17 Free Online Marketing Courses to Learn Digital Marketing

We asked Twitter users to recommend their favorite free digital marketing courses and received over a hundred replies:

Is there a good FREE digital marketing course that you can recommend?

— Tim Soulo (@timsoulo) August 17, 2021

Courses from Google’s Digital Garage, HubSpot Academy, and Ahrefs Academy all got a seal of approval. But what else met the mark?

To narrow my search, I looked at the:

• Instructors behind the courses.
• Ratings and reviews.
• Level of experience expected of students (beginner, intermediate, expert).
• Relevance of the course material in today’s marketing landscape.

Here are the free digital marketing courses that made the cut:

1. How to Use TikTok for Business by Later.com
2. Context is Key: Social Media Strategy in a Noisy Online World
3. Instagram for Business: Build an Engaged Community 
4. Blogging for Business by Ahrefs
5. SEO Training Course by Ahrefs
6. Digital Skills: Digital Marketing by Accenture
7. Content Marketing Certification Course by HubSpot
8. Introduction to Social Media Advertising by Buffer
9. Digital & Social by Twitter Flight School
10. Google Ads by Skillshop
11. SEO Training Course by HubSpot
12. How to Use Instagram Stories (IGS) for Business by Later.com
13. Microsoft Advertising Certification
14. Email Marketing Certification by HubSpot
15. PPC University by Wordstream
16. Google Primer: Marketing & Measurement
17. Google Digital Garage: Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
18. Bonus: LearningSEO

Instructor(s): Taylor Loren
Topic: Social media marketing
Level: Beginner
Certification: No
Duration: 35 mins
Available at: Later.com

Taylor Loren, the former director of content marketing at Later, leads this short online course that’s guided mostly by her experiences on the popular social media platform.

With over 26,000 followers on TikTok, she doles out useful tips you might not have known—like the fact that using trending audio clips or video-editing effects could boost your chances of landing on the For You page.

Some things to note: The 35-minute video lesson is essentially a primer into the world of TikTok Business for complete newbies. Having used the short-video platform myself, I’ve found it to be rather intuitive anyway.

Still, Taylor’s tips are especially helpful if you’re looking to make full use of the algorithm to expand your reach through eye-catching content and TikTok ads.

Instructor(s): Gary Vaynerchuk
Topic: Social media marketing
Level: Beginner
Certification: No
Duration: 1h 31m
Available at: Skillshare

Gary Vaynerchuk is the CEO and co-founder of digital social media agency Vaynermedia, and his 2.4 million follower count on Twitter can attest to his success. 

So it’s no surprise that over 50,000 students have completed this Skillshare course, of which 81% indicated it either exceeded or met their expectations.

Spread over 23 video lessons, this course looks at how to develop tailored strategies for social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as tips on building a solid brand narrative. 

While we think the case studies on Pinterest and Tumblr aren’t particularly relevant today, this course is still worth a shot. You’ll learn some tactics that Gary used to grow major brands like General Electric and PepsiCo.

There’s also an optional project involving the creation of a channel-specific social media strategy for a brand of your choice, although this is more for practice since it isn’t graded.

Instructor(s): Tyler McCall
Topic: Social media marketing
Level: Beginner
Certification: No
Duration: 1h 31m
Available at: Skillshare

As a freelance Instagram marketing strategist, Tyler McCall knows the ins and outs of the platform.

In this 13-lesson course, he invites marketers and business owners to relook at the basics of building an engaged community.  While the course was developed in conjunction with Iconosquare, you don’t need to use the social media analytics tool to follow the lessons. 

Besides sharing how you can define your audience and set the right objectives, Tyler looks at how to craft attention-grabbing visuals, measure success through Iconosquare, and capitalize on comments and hashtags to build a community. 

There’s also a bonus lesson on leveraging Instagram Stories to convert followers to your website or newsletter, plus class worksheets for an optional hands-on assignment. 

Over 22,000 students have completed the course. And of those who rated it, 96% said it exceeded or met their expectations. Tyler walks the talk too: He’s got close to 50,000 followers on Instagram.

Instructor(s): Tim Soulo
Topic: Content marketing
Level: Beginner
Certification: No
Duration: 4h 50m
Available at: Ahrefs Academy 

How did we grow the Ahrefs Blog to hundreds of thousands of monthly visits? That’s what this course aims to teach viewers. It’s part of Ahrefs Academy, our online school that features four detailed courses to help you improve as a content marketer with the Ahrefs toolset. 

Led by Ahrefs CMO Tim Soulo, Blogging for Business is spread over 11 modules and 40 lessons. These include foundational videos, such as key customer acquisition channels and growth strategies to know, idea generation tips, as well as tips on optimizing and promoting your content for further growth. 

There are also bonus videos, including an in-depth chat with Noah Kagan, who is the brains behind the daily deals platform Appsumo. The best bit: No sign-up is required for this free course.

Instructor(s): Sam Oh
Topic: Search engine optimization (SEO)
Level: Beginner
Certification: No
Duration: 2 hrs
Available at: Ahrefs Academy 

This course will arm you with a foundational understanding of applying the SEO basics—including keyword research, on-page SEO, and link-building strategies to help you rank higher in search engines. 

Guided by how Ahrefs achieved compounding growth through SEO, the course is broken into four modules and spread over 14 lessons. It concludes with a look at the importance of technical SEO and best practices to know.

Creator: Harry Hurst
Mentors: Saikat Sengupta, Rita Bruni
Topic: Digital marketing
Level: Beginner
Certification: Yes
Duration: ~4 hrs
Available at: Futurelearn.com

Curious about the different digital marketing strategies you could use to grow your business or career? This introductory course could steer you in the right direction. The proof is in the pudding, with more than 200,000 students having completed the highly rated course. 

Over roughly two weeks, the 19-lesson video course covers the basics of:

• Digital marketing
• Display and PPC advertising
• SEO
• Email marketing

In the concluding lessons, you’ll then learn how to apply these techniques to your work. This elementary course includes tests to validate your learning, as well as a PDF certificate of achievement (accredited by the CDP Certification Service) upon completion.

Creator(s): Justin Champion, Guillaume Delloue, Abigael Donahue, AJ Beltis, Matthew Howells-Barby, Corey Braccialini, Lindsay Thibeault
Topic: Content marketing
Level: Beginner
Certification: Yes
Duration: 6.2 hrs
Available at: HubSpot Academy 

This one received multiple shouts in Tim’s Twitter thread. To get access to the free content marketing course, you’ll need to set up a HubSpot account.

It’s well worth your time, though. I did so in minutes by linking my Google account and answering a few simple questions.

The course opens with a foundation on content marketing fundamentals and storytelling tips, followed by 12 lessons on developing a content creation framework and measuring the efficacy of your content. 

Led by various industry professionals, most of whom are from HubSpot’s marketing team, the course includes multiple quizzes to test your knowledge of the topics covered.

At the end, you can opt to take the three-hour exam. It comprises 60 multiple choice questions—of which you’ll require a score of 45/60 to pass.

Instructor(s): Brian Peters
Topic: Social media advertising
Level: Beginner
Certification: No
Duration: 53 mins
Available at: Skillshare

Formerly a digital and social media manager at Buffer, Brian Peters introduces beginners to the potential of paid social advertising and how to create a social media ad campaign from scratch.

The 10-lesson course looks at key terms to know, the marketing funnel, goal- and budget-setting, and optimizing campaigns for long-term success.

Over 21,500 students have completed it thus far, with almost 50% of reviews indicating the course exceeded expectations—thanks to Brian’s engaging teaching and the helpful examples used. 

Instructor(s): N/A
Topic: Social media advertising
Level: Advanced
Certification: Yes (for Twitter Video Badge course only)
Duration: 5.2 hrs
Available at: Twitter Flight School 

Ever wondered how to leverage Twitter as an advertising platform? Let this course show you through 13 modules, further whittled into digestible articles that each concludes with a multiple-choice knowledge check pitstop.

Given this course is for experienced growth marketers, topics covered range from an introduction to Twitter Ads Manager to launching and measuring campaign success rates on both mobile apps and websites.

While we generally favor video lessons, having the information listed via short articles allows you to check on covered pointers more quickly. To get started, log in to your Twitter account, and you’ll be all set. 

If your bigger goal is to score a badge for display on your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, try the #TwitterFlightSchool Video Badge course instead. It covers video ads on the social media platform.

Instructor(s): N/A
Topic: Search engine marketing (SEM)
Level: Beginner to intermediate
Certification: Yes (Google Ads Certified) 
Duration: Dependent on your commitment
Available at: Skillshop 

Skillshop by Google is an online academy of sorts that offers courses for some of its major tools, including: 

• Google Ads
• Analytics Academy
• Google Ad Manager
• Google Marketing Platform
• Google My Business

While Google Ads brands itself as ideal for beginners, we reckon you’ll at least need some working knowledge of SEM to follow the lessons easily.

They’re formatted much like the courses on Twitter Flight School, except in greater depth. Start with a pre-self-assessment, then go ahead with checking off each topic, some of which include optional videos to deepen your knowledge. 

We like that the learning is self-paced. But fair warning: The sheer number of courses (and topics) could leave you feeling overwhelmed, so take your time perusing the lessons before committing to a topic.

Instructor(s): Rachel Sheldon
Topic: SEO
Level: Beginner to intermediate
Certification: Yes
Duration: 2h 21m
Available at: HubSpot

Led by Rachel Sheldon, an inbound professor at HubSpot Academy, this introductory course to SEO covers all the basics you’d expect. These include website optimization, on-page and technical SEO, and keyword research. There are worksheets and three-question quizzes too, followed by a three-hour exam to test your knowledge.

Like the other HubSpot Academy courses in this list, you’ll be certified should you score a minimum of 45/60.

Instructor(s): Lexie Carbone, Taylor Loren 
Topic: Social media marketing 
Level: Beginner
Certification: No 
Duration: ~60 mins 
Available at: Later.com

Taylor—who is…