In your Google Ads account, you might have the following recommendations:
‘Automated campaign’ recommendations make it easy for you to manage campaigns. They help maximize performance via automated bidding, targeting, and ad creation.
‘Bids and budgets’ recommendations help you discover the right bid strategy to fulfill your business objectives. They help make sure your campaigns aren’t restricted by budget.
‘Keywords and targeting’ recommendations help you reach a broader target audience who is probably interested in whatever you’re offering.
‘Repairs’ recommendations can help you solve problems with your account and enhance the overall health and performance of your account.
Ad suggestions are variations of your current Google Ads that can improve your Search Network campaign performance. Initially appearing on the Recommendations page in your account, you can review each ad suggestion and choose to apply or dismiss it.
It’s important to note that if you don’t take any action, the ad suggestions marked as ‘auto-apply’ will begin serving after 14 days.
Google Ads mobile app allows you to keep an eye on your performance and enhance your account with more flexibility. It improves your Google Ads experience and helps you stay on top of all your ad campaigns.
Along with real-time campaign monitoring, it allows you to review high-impact recommendations, so you can take action swiftly and effortlessly to improve overall performance.
To improve campaign performance, your Google Ads account representative recommends some optimizations that are called Proposed Changes.
Like ad suggestions, these changes also appear initially on your Recommendations page so that you can review them. In case you agree with all the proposed changes, click ‘Apply All’ to apply them to your account.
No need to panic! Recommendations are not always available for every campaign.
You might not be able to see recommendations in your account due to the following reasons:
Previously: A company would need one Google Ads certified user with admin or standard access to its Google Ads manager account or any account associated with a Google Partners registered Google Ads manager account.
Now: You need to have at least 50% of your eligible users certified from Skillshop.
Previously: To have certifications counted toward the Google Partner badge, users needed administrative or standard level access (or at a close association) to the agency’s Google Partners registered Ads Manager account. Whereas, others with read-only and email-only access would not be eligible for Partner status.
Now: Users still need administrative or standard level access to the Google Partners registered Ads Manager account to have certifications counted toward the Google Partner badge.
If they don’t have this, they may be eligible with administrative or standard level access to any account associated with your Google Partners registered Ads manager account, providing they also share an email domain with a Google Partners registered Ads Manager account user. However, this includes admin and standard email domains only.
Previously: Either include the company’s email address in your Skillshop profile or ensure that your Skillshop account email is associated with your company’s manager account.
Now: For your Skillshop certifications to count toward the new Partner badge, you will need to link your Google Ads account to your Skillshop user profile.
Previously: You had to reach a 90-day ad spend requirement of $10,000 across your managed ad accounts, showing a substantial amount of activity.
Now: You’ll have to fulfill a 90-day ad spend requirement of $20,000 across your managed accounts, showing that your company has a substantial amount of activity.
How COVID-19 Is Affecting Google Partner Program
The changes in the Partner program would have been hitting agencies during a shaky time. The new requirements for spend may be hard for agencies to achieve in the coming months as companies pull back their budgets. There may also be account recommendations agencies can’t accommodate due to restrictions, budget restraints, or other unforeseen issues with the economic trends. With team members at home, changes in staffing, and other team-related challenges, the 50% threshold for users to have certification may have also created daunting challenges and also due to COVID-19 the delay has happened in partner program as mentioned earlier.
Once your agency becomes a part of the free Google Partners program, you can qualify for Google Partner status.
When you become a Partner, it means that your agency has displayed Google Ads skill and expertise. Its proof that you’ve successfully fulfilled Google ad spend requirements and have delivered company and client revenue growth. Plus, it’s a testimony that you have sustained and expanded your client base.
Google Partner status has several perks for your agency. For instance, you can display the Google Partner badge on your site and promotion materials.
Google Premier Partner badge is a step ahead from the Partner Badge. So, it has a higher level of requirements.
To become eligible for the Premier Partner Status, you’ll have to get the new Partner badge first. However, you should keep in mind that the Google Partner Program only grants the Premier Partner badge to the top 3%, so it’s only the highest-performing companies each year.
Google specifies that they choose their Premier Partners every year, depending on multiple factors. Some of these factors are:
Once your company fulfills the eligibility criteria to become a Google Partner, there is a lot to gain.
Check out the table below. It shows the comparison of different advantages available to the Partners program members, Google Partners, and Premier Partners.
Want to sign up for the Google Partners program? Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started.
Visit the Google Partners website and click on the ‘Join Google Partners’ tab. Next, click ‘Join Now.’
Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Keep in mind that you’ll need admin access to your company’s manager account to apply for Google Partners. Otherwise, you may see an error message.
Review the Disclaimer and Terms of Service. Next, click ‘Accept’ and continue.
Choose the Google Ads manager account that represents your company.
Enter your company name, badged website, and company location. Click ‘Save.’
Next, you’ll be redirected to the Partners section of your Google Ads account where you can enjoy all Google Partners features.
To become a Google Partner, you have to go through training and pass the Google Ads product certification exam. This testifies that your agency is equipped with the knowledge and expertise to offer the best Google Ads service to your clients.
You can convince your clients that, as a partner, you are certified in numerous types of advertising, including search, video, shopping, app and display advertising.
Here’s how being a Google Partner can help you win more clients:
When a client wants to invest in pay-per-click (PPC) ads, they naturally want to be sure that they are in good hands. And, they are only interested in partnering with a company that is capable of bringing the best results.
As a Google Partner, you are well-trained and well-experienced. This means you know the ins and outs of Google Ads, and can promise to bring the best results from all their campaigns.
When your client realizes that they are working with a Google Partner agency, they are already assured that you are up-to-date with all the latest changes in Google Ads.
This is because Google necessitates all Partners to take recertification exams, ensuring that you stay abreast of all the latest changes.
As a Google Partner agency, the way you use PPC for your own business sets the expectations for the clients. They want the same level of results, or even better.
Your clients want you to come up with new and innovative ways to improve their PPC campaigns. This is where being a Google Partner can help you.
As a Partner, you are required to practice and test out new methods to keep up with the changes.
Google has numerous features that they test out before letting the public have access to them. These features are typically the latest updates to the Google Ads system.
As a Google Partner, you have the first right to use those features. And once you have access to those beta features, you can implement them on your clients’ ad campaigns.
The best part about being a Google Partner is that you work directly with Google. For your clients, building a direct connection with Google is implausible. But if they work with you, they know you’ll quickly resolve their issues and deliver results. After all, you are a priority for Google.
The Google Premier Partners list sets a new milestone for you, as an advertiser, to aim for to keep your business growing. When you make it into this exclusive group of elite advertisers, you can help your clients in creating high-level, uber-successful campaigns, reaching prospects on over two million websites and 650,000 apps.
With this goal in sight, it’s time to up your game. You can take the next step to advertising success with the tips in our blog, PPC for Startups: 10 Steps to Launch a Successful Google Ads Marketing Campaign.
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