New adwords certification program from Google

Google has announced the  rolled back of their old Google Advertising Professional Program (GAP) and the roll out of new Adwords certification program thorough an official blog post. The post says

The new program provides agencies and their employees with more up-to-date, comprehensive, strategy-focused training and certification on the latest tools and best practices for managing AdWords accounts, including:

• New training materials to help agencies better understand recent changes in search marketing and AdWords functionality, available via webinar series, learning center, or on-site training at Google
• More challenging certification exams to test practical application of knowledge and best practices (rather than simple recall of knowledge)
• Advanced-level exams to highlight competency in search, display, reporting and analysis
• A redesigned Certified Partner badge, which includes a “Click to Verify” element so advertisers can view the partner’s profile page for additional information.

There are four four levels of exams Google Advertising fundamentals exam, Search Advertising Advanced exam, Display Advertising advanced exam and Reporting & Analysis advanced exam. All the exams are online and Google provides study materials also. The exam fee is 50$ each.