Whether you’re switching careers and want to add some qualifications to your resume or you’re looking to broaden your industry knowledge, there are a lot of options to expand your digital marketing toolkit.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to go back to school or pay for fancy online courses to access this knowledge –– there is a wealth of free resources and certifications you can pursue, so we’ve outlined our favorites below.

Certifications & Courses

Google Digital Garage

When it comes to free resources and learning tools, Google is pretty much the reigning champ. The Google Digital Garage has over 150 courses in digital marketing, data & tech, and career development, so you can tailor your search to see the available courses best suited to your learning needs.

Google Digital Garage also categorizes their course offerings based on the length of time each one takes to complete, so whether you’re looking for a time investment of a few weeks, or something that can fit within a PD day, there are plenty of choices.

For example, the “fundamentals of digital marketing” course consists of 26 modules with an estimated course length of 40 hours, whereas the “understand the basics of code” course is just 1 module that should take only 1 hour to complete.

These courses aren’t just for beginners, either! Many of the courses are listed as intermediate or advanced, so you can utilize these resources at any stage of your career.

Google Ads Skillshop

Google’s training hub specifically for learning about Google Ads describes itself as the place to “Grow your skills using Google Ads to advertise your business online, and get Google Ads Certified.”

You can learn about ads: search, display, shopping, and more. Once you choose a category, you can filter the available courses based on duration, difficulty level, and if completing the course earns you an award.

Google Analytics Academy

The Analytics Academy offers a handful of courses designed to help you understand Google’s measurement tools, so you can make better business decisions using an analytics-informed approach.

If you’re looking to increase and improve your KPIs, the Analytics Academy is the best place to learn.

Waze Ads

Google Skillshop offers a certification for Waze Ads – the driving and navigation app that centers community contribution. Waze Ads is great for local businesses, so if you’re looking to quite literally get on the map, this may be the certification for you.

If you’re not ready to dive straight into the certification test, don’t worry – Google offers some optional fundamental lessons that take about 20 minutes to complete. Add that to the time it takes to complete the exam (35 minutes), and you’ve got yourself a new skill set and certification in under an hour.

Code Academy – HTML/CSS

Code Academy is a fantastic resource for learning various coding and programming languages like HTML, Javascript, Python, and more. Their introductory courses for learning HTML and CSS will give you the foundational tools for front-end web development, so you can be a whiz at building, editing, and understanding web pages.

Twitter Flight School

Flight School is Twitter’s own online learning platform offering courses to help you master advertising on Twitter. The courses are “bite-sized” meaning you can quickly learn and gain new skills without spending a ton of extra time. Similar to Google’s course selection, Flight School offers beginner, intermediate, and advanced course levels, so everyone from interns to senior managers can learn something new.

Bing/Microsoft Ads

If you’re interested in becoming a Microsoft Advertising Certified Professional, you can take advantage of Microsoft’s free training courses and free exam. By taking their courses and exam, you can:

• Increase your Microsoft Advertising proficiency
• Optimize ad campaigns
• Enjoy member benefits
• Maximize your reporting & tools knowledge

Hubspot Inbound

Hubspot offers a great course to learn about the principles of Inbound Marketing. You’ll learn the fundamentals, Inbound methodology (such as the flywheel), and how to apply this knowledge to all aspects of your business. The entire course takes under two hours, and even awards you with a badge icon you can display on your LinkedIn profile in addition to a certificate.

Facebook Blueprint Modules

Learning how to run ads on Facebook isn’t too difficult, but it’s made much easier by completing Facebook’s Blueprint Modules. You can get so much more out of advertising and marketing on Facebook with a little time and effort learning from these modules. They offer more than 90 online courses and a variety of certification exams so you can learn and demonstrate your knowledge at any stage of your career.

Free month at LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda)

LinkedIn Learning offers various “Learning Paths” that are course bundles specifically grouped together for diving into a particular industry. The digital marketing paths alone are broken up into 12 different sub-paths ranging from 6 hour long courses, like “Become a Content Strategist” to 37 hour long courses, like “Master Digital Marketing” depending on your desired level of depth and breadth for the subject material.