Is the CES certification worth it? My 8-week study experience

I just passed the CES exam last month after 8 weeks of prep and wanted to share what the process actually looked like. My background is 4 years in digital marketing with the last 2 focused specifically on ecommerce, so I wasn't starting from zero. That said, the exam covered a lot of platform strategy and analytics interpretation that I had to study formally — couldn't just wing it based on work experience.

Study routine was about 90 minutes a day. The first 4 weeks I went through the official study guide cover to cover. The second 4 weeks I switched entirely to practice exams and targeted review of weak spots. My scores went from about 65% on the first mock to 83% by the end. Passed the real thing with an 80%, which felt like an accurate reflection of where I actually was.

As for whether it's worth it — I got a salary bump about 6 weeks after passing, though I can't attribute all of that to the cert. It did come up in my review conversation, which helped. If you're already doing ecommerce work and just want the credential to back it up, it's probably a solid time investment.