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Master the Digital Marketing Fundamentals with Google's Certifications & Courses

JannelleChemko
ByJannelleChemko
onMarch 13, 2020

Updated: March 13, 2020

Certifications provide proof of your knowledge and expertise in a certain area. Pursuing a certification or additional education opportunities will advance your personal and professional development, helping you to close that big client, or climb the career ladder to a new and exciting role.

Google offers a number of (free!) courses and certifications that can be earned across their business tools and can help you master everything from digital marketing to analytics management to advertising.

Where can you get started?

All of Google’s free online training courses can be found at Skillshop. Allowing you to learn at your own pace, the completion of each e-learning module will earn you a Google product certification. Here’s a listing of each certification they offer.

Google Ads

The Google Ads certification is a professional accreditation that Google offers through Skillshop, which recognizes holders as “experts” in online advertising.

To become certified in a Google Ads product area, you’ll need to pass the Google Ads assessment, which are available for the following products: Google Ads Search, Google Ads Display, Google Ads Video and Shopping Ads.

Google Certifications

You’ll have 75 minutes to take each assessment, and must achieve 80% or greater in order to pass. If you aren’t successful, you can re-take the assessment one day later. But once passed, you will officially be a certified online advertising professional!

A Google Ads certification remains valid for one year. After the one year certification expires, you’ll need to re-take the applicable product assessment in order to stay certified.

Google Marketing Platform

The Google Marketing Platform offers a number of certifications across Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360, Campaign Manager, and Google Web Design.

These certifications are ideal for users looking for higher education and certification across management of programmatic and direct deal campaigns, implementing reservation buys, automation and conversion management and more. The certification exams are designed for users with real-world, hands-on experience using Google Marketing Platform products, and test on specific predetermined criteria aligned with critical job tasks.

Analytics Academy

The Google Analytics Academy offers two online courses for users to further their analytics knowledge and education across planning and principles, implementation and data collection, configuration and administration, conversion and attribution, and reports, metrics, and dimensions.

Analytics Academy is broken down into two courses:

  1. Google Analytics for Beginners: which teaches the basic features of Google Analytics, including setting up an account and goals and campaign tracking
  2. Advanced Google Analytics: which teaches some more advanced features, such as data collection and processing, and some of the more complex analysis and tools

Once both courses are completed, users can take the certification to prove their knowledge of digital analytics best practices and the Google Analytics platform.

Google My Business Basics

Learn how to use you free Google My Business account to create listings that will stand out when customers search online. There are 6 basic courses (each ranging from 5 – 7 minutes long) to take, and once you pass the assessment, you’ll earn an Achievement to display on your profile.

Google Ad Manager

Learn the essentials of Google Ad Manager and master the art of managing your ads inventory. With the Google Ad Manager certification, you’ll learn how to get started, create inventory, set up ad campaigns, and manage creatives within your account.

After completing this foundational Ad Manager learning path, you’ll be able to:
1) Set up an Ad Manager Network.
2) Create inventory, ad campaigns, and creatives in Ad Manager.
3) Traffic, forecast, and report on ad campaigns using Ad Manager.
4) Manage quality control of ads on your Ad Manager network.
5) Manage inventory programmatically using Google Ad Manager.
6) Manage ads using rules and protections with Google Ad Manager.

Digital Garage Certificate of Online Proficiency

Google’s Digital Garage is a one-stop shop for mastering all there is to know about digital marketing. There are 126 courses and both free and paid certifications options available. You can pick and choose the topics relevant to you and learn at your own pace.

The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing certification is free, has 26 bite-sized video tutorial modules to complete, and is “packed full of practical exercises and real-world examples to help you turn knowledge into action.” Upon successful completion of the 40-question exam, you can share your Certificate and new qualification on your LinkedIn profile and your resume.

Google Digital Academy

The Google Digital Academy is a warehouse of the best of Google education topics on everything digital.

We’re here to help our agency and client partners build the skills and capabilities they need to stay ahead in the rapidly changing digital world and transform the way their people & businesses operate.

Offering a number of tutorials, ranging from two-day workshops to 5 month, part-time courses, these online courses will help you progression in the world of digital and digital marketing.

Google Partner Badge

The Google Partner badge is eligible for advertising agencies, and shows that agency as a partner who has passed the applicable Google Ads product certification exam.

Google Partners can specialize in one or more Google Ads product areas, such as Search Advertising, Video Advertising, Display Advertising and Shopping Advertising. The Partners’ badge can be added to your website, business cards and other marketing materials to show your expertise as a Google Partner. 

So what’s the difference between the Google Partner badge and the Google Ads Certification mentioned above? Individuals get certified, while Agencies earn badges and specializations. Specializations will only be given to agencies who have earned a Partner badge, have at least one certified employee in the Google Ads product area, specialize in one of the Google Ads product areas mentioned above, and have a minimum of $10,000 USD 90-day Google Ads spend in their certified product area.

**Google has announced that, as of the end of June 2020, they will be updating the requirements needed to be considered for Partner badge status. The most significant changes to the requirements include a minimum $20,000 USD 90-day Ad spend, and a minimum of 50% of eligible users with certifications from Skillshop. You can find out more details about the updated requirements here.**

Google Marketing Platform Partner Badge

The Google Marketing Platform badge is available for companies who have mastered a Google Marketing Platform product and fulfill the Product Expertise Requirements detailed below:

    • You must have at least five local, full-time experts working with Google Marketing Platform products and have passed the associated certification exams. Google will consider team size, expertise, and certification rate and may make exceptions for small companies who have difficulty meeting this requirement.
  • Google looks for clear documentation on your planning process, including your frameworks and templates used to design and deliver complex solutions.
  • You will be asked to provide a comprehensive review of two paid and expertly delivered project samples for each product. These project samples should represent advanced work that:
    • Shows strategic planning and optimization toward your client’s business goals
    • Displays your ability to go beyond basic or standard implementations and use
    • Demonstrable impact on your client’s goal through statistics and/or client testimonials.

Product certifications can be completed in any of the following areas: Analytics, Data Studio, Optimize, Surveys and Tag Manager.

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As you can see, Google offers many (free!) opportunities for users to become certified and trained experts on their platforms and products. If you are pursuing a career in digital marketing or looking to further your personal or agency education, these online certifications and courses are the place to start to become an expert in your field.

 

Image Credit: Kimberly Farmer on UnSplash

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About the Author

JannelleChemko

JannelleChemko

Numbers Ninja & Digital Dynamo
Jannelle Chemko has been working in Operations and Accounting since 2007. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in English, she is now in the midst of her CGA designation.

As strange as it sounds, Jannelle is a numbers and a letters guru: in addition to extensive full-cycle accounting experience in the technology and retail industries, Jannelle is also passionate about writing. In between crunching numbers and building excel reports, she researches, creates content, and keeps up to date with digital trends.

When she’s not working to meet school and month-end deadlines, you can find Jannelle outside walking her dog, and enjoying the beautiful Vancouver air.
Follow Me On: Facebook

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