What Is A Google Partner?
In order to become a Google Partner you need to:
1. Sign up for the Google Partner programme
2. You need to pass your certification exams. You must pass at least 2 of the exams: AdWords Fundamentals, which everyone has to pass, plus at least one from the following: Search, Shopping, Mobile, Video and Display.
3. Meet a minimum ad spend requirement for the accounts inside your Multi Client Centre account. This requirement is $10,000 over a 90-day period.
There are also performance criteria which are based on client revenue growth and retention as well as growth in overall revenue and number of advertisers. So as an agency or freelancer, if you keep clients, grow their accounts and continue to work with more clients you will maintain your Partner status.
There is a next level, which is a Premier Partner. To achieve this status the spend limits are considerably higher than $10,000 although Google don’t provide these thresholds. Also, growth and performance targets will be higher in order to become a Premier Partner.
So, if an agency is growing, they have a lot of clients and are doing really well for them they can achieve this Premier Partner status. I believe that only around 5% of all agencies registered as Partners will get to become Premier partners.
