- Which Google Ads Course Should You Take?
- 1. Google Ads Training By Google Skillshop
- 2. Google Ads Full Course By Reliablesoft
- 3. Ultimate Google Ads Training By Isaac Rudansky
- 4. The Complete Google Ads Masterclass By Udemy
- 5. Performance Framework By God Tier Ads
- 6. Google Ads For Beginners By CXL
- 7. Google Ads Mastery By LearnKartS
- 8. Google Ads For Beginners By Coursera
- 9. Create A Google Ads Search Campaign By Coursera
- 10. Diploma In Google Ads By Alison
- Are Google Ads Courses Worth It?
- How Much Do Google Ads Courses Cost?
- Do You Need A Google Ads Certification?
- Who Should Follow a Google Ads Course?
- Our Course Review Process
- Related Courses and Certifications
Google runs its own Google Ads training for free, and for a lot of people that is genuinely all they need. The courses worth paying for are the ones that teach what Google's own material leaves out: what to do when a campaign is spending money and not converting.
Here are the ten best Google Ads courses, three of which cost nothing to take.
| Course | Cost | Level | Duration | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads Training By Google Skillshop | Free | Beginner to Intermediate | Self-paced | Earning an official Google Ads certification |
| Google Ads Full Course By Reliablesoft | $127 (course bundle) | Beginner to Intermediate | 11 lessons, self-paced | A proven process for profitable campaigns |
| Ultimate Google Ads Training By Isaac Rudansky | Paid, almost always discounted | Beginner to Advanced | 35.5 hours | The most thorough paid course available |
| The Complete Google Ads Masterclass By Udemy | Paid, almost always discounted | Intermediate | 7.5 hours of video | Performance Max and shopping campaigns |
| Performance Framework By God Tier Ads | $499, one payment | Advanced | 400-step framework | Managing client accounts for a living |
| Google Ads For Beginners By CXL | CXL subscription | Beginner | 1.5 hours, 12 lessons | A fast, practitioner-led introduction |
| Google Ads Mastery By LearnKartS | Included with Coursera Plus | Beginner | 5 modules, about 20 hours | A structured course with a graded certificate |
| Google Ads For Beginners By Coursera | Included with Coursera Plus | Beginner | 2 hours | Your first look at the Google Ads interface |
| Create A Google Ads Search Campaign By Coursera | Included with Coursera Plus | Beginner | 2 hours | Building one search campaign start to finish |
| Diploma In Google Ads By Alison | Free to take, paid certificate | Beginner | 10 to 15 hours | A long free course you can work through slowly |
The list is ordered by how far each course takes you, starting with the free and official training and ending with the platform courses that cover the basics.
Which Google Ads Course Should You Take?
Two questions decide this, and they are the same two that everyone asks in PPC forums.
The first is what you want at the end. If you want a credential for your CV or for an agency's Google Partner status, the answer is Google Skillshop and nothing else. Google's certifications are the only ones Google recognises, they are free, and no third-party course can issue them. Every other course on this list gives you a certificate of completion, which is a record of attendance rather than a qualification.
If you want to run campaigns that make money, a certification is not the goal and Skillshop on its own will not get you there. Google's material teaches you the interface and the official best practice. It does not teach you how to diagnose an account that is burning budget, because Google is not a neutral party on the question of how much you should spend.
The second question is how deep you need to go. Reading the interface and launching a first campaign is a few hours of work. Running accounts as a job is a different order of commitment: the two courses here aimed at working practitioners run to 35 hours and 400 steps respectively, and both assume you already know what a Quality Score is.
On cost, three courses are free to take, our own is $127, the Udemy courses are routinely under $20 in a sale, and the two professional-level options are $499 and a CXL subscription. Price tracks depth fairly closely on this list, which is not true of every subject.
1. Google Ads Training By Google Skillshop
- Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Duration: Self-paced
- Cost: Free
- Certification: Official Google Ads certifications
Google Skillshop is the official training academy for Google Ads, and it is the only place you can earn a certification that Google itself issues.
Skillshop is best for anyone who needs the credential rather than the coaching. It is also the required route for agencies and individuals who want to become a Google Ads Certified Partner.
The certifications currently available are:
- Google Ads Search Certification
- Google Ads Search Professional Certification
- Google Ads Display Certification
- Google Ads Video Certification
- Google Ads Video Professional Certification
- Google Ads Creative Certification
- Google Ads Measurement Certification
- Google Ads Apps Certification
- AI-Powered Shopping Ads Certification
- AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification
- Grow Offline Sales Certification
The two Professional certifications are the newest additions and are aimed at practitioners who already hold the standard Search or Video credential.
Why enroll in this course?
The courses are free, they are taught by Google specialists, and each one ends in an exam that produces a Google certification you can put on a CV.
You get a fundamentals path for each campaign type, including search, display, shopping, video and apps, and dedicated material on Google's AI-powered campaigns.
Where it falls short is practical judgement. Skillshop teaches Google's recommended settings, and Google's recommendations are not always the ones that protect your budget. It will not prepare you for an account that is spending well and converting badly.
2. Google Ads Full Course By Reliablesoft
- Level: Beginner to Intermediate
- Duration: 11 lessons, self-paced
- Cost: $127 (course bundle)
- Certification: Yes
The Google Ads Full Course by Reliablesoft Digital Marketing Academy teaches the process we use to run profitable Google Ads campaigns for clients.
It is best for someone starting from nothing who wants a repeatable system rather than a tour of the interface. The course covers:
- Introduction to Google Ads
- How to create a new account
- How to create conversions and enable conversion tracking
- How to create Search Ads
- How to create Display Campaigns
- How to run Remarketing campaigns on Google Ads
- How to run Dynamic search campaigns
- How to create Discovery campaigns
- How to optimize Google Ads campaigns
Why enroll in this course?
The course is created by a Google Ads expert with more than 15 years of hands-on experience, so what you get is the best practice we actually follow rather than the theory.
As a certified Google Ads Partner, we have run campaigns on behalf of clients totalling more than 1 million USD in spend. The course shows you how to set up and optimize campaigns so that they turn profitable as quickly as possible.
Registration covers the whole academy bundle, which is 21 SEO and digital marketing courses, for a single $127 payment. It is offered as part of the Digital Marketing Full Course.
Where it falls short is shopping campaigns, which the course does not cover. If you sell physical products and shopping ads are your main channel, the Udemy Masterclass below handles that ground better.
3. Ultimate Google Ads Training By Isaac Rudansky
- Level: Beginner to Advanced
- Duration: 35.5 hours, 204 lectures
- Cost: Paid, almost always discounted
- Certification: Certificate of completion
Ultimate Google Ads Training: Profit with Pay Per Click by Isaac Rudansky is the largest and most thoroughly reviewed Google Ads course on Udemy, with over 238,000 students and more than 55,000 ratings at an average of 4.5.
It is best for someone who wants one course to take them from opening an account to managing it competently, and who would rather not stitch that together from several shorter ones.
Why enroll in this course?
At 35.5 hours across 204 lectures it is roughly five times the length of a typical Udemy Google Ads course, and the depth shows in the parts most courses skip: bidding strategy, landing page quality, account structure at scale, and reading the data once campaigns are live.
It carries both Bestseller and Highest Rated badges on Udemy, which is unusual, and the content is kept current rather than left to age.
Where it falls short is the time commitment. Thirty-five hours is a serious investment, and if you only need to launch one campaign for one business, it is far more course than the job requires.
4. The Complete Google Ads Masterclass By Udemy
- Level: Intermediate
- Duration: 7.5 hours of video, 64 lectures
- Cost: Paid, almost always discounted
- Certification: Certificate of completion
The Complete Google Ads Masterclass by Robin and Jesper is a practical course built around campaign types rather than around the interface, and it is the better choice on this list if you sell products.
It is best for marketers and freelancers who already understand the basics and want hands-on work with search, shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
Why enroll in this course?
The course covers Google Ads strategy, conversion tracking, keyword research, sales psychology and copywriting, and it treats Performance Max as a first-class topic rather than an afterthought.
It rates 4.6 from close to 5,000 ratings, and it comes with lifetime access and updates, so the material tracks changes to the platform.
Where it falls short is pace. Sixty-four lectures is a dense run, and a few of the later modules assume PPC experience the course has not taught you.
5. Performance Framework By God Tier Ads
- Level: Advanced
- Duration: 400-step framework, self-paced
- Cost: $499, one payment
- Certification: No
The Performance Framework by Ed Leake is not a course in the usual sense. It is an operating system for running Google Ads accounts: a 400-step checklist, standard operating procedures, cheat sheets, templates and scripts, sold once for lifetime access rather than as a subscription.
It is best for people who manage accounts for clients or who own a large enough budget that a systematic process pays for itself.
Why enroll in this course?
It is the resource PPC practitioners recommend to each other most consistently. It has trained over 4,000 professionals, holds a 4.98 out of 5 rating, and has been updated continuously since it launched rather than shipped once and abandoned.
The framework is built around process rather than around features, which is the difference between knowing what a bid strategy is and knowing which one to change first when performance drops.
Where it falls short is that it is the wrong purchase for a beginner. It assumes you can already navigate an account, it issues no certificate, and at $499 it is the most expensive single payment on this list.
6. Google Ads For Beginners By CXL
- Level: Beginner
- Duration: 1.5 hours, 12 lessons
- Cost: CXL subscription, or buy the single course
- Certification: CXL certificate
Google Ads for Beginners is a premium course from CXL taught by Susan Wenograd, a consultant who has spent twenty years in paid search and managed budgets for General Motors and Instacart.
It is best for marketers who want a credible introduction quickly and have no patience for filler.
Why enroll in this course?
Twelve lessons in ninety minutes is an unusually efficient course. It covers the interface, conversion setup, search campaign structure, keywords and match types, quality score, bidding, search query reports and audiences, with no padding between them.
The advice comes from managing real budgets rather than from documentation, which is what separates it from the free introductions on this list.
Where it falls short is access and price. CXL is a subscription aimed at B2B marketing teams, and the monthly plan is expensive for a single ninety-minute course. It only makes sense if you will use the wider library or your employer is paying.
7. Google Ads Mastery By LearnKartS
- Level: Beginner
- Duration: 5 modules, about 20 hours
- Cost: Included with Coursera Plus
- Certification: Shareable certificate
Google Ads Mastery: Create and Optimize Winning Campaigns by LearnKartS is the most substantial Google Ads course on Coursera, and the only one there that is a full course rather than a short guided project.
It is best for learners who want a graded, structured course with a certificate they can add to a LinkedIn profile.
Why enroll in this course?
Five modules and 56 graded assignments cover campaign creation and management, keyword research, smart bidding, and using Tag Manager and Analytics to track ad performance. It also covers advertising on YouTube, which most Google Ads courses treat as a separate subject.
The assessment load is the point here. Most courses on this list ask nothing of you; this one makes you prove you followed it.
Where it falls short is the pace it assumes. Coursera schedules it at two weeks of ten hours a week, which is a real commitment for material other courses cover in a few hours.
8. Google Ads For Beginners By Coursera
- Level: Beginner
- Duration: 2 hours
- Cost: Included with Coursera Plus
- Certification: No
Google Ads for Beginners is a two-hour guided project taught by Ishita Sinha, and with over 511,000 enrolments it is the most popular Google Ads content on Coursera.
It is best for someone who wants to see the Google Ads interface before deciding whether to commit to anything longer.
Why enroll in this course?
In two hours you set up a Google Ads account, build a first campaign and ad set, and work through conversion tracking, keyword research, dashboard navigation and the basics of campaign optimization. Guided projects run in a split screen, so you follow along in the real product rather than watching a recording.
It rates 4.4 from more than 6,000 reviews.
Where it falls short is depth and cost. Two hours buys you orientation and nothing more, it issues no certificate, and despite the "enroll for free" button the project sits behind Coursera Plus.
9. Create A Google Ads Search Campaign By Coursera
- Level: Beginner
- Duration: 2 hours
- Cost: Included with Coursera Plus
- Certification: No
Create a Google Ads Search Campaign is a guided project by Angelo Paolillo that does one thing: it walks you through building a single search campaign from an empty account.
It is best for a business owner who needs one campaign running this week and does not want a general education in PPC first.
Why enroll in this course?
The two hours cover creating the account, setting campaign goals, configuring the basic settings, building ad groups and ads, and setting up conversion tracking. It is narrow on purpose, and narrow is useful when you have a specific job to do.
It rates 4.6 from 730 reviews, the highest score of the Coursera options here.
Where it falls short is everything after launch. It teaches you to build a campaign and not to improve one, so you will need something longer once the first numbers come in. Like the other guided project, it requires Coursera Plus.
10. Diploma In Google Ads By Alison
- Level: Beginner
- Duration: 10 to 15 hours
- Cost: Free to take, the diploma itself is paid
- Certification: Alison diploma, purchased separately
The Diploma in Google Ads from Alison is the longest genuinely free course on this list, running to between ten and fifteen hours of CPD-accredited material.
It is best for a learner on no budget who has time and wants more than a two-hour introduction.
Why enroll in this course?
It covers campaign setup and optimization, conversion tracking, remarketing, budgets and billing, A/B testing and quality score, and it spends longer on consumer psychology than most technical courses bother to.
For a free course, the coverage of ad optimization is unusually complete.
Where it falls short is the certificate and the environment. The course content is free, but the diploma is a separate paid purchase, so "free diploma" is not quite what is on offer. Assessments require 80% to pass, and the platform runs ads against the free tier, which is distracting.
Are Google Ads Courses Worth It?
For most people, yes, but not for the reason course pages usually give.
The value is not the certificate. It is that Google Ads is one of the few marketing skills where being wrong costs money immediately and visibly. A badly structured account can spend a month's budget on search terms you would never have chosen, and nothing in the interface stops you. A few hours of training ahead of that is cheap insurance.
The honest case against is that a course cannot substitute for spending money and watching what happens. Every experienced practitioner says the same thing: take a structured course to learn the vocabulary and the mechanics, then run a small real budget and learn the rest from your own data. Courses are a shortcut past the expensive mistakes, not a replacement for experience.
The one group who should be cautious is anyone buying a course expecting it to produce clients or a job on its own. It will not. A certificate gets you past a filter on a CV, and what happens after that is down to accounts you can point to.
How Much Do Google Ads Courses Cost?
Less than most people expect, because the official training is free.
Google Skillshop costs nothing, including the exams and the certifications, and Alison's diploma course is free to work through if you do not need the certificate. Those two alone cover the beginner ground.
Paid courses fall into three bands. Udemy courses list around $99 but sell at a fraction of that almost permanently, so paying full price is rarely necessary. Mid-range courses, including our own at $127 for the full academy bundle, sit in the same territory and usually include a certificate. Professional-level training is a different market: the God Tier Ads framework is $499, and CXL is a subscription priced for marketing teams rather than individuals.
There is no correlation worth relying on between price and quality at the low end. There is one at the top: the two most expensive options here are the two aimed at people who manage accounts professionally, and they are priced for the budgets those people control.
Do You Need A Google Ads Certification?
It depends on who is asking for it.
Only Google issues Google Ads certifications, and they are free through Skillshop. Every other certificate on this list is a certificate of completion from a training provider, which is a different thing and worth stating plainly on a CV rather than blurring.
You need the Google certification if you work at, or want to run, an agency that holds Google Partner status, since the badge requires certified staff. It is also the cheapest credential to add to a CV, because it costs nothing but the exam time.
You do not need it to run good campaigns for your own business. Nobody buying from you will ever ask, and the exam tests knowledge of Google's recommended settings rather than the judgement that keeps a budget efficient.
If you want the credential and the judgement, the usual route is Skillshop for the certification and one paid course for everything Google will not tell you. For more detail on the individual exams, see our guide to Google Ads certifications.
Who Should Follow a Google Ads Course?
Entrepreneurs and small business owners get the most direct return. Learning Google Ads means you either stop paying an agency to do it or you can tell whether the agency you pay is doing it well, and the second is worth as much as the first.
Digital marketers and agency professionals need it as a core competency rather than a specialism. PPC sits next to SEO and analytics in most marketing roles, and it is a natural step towards becoming a digital marketing specialist.
Career changers should know that PPC specialists remain in demand and that the skill is measurable, which makes it easier to prove than most marketing disciplines. It is also a service you can sell early if you plan to start a digital marketing agency.
Here are the reasons to learn Google Ads and get certified:
- You will learn how to increase your advertising reach and get more leads and sales.
- You will be able to optimize your campaigns so that they become profitable rather than merely busy.
- It is a service you can offer clients from the beginning of an agency's life.
- It is a genuine addition to a CV. Employers, including us, prefer certified professionals for specialized tasks like managing PPC campaigns.
- It gives you control over a channel that can be switched on and measured in days, which is true of very little else in marketing.
Our Course Review Process
We reviewed the most popular Google Ads training providers to help you find a course that fits what you actually need to do. Courses were selected on content quality, instructor experience with Google Ads, cost, and what the certificate is worth.
Every price, duration and certification detail on this page was checked against the provider's own course page rather than against other roundups. Where a provider had renamed a course, changed its pricing or withdrawn it, this page follows the provider.
Why You Should Trust Our Reviews?
We have been running PPC campaigns for clients in different industries for over a decade, and we know the problems you need to solve to get results.
We also sell a Google Ads course, which is listed here alongside the others rather than at the top, with the same specification, the same honest limitation, and no claim that it is the best option for everyone.
Related Courses and Certifications
To keep going with Google Ads and the skills around it, these guides are the natural next step:
