We have determined that we are not going to take the adwords fundamental or any other exams for Google Adwords certification. We will withdraw our Google Partnership program from August 2017. The “Google Badge” that we have earned is already removed from our blog footer section. You can still find us on Google Partner page but we will not participate in any kinds of adwords programs in forthcoming days.
Here are the reasons:
Too much fake leads: We don’t know if it’s happening with every agency in Bangladesh or just us but we hardly received legitimate leads from Google partner page. 99% leads that we have received are purely JUNK! Suppose, someone was searching for Google partner exam, they saw our results on Google Partner page and sent us a message without reading our profile and having a second thought! Google took that as a lead but for us, it’s a junk email. At the starting stage, we were thrilled to receive ANY leads. We called them and came to know that they were actually seeking for “how to get google adwords certificate” pretty easily! Some of them offered us money so we could participate in the adwords exam on their behalf and gain a false “Google Adwords Certificate” for them! This is just one case. We have faced many awkward situations that we can’t even describe properly. If your company is a Google Partner company in Bangladesh, then you know what we are saying.
As we were not getting any kinds of solid leads, there is no reason for us to have a Google Partner badge!
Money and Time Waste: Though we understood the fact that most of the leads were junk, we were still contacting to those prospects! There’s phone bill as well as time involved. So, it’s money and time waste. No benefits of having Google partner badge!
Frustration was growing: We notify Google about the fake leads but it seems it’s not in their hand to filter those junk leads! They were helpless and we were hopeless as we were not getting any solid prospects. We asked them how could we get some good prospects? Google said, we need to market ourselves to get the hot leads! So what’s the benefit of having a “Google Partner Badge”?
We stopped marketing ourself for adwords: In Bangladesh, there are like 2-4 Google partner companies. SEO Service Provider was one of them. We have had the badge for two long years, consistently. Our profile was not removed due to poor performance for a single day in these 2 years. Our dream was to grow big in this sector and we thought we could get some help from Google. But in reality, we have to do everything by ourselves like marketing, advertising, and other stuff and in return Google just gives us a badge, it’s really not sufficient for a company to survive.
Google involved with our clients and offered one of our clients their FREE Service! Yes, it’s true. We had a big client. His monthly spending on Google adwords was like 42K euro. Google offered some free service to that client and we lost the project as he was getting “free” service from Google. If they are going to manage their clients then why all this certification and “Google Badge” drama?
Final Word: Google adwords certification is now very easy to get. Anyone can earn a certificate in just 3 days! You just need to give some demo tests in some places and that’s it! Next day you attend the Google fundamentals and other exams, you will pass as you already know the answers of those questions from those demo websites. You are going to be a Google Adwords certified individual though you know anything about adwords.
We believe we don’t need any Google Partner badge to make a project successful. We believe in our works. If anyone is interested to grow their business with us, we are more than happy to do so. But to make our clients adwords projects successful, we don’t need a badge. We have 5+ years experience in Google adwords and we will update ourselves with the new adwords tools and functions but we will not participate in any exam as long as Google starts seriously thinking about their partners.
For your information: Our performance is good! It’s our choice that we will not participate in any adwords program.
About Ekhlas Uddin Jewel
Ekhlas Uddin Jewel is Google Adwords certified individual & SEO, SEM, SMM specialist from Bangladesh. He is the founder of SEO-Service-Provider.Org. For large SEO/Adwords project(s), please feel free to contact him.
Agreed with your points.
Totally agree. Keep doing great job without Google Partnership program