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Whether you’re just starting out in digital marketing or are a veteran of the online advertising space, Google Ads are certain to be part of your life. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a big part of modern business, especially when you’re looking to increase the quality of your inbound traffic.
Paid search is a broad topic and can take years to master. The information and courses available continue to improve, but it can be challenging to find the best course to suit your needs. If you’re a newbie to PPC there is a lot to learn and you might find the whole thing a little overwhelming. And, even if you’ve been working in the paid search field for years and consider yourself pretty savvy, there’s always more to learn.
PPC is complex and has been referred to as both a science and an art. To be great at it you need to have a strong grasp of marketing concepts and strategy, be great with numbers and able to interpret metrics and dashboards and also have a flair for writing ads and understanding consumer sentiment. It’s also fast-moving with new tools, processes and hacks surfacing all the time. So, how does one learn, develop and keep up to speed with it all?
The answer is by taking Google Ads courses and keeping abreast of trends and techniques. As well as giving you all the facts you need, they are designed from the ground up to train and teach people of all levels. To help you make the right choice for you and your business, we’ve put together this list to help you get the most from your PPC, whatever your level.
Please note that we haven’t included pricing in the table as many of the courses are subscription-based and others have variable pricing, so the thing to do is to click the link and check the updated pricing out for yourself.
Before getting to our recommendations, it’s a good idea to look at the considerations that anyone should take when choosing their ideal Google ads course:
Just because you found the perfect course, on paper, it doesn’t mean that the instructor is the best you can get. Take a look at their bio, their experience and do a little digging to make sure they qualify to be able to teach on PPC and related subjects. You want your instructor to have hands-on experience running campaigns so they can share with your case studies and actual techniques. Also, consider any biases or incentives that the instructor might have. Courses run by Google will provide you with best practice but might be limited in what they can teach you from real-world experience and what they can say about Google Ads, while non-Google affiliated instructors can provide a different perspective. Similarly, instructors with agency experience vs client-side experience will also have a different perspective on how they approach campaigns. Agency side instructors are more likely to have broader experience with multiple client types.
Even though you might have worked with PPC in the past, you might not be as advanced as you think. We recommend being humble with your PPC understanding, as it can get complex. Make sure that the course you choose acts as a refresher, as well as an educator to avoid getting lost right at the beginning. If you have 3 or more years experience, you will want to look at intermediate and advanced courses. Many of the advanced courses take for granted that you understand key concepts and how to set up campaigns already, before diving straight into techniques and tips and tricks.
Some PPC courses can be very short, or very long. Take a moment to find out exactly how long your potential course might be and think about whether it’s too little, too much, or just enough. There’s plenty of choices out there, so have a good shop around. Many might think that the more hours available in the course makes your dollar go further. This is not necessarily the case, as you want a course that is not overly verbose. Look for quality of content and coverage of topics you need, rather than the length of course.
Look closely at the content of the course. Some may not go into the detail you need and would be more generic. The best courses out there will have plenty of insights to show how Google Ads work, using real-life examples, case studies and relatable demonstrations. Many courses provide walk-throughs as well, actually showing you how things are practically done inside the tools.
Nothing can be more distracting than bad sound or image quality. Quality courses are likely to have better recording equipment, so make sure to do what you can to ensure you won’t suffer from muffled audio or blurry/laggy video.
Reading the impressions of past students is one of the best ways to know if a course is worth it or not. Try to partake in courses with many favourable reviews and avoid those that have too many negative opinions, or no reviews at all.
At the end of the day, your choice will heavily depend on the price. Many course providers like Udemy host high-quality courses and often discount. Instructors will do this because Udemy provides a large volume of students. This means that cheaper courses can still be very high quality. There are also plenty of free or budget options out there which might be in-depth enough depending on your level and needs, so make sure to consider the content of the course, not just the price.
Odds are that you’ll have a lot of questions during or after your course. It’s helpful to know that your course gives you the chance to address them through Q&A sessions or live walkthroughs. So, there are your considerations.Let’s start looking at courses:
If you’re a beginner and want to learn more about PPC and online marketing in general, you should opt for the course below, which is absolutely free of charge. This makes our list because it comes straight from Google themselves.
The course is great for beginners who want to learn more about the platform itself, however, it is very top level. Knowing about the platform is one thing, but knowing how to use it effectively and strategically is something different altogether, and for that, you need to look beyond this course. For more information, they also have a great YouTube channel to learn from.
The Ultimate Google AdWords is one of the most popular Google Adwords training courses available online. With over 50,000 students enrolled across over 150 countries, this course will teach you, step by step, everything you need to develop, build and launch a successful Google AdWords campaign.
The course is taught by Isaac Rudanski who is an agency owner, so you can expect it to be very practical. Isaac has a lot of experience working with clients and teaching courses. The reviews on this course are high and the quality of information and recording is also high.
The course coverage is also very broad so it is great for beginners looking to get a strong overview into starting with Google Ads. One of the main downsides is the material can be outdated as it was recorded originally in 2016 and has not been updated, probably because it covers so much material.
eMarketing Institute is an online powerhouse of content who offer a Google Ads course that’s ideal for digital marketers and small business owners. Consisting of a free 174-page e-book, you can learn the basics of search engine marketing at your own pace. There’s also an exam at the end that’ll get you a certificate and more than prepare you to delve deeper into the world of paid search.
The course is not video-based, it comes in a written format which allows you to learn at your own pace. However, the big downside is that it is not interactive. While there are screenshots, it doesn’t actually show you how to implement practices.
Skillshare has long-positioned itself as a fantastic online educational platform, and their in-depth course on Google Ads maintains that reputation with a focus on Google Search. It has perhaps the best structure and progression for beginners to get familiar with the platform through the use of presentation slides.
Unfortunately, the course is dated with old concepts and also using the old interface which will make it difficult to follow.
Formally provided by training legends, Lynda, this is essentially a crash-course in Google Ads for beginners, with a length that most will find just right.
It starts with explaining how AdWords works, and how to know what your business and customers need. From there it takes you through how to set up a new Adwords account, and how to find keywords. Then, it gets into the nitty-gritty and goes into monitoring, reporting and beyond.
by Mark Stephenson on Udemy.com
This course briefly touches on the basics again before getting to intermediate level concepts. The course places a lot of focus on how you can maximise your returns and get the most from your efforts. A good option for PPC practitioners who want to get more out of digital marketing.
It’s nice that the course covers other platforms as well like Bing, however, the coverage of the course is quite shallow with only under 3 hours of content. Much of it covers Ad extensions which is not very advanced. The course is also dated, being recorded on the old Google Ads platform.
Simplilearn is a powerhouse of online learning and is well known for quality. This is a comprehensive look at advanced PPC that covers PPC, as well as display, conversion optimization, web analytics and more. After completing the course you’ll have a much better understanding of bidding methods, ranking algorithms, ad platforms and other key elements of search engine marketing. Brad Geddes is well known in Google Ads circles, so you can be sure you are being taken through by an expert.
The quality of content is good, the coverage is broad and the instructor explains it well. But this course is less advanced than other ones on the market. Many of the topics covered are closer to intermediate and beginner, introducing basic ideas. There is some advanced content, but despite its title, it does not have enough advanced materials.
This course makes our list because it covers a lot of topics in a relatively short time. It’s good for advanced users as it is module-based so learners can jump to topics they want to learn about or haven’t heard about before. You’ll learn the advanced techniques developed by a real industry expert from over a decade of working with actual clients of all sizes. It also gives you access to tools and spreadsheets that you don’t appear to get in other courses.
This course finds a nice balance between depth and coverage. It covers many advanced topics and includes walkthroughs and practical examples as well. For an advanced user looking for new ideas and concepts to implement in their account, this course is for you. Following that you can explore another course below which may focus on one advanced idea.
This course focuses on ways you can expand the audiences you are targeting beyond just search campaigns. Attendees should already be able to navigate Google Ads, Google Analytics and Google Tag manager, and are already using basic audiences in PPC campaigns. Over six classes, you’ll learn more about the different audience types available within Google Ads and how to leverage them. The course also comes with a certificate of completion.
This course has a fairly narrow focus, honing in on different ways that you can expand your audience types. This means that many other advanced topics are not included. However, for many advanced users getting deep knowledge in one area will be very beneficial.
Quality Score is a crucial part of your Google Ads performance and advanced users can spend most of their time perfecting it, which is why this course makes our list. Using the SKAG method (Single Keyword Ad Group), you’ll learn how to find the right keywords and set it up in a spreadsheet. From there, you’ll get the ins and outs of effective Ad Text writing, effecting landing pages, location settings, optimisations and much more.
Similar to the above course, this course has a fairly narrow focus but for advanced users looking to perfect Quality Score there is a lot of great material and knowledge here.
There are a lot of courses out there, but the ones we mentioned in this article were picked to have the greatest balance of features, price and level. However, the world of digital marketing is constantly changing, and so are the features of Google Ads and other paid platforms. So which ones of the above do we truly recommend for the different skill levels?
Taking everything into consideration, we’d say that an absolute beginner should start with the first one on our list, the Free Adwords Course By Google.com. This is because it’s free, provided by Google and will also help you get certified. Following that, you will likely still need significant training and you should look at The Ultimate Google Ads Training from Issac Rudanski on Udemy. This course has excellent coverage and is well known as being excellent for beginners. Once you have mastered the basics and are looking for advanced ways to optimize your Google Ads account then you should review the Advanced Google Ads / Adwords Training.
The world of paid search is always changing, and keeping up to date with everything (or even knowing where to start!) can be confusing. Definitions are often complex and might contain jargon you don’t know, so why not get yourself up to speed so can you keep up with the conversation.
We believe that learning by doing is the best way to learn, however you can still make many mistakes if you go it alone. It makes the most sense to learn the concepts and practical methods from those in the industry that have already been practising for years, and then to go and try implementing them the correct way. Many of the courses are free and others are fairly low cost, so there is little risk in taking a course.
That completely depends on what you need, and what budget you might have. Take a look at the considerations at the start of this article to know where to start looking. Once you find a course that looks good, research the learning materials, course content and reviews to see if it’s the right one for you.
Absolutely. Paid search is always changing, evolving and adding new features. While you might know what you need to run a good campaign, taking an advanced course can really help you maximise your returns through means you might not have known about. Even as an advanced practitioner it is always worth looking at what others in the industry are doing. There are some courses focused on just one idea such as improving Quality Score, so it is likely you can learn something new.
Understanding how SEO and PPC work together can be a great way to broaden your digital marketing knowledge. It’s not essential, but if you really want to be the master, learning about SEO will give you an even better perspective. Some of the courses like the Advanced Google Ads Training Course have sections on combining PPC and SEO.
Although Google dominates the search market, some courses will also include Bing and some other search engines. Knowledge is power, so if you find a course that touches on other search engines, it can only be a good thing. Take a look at your client’s data and see if any inbound traffic is coming from other sources, and take it from there.
Although Google dominates the search market, some courses will also include Bing and some other search engines. Knowledge is power, so if you find a course that touches on other search engines, it can only be a good thing. Take a look at your client’s data and see if any inbound traffic is coming from other sources, and take it from there.
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