This is probably the most common question asked in our Facebook™ Group and forums:
What is the biggest difference between the buying and planning Facebook™ Certification Exams?
Which exam should I take… the buyer or planning exam?
Which one is easier?
So…
What the hell is the difference between the Facebook™ Buyer and the Planning Certification Exam?
To be completely honest, it’s a tricky question.
I’ve taken both exams and thought the Buyer Exam was easier than the Planning Exam.
But others think quite the opposite.
Hopefully, after reading this post, you will have a better idea of the difference between the Buyer and Planning Certification exam.
Where Do You Start?
The first thing to keep in mind is that you need to pass the Core Competencies Exam before taking the Buyer or Planning exam.
So even if you are still not sure which exam to take first, I would recommend taking the Core Exam before you decide.
Why?
Because you will get a better feeling on the topics you need to improve for the next exam. It will also give you an overview of how the exams work.
I would not recommend for you to schedule the Core Exam and the Professional or Buyer on the same day!
First, You HAVE to pass the Core Exam before you can take the Planning or Buyer Exam.
(Keep in mind that Pearsons will allow you to schedule both exams, even when you haven’t passed the Core Competencies one.)
If you do schedule both for the same day and don’t pass the Core Exam:
- First… you are not ready to take the Planning or Buyer Exam
- Two… you will lose your $150 for the second exam as you won’t be able to re-schedule the exam by the time you realize you’ve failed the first one.
If you haven’t passed the Core Exam, I suggest you do the following:
- Download our Free Facebook™ Blueprint Study Guide
- Read “How To Pass The Facebook™ Core Competencies Exam” blog post
- Read “10 Sample Questions + Answers For Your Next Core Exam” blog post
Trust me.
Follow those steps.
That’s exactly the strategy people in our community have taken to pass the Core exam.
Take a look below
And this comment
another one
if you are not convinced… you should be by now
So let’s get right to it.
What Is The Biggest Difference Between The Buying and Planning Facebook™ Certification Exams?
I’ve done a10-minute video below to explain the difference between both exams.
As I said before, we get this question a lot! So I figured it was just easier to explain a quick video 🙂
What Is The 322-101: Facebook Certified Planning Professional Exam?
You have 75 minutes to answer 50 questions.
Content that Facebook recommends studying for the Planning Professional Exam:
1. Define Advertising Objectives
- Advertising Objectives
- Brand Awareness: Earning Reach and Attention
- Achieving Scale with the Reach Objective
- Moving Hearts and Minds with the Traffic Objective
- App Installs
- Facebook Events: Create, Promote, and Drive Ticket Sales
- Offers: Attract, Convert, and Reward Customers
- Video Views/Videos Ads
- Simplifying Lead Generation in a Cross-Device World
- Turn Shoppers Into Buyers With Dynamic Ads
- Drive Store Visits and In-Store Sales With the Store Visits Objectives
- Create Facebook Ads
- Edit and Manager Facebook Ads
- Measure Results in Ads Manager
2. Tracking and Reporting
- Introduction to Facebook Pages
- Page Insights Basics
- Where can I see Page Insights?
- Targeting:
- Tips to Make Your Ads Resonate
- Ad Targeting Options
- Custom Audiences from your:
3. Build Campaign Plan
- Engage Your Audiences with Fullscreen Canvas Experience
- Driving Inspiration and Product Discovery With the Collection Ad Format
- Storytelling With the Carousel Format
- Use the Facebook Ads Guide
- Ad Auction and Delivery Overview
- Brand Awareness: Reach and Attention
- Achieving Scale With Reach Objective
- Moving Hearts and Minds with the Traffic Objective
- App Installs
- Facebook Events: Create, Promote and Drive Ticket Sales
- Video Views/Video Ads
- Boost Your Posts
- Simplifying Lead Generation in a Cross-Device World
- Drive Store Visits and In-Store Sales With the Store Visits Objectives
- Turn Shoppers Into Buyers With Dynamic Ads
- Ads Guide
- Facebook and TV
- How Much Do Facebook Ads Cost?
- Reach and Frequency Buying on Facebook
- Optimizing Video Content for Mobile
- Winning With Video On Mobile
- Creative Inspiration for Business
4. Measure and Evaluate Campaign Performance
- Getting Started With Facebook and Partner Measurement Solutions
- Conversion Lift: Helping Marketers Better Understand the Impact of Facebook Ads
- Measure Campaign Performance With Ads Reporting
- Measure Results in Ads Manager
What Is The 321-101: Facebook Certified Buying Professional Exam?
You have 75 minutes to answer 50 questions.
Content that Facebook recommends studying for the Buying Professional Exam:
1. Pre-Campaign Assessment
- Ad Auction Delivery
- Reach
- How do bidding and ad auction work?
2. Tracking and Reporting
- Ads Reporting
- Audience Insights
- Using Facebook Pixel to Measure, Optimize and Build Audiences for Campaigns
- Business Manager
- Facebook Pixel Implementation Guide
- How do I share my Facebook Pixel?
- The Facebook Pixel
- Facebook Pixel Helper
- Facebook SDK
- Facebook SDK for iOS: Getting Started
- Getting Started with Android SDK
3. Creative
4. Troubleshooting
5. Targeting:
- Custom Audiences
- Lookalike Audiences
- Core Audiences
- Reach Customers You Know
- Custom Audiences Terms
- Audience Targeting Options
- Audience Network: Extend the Reach of your Facebook Campaigns
- How do I start running ads on Audience Network?
Which Exam Should You Take?
To be completely honest it all depends on your experience.
Make sure you watch the second video in the blog post. I expand on this specific question there in the second part of the video 🙂
As I stated before, I would first take the core exam to gauge what topics you need to cover or don’t fully understand.
After taking the Core Exam, go over topics and schedule your Planning or Buying Exam.
I hope after reading this post you have a better understanding of the difference between the planning and buying exam.
Make sure you join our community 🙂