LOS ANGELES, December 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Kenshoo Local offers the first professional certification for local search marketing experts

Kenshoo (http://www.Kenshoo.com), the global leader in premium digital marketing technology, launched today at ILM West  the Kenshoo Local certification program, an advanced search engine marketing training and certification initiative that develops and validates local marketing expertise and allows practitioners to reach the Kenshoo Local [Pro] status.

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"Performance from local marketing is a key priority for all of our brands, big and small. Kenshoo Local is a singularly unique product, and the certification program enables us to make the most of it to scale high volumes of campaigns rapidly and profitably," said Rich Devine, global SVP of Possible.

The Kenshoo Local certification program, complimentary and available only to Kenshoo Local clients, consists of instructional videos and exams. Three levels of educational resources and exams address varying knowledge levels:

• 100 Level - Onboarding and Launch
• 200 Level - Campaign Management
• 300 Level - Advanced Optimization

Once individuals study the educational resources, they can test their comprehension of each level through an exam to achieve Kenshoo Local [Pro] status. Agencies with more than 20 percent - or a minimum of five people - passing all three levels can earn Kenshoo Local [Pro Agency] status.

"The Kenshoo Local certification program unlocks the potential of some of our most powerful functionality for advertisers and agencies," said William Martin-Gill, general manager of Kenshoo Local. "The certification program builds the skills necessary to successfully manage large volumes of individual search marketing campaigns, and the Kenshoo Local [Pro] certification assures mastery of local search marketing."

"We've gained a valuable competitive advantage by leveraging Kenshoo Local and as early adopters of the Kenshoo Local certification program," said Dave Levy, partner at WSI Digital Marketing. "While working to achieve Kenshoo Local [Pro Agency] status, we improved workflow, enabled more strategic planning and better performance for our clients."

Kenshoo clients interested in learning more about the Kenshoo Local certification program can visit the Kenshoo Local Knowledge Center under the Help section in the user interface. The Kenshoo Local Knowledge Center is available exclusively to Kenshoo Local clients and features more than 30 instructional videos produced by Kenshoo account managers and sales engineers. The Kenshoo Local certification program rounds out a full suite of certification programs for all of Kenshoo's offerings, including the Kenshoo Enterprise certification program and Kenshoo Socialites.

Kenshoo Local is designed for managing large volumes of search marketing campaigns across many locations, stores, small businesses, dealers, franchise, or other entities. Kenshoo Local enables mass-management and optimization of hundreds or thousands of individual campaigns through its automated tools. Visit KenshooLocal.com to learn more.

About Kenshoo

Kenshoo is a digital marketing technology company that engineers premium solutions for search marketing, social media and online advertising. Brands, agencies and developers use Kenshoo Enterprise, Kenshoo Local and Kenshoo Social to direct more than $25 billion in annual client sales revenue. The Kenshoo Universal Platform delivers automation, intelligence, integration and scale to make better marketing investments. With campaigns running in more than 190 countries for nearly half of the Fortune 50 and all 10 top global ad agency networks, Kenshoo clients include CareerBuilder, Expedia, Facebook, KAYAK, Havas Digital, Hitwise, iREP, John Lewis, LendingTree, Resolution Media, Sears, Starcom MediaVest Group, Tesco, Travelocity, Walgreens, and Zappos. Kenshoo has 16 international locations and is backed by Sequoia Capital, Arts Alliance and Tenaya Capital. Please visit http://www.Kenshoo.com for more information.

Kenshoo is a trademark of Kenshoo Ltd. Other company and brand names may be trademarks of their respective owners.