7 Things you need to do if you’ve failed the Facebook Blueprint Exam (and can’t afford to fail again)

If you’ve recently failed the Facebook Blueprint Exam, this blog post is for you.

Whether you failed the Core Exam.

The buying exam

or the planning exam.

...or if you’re planning on taking the exam soon and are still struggling (you should keep reading).

680

683

692

Damn… so close!

I get it. I receive multiple messages or comments on our group with people failing the exam by only 20 – 40 points.

It sucks.

“It feels like there are multiple right answers.”

“I have no idea which questions I got wrong.”

“Should I take a different exam then?”

“What should I do?”

It frustrating.

And yet you have to retake the exam again.

First, I want to say that you are not alone. In general, people pass the Facebook Core Exam fairly easy.

But for most people, it takes 2-3 times to pass the Facebook Buying or Planning exam.

So, if you feel stuck; don’t be.

Your not the only one who is having trouble with the exams.

So what can you do after taking and failing a Facebook Blueprint Certification exam?

Sorry to first say this, but NO! 

You can’t ask for refunds.

You can’t ask for an exam review.

You can’t email Facebook and ask them to help you pass the exam since you only failed by a few points.

The only thing you can do is reschedule and retake the exam.

But…

what you can do:

is change the way you approached the exam.

Change how you prepared for it.

So here are a few tips that I always give to our #markekotribe members when they email or DM me about what to do after not passing an exam.

1, Just because you are an expert running Facebook ads does not mean you will automatically pass the exam

So here is the thing.

Facebook Blueprint exam questions are confusing.

Sometimes they don’t make any sense.

Or should I say a lot of times.

You feel like there are multiple right answers.

Usually the main problem is context. It’s not that you don’t know your sh@t.

Or don’t know how to properly run Facebook campaigns.

I’ve seen people who run thousand dollar budgets for e-commerce sites or businesses and still fail the exams.

And the biggest issue I see is context:

• Cultural
• Strategic
• Country
• Business type
• Experience wise

A strategy that works for an e-commerce site in Germany can be a disaster in India. Even if it’s the same type of business.

A strategy that works for you might not work for others.

There is no 1 size fit all strategy.

There are so many variables when running Facebook campaigns that there is no “1 size fit all” strategy.

Yes. There are guidelines.

Experience can sometimes actually hinder how you approach the exam as you will answer based on YOUR experience and not Facebook guidelines.

So the first thing I would say is to think like a Facebook Representative. Follow Facebook guidelines and try to take context out of your thinking when you take the next exam.

I know I’m asking for a lot.

A LOT. And it seems impossible.

But,

try to approach the exam from a “neutral” point of view and try to follow Facebook guidelines, structures and best practices.

2, Remember that the Facebook Blueprint exam questions are geared toward people working in agencies or for Facebook Partners

So what?

Well most of Facebook Partners are running high budget campaigns for their clients.

They are not running $500 USD budgets. Or even lower ones.

They are usually building strategies for big brands or businesses. And this has a huge impact on how you approach the exam.

A $10,000 budget campaign has a totally different approach than a $1,000 budget campaign.

• You bid differently.
• Timeline differs.
• Campaign objectives vary.

There is soo many things I can think of that you might struggle here.

“But I run an e-commerce site that has $15,000 campaign budget.”

Yes I know that still a lot of money to manage for your clients; however, you are only running campaigns for one type of business: an e-commerce site.

And Facebook’s exams are usually more broad.

You need to understand how to strategize for a real estate developer.

Or how to approach a Coca Cola digital marketing campaign?

Or even a flash Christmas sale for a brick and mortar store.

They differ than most e-commerce strategies. As they focus more on direct response marketing and not as much on branding and communication.

So keep in mind the type of business you’ve had experience in and do some research for the other ones.

Don’t spend so much on the Facebook Blueprint courses but more on Facebook IQ and reading case studies.

3, Try to remember questions from the exam and write them down

Immediately after you’ve taken the exam, write as many questions as possible on a piece of paper.

Even if you took the exam a couple of days ago. You might feel like it’s too late but just try to remember.

Write down as many questions as possible. Even if you are not sure if you got them right or wrong.

It doesn’t matter.

You want to go over topics where you felt you struggled.

There are really two resources from Facebook to prepare.

And to be honest, the second one is far more helpful than the first.

Facebook Help Center is probably the way to go!

I would do two things:

1. Go over Facebook Blueprint courses that discuss those specific topics
2. Search within the Facebook Help Center and focus your efforts here

The Facebook Help Center is a resource where people usually don’t take advantage of.

You can get a lot out of it. I also have found that it’s updated more consistently than the Facebook Blueprint courses and will go into details on the topics you are looking for.

Just go to their search bar and start googling. 

4, If you’ve failed the exam once, take it again. Don’t change exams… yet

If you failed the Facebook Core exam, you don’t have another choice other than rescheduling it again.

Just make sure you leave 1-2 weeks in between exams.

Why?

Because now you know what type of questions you will be getting in the exam. How they are structured and, more importantly, what topics to prepare for.

You now know what areas you are weak in and can better prepare for your next exam.

Also, please don’t switch exam yet.

If it’s the first time you fail the Buying or Planning exam, I would suggest not switching them.

From my experience working with our #markekotribe community, you should try to retake the same exam at least twice.

Just understand the differences between both exams with regards to topics, questions, and profile.

I know it might seem tempting to switch exams and try to take the other one; however, topics vary and you might get the same results.

In the majority of cases, you only need to pass one anyways.

So don’t switch exams yet. It will only confuse you even more and annoyed you a bit more.

5, It’s ok to ask for help and vent

One way in which I’ve seen our community help each other throughout this adventure is on our Facebook Group.

No.

I don’t want to self-promote our group; hence, why I am not promoting our study guide or sample questions in this guide.

But you can really get a lot from it if you ask for help.

We’ve gotten a lot of interaction in our posts with others who have failed the exam have asked how to approach questions.

How to answer certain topics.

Or even look at more sample questions from other people who have taken the exam before.

You might not want to ask anything, but at least…

just vent. Express your frustration with the exams.

I know how confusing the Facebook Blueprint exams can be.

Sometimes all you need is to express yourself. Take advantage of our group for that!

Trust me.

You are not the first nor last person who has failed the Facebook Blueprint exam.

They are not easy and will continue to get harder as Facebook is not updating its content as quickly as its platform or tools changes.

6, Play around with the tools and run $1 ad campaigns

Honestly, playing around with the tools is probably one of the best things you can do at this point.

It’s one of the best ways to prepare for your next Facebook Blueprint exams.

Take your list of topics and do the following:

1. Make a list of all the tools you can use for that specific topic
2. Go over Facebook and run exercises with the tools
3. If you need to run campaigns do it! Spend at least $1 a day for 3-5 days to see results. This will allow you to better understand Facebook results.
4. Think about how you can strategize better or run campaigns with different objectives, audiences, or bidding. Think about how the exercise would differ. How would the results be different.

Practice will ultimately help you pass the exam.

Getting familiar with the tools is key at this point.

So just spend some money to play around with Facebook tools.

7, Experience in community management or strategy?

Experience is definitely key in being able to pass the exam.

However,

What type of experience do you need to have in order to pass the exam?

That’s the big question.

There is a big difference between a community manager and a social media manager.

If you’ve been running campaigns and doing strategy for your clients or at the place you work, then great. You should be fine.

But if you’ve only been doing community management work:

• Responding to comments
• Posting images
• Managing a content calendar
• Managing multiple channels (Instagram and/or Facebook)

And you’ve never launched a single campaign. Then you are in trouble.

I don’t want to scare you, but most questions are based on case studies or focused more on strategy than “community management”.

Especially with having experience running different campaigns.

Know the difference between auction with reach and frequency buying.

Understand how different objectives will affect your campaigns. Reach versus Brand Awareness versus View Views, for example.

Know how to build small funnel campaigns with core and custom audiences based on post interactions, video views or landing page visits.

Understand how to read reports and customize columns based on the campaign objective.

Those are simple but important aspects of campaigns that you definitely need to know for the exam.

Conclusion

The exams can become a hurdle but they are not impossible to pass.

Trust me.

I’ve helped multiple people take all of the exams before with great success.

Yes, a few have failed and gave up in the process.

So don’t get discouraged if you’ve taken an exam and failed. For most people it takes 2-3 times to pass the exams.

They are just tricky.

Facebook (I think) has made the exams purposefully confusing so that its harder for people to get certified.

If you need additional help or have more questions, here are other resources that can help:

1. Email me at drios at markeko com
2. Join our #markekotribe Facebook Group and ask questions
3. Download our Free Study Guide
4. Go through our Sample Questions to practice before you take your next exam

Hopefully that helps and gets you going!

Good luck in your next exam and let me know if I can help in any other way 🙂

Diego – #markeko