Digital marketing is key for businesses that wish to increase brand awareness and draw attention to brands over long periods of time. When effectively done, digital marketing helps “funnel” potential buyers to a purchase. Training to be a digital marketer involves exploring the tools used to analyze customer data, interpreting trending topics with SEO and discovering the strategy behind driving sales.

Interested in a career in digital marketing? There are a variety of ways to enter into digital marketing as a career. For example, search engine optimization is a key part of digital marketing and may lead to a viable career path.

I chose the following digital marketing courses because of their positive reviews from the digital marketing community, their thoroughness and their approachability.

Best digital marketing courses: Comparison table

Course
Cost
Duration
Skill level
Certification, badge or something else upon completion?
Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate via Coursera
$59 per month, with a likely 6-month time to complete
6 months at 10 hours per week
Beginner
Certificate
HubSpot Academy’s Digital Marketing Course
Free
5 hours, 15 minutes
Beginner
Certificate
Moz Academy SEO Starter Pack
$149
About 4 hours, 20 minutes
Beginner
None
Semrush Academy’s Digital Advertising 101
Free
1 hour, 50 minutes
Beginner
Certificate
Coursera’s Digital Marketing Specialization
$59 per month, with a likely 4-month time to complete
4 months at 10 hours per week
Intermediate
Certificate

Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate: Best for e-commerce marketers

Google Digital Marketing & E-Commerce Professional Certificate at Coursera enrollment page.
Coursera hosts Google’s Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate. The starting date will always be the present date. Image: Coursera/Screenshot by TechRepublic

Google’s digital marketing introduction from Coursera is suitable for beginners, and you’ll emerge from the course with a professional certificate. This course is backed by Google and is completely online. It covers a wide variety of topics, from search engine marketing and converting likes to sales on social media to marketing campaigns and setting up an e-commerce store.

This certification includes multiple courses, which should, together, take about six months to complete at 10 hours per week.

Cost

A Coursera subscription costs $59 per month, so the cost will depend on how quickly you complete the course. A six-month learning journey would cost $354.

HubSpot Academy’s Digital Marketing Course: Best for small business owners

HubSpot Digital Marketing Course page.
You can sign up for HubSpot Academy easily with an email address. Image: HubSpot/Screenshot by TechRepublic

HubSpot sells marketing and sales software and also offers free courses for learning digital marketing. This course covers email, SEO, social media, content creation and scheduling, and website advertising. It is particularly suitable for small business owners who have a business plan but are unfamiliar with digital marketing practices. It is taught primarily through video, with a transcript available.

Cost

The HubSpot Academy Digital Marketing Course is free. As with most online course materials, it requires an email address to log in.

Moz Academy SEO Starter Pack: Best for SEO professionals

Moz Academy SEO Starter course page.
The Moz Academy offers a three-part SEO Starter Pack. Image: Moz/Screenshot by TechRepublic

When it comes to SEO, Moz Academy is a good place to start for step-by-step instructions on how to use the right tools for the trade. It provides how-tos for SERP listings and evaluating keywords; in addition, it gives contexts such as how and why pages show up in search results and the history of search algorithms. The third module, Local SEO Fundamentals, focuses on SEO strategies for local businesses.

Moz Academy generally has a good reputation among the digital marketing community in terms of a starting place for beginners. Note, there’s no guarantee the “recent trends in SEO” section will still be recent by the time you reach it since search engines are changing so rapidly.

Cost

The complete SEO Starter Pack costs $149.

Semrush Academy’s Digital Advertising 101: Best for strategic planners

Semrush Academy Digital Advertising 101 enrollment page.
Semrush highlights its course instructor on the sign-up page for Digital Advertising 101. Image: Semrush/Screenshot by TechRepublic

Business owners or marketers looking to approach their work from a strategic angle or wanting to focus on advertising may find value in this Semrush Academy course. Along with the basics of how digital advertising works, this course covers measuring how well your campaigns are doing and building solid strategies around your most successful projects. It teaches you an overview of competitor research and how to craft an overall digital advertising strategy.

Cost

Semrush Academy’s Digital Advertising 101 is free.

Coursera’s Digital Marketing Specialization: Best for beginners

Coursera Digital Marketing Specialization course page.
Coursera’s Digital Marketing Specialization is taught by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty. Image: Coursera/Screenshot by TechRepublic

The Digital Marketing Specialization available on Coursera is taught by faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This is a relatively in-depth course, covering the theory and practice of digital marketing, but it may repeat some of the same content on other courses listed here, so choose which one will be the best format for you.

Coursera is generally considered reliable, though some of the same information in this course can be found for free. On the other hand, this specialization is good for people who want a guided path through the practical uses of digital marketing tools. It ends with a hands-on project that involves executing a digital marketing campaign.

Cost

A subscription to Coursera costs $59 per month, with a 7-day free trial, so the cost will depend on how long it takes you to complete the course. A four-month learning journey would cost $236.

Are digital marketing courses worth it?

Whether an online digital marketing class is worth the time, effort and money for you depends on your learning style and career goals. Digital marketing courses often provide a “one size fits all” overview instead of focusing on a specific job title or audience. It may be wise to look for free tutorials on YouTube before signing up for a paid class.

Digital marketing changes very quickly — just look at Google’s AI Overviews. Be sure any course you choose is up-to-date or that you can supplement it with contemporary content. Whether you have a professional certification may not matter to employers as much as whether you can show proven results.

Is digital marketing high paying?

As of May 2024, the average salary for a digital marketer in the U.S. was $64,898, according to Indeed. The higher end of the salary range could reach up to $113,442.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found the annual mean wage of Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists in May 2023 to be $83,190.

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Stay up to date on the latest in technology with Daily Tech Insider. We bring you news on industry-leading companies, products, and people, as well as highlighted articles, downloads, and top resources. You’ll receive primers on hot tech topics that will help you stay ahead of the game. Delivered Weekdays