Google Ads Courses: the 7 Best Resources to Turn Beginners into Pros

Google Ads is the largest digital marketing platform in the world, so there’s a lot of tutorials, guides, and Google Ads courses on the internet.

But there are also a lot of lackluster and dated programs and straight-up bad information out there.

To start off on the right foot, make a career in digital advertising, and make money from your first Google ads campaign, you need guidance.

That’s why, in this post, we’ve curated a selection of the seven best Google Ads courses you can find online now. Use these courses to learn how to go from a complete beginner to a savvy Google Ads pro.

If you’re looking to get certification to start a career in digital marketing, these courses will also be useful.

Businesses that advertise on the Google Ads platform have an average ROI of 200%.

And that stat covers every ad out there, including clueless beginners and highly competitive markets like the legal industry.

That means, for your business, the potential earnings can be even higher.

But you need to know what you’re doing. Otherwise, you’re just throwing money at Google.

How Do I Become Google Ads Certified?

In the US alone, there are over 20,000 open positions for digital marketing jobs listed on job sites. To compete without a degree or experience, you need another way to prove you can handle the job.

Google Ads certificates can be a way to get your foot inside the door.

You can get official Google Ads certification by taking and passing the Google Ads certification courses in Skillshop (previously Academy for Ads).

First, you must take a “Google Ads Essentials” course, to ensure that you have a strong foundational knowledge of the platform.

Then, you can move on to the specific certification courses. They contain several hours of educational videos covering everything from search to display to video advertising on Google Ads.

If you’re most interested in SEM/PPC, you should take the “Google Ads Search Certification” course.

After you’ve passed a course, you will earn a certification for the specific platform you passed the course on (search, display, or others).

The certificates last for a year from the date you pass the post-course test.

How much does it cost to get Google certified?

Despite changing the name to include “shop” in the title, the official Google Ads Certification, awarded through a Google Skillshop (previously Academy for Ads) course, is 100% free of charge.

In the past, AdWords certification required a few, but those days are gone. You no longer need to pay for each exam, regardless of the result.

You can take the certification exam for free as many times as you want.

The 7 Best Google Ads Courses in 2020

Google Ads is a complicated platform, and trying to “figure it out as you go” could mean thousands of dollars down the drain.

That’s why it’s essential to educate yourself before you get started.

To help you avoid the bad apples, we’ve handpicked seven of the best Google Ads courses to help you master the platform in 2020 and beyond.

1. Skillshop (Previously Academy for Ads)

Skillshop is the official learning platform for Google Ads, developed by, you guessed it, Google themselves. Anyone with a basic understanding of digital marketing can take this course and get a good grasp of how to create a successful advertising campaign on the platform.

It covers everything from essential Google ads terminology and metrics you should know, to the nitty-gritty how-to of making a new campaign and ad.

There are hundreds of videos and over 30 hours of educational videos covering all aspects of Google Ads. The videos are high-quality, professionally shot, and easy to understand.

It’s the most extensive video resource available online, covering every platform and features of Google Ads. However, it doesn’t go as in-depth on Google Search and specific tactics/strategies as some other options on this list.

2. Google Ads Essential Training – LinkedIn Learning (Previously Lynda)

This course is the freshest on our list, released at the end of July 2019. It’s a 3-hour course that covers the essentials for complete beginners.

This is essentially a crash-course in Google Ads for beginners, and the length of the course reflects that.

It starts with foundational knowledge, like what pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is, and continues to show you how to create and optimize Google Search ads.

3. Ultimate Google Ads Course – Udemy

This course is the most extensive video learning resource on this list, apart from Skillshop, which is the official Google option.

It’s developed, maintained, and updated by an active PPC agency founder who has the credentials to create a guide to Google Ads.

This course will help you learn the basics of Google Ads, as well as advanced strategies to help you create and optimize Google Search and remarketing campaigns.

This incredibly in-depth course focuses mainly on Google Search ads and has over 20 hours of video on that topic alone.

4. Google Ads – From Beginner to Pro – Udemy

This course promises to take you from Google Ads beginner to a complete professional, with no other learning materials.

For search ads specifically, it fulfills its promises with in-depth foundational guides and material on advanced concepts and tactics.

The course was updated in September 2019 to address new ad formats and other platform changes.

5. Complete Google Ads Course – Skillshare

Another in-depth course on Google Ads with a focus on Google Search. It has perhaps the best structure and progression for beginners to get familiar with the platform quickly.

The downside of this course is that it is a little dated, and doesn’t cover the new Google Ads platform or newer ad formats.

6. Digital Marketing with Google Ads – Skillshare

Ben Lund, ad agency founder, and former Googler, has created a quick crash-course on the different platforms in Google Ads.

It’s best suited for business owners that want an introductory view of the different platforms.

7. Google Ads Copy Hacks – Udemy

This course isn’t an introductory course that starts with the basics. Instead, it is solely focused on how to write better ad copy for your Google Ads campaigns, with a formula and testing framework.

Conclusion

Whether you opt for the official Google Skillshop courses, or find them too dry and learn somewhere else, pick a course, and complete it.

After learning the basics, you can move on to courses that tackle other aspects of PPC or digital marketing, like landing pages or email marketing.

Educating yourself before you get started is the first step on the way to Google Ads success.