12 Best Google Ads Courses to Stay Ahead in the PPC Game

Duration: 8 hours and 40 minutes (11 sections)

Level: Beginner

Rating: 4.7 stars on Udemy, 6,309 students have enrolled on Skillshare

SEO agency ClickSlice founder Joshua George said this paid Udemy course is like “watching over his shoulder” as he sets up Google Ads from scratch during class. Besides being an SEO consultant for London-based businesses, George is a sought-after resource person, regularly speaking at BrightonSEO events and industry-related podcasts. The UK government had also recently tapped his services for SEO training of its digital teams. George offers a similar tutorial on Skillshare, which you can access for free when you sign up for the platform.

Lessons covered:

• Setting up your Google Ads account
• Understanding keywords, search intent, and match types
• Conducting keyword research for your target market
• Writing killer ads that generate clicks
• Understanding bidding strategies and quality score 
• Mastering ad extensions
• Setting up and tracking conversions
• Optimizing ad campaigns

Duration: 2 hours and 6 minutes

Level: Beginners

Rating: No ratings available on Hubspot or third-party sites but recommended by online course aggregator Class Central and Ads Institute.

If you’re a Hubspot user, you can take this free course by Marjorie “Jorie” Munroe, wherein she discusses how you can use the platform to create Google Ads and optimize your campaigns. As an insider tip, Munroe—who has been a Hubspot Academy professor since 2017—says in this YouTube video that users get $500 worth of credit when they create a new ad account using the platform.

Lessons covered:

1. Getting started with Google Ads (foundation of paid search advertising, best practices for creating ads that drive clicks and conversions, tracking campaign performance)
2. Google Ads optimization (use of Google Ad Extensions to customize ads for greater visibility and prominence)
3. Targeting strategies (using Google Audiences and Hubspot to reach your target market)
4. Reporting (tracking your ad performance on Google and Hubspot to identify areas for improvement)

Duration: 3.7 hours 

Level: Google describes this as an intermediate course. However, it focuses on text-based ads, which appear as “sponsored” links when you make a Google search. Meanwhile, the “beginner”-level Google Ads Creative Certification covers all campaign types, including video, display, and app ads.

Rating: 4.7 stars

As Google’s official training hub, Skillshop is an ideal place to start your journey toward mastering everything there is to know about Google Ads. This free course is a good foundation for all other Skillshop or third-party courses. It combines product tactics with a marketing strategy built around common business scenarios and real-world case studies. The certification exam consists of 50 multiple-choice questions, 80% of which you must ace to get certified.

Lessons covered:

• Forming a coherent digital marketing strategy 
• Developing a Google Search strategy that aligns with your company’s general marketing plan and budget
• Planning lead-generation and sales-growth steps through Smart Bidding and Google Search Audiences to reach new and existing customers more effectively 

Google Ads Search Professional Certification is available if you’re already familiar with bidding for Google Ads but need more information on optimization. This advanced course also teaches learners how to use Performance Planner, which you can use to generate ad budget plans and assess the impact of campaign changes on your metrics.

Duration: 1 hour and 37 minutes (8 lessons)

Level: Beginner

Rating: None available; 10,244 have enrolled on Skillshare

Ben Lund became a digital advertising expert through nearly two decades of working as a marketing and account lead in Google, Merkle (formerly Rimm-Kaufman Group), Yahoo, and Monster. He now runs Rise Marketing Group, which he established in 2018. Unlike the first two courses on our list, this course discusses other ways to advertise on the search engine beyond plain text search ads. When you sign up for this course, you get a free $500 Google Ads coupon. The class is free for new Skillshare users.

Lessons covered:

• Creating and optimizing your Google Ads account
• Choosing the right keywords for your campaign
• Writing effective ad copy
• Learn about Google Performance Max, display ads, YouTube ads, and the latest Google Ads updates
• Understand the various bidding strategies
• Setting your ad budget and tracking results

Duration: Not indicated, live classes ran for 2 days

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Rating: None available but Geddes has already conducted 125 Google Ads seminars

Brad Geddes—author of “Advanced Google AdWords”—leads this course, one of Search Engine Land’s SMX master classes, which aired live in February 2024. Enrollees are expected to have Google Ads accounts and have some experience using it. The course covers some account basics but dives deep into account analysis using Data Studio templates, multi-ad group testing, and Quality Score analysis. Geddes’ PPC background dates back to 1998 when he went into affiliate marketing. He established several digital marketing companies since 2002, including the PPC recommendation engine Adalysis. He also teaches a self-paced Google Ads professional certification training course on Simplilearn, where he served as chairperson for six years until 2022.

Lessons covered:

• The buyer journey
• Comprehensive keyword usage and organization
• Ad creation and testing 
• Audience targeting strategies
• Competitive analysis
• Leveraging machine learning 

Duration: 1 hour and 50 minutes (18 lessons)

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Rating: None available but recommended by Ads Institute and startup mentorship platform Growth Mentor

You can find this paid training on digital marketing course provider CXL—which boasts offering only the top 1% of practitioners worldwide. The lessons by Klientboost founder Jonathan Dane aim to guide participants in setting realistic, research-based Google Ads goals and priorities. The course will also teach learners about conversion intent, how to comfortably navigate the Google Ads interface, master targeting and split testing, know appropriate optimization routines, and scale all campaign types.

Lessons covered:

• Meaningful metrics 
• Accurate goal setting
• Understanding The Iceberg Effect 
• Familiarity with native Google Ads and external research tools
• PPC “temperatures” (conversion intent)
• Targeting options
• Building your campaign settings and Ad Group
• Weekly and monthly optimization routines
• Keyword, audience, and general expansion

Duration: 2 hours and 2 minutes (6 lessons)

Level: Intermediate to advanced (must already know about keyword bidding and Google Auction operations)

Rating: 4.7 stars on LinkedIn Learning

If you’ve been running Google Ads campaigns for a while but want to effectively apply bid and budget optimization rules and leverage your analytics tools, Michael Taylor can show you how in this LinkedIn Learning course. A co-founder at growth marketing agency Ladder and simulator-based attribution course provider Vexpower, Taylor will also teach you to become more adept with using Google Ads’ AI for keyword optimization and ad copy and other Google ad channels, such as Google Shopping and YouTube.   

Lessons covered:

1. Google Ads strategy (account audit, keyword universe, ad copy tactics)
2. Optimizing Google Ads account performance (bid and budget optimization, retargeting, using AI to automate negative keywords, and dynamic text on landing pages) 
3. Tips for Working Efficiently (using Google’s native creative tools, bulk sheet changes, ad copy testing, using generative AI to create ad copy)
4. Using Automation (running Google Ads scripts, Google Looker Studio dashboards)
5. Campaign performance tracking (setting up parameters, choosing attribution models)
6. Other Google Channels (Google shopping campaigns, Google Display Network, YouTube video ads)

Duration: Self-paced

Level: intermediate to advanced

Reviews: 5 stars on Beast Courses

This content is not a course in the traditional sense but, several review sites, such as Growth Mentor and Ads Institute, recommend it for its jam-packed tool set. Named by Remote Scouts as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential PPC Experts You Need to Know,” Ed Leake claims that his framework’s highly appealing checklists, cheat sheets, templates, and automation scripts make copycats out of PPC gurus and course creators. He also guarantees enrollees will see results in 29 days “or your money back.”

Leake created a website solely for this framework, where you can select from three plans. You get lifetime access and free updates when you sign up. Entry-level registrants part of a private 2k+-member Facebook group. Meanwhile, mid-level subscribers get access to a dashboard. Over 20 hours worth of workshops and mentoring are available in the Agency Forge package for agency owners.

Resources included:

• 150+ “Quick Notes” of shortcuts
• Google Ads account blueprints
• SOPs for planning, developing, and optimizing campaigns
• Configuring macro and micro conversions
• 400+ step campaign checklist 
• Smart bidding diagnosis
• Google Analytics 4 setup and tracking

Duration: 15 hours (8 modules, 65 lessons)

Level: All levels

Rating: None available but recommended by Ads Institute and Growth Mentor

Jeff Sauer, who has been on PPC Hero’s roster of the “Top 25 Most Influential PPC Experts” for several years, delivers this course via his Data Driven website. The content is based on his over 15 years of experience as a digital marketer and having spent over $20 million on Google Ads for his clients. Sauer has been teaching Google Ads courses since 2010.

Participants will learn how to set up their accounts so they can receive profit-generating data for every ad campaign, maximize ad budgets through untapped, low-cost keywords, and discover how a “video game mentality” helps you run a thriving account. There’s also a section dedicated to Google Ads certification exam preparation. Although this course is longer than the others on our list so far, you’ll get lifetime access to process documents and bonus materials. 

Lessons covered (and some sample topics for each section):

• Section 1: Introduction to Google Ads Mastery (includes an introduction, “The Game of Paid Search,” and “The 10 Commandments of PPC Management”)
• Section 2: Navigating Google Ads (setting up and managing an account, creating initial campaign settings, navigating keywords and billing)
• Section 3: How Google Ads Works (keyword research, selection, and match types, ad guidelines and copy testing, ad bidding, mobile and device targeting)
• Section 4: Earning a Positive Return on Investment (metrics, competitive research tools, bid optimization, account performance optimization, quick audit)
• Section 5: The Business of PPC (how to get compensated for your work, working with a PPC agency, PPC contracts, becoming a specialist)
• Section 6: Google Ads Certification Exams (fundamentals and advertising exam)
• Section 7: Additional Google Ads Campaign Formats (Google Display Network, Google Shopping Campaigns)
• Section 8: Not discussed on Data Driven’s webpage for this course

Duration: 13 hours and 11 minutes (77 lessons) on Skillshare, 16 hours and 10 minutes (9 sections) on Udemy 

Level: All levels

Rating: 4.7 stars on Udemy, 7,233 students who have enrolled on Skillshare

Robin Nordin and Jesper Sohlin are behind this comprehensive class, which is available on Skillshare and Udemy. The lives of these Cyprus-based fitness trainers took a different turn after learning about affiliate marketing a year or so after meeting in 2015. They started launching their online digital marketing courses in 2017. In the same year, they released their co-authored book titled Passive Income from Scratch. They now run their own website and YouTube channel, where they tackle online business setups, sales psychology, copywriting, and social media marketing.

Lessons covered (Skillshare course): 

• How to consistently drive traffic to your landing page or website
• How to use conversion tracking to determine your ad campaign’s value 
• How to create and optimize Google Ads for results-driven campaigns
• How to target the right audience and retarget former website visitors for less ad spend
• How to target the right search terms for higher profit margins

Lessons covered (Udemy course): 

• How to create your search ad
• Conversion tracking
• Keywords
• Ranking and bidding
• YouTube Ads
• Additional features
• Sales psychology
• Copywriting

Duration: Self-paced with a recommended timeframe of 3-4 weeks

Level: All levels

Rating: None available but recommended by Internet of Learning

Learn from the first Google-certified trainer outside the US, Benjamin Mangold, whose Australia-based web analytics firm Loves Data became a Google Analytics certified partner by invitation in 2007. He also wrote Learning Google AdWords and Google Analytics, the first edition of which was published in 2015. 

You’ll have lifetime access to this paid course, which will be regularly updated to reflect changes made by Google from the time you enroll. Participants also become part of an exclusive online “private discussion area,” where they can air questions.

Lessons covered:

• Best ways to create and structure Google Ad campaigns using the 2024 version
• Navigating the interface
• Using ad extensions to enhance ads
• Identifying campaign optimization opportunities 
• Researching keywords and using keyword matching
• Applying ad testing to improve impact
• Understanding conversion tracking options

Duration: 5 hours and 49 minutes (9 sections)

Level: All levels

Rating: 4.7 stars

Despite the inclusion of “Pro” in the course title, Bernard Martin says the course is for both beginners and seasoned marketers. The Cornell Literacy instructor as well as the WAMM Marketing founder says the lessons will save participants from experiencing “the pain and heartaches” he went through in his pursuit of an entrepreneurial lifestyle in the past 18 years. You also become a part of WAMM’s online community when you enroll in any of Martin’s Udemy courses, which include email marketing, social media marketing, bot marketing, and ChatGPT Mastery.

Lessons covered:

• Crafting compelling ad copy
• Optimizing keyword strategies 
• Applying ad extensions for visibility and user interaction
• Navigating targeting options to reach specific audiences
• Understanding Google’s Quality Score Algorithm
• Implement advanced bid management 
• Creating YouTube Ads
• Generating Local Google Ads for Google My Business
• Using ChatGPT (for campaign settings, keywords, callout or site link text creation, double-checking budget)