Google is offering several free and paid certification courses through its own learning platforms and third-party providers. Their goal is to help people build job-ready skills to start a career in the tech industry.

In this post, you’ll learn which are the best Google certifications worth pursuing. We’ve examined all Google certifications and we will help you decide which ones can open up new career opportunities.

Things to Know About Google Certifications

They are 100% online certificates meaning that you can complete the courses online without having to attend a classroom in person.

Google courses are designed and built by experts working at Google. Some of the certifications are delivered by Google online training platforms (Google Skillshop, Google Digital Garage, Grow with Google) and others by external e-learning providers.

Google offers both free and paid certifications (see Google Certifications List).

Google certifications are grouped into three main categories.

Google Career Certifications – These are professional certifications related to IT support, Data Analytics, Project Management, UX Design, and Android Development. Google career certifications are paid and delivered by Coursera.

Google Digital Marketing Certifications – These are free certifications delivered by Google Digital Garage. These courses cover a range of topics including online marketing, social media marketing, cloud training, machine learning courses, and more.

Google Product Certifications – These are free training courses (with certifications) related to Google products. The most popular are Google Ads certifications and Google Analytics. Courses and certifications are delivered by Google Skillshop.

10 Top Google Certifications

These are the top free and paid Google certification courses worth pursuing.

Google Digital Marketing Certification (Free)
Google Ads Search Certification (Free)
Google Shopping Ads Certification (Free)
Google Analytics Individual Certification (Free)
Google Ads Display Certification (Free)
Google IT Support Professional Certificate (Paid)
Google Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)
Google Project Management Certificate (Paid)
Google UX Design Certificate (Paid)
Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate (Paid)

1. Google Digital Marketing Certification (Free)
Google Digital Marketing Certification

One of the most popular Google courses is the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing. This is considered by many experts as one of the best digital marketing courses.

It’s a free course that includes 26 modules created by Google trainers. Upon completion of the lessons, you can take an exam and earn a digital marketing certificate.

The certificate is accredited by the Open University and IABE Europe and it’s the official Google Digital Marketing Certification.

Why take this certification?

You should consider studying for this certification if you want to pursue a career in digital marketing.

By taking this course, you’ll build the necessary skills to work with various digital marketing channels including:

Content Marketing
eCommerce Marketing
Email Marketing
Display Advertising
Mobile Marketing
Online Marketing Strategy

It’s a certification course aimed at beginners and the total time investment is 40 hours. To get certified, you need to complete all 26 modules and pass a final exam (40 questions, multiple-choice).

Jobs you can do with the Google digital marketing certification:

Digital Marketing Specialist
Digital Marketing Manager

The average salary for Digital marketing professionals in the US is between $52K – $100K per year (depending on experience and job position).

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2. Google Ads Search Certification (Free)
Google Ads Search Certification

Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) is the most popular PPC platform and one of the major sources of income for Google.

To educate marketers on how to take advantage of all Google Ads features they created several Google Ads certification courses delivered by Google Skillshop for free.

One of the Google Ads courses worth pursuing is the Google Ads Search Certification.

Why take this certification?

Acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to run search ads campaigns on Google
It’s a requirement if you want to become an official Google Ads Partner
It’s one of the most recognized certifications in the marketing industry

To become Google ads certified, you need to pass a 50-question multiple-choice exam with a score of 80% and above. Exams are taken via Google Skillshop and they are free.

To prepare for the exams, you can use the study guide and resources provided by Skillshop or register for a third-party Google Ads course.

Jos you can do with the Google Ads Search Certification:

Google Ads Specialist
PPC Specialist
PPC Manager
SEM Specialist

The average salary of a Google Ads specialist is $71k per year.

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3. Google Shopping Ads Certification (Free)
Google Shopping Ads Certification

If you want to start a career in eCommerce or acquire the skills needed to promote your own products on Google, you should definitely consider the Shopping Ads Certification.

Why take this certification?

The shopping ads certification will teach you how to design, set up and optimize Google Shopping campaigns.

You’ll learn how to add your product catalog to the Google merchant center to get your products to appear in Google search and use them in different types of campaigns including shopping and retargeting campaigns.

Jobs you can do with the Google Shopping Ads Certification:

PPC Specialist
eCommerce Specialist
PPC Expert

The average salary of an eCommerce specialist is $58K per year.

Explore this Google Certification

4. Google Analytics Individual Certification (Free)
Google Analytics Certification

One of the hands-on skills all digital marketing professionals should have is how to use Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is the most popular website analytics platform and getting the Google Analytics Certification shows your competency in using the tool.

Why take this certification?

By enrolling in this free Google certification you’ll learn both basic and advanced Google Analytics concepts. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to use different reports to analyze and interpret how users find and interact with a website.

The total time investment needed for this course is 2 hours. To get certified, you need to pass the Google Analytics exams (70 multiple-choice questions) with a score of 80% or higher.

Jobs you can do with the Google Analytics Certification:

Google Analytics Professional
Google Analytics Specialist
Junior Data Analyst

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5. Google Ads Display Certification (Free)
Google Ads Display Certification

Another Google certification worth considering is the Google Ads Display Certification. It’s a free certification offered by Google Skillshop.

Why take this certification?

Google display ads are great for brand awareness and retargeting and this course will teach you how to maximize the ROI from your paid campaigns.

The total time investment is about 2 hours. To get certified you need to pass the Google Ads Display assessment with a score of 80% and above.

Jobs you can do with the Google Ads Display Certification:

Google Ads Specialist
Google Display Specialist
PPC Manager
SEM Specialist

Explore this Google Certification

6. Google IT Support Professional Certificate (Paid)
Google IT Support Professional Certificate

If you want to get a job in the IT support industry, pursuing the Google IT Support Professional Certificate is your best bet.

According to Google, there are more than 340K job openings in the field of IT and this online certificate will help you build the necessary skills to work as an IT support professional.

Why take this certification?

The Google IT Support certificate is the most popular Google career certificate on Coursera
It opens up new career opportunities
It’s perfect for beginners with no prior experience in IT support
It’s one of the professions you can do from home
The need for IT support specialist is high in demand and constantly increasing
It’s the first step for obtaining a more specialized certification and earn a higher salary
You can get college credits and exceptions from other courses.

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $39 per month and the estimated duration is 6 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

To get certified, you need to complete 5 courses:

Technical Support Fundamentals
The Bits and Bytes of Computer Networking
Operating Systems and You: Becoming a Power User
System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services
IT Security: Defense against the digital dark arts

Jobs you can do with a Google IT support certificate:

Once you become Google IT support certified, you can apply for a number of jobs including help desk technician, systems analyst, support specialist, database administrator, IT technician, and computer user specialist.

The average annual salary for entry-level IT support professionals is around $50K.

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7. Google Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)
Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

Data analytics is one of the hottest topics in the marketing industry. With the growth of data, coming from various resources, you need professionals to gather, interpret and analyze the data to make informed business decisions.

This professional career certificate from Google will help you build the necessary skills to get an entry-level marketing job as a Data Analyst.

Why take this certification?

According to Google, there are more than 300K job openings in the US looking for data analysts
Build job-ready skills
Understand how to use data to solve problems
It’s an online course (no need to attend a class in person)

To get certified, you need to complete 8 courses:

Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere
Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions
Prepare Data for Exploration
Process Data from Dirty to Clean
Analyze Data to Answer Questions
Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
Data Analysis with R Programming
Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete a Case Study

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $39 per month and the estimated duration is 6 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

Jobs you can do with a Google Data Analytics certificate:

Data Analyst
Junior Database Administrator
Junior data scientist
Finance analyst
Operations analyst
Business performance analyst
Marketing analyst

The average annual salary for Data Analytics certified professionals is $68K per year.

Explore this Google Certification

8. Google Project Management Certificate (Paid)
Google Project Management Professional Certificate

Having project management skills is a requirement if you want to pursue a management position in a company, become a digital marketing consultant, or start your own business.

Any task that you perform online, whether this is a development project, executing an SEO campaign, running a digital marketing project, or social media marketing strategy is like a small project.

Knowing how to plan, organize and monitor the project on time and within budget is key for running profitable projects.

Why take this certification?

Become a certified Google Project management and get one of the 475K available jobs.
Learn how to run successful IT and digital marketing projects
Learn how to use project management tools
Get credits (100 hours) towards becoming a PMI certified project management

To become certified, you need to complete 6 courses:

Foundations of Project Management
Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project
Project Planning: Putting It All Together
Project Execution: Running the Project
Agile Project Management
Applying Project Management in the Real World

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $39 per month and the estimated duration is 6 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

Jobs you can do with a Google Project Management certificate:

Project manager
Junior Project manager
Project coordinator
Project assistant
Program manager
Scrum master
Project administrator
Technical project manager

The average annual salary for entry-level project management professionals is $59K per year.

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9. Google UX Design Certificate (Paid)
Google UX-Design Professional Certificate

User experience is a key factor for the success of any physical or digital product including websites and mobile apps. The Google UX Design certificate will help you build the skills needed to design interfaces that offer a great experience to users.

To become a certified UX designer, you need to complete 7 courses.

Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design
Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate
Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes
Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts
Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma
Responsive Web Design in Adobe XD
Design a User Experience for Social Good & Prepare for Jobs

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $39 per month and the estimated duration is 6 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

Why take this certification?

No prior experience is needed to follow this course but it’s not for everyone. If you feel that you don’t have the creativity and vision to design interfaces for the web or mobile, then you better choose a different career path.

This is a great course for people who like and have the talent to work with design tools and concepts.

Jobs you can do with a Google UX Design certificate:

UX designer
UI designer
Web designer
Product designer

The average annual salary for UX designers is $59K.

Explore this Google Certification

10. Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate (Paid)
Google IT Automation With Python Professional Certificate

Python is the most in-demand programming language for the web. Python courses are popular in all online learning platforms and the need for Python programmers is constantly increasing.

By taking this Google career course, you’ll learn how to use Python to create programs/scripts for automating common administrative tasks.

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $39 per month and the estimated duration is 4 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

Why take this certification?

This is a specialized professional certification and although no prior coding experience is required, it’s for people who want to learn to program. If you find programming too confusing, it’s better to choose a different career path.

If on the other hand, you want to start exploring the exciting world of computer programming and become a Python expert, this course is a great starting point.

There are more than 530K job postings related to Python (in the US alone) and you’ll have no difficulty in finding a job.

Jobs you can do with a Google Python Professional certificate:

Python programmer
Web developer
IT Support specialist
IT Automation specialist
Junior System administrator

The average annual salary for good Python programmers is around $115K per year in the United States.

Explore this Google Certification

Google Certifications List

The table below shows the cost of the most popular Google certifications.

Certification
Cost
Provider

Google Digital Marketing Certification
Free
Google Digital Garage

Google Ads Search Certification
Free
Google Skillshop

Google Shopping Ads Certification
Free
Google Skillshop

Google Analytics Individual Certification
Free
Google Skillshop

Google Ads Display Certification
Free
Google Skillshop

Google IT Support Professional Certificate
Paid ($39/mo)
Coursera

Google Data Analytics Certificate
Paid ($39/mo)
Coursera

Google Project Management Certificate
Paid ($39/mo)
Coursera

Google UX Design Certificate
Paid ($39/mo)
Coursera

Google IT Automation with Python Certificate
Paid ($39/mo)
Coursera

Are Google Certifications Worth It?

Google certifications are certainly worth it. All professional and career Google certifications are prepared by Google experts and are carefully designed to help students build job-ready skills.

The certifications are accredited by Universities, professional institutions, and employers and they can help you secure a job in the IT or digital marketing industry.

Most of the certifications are free and the paid certifications are reasonably priced.

Google Certification Alternatives

There are a number of alternatives to Google certifications that can help you learn new skills and secure an entry-level job in various industries. The most popular are the Facebook Bluprint Certifications and Microsoft Professional Certifications.

What is your learning experience with Google courses? Do they worth it? Let me know in the comments below.

The post 10 Best Google Certification Courses (Free & Paid) appeared first on reliablesoft.net.

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