Discover 10 useful online advertising courses and programs to explore. We examined the course objectives, features, and price points that one should consider.
Increasingly, businesses are relying upon digital marketing and online advertising for improving client acquisition and driving revenue stream increases. Modern trends in consumer behaviors show that even B2B consumers are relying more and more upon online channels for identifying potential service providers, so it’s important that your marketing team be familiar with the most current trends and tools in online digital marketing and advertising in order to keep pace with the competition.
In this article, we’re going to explore first what strategies and skills online advertising and digital marketing curriculums should prioritize for learners. We’ll then provide a round-up of the top five traditional education institutions and five online training platforms well-known for providing high-quality education to individuals looking to enhance their current marketing degree or supplement education received elsewhere with industry-leading strategies and skills relevant to online marketing and digital advertising.
What Should Online Advertising and Digital Marketing Courses and Degree Programs Cover?
Digital marketing and online advertising tactics encompass a wide array of platforms and tools that modern marketing experts must be proficient in. However, it’s not enough to just know how to use the tools. It’s important that education and training programs also focus on up-to-date strategies for executing high-impact marketing campaigns across multiple channels. With this in mind, we’re going to cover some major topics that professionals who are looking to bolster their skill-set and aspiring marketing professionals should look for when seeking out an education path that meets their needs. Regardless of whether we’re talking about beginners looking to break into a new career in marketing or experienced professionals with existing marketing skills looking to expand their expertise, there are multiple paths towards success.
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
As with many business functions, effective marketing campaign management requires an understanding of related marketing skills and tools in order to form a cohesive marketing strategy that helps your organization or client to build brand awareness and support various revenue channels.
- Content marketing and copywriting
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) online ad creation specific to each platform
- Facebook Ads
- Google Ads and Google Analytics
- LinkedIn Ads
- Creating and managing inbound marketing funnels
- Leveraging email marketing to boost lead generation
- Mobile marketing techniques
- Data and Web Analytics related to advertising and marketing campaign performance
A Special Note About the Importance of Social Media Marketing Tactics
Social media channels boast upwards of 4.5 billion active users across multiple platforms worldwide, which explains why numerous marketers leverage paid social media advertising methods to attract business. Advertising on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook requires an understanding of managing and tracking marketing campaigns, the ability to create impactful content marketing pieces, a recognition of the role video marketing plays in modern marketing strategies, and the positive impact social media engagement has on customer perception of and experience with your brand. It’s crucial to search out programs with a focus on new methods and social media tactics to bolster the fundamentals.
Traditional Education Institutions and Marketing Programs
Individuals interested in attending college to receive a bachelor’s or certificate in digital marketing and online advertising have a wide array of options spread across the United States to choose from. While many education institutions include Marketing as part of their online and in-person Business degree programs, there are five organizations that appear near the top of many online ranking lists upon which businesses looking to recruit top marketing talent should focus their attention.
University of Pennsylvania
Depending on the ranking and year you’re looking at, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Marketing Department’s reputation for excellence reaches back as far as 1909. With various concentrations, the Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing at UPenn provides students with a well-rounded approach to marketing strategies and the analytics and data measurement skills necessary to understand the impact specific campaigns are having on the overall bottom line. Program coursework includes a focus on eCommerce, social media, product management, and visual marketing. As UPenn is a private institution, total tuition costs are static regardless of residency. Including fees and room and board, annual tuition can run as high as $79,000 annually according to 2022 figures. Despite these fairly high costs, UPenn is often ranked highly on comparisons of cost versus education value.
New York University
The expansive undergraduate program at New York University’s Stern Marketing Department provides degree candidates with paths towards specializations in General Marketing, Luxury Marketing, or Entertainment, Media, and Technology Marketing. Supporting these specializations are electives that help students better understand the behaviors of modern consumers, how to manage marketing teams, and social media marketing tactics. The NYU Stern program’s annual cost ranges from $60,000-$80,000 per year depending on whether students are living on or off-campus.
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin’s marketing program is offered through the McCombs School of Business. The bachelor’s program is a multi-disciplinary curriculum that provides students with real-world experiences via internships and study-abroad opportunities. The curriculum pulls from not only the latest and emerging trends in marketing, but also from the disciplines underpinning marketing as an industry, including psychology, economics, and statistics. Tuition and fees can run between $13,000 for in-state students to $30,000 for out-of-state students.
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia’s McIntire School offers bachelor’s candidates seeking a BS in Commerce with the ability to concentrate their studies on marketing. The marketing concentration includes research techniques and a curriculum focused on consumer behaviors. Further coursework focuses on crafting marketing strategies targeting various advertising channels, as well as methods to perform digital and marketing analytics. The program is designed to help candidates target skills that will help them pursue careers in marketing analytics and research, sales, brand management, and other advertising career paths. The UVA Bachelor’s program for Commerce runs candidates between $44,000 and $81,000, depending upon residency status.
Georgetown University
Georgetown University offers its Bachelor’s degree in Marketing through the McDonough School of Business. As with many of the programs that are highly ranked, the Georgetown marketing program focuses its core courses around analytics and consumer behaviors in order to teach future marketing experts how to respond to client needs whether they pursue a specialization in branding, communications, social media marketing, or consulting and strategic marketing. Annual costs for Georgetown University’s bachelor’s level programs range as high as $79,000.
Continuing Education, Online Marketing Courses, and Digital Marketing Courses Through Online Training Programs
Historically, traditional education institutions have been considered the singular path towards a career path in most industries, and marketing has been no exception. However, in recent years, many for-profit online services have started offering access to affordable training and skills development as alternative paths for seasoned professionals with work experience to follow. The training and certifications attained through these online training and learning platforms are increasingly being recognized across industries as legitimate sources of experience.
In this section, we explore five of the best online marketing platforms and online marketing courses that cover the foundations of marketing and allow beginners and long-time marketers alike to hone their skills and establish themselves in marketing careers. These platforms offer a mix of interactive free courses and paid online programs that provide access to premium digital marketing courses.
Google Digital Garage
Google’s Digital Garage hosts a bundle of 26 modules that together make up the platform’s free Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course. The Fundamentals course is targeted at beginners and includes video tutorials and interactive content that cover pulling insight from data analytics, establishing a solid eCommerce platform, managing social media, and other marketing skills crucial to establishing a solid career foundation. The Digital Garage’s programs are accredited by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and recognized for providing real-world examples to students; the Fundamentals course issues a recognized certificate of completion after finishing 40 hours of instruction.
Coursera
Coursera is leveraged by a number of institutions and organizations as a source of training and education. The platform’s Digital Marketing Specialization is a collection of 7 courses that cover digital marketing and analog marketing and is so well-crafted that it’s included as part of the online iMBA offered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The online, 8-month program is offered on a set schedule that can be accessed through a $79 per month subscription in order to receive the verified certification at the end of the program.
ClickMinded
ClickMinded is a platform dedicated specifically to digital marketing education and training. The ClickMinded program offerings include the Digital Marketing program, which is a collection of seven courses, each covering a specific marketing theme. The 42 hours of coursework, which can be completed on a flexible schedule, includes:
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Paid Advertising
- Sales Funnels
- Web Analytics
- Search Engine Optimization
The courses come at a significant cost when taken separately, running around $997 per course, but can be bundled together at a significant discount of $1,997.
Udemy
The Udemy online learning and education platform hosts content creators from multiple industries and disciplines. The platform hosts a bundle titled “The Complete Digital Marketing Course – 12 Courses in 1” that takes a deep dive into fundamental skills and skills necessary to go from beginner to capable professional. The more than 20-hours of instructional material, videos, quizzes, and other supporting content that together cover platform-specific marketing topics:
- Market Research
- WordPress Site Construction
- Email Marketing
- Copywriting
- SEO
- YouTube Marketing
- Social Media Marketing (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Quora)
- App Marketing
- LinkedIn Marketing
- Google Adwords
- Facebook Ads
- Google Analytics
The Udemy platform provides lifetime access to the training classes purchased by users, and while the course costs $150 usually, Udemy’s platform is known for running discounts on a regular basis that can cut the cost by as much as 80%-90% off.
Simplilearn
Similar to Coursera, Simplilearn partners with a number of institutions to support their eLearning and training needs. The platform offers a Digital Marketing Certification Training Bootcamp, with each course in the Bootcamp granting the learner a Master’s-level certificate, culminating in learners who complete the program receiving the Online Marketing Certified Professional Certification. There are more than 35 instructor-led online digital marketing-focused courses held on weekends, so there is less flexibility in this program than others on the list, and the program costs $1499 for the year-long experience.
No Matter Your Path, Digital Marketing Experts Are In Demand
Digital marketing and advertising is a complicated industry segment with constantly evolving standards and practices. The need for well-educated and highly trained professionals is high, as more and more industries are coming to rely upon paid advertising across digital channels and online platforms as their means of building and growing business. While those who haven’t yet started their careers might be drawn to traditional collegiate and University institutions, working professionals finding the need to skill up might explore less traditional paths through online training and education platforms that offer certifications and in some cases credits towards degree programs with whom they’ve partnered. Regardless of your own path, you can learn more about digital marketing and advertising agencies on UpCity’s list of advertising service providers.
Discover 10 useful online advertising courses and programs to explore. We examined the course objectives, features, and price points that one should consider.
Increasingly, businesses are relying upon digital marketing and online advertising for improving client acquisition and driving revenue stream increases. Modern trends in consumer behaviors show that even B2B consumers are relying more and more upon online channels for identifying potential service providers, so it’s important that your marketing team be familiar with the most current trends and tools in online digital marketing and advertising in order to keep pace with the competition.
In this article, we’re going to explore first what strategies and skills online advertising and digital marketing curriculums should prioritize for learners. We’ll then provide a round-up of the top five traditional education institutions and five online training platforms well-known for providing high-quality education to individuals looking to enhance their current marketing degree or supplement education received elsewhere with industry-leading strategies and skills relevant to online marketing and digital advertising.
What Should Online Advertising and Digital Marketing Courses and Degree Programs Cover?
Digital marketing and online advertising tactics encompass a wide array of platforms and tools that modern marketing experts must be proficient in. However, it’s not enough to just know how to use the tools. It’s important that education and training programs also focus on up-to-date strategies for executing high-impact marketing campaigns across multiple channels. With this in mind, we’re going to cover some major topics that professionals who are looking to bolster their skill-set and aspiring marketing professionals should look for when seeking out an education path that meets their needs. Regardless of whether we’re talking about beginners looking to break into a new career in marketing or experienced professionals with existing marketing skills looking to expand their expertise, there are multiple paths towards success.
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
As with many business functions, effective marketing campaign management requires an understanding of related marketing skills and tools in order to form a cohesive marketing strategy that helps your organization or client to build brand awareness and support various revenue channels.
- Content marketing and copywriting
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) online ad creation specific to each platform
- Facebook Ads
- Google Ads and Google Analytics
- LinkedIn Ads
- Creating and managing inbound marketing funnels
- Leveraging email marketing to boost lead generation
- Mobile marketing techniques
- Data and Web Analytics related to advertising and marketing campaign performance
A Special Note About the Importance of Social Media Marketing Tactics
Social media channels boast upwards of 4.5 billion active users across multiple platforms worldwide, which explains why numerous marketers leverage paid social media advertising methods to attract business. Advertising on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook requires an understanding of managing and tracking marketing campaigns, the ability to create impactful content marketing pieces, a recognition of the role video marketing plays in modern marketing strategies, and the positive impact social media engagement has on customer perception of and experience with your brand. It’s crucial to search out programs with a focus on new methods and social media tactics to bolster the fundamentals.
Traditional Education Institutions and Marketing Programs
Individuals interested in attending college to receive a bachelor’s or certificate in digital marketing and online advertising have a wide array of options spread across the United States to choose from. While many education institutions include Marketing as part of their online and in-person Business degree programs, there are five organizations that appear near the top of many online ranking lists upon which businesses looking to recruit top marketing talent should focus their attention.
University of Pennsylvania
Depending on the ranking and year you’re looking at, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Marketing Department’s reputation for excellence reaches back as far as 1909. With various concentrations, the Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing at UPenn provides students with a well-rounded approach to marketing strategies and the analytics and data measurement skills necessary to understand the impact specific campaigns are having on the overall bottom line. Program coursework includes a focus on eCommerce, social media, product management, and visual marketing. As UPenn is a private institution, total tuition costs are static regardless of residency. Including fees and room and board, annual tuition can run as high as $79,000 annually according to 2022 figures. Despite these fairly high costs, UPenn is often ranked highly on comparisons of cost versus education value.
New York University
The expansive undergraduate program at New York University’s Stern Marketing Department provides degree candidates with paths towards specializations in General Marketing, Luxury Marketing, or Entertainment, Media, and Technology Marketing. Supporting these specializations are electives that help students better understand the behaviors of modern consumers, how to manage marketing teams, and social media marketing tactics. The NYU Stern program’s annual cost ranges from $60,000-$80,000 per year depending on whether students are living on or off-campus.
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin’s marketing program is offered through the McCombs School of Business. The bachelor’s program is a multi-disciplinary curriculum that provides students with real-world experiences via internships and study-abroad opportunities. The curriculum pulls from not only the latest and emerging trends in marketing, but also from the disciplines underpinning marketing as an industry, including psychology, economics, and statistics. Tuition and fees can run between $13,000 for in-state students to $30,000 for out-of-state students.
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia’s McIntire School offers bachelor’s candidates seeking a BS in Commerce with the ability to concentrate their studies on marketing. The marketing concentration includes research techniques and a curriculum focused on consumer behaviors. Further coursework focuses on crafting marketing strategies targeting various advertising channels, as well as methods to perform digital and marketing analytics. The program is designed to help candidates target skills that will help them pursue careers in marketing analytics and research, sales, brand management, and other advertising career paths. The UVA Bachelor’s program for Commerce runs candidates between $44,000 and $81,000, depending upon residency status.
Georgetown University
Georgetown University offers its Bachelor’s degree in Marketing through the McDonough School of Business. As with many of the programs that are highly ranked, the Georgetown marketing program focuses its core courses around analytics and consumer behaviors in order to teach future marketing experts how to respond to client needs whether they pursue a specialization in branding, communications, social media marketing, or consulting and strategic marketing. Annual costs for Georgetown University’s bachelor’s level programs range as high as $79,000.
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Continuing Education, Online Marketing Courses, and Digital Marketing Courses Through Online Training Programs
Historically, traditional education institutions have been considered the singular path towards a career path in most industries, and marketing has been no exception. However, in recent years, many for-profit online services have started offering access to affordable training and skills development as alternative paths for seasoned professionals with work experience to follow. The training and certifications attained through these online training and learning platforms are increasingly being recognized across industries as legitimate sources of experience.
In this section, we explore five of the best online marketing platforms and online marketing courses that cover the foundations of marketing and allow beginners and long-time marketers alike to hone their skills and establish themselves in marketing careers. These platforms offer a mix of interactive free courses and paid online programs that provide access to premium digital marketing courses.
Google Digital Garage
Google’s Digital Garage hosts a bundle of 26 modules that together make up the platform’s free Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course. The Fundamentals course is targeted at beginners and includes video tutorials and interactive content that cover pulling insight from data analytics, establishing a solid eCommerce platform, managing social media, and other marketing skills crucial to establishing a solid career foundation. The Digital Garage’s programs are accredited by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and recognized for providing real-world examples to students; the Fundamentals course issues a recognized certificate of completion after finishing 40 hours of instruction.
Coursera
Coursera is leveraged by a number of institutions and organizations as a source of training and education. The platform’s Digital Marketing Specialization is a collection of 7 courses that cover digital marketing and analog marketing and is so well-crafted that it’s included as part of the online iMBA offered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The online, 8-month program is offered on a set schedule that can be accessed through a $79 per month subscription in order to receive the verified certification at the end of the program.
ClickMinded
ClickMinded is a platform dedicated specifically to digital marketing education and training. The ClickMinded program offerings include the Digital Marketing program, which is a collection of seven courses, each covering a specific marketing theme. The 42 hours of coursework, which can be completed on a flexible schedule, includes:
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Paid Advertising
- Sales Funnels
- Web Analytics
- Search Engine Optimization
The courses come at a significant cost when taken separately, running around $997 per course, but can be bundled together at a significant discount of $1,997.
Udemy
The Udemy online learning and education platform hosts content creators from multiple industries and disciplines. The platform hosts a bundle titled “The Complete Digital Marketing Course – 12 Courses in 1” that takes a deep dive into fundamental skills and skills necessary to go from beginner to capable professional. The more than 20-hours of instructional material, videos, quizzes, and other supporting content that together cover platform-specific marketing topics:
- Market Research
- WordPress Site Construction
- Email Marketing
- Copywriting
- SEO
- YouTube Marketing
- Social Media Marketing (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Quora)
- App Marketing
- LinkedIn Marketing
- Google Adwords
- Facebook Ads
- Google Analytics
The Udemy platform provides lifetime access to the training classes purchased by users, and while the course costs $150 usually, Udemy’s platform is known for running discounts on a regular basis that can cut the cost by as much as 80%-90% off.
Simplilearn
Similar to Coursera, Simplilearn partners with a number of institutions to support their eLearning and training needs. The platform offers a Digital Marketing Certification Training Bootcamp, with each course in the Bootcamp granting the learner a Master’s-level certificate, culminating in learners who complete the program receiving the Online Marketing Certified Professional Certification. There are more than 35 instructor-led online digital marketing-focused courses held on weekends, so there is less flexibility in this program than others on the list, and the program costs $1499 for the year-long experience.
No Matter Your Path, Digital Marketing Experts Are In Demand
Digital marketing and advertising is a complicated industry segment with constantly evolving standards and practices. The need for well-educated and highly trained professionals is high, as more and more industries are coming to rely upon paid advertising across digital channels and online platforms as their means of building and growing business. While those who haven’t yet started their careers might be drawn to traditional collegiate and University institutions, working professionals finding the need to skill up might explore less traditional paths through online training and education platforms that offer certifications and in some cases credits towards degree programs with whom they’ve partnered. Regardless of your own path, you can learn more about digital marketing and advertising agencies on UpCity’s list of advertising service providers.