No we are not talking about the popular line of branded clothing here, in Internet phraseology this is an acronym that stands for Google Advertising Professional. So what is a Google Advertising Professional? Why would you want to be one? How can you be one and how will it make any kind of difference?

Google defines an Advertising Professional who is qualified as having acquired a certification that is “designed for professionals who currently manage or want to manage multiple AdWords client accounts, the Google Advertising Professionals program can help you become a more successful ad manager”. These could be online marketing professionals, agencies, and other individuals. These would include SEMs and SEOs (search engine marketers and optimizers) and other consultants with marketing backgrounds.

So the next question would be what is Google AdWords? They are those little adverts you see all over the internet (on Google as well as their allied pages), which look rather like classified ads. The advertiser can design the ad based on keywords or key phrases related to their business and then pay as per the number of times the viewer clicks on the ads. Google AdWords is a method devised to steer internet traffic to any company or individual’s internet site. This has proved to be a fairly effectual way to attracting precisely targeted traffic. Now how this is achieved with pinpoint accuracy is where the GAP comes in. This program seeks to name and recognize individuals and companies with proficient knowledge and experience of Google AdWords.

Google has designed a certification course for becoming a Google Advertising Professional. In order to sign up, a person must firstly have an AdWords account. Then the person (or even a company; a company can also be a Google Advertising Professional) does the necessary hard work to pass the requisite exams which tests their knowledge of AdWords. Qualified Individuals and Qualified Companies go to extra lengths to attain this status, including passing our exam which demonstrates their in-depth knowledge of AdWords.

An aspirant is required to put in some hard work studying Google’s Learning Center and then take an exam after fulfilling certain criteria and paying a fee. You then have to achieve a score of 75% or above. If you don’t qualify the first time, if you fail on your first try you are allowed to give it a second shot too.

So what does all the hard work finally get you? After passing the certification exam you are recognized by Google as a certified, qualified AdWords professional whose logo would be exhibited by Google as testimonial to the skills of the professional which would be good promotion for the pro. A Professional Status Page would set out details of the professional as well as Google’s corroboration that this is a genuine, Qualified Google Advertising Professional. And Google adds with its characteristic humor, you also get that “warm, fuzzy feeling for this grand accomplishment”.