Most Important Questions You Need to Know for the Google AdWords Fundamentals Certification Exam

Accounts

Q: When setting up a Google AdWords Account, why should you choose your currency and time zone carefully?
A: These can not be edited once the account is set up.

Q: Which settings are specified at the Account level in AdWords?
A: Email address, password, and billing information.

Q: What happens to the rest of your Google products if you change your password for AdWords?
A: The new password will be required to log in to all other Google products.

Ads

Q: Your ad includes the phrase, “Your friend has a crush on you. See who!” and it gets disapproved. Why?
A: AdWords policy does not allow ads to simulate email inbox notifications or fake friend/crush requests.

Q: What is the formula for ad rank on the Search Network?
A: Maximum Cost Per Click X Quality Score.

Q: What is the best way to achieve the top position in paid search results?
A: Improve the Quality Score and raise the Cost Per Click.

Q: How should you check to see if your ads are still running on Google?
A: Use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool.   Tools -> Ad Preview and Diagnosis

Q: Why should you use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool to check if your ads are live and running on Google?
A: By searching for keywords that trigger your ad, you can rack up impressions without clicks, which may lower your Click-Through Rate, which may prevent your ad from appearing as often as it is eligible.

Q: Why should you identify special offers before building an AdWords campaign?
A: In order to create compelling text for your ad creatives.

Q: All other things equal, if your closest competitor’s bid is $0.25, how much will you pay to show your ad in a higher position?
A: $0.26

Q: What is the formula for ranking keyword-targeted ads on the Search Network?
A: Maximum Cost Per Click x Quality Score.

Q: What are some phrases that are not allowed, according to Google Ad Policies?
A: Call To Action phrases like “Click here,” or “See this site.”

Q: True or false. “Click here” can be used in an ad.
A: False. This phrase violates Google’s Ad Policies.

Q: How can you create effective ad text?
A: Best practices include using prices, promotions, and exclusive offers in your ads.

Ad Extensions

Q: How are +1s calculated for your ad and Google+ page when using the social extension on your ads?
A: +1s from your Google+ page show in the count that is visible on your ad.

Q: What can a location extension do?
A: Assist nearby customers in finding or calling your nearest location.

Q: With the sitelinks extension set at both the campaign and Ad Group level, which ones will be displayed?
A: The sitelinks at the Ad Group level will be displayed.

Ad Groups

Q: Why is it a bad idea to duplicate keywords in multiple Ad Groups?
A: Keywords in multiple ad groups compete against each other, and the keyword with the higher performance will trigger the ad in that Ad Group to run.

Q: What is the effect of including both keywords and placements in an Ad Group on the Display Network?
A: Your ads will be restricted to only specific sites that you choose and webpages where the content is relevant to the theme of the keywords.

Q: Why is it important to group similar keywords together in an Ad Group?
A: To ensure that the ads remain relevant to those keywords.

Q: Why is it a good idea to create multiple Ad Groups?
A: You can break up keywords and ads and group them by related themes.

Q: What should Ad Groups be organized around?
A: Common themes.

Q: True or false. Placements can be controlled at the Ad Group level.
A: True.

Q: What impact can poor landing page quality have on an Ad Group?
A: Keywords in the Ad Group may be given a lower Quality Score.

Q: What should you use Ad Groups for?
A: To organize ads by common themes that you want to advertise on.

Bidding

Q: What is the maximum CPC?
A: The highest amount of money an advertiser is willing to pay for a click on their ad.

Q: What does Smart Pricing mean?
A: Google may automatically reduce your CPC bids on pages on the Display Network that are less likely to turn into an actionable business result.

Q: When is Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM) bidding not available?
A: If your campaign is opted in to the Search Network.

Q: What is the main goal of automatic Cost Per Click bidding?
A: To generate as many clicks as possible within the advertiser’s target budget.

Q: What is one effect using setting a daily budget lower than the recommended amount?
A: Ads will not show every time that a user searches for the keywords that could trigger the ad.

Q: What is important to keep in mind about manual Cost Per Click bidding?
A: The average profit derived from a paid click.

Q: Which bid methods are used for image ads on the Display Network?
A: CPM or CPC bids.

Q: When a CPM and CPC bid compete against each other, how does Google determine each ad’s position?
A: Google estimates how many clicks the ad might receive in 1000 impressions to get the comparison.

Q: What is Enhanced Cost Per Click?
A: ACPC bidding features to automatically bid more aggressively in auctions more likely to result in conversions. (More then 30%)

Campaigns

Q: What does a “Pending” Campaign in AdWords signify?
A: It is Inactive, but scheduled to begin at a date/time in the future.

Q: What is one main benefit of using Google AdWords?
A: Ads are displayed to users who search for your particular products or services.

Q: With a new campaign, what effect can the AdWords average daily budget have on achieving positive ROI?
A: It can keep costs and exposure limited until profitability is achieved.

Q: What does the Optimize ad rotation setting do?
A: It allows the AdWords system to show the better performing ad more often than lower performing ads.

Q: You have a new product line and want to allocate additional budge to promoting it. What’s the best way to do this?
A: Create a campaign with a separate daily budget to promote just the new product line.

Q: What can the Opportunities tab be used to do?
A: Find keyword, bid, and budget ideas to improve campaign performance.

Q: Why is it important to monitor ad campaign performance?
A: In order to determine if campaigns meet business marketing and conversion goals.

Q: What is one benefit of not using a predetermined budget for AdWords advertising, compared to radio, print, and TV advertising?
A: Online campaigns are highly measurable and may be able to generate an automatic positive ROI. As long as ROI remains positive, it can be strategic to capture all traffic without a predetermined budget.

Q: Which budget delivery method should you use to distribute ads evenly over the course of a day?
A: Standard.

Q: True or False. With the Accelerated delivery method of ads, ads are shown as frequently as possible until the daily budget is spent.
A: True.

Q: With an ad serving option set to Optimize, how will AdWords handle multiple variations of text ads in the same Ad Group?
A: AdWords will try to show the best performing ad more often than lower performing ads.

Click-Through Rate

Q: How does a low CTR on the Display Network affect your Search Network Quality Score?
A: It doesn’t. Your ad performance, including CTR, does not affect your rank for search ads. A low CTR on the Display Network does not affect your Search Network Quality Score.

Q: If you have a keyword with a low CTR, what can you expect?
A: A lower Quality Score on the Search Network.

Q: What is one way you can increase CTRs?
A: Add negative keywords to the ad group to reduce irrelevant impressions.

Conversions

Q: Why does a lower Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) not indicate a higher profit?
A: A lower CPA may be accompanied by lower sales volume, reducing overall profit.

Q: What can you expect if you raise your bids?
A: More conversions and a higher CPA, in general.

Q: What can you expect if you lower your bids?
A: Fewer conversions and a lower CPA, in general.

Display Network

Q: What effect does using managed placements have on your campaign?
A: Your ads will show on webpages, videos, games, RSS feeds, mobile sites, and apps that you have specifically selected.

Q: What does Smart Pricing mean?
A: Google may automatically reduce your CPC bids on pages on the Display Network that are less likely to turn into an actionable business result.

Q: What is the effect of including both keywords and placements in an Ad Group on the Display Network?
A: Your ads will be restricted to only specific sites that you choose and webpages where the content is relevant to the theme of the keywords.

Q: How does adding placements to an Ad Group affect its Quality Score for the Search Network?
A: Placements are used on the Display Network, so they do not affect Quality Score on the Search Network.

Q: Should you use plurals, misspellings, and other variants of words in Ad Groups in the Display Network?
A: Since the Display Network considers broad match only, plurals, misspellings, and other variants are unnecessary.

Q: Which bid methods are used for image ads on the Display Network?
A: CPM or CPC bids.

Q: By including keywords in an Ad Group, how does Google automatically determine where ads on the Display Network might show?
A: Automatic placements would be used to target sites by context whose content shares the same themes as the keywords in the Ad Group.

Q: How do Managed Placements work?
A: Advertisers can manually specify which websites their ads appear on throughout the Display Network.

Q: What is used to determine Quality Score on the Display Network?
A: The quality of the landing page.

Q: How can the Contextual Targeting Tool help you?
A: It can show you potential webpages where your ad can show up based on your keywords.

Keywords

Q: Why is it a bad idea to duplicate keywords in multiple Ad Groups?
A: Keywords in multiple ad groups compete against each other, and the keyword with the higher performance will trigger the ad in that Ad Group to run.

Q: From which AdWords tool can you get ideas for negative keyword and placement exclusions?
A: The placement performance report.

Q: What is keyword contextual targeting?
A: It is when themes of keywords are matched by AdWords to relevant content on various websites that run Google ads.

Q: For a direct response campaign, which keywords should an advertise delete or consider not using at all?
A: Keywords that generate a lot of impressions with very few conversions.

Q: Under the new match type policies, if you use the exact match keyword [red shoe], will your ad appear for plurals and misspellings?
A: Yes. This is a new change in Google AdWords policies.

Q: Does the Display Network take into account match types like phrase and exact match?
A: No, the Display Network uses only broad match.

Q: Why is it important to group similar keywords together in an Ad Group?
A: To ensure that the ads remain relevant to those keywords.

Q: What can you use the Keyword Tool to do?
A: Find new keywords for advertising campaigns.

Q: If you have a keyword with a low CTR, what can you expect?
A: A lower Quality Score on the Search Network.

Q: True or False. Negative keywords can help you refine the targeting of your ads.
A: True.

Q: True or False. Negative keywords can increase the CTR of ads.
A: True.

Q: Even with an unlimited budget and a positive ROI, what can limit the amount of money you can invest in a campaign?
A: The amount of profitable traffic available for the keywords that your campaign is targeting.

Language

Q: How does the AdWords system decide which ad language to target?
A: Language of ads is determined by the language setting of the Google interface the client is using.

Q: If someone in Russia sets their language preference to English, will they see ads targeted to people in Russia? Will their ads be in Russian or in English?
A: They will see ads targeted to people located in Russia with the ads in English.

Q: What language setting should you use to target a Spanish speaker in the United States?
A: Spanish.

Q: True or False. In order to target Spanish speaking users with Spanish language ads in the United States, adjust the language targeting settings.
A: True.

Location

Q: Where can an advertiser change the location targeting of an ad?
A: Location targeting is set at the campaign level.

Q: What is a primary benefit of location targeting?
A: The ability to target combinations of countries, territories, and regions.

Q: True or False. Google can use the IP address of users to target ads based on location.
A: True.

My Client Center(MCC)

Q: What is one benefit of My Client Center?
A: A dashboard that provides summaries of different metrics for all of your clients’ accounts.

Q: What is the primary function of the My Client Center account?
A: An umbrella account for access to individual accounts with a single login.

Q: What is one way to limit a user’s access to only a specific number of accounts in the MCC?
A: Create a new MCC account linked to the original MCC account. Move the specified number of accounts into that MCC and grant the user access to the sub-MCC account.

Mobile Ads

Q: How can you get greater exposure on mobile devices?
A: Enable bid adjustments and bid higher on mobile devices.

Quality Score

Q: How does a low CTR on the Display Network affect your Search Network Quality Score?
A: It doesn’t. Your ad performance, including CTR, does not affect your rank for search ads. A low CTR on the Display Network does not affect your Search Network Quality Score.

Q: What is the formula for ad rank on the Search Network?
A: Maximum Cost Per Click X Quality Score.

Q: What are some recommendations for increasing Quality Score for a keyword?
A: Edit the ad associated with that keyword and direct users to a landing page that is very relevant.

Q: What happens when the Quality Score of a keyword is increased?
A: The ad may earn a higher average position.

Q: When are Quality Score and Ad Rank calculated?
A: Every time someone conducts a search where your ad is eligible to appear.

Q: What does a higher Quality Score typically lead to?
A: Lower costs and higher ad positions.

Q: How often is Quality Score evaluated?
A: Each time someone does a search that triggers your ad.

Q: What is used to determine Quality Score on the Display Network?
A: The quality of the landing page.

Q: How does a low CTR on the Display Network affect your Search Network Quality Score?
A: Ad performance on the Display Network does not affect rank for Search Ads or Search Network Quality Score.

Search Network

Q: What is the best bidding option for clients that want to spend the least amount of time setting and managing individual keyword bids?
A: Automatic Cost Per Click (CPC) Use Automation

Q: What is the formula for ad rank on the Search Network?
A: Maximum Cost Per Click X Quality Score.

Q: How is advertising cost accrued on the Search Network:
A: Costs are accrued when someone clicks on an ad that is displayed on the Search Network.

Q: What is the formula for ranking keyword-targeted ads on the Search Network?
A: Maximum Cost Per Click x Quality Score.

Q: What effect do negative keywords have on Ad Groups in a Search Network campaign?
A: The ad will not show if the negative keyword appears in the user’s search query.

Q: What happens if a Search Network campaign consistently reaches its daily budget?
A: There will be missed potential ad impressions.

Q: True or False. You can pay for specific placement in top ad positions in the Search Network.
A: True.

Q: True or False: You can pay for specific placement in top positions in the natural search results.
A: False.

Q: How can Search Network marketing help you reach your advertising goals?
A: By acquiring potential qualified customers.

Q: What are the minimum requirements to run an ad on the Search Network?
A: Text ad, keyword list, and a default bid.

Q: How often does AdWords run an auction to determine which ads will be shown on the search results page?
A: An auction is run every time a users enters a search query.

Video Ads

Q: You want to pay when a user views your video ad through a cost-per-view advertising model. Which of Google’s services would be most appropriate?
A: True, View video formats would allow this model of payment through YouTube advertising.

Question: What is the formula for calculating cost per customer acquisition?
Answer: Total marketing budget for a specific period divided by the number of new customers for that same period.
Question: What is “cost per customer acquisition”?
Answer: The amount a company pays a customer to try their product
Question: How much a company pay for the given example: Ad displays 20 times, 2 users click the ad, cost per click is 5 cents.
Answer: 10 cents
Question: What is “cost per action”?
Answer: Same as pay per click

Question: What is an “impression”?
Answer: When your ad is displayed on a page online, not necessarily clicked on
Question: What is affiliate marketing?
Answer: When a 3rd party helps market your business, and in turn your pay them a commission based on sales as a result of their efforts
Question: How is the pricing model of a click determined?
Answer: Google sets the price worldwide
Question: How is the “open rate” important?
Answer: it lets the company know how many people bought a product
Question: What is a “value proposition”?
Answer: The pricing of the product
Question: Why would a company possibly want to spend more on PPC early on?
Answer: To drive traffic to their site and increase awareness
Question: What are the four P’s of marketing?
Answer: Product, promotion, procedures, procurement
Question: What is the purpose of a traditional press release?
Answer: It target markets to internet users
Question: What is Actual CPC?
Answer: Actual CPC = (AdRank to beat/QS) + $0.01