Today, Google has officially announced their newest service with regard to ad serving and ad operations: the Google Ad Manager Consultants program.
The program includes a certification (along the lines with the GAP certification, Google Advertising Professional) as well as the possibility to be featured in the very Ad Manager’s help centre as a certified ad serving consultant.
Here’s what an earlier message sent out to Ad Manager users says:
“[…] It’s important to invest your ad serving and ad operations budget where you’ll get the greatest return.
That’s why we’re excited to announce Google Ad Manager’s partnership with companies who can provide advanced ad serving support and professional services.
Whether you have an established in-house sales and IT team, or are just getting started, our certified partners are here to help you take full advantage of their experience using Google Ad Manager. This will allow you to spend more time focusing on what you do best, producing great content, while our partners can help you manage the rest.
Google Ad Serving Certified Consultants can assist you with services such as:
Ad Trafficking: Day-to-day ad operations services.
Consultation: Inventory recommendations, campaign management and optimization.
Training: On-site, classroom, and web based training are all available.
Advanced Support: Dedicated technical support and troubleshooting […]”
Surely, Google had all the interest in eliminating the workload on their own support teams for Ad Manager, particularly since, well, true ad serving experts aren’t that easily found and they usually work for premium, paid ad serving platforms (DoubleClick included).
However, there’s one question to be answered: who and how will decide which of the “certified partners” will be featured, and in what order? For now, only four are listed – Acceleration, Epik One, Outsourced Ad Ops, Vanguardistas – but one can imagine how fast the list would grow. How’s this program going to be managed, who will make the list and who will not?
