Icon receives honoured Google Partner status

• Icon Digital Marketing team expands to three qualified Google partner individuals
• New partner status recognises high quality of Icon’s digital marketing campaigns

The Google Partners program is an upgrade from the old Google Certified Professional program. In order to become a Google Partner there are more stringent qualifications required.

For Certifications an individual must pass at least two AdWords certification exams, including the Search Fundamentals Exam and one advanced exam. For Best Practices, the individual must demonstrate that they've mastered the essentials covered in the Google certification exams and that they are maximising their clients' campaign performance.

Icon Visual Marketing meets all these qualifications. Google states in reference to achieving Partner Status, "anyone can join Google Partners, but only trusted agencies can earn Google's seal of approval."

The status of Google Partner is a marker of trust and quality, given out to companies which meet strict criteria and are capable of displaying an outstanding level of proficiency in using the AdWords system.

Three members of the Icon Visual Marketing Digital marketing team are fully accredited Google AdWords Qualified Individuals. Digital marketing manager Tim Bekpayev , Strategic Marketing Manager, Sheree Gover and Digital Marketing Coordinator Alex Cresta all have achieved and maintained Google AdWords Qualified Individual Status. Sheree and Tim are also Google Analytics Qualified Individuals.

Statistics from last quarter 2012 showed that there were 165 Adwords Qualified individuals working across Australia’s 97 Certified Partner agencies, the majority of agencies being very small with only one Adwords qualified individual.

No of qualified staff per Certified Agency

The same research also found the majority of agencies were offering a single digital service only - SEM, Interactive or PPC. Only 4% of Australian certified agencies are full service, offering an end to end marketing service for brands, including a range of online and offline marketing activities.

Breakdown by agency type