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11 Best (and Mostly Free!) Digital Marketing Courses

Laura Kloot

Laura Kloot

By 2026, the global market for digital advertising and marketing is expected to reach $786 billion. Sure, there will be ups and downs, but the trajectory is clear. As the world moves even more online, the need to reach customers and engage with them digitally continues to grow.

And that means more demand for digital marketers with fresh, up-to-date skills.

If you’re looking to jumpstart a digital marketing career, or if you already work in the field but want to expand your knowledge about different platforms or skills, then check out our list of the best free digital marketing courses. Some are completely free, and others provide a free trial with the option to continue at a fee, but all of them will make you a better digital marketer.

Here’s the list, dive in:

Free Digital Marketing Courses

  1. Outbrain – Native ads
  2. Google – Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
  3. HubSpot – Digital Marketing Certification
  4. Canva – Design
  5. Great Learning – Video editing
  6. Wix – Blogging
  7. Yoast – SEO copywriting
  8. Semrush – SEO & content marketing
  9. LinkedIn – Social media marketing
  10. Omnisend – Email marketing
  11. Amazon – Amazon ads

Native advertising – Outbrain Academy

A leader in the native advertising industry, Outbrain is also the only one to offer a native advertising certification. The Outbrain Academy focuses on native advertising as an essential and valuable part of the digital marketing toolbox. There are two free courses available: The Power of Native Advertising is a beginner’s course, providing an introduction to native advertising concepts, practices, and tools. For media buyers, planners, or marketers who want to learn how to use native advertising to drive business growth, Unlocking Performance With Native explores targeting beyond cookies, recommendations for high-performance campaigns, and more. Enroll now to get your Native Advertising Expert certification.

Fundamentals of Digital Marketing – Google 

For those just starting out or wanting to launch a career in digital marketing, look no further than Google’s essential beginner’s course. It covers everything you need to gain a solid understanding of digital marketing fundamentals, including building a web presence, search marketing, local marketing, mobile, content, and email marketing, video, analytics, e-commerce, and more. The course is 40 hours’ duration, and graduates of the course get an IAB-accredited and industry-recognized certification. Not bad for a free course!

Digital Marketing Certification – HubSpot

If you’re looking for a course that will broaden your skills beyond traditional marketing or content marketing, who better to learn from than the inbound specialists at HubSpot. This course covers a lot of ground in just over five hours, including content creation, SEO, website performance, blogging, as well as intros to email marketing, social media, and paid search. The interactive course content includes videos and quizzes, and you’ll finish with a sought-after HubSpot certification in a competitive industry.

Design – Canva

Learn the visual side of digital marketing from the experts. Canva, the popular graphic design platform, offers free courses on a range of topics, from how to use the Canva platform, to how to create a logo. The best thing? Not only are the courses free, you don’t even need to register. Just choose a course in the Canva Design School, and start developing your design skills. Soon you’ll be creating social media images, GIFs, posters, multimedia presentations, and all the creative assets to boost your digital marketing efforts.

Video editing – Great Learning

Currently, 86% of businesses are using video as part of their marketing and promotional strategy. Learning the basics of video editing, and developing skills to create effective videos is one of the most important things that digital marketers should do. This short introductory course from the Great Learning Academy covers the fundamentals of Adobe Premiere Pro, and takes you through the process of creating a video with the software. The course includes a quiz to test your knowledge and a certification for your resume. Plus, it’s free, and a great starting point for adding video editing to your skill set.

Blogging – Wix

DIY web development platform Wix offers a range of educational courses to help website owners improve and grow their sites. Topics range from web design and coding to e-commerce and SEO. But we particularly like this lightning-quick course about how to build a blog. If you’re just starting out with blogging, this course gives you a smooth introduction on how to research, write, and design blog pages that look great and work well, and even a basic intro to SEO. This is just part one; feel free to continue learning with the Blogging Part 2 course.

SEO copywriting – Yoast SEO Academy

The most popular SEO plug-in on WordPress, Yoast is also pretty solid when it comes to SEO training. This short certification course covers the A to Z of copywriting for SEO, divided into six biteable modules. There are loads of quizzes to test your knowledge as you go, plus tip sheets to work with as you practice SEO-rich writing techniques. One of the best aspects of this course is the step-by-step template for writing an SEO-optimized blog post, so you come out of the course with a finished product. 

  • More info & registration
  • Duration: 2 hours of video content/approx 8 hours total including coursework
  • Fee: 5 free trial lessons/ $99 annual fee for all Yoast courses

SEO & Content Marketing – Semrush Academy

Want to learn about SEO and content with Andy Crestodina? Here’s your chance. The Content and SEO Agency Playbook Course at Semrush Academy is a great choice for agency marketers – or any digital marketer – who want to expand their content marketing skills, attract clients organically, and grow their business. The B2B-focused course covers some of the hottest topics for agency marketers, including lead generation and account-based content marketing. And of course, you’ll get the added value of an industry-recognized Semrush certification at the end. 

Social media marketing – LinkedIn Learning

According to LinkedIn, 97% of B2B marketers use the platform for their content marketing and brand awareness activities. So they know what they’re talking about when it comes to social media marketing. The Develop Your Social Media Marketing Skills course on LinkedIn Learning provides a solid foundation in the fundamentals of social media, as well as focused modules on social media for small businesses, how to manage online communities, building social media strategies, and marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. At over 12 hours long, you’ll have the best comprehensive start on the path to successful marketing on social. 

  • More info & registration
  • Duration: 12 hours 48 minutes
  • Fee: Subscription to LinkedIn Learning (1-month free trial available)

Email marketing – Omnisend

Email marketing is one of the ‘oldest’ forms of digital marketing, but still remains one of the most successful in terms of ROI. For every $1 spent on email marketing, there is an average return of $40. That’s pretty awesome. And it’s also a great reason to gain some skills in email marketing. The Omnisend Academy is a free-access video library that will teach you how to build and expand your email list and monetize it to grow your business. Topics covered include email marketing fundamentals, tutorials led by email experts, and email marketing for e-commerce, as well as email optimization and automation with Omnisend. There’s a lot going on in the academy and it’s all free – definitely worth trying out.

Amazon ads – Amazon Learning Console

If you’’re new to Amazon advertising, the Sponsored Ads Bootcamp offered on the Amazon Learning Console is a great place to start. The introductory course is divided into three modules focusing on campaign setup, analyzing campaign data, and campaign optimization. Participants are encouraged to launch a campaign on Amazon during the course, so they can sharpen their skills, practice using the available tools, and explore how to optimize in a hands-on way. There are many more courses available on the Learning Console, from beginner to advanced, but if you’re keen to get moving with paid advertising on Amazon, this is the bootcamp for you.

Start learning today

Whether you’re new to digital marketing, or an experienced marketer looking to expand your skillset and employability in a competitive job market, try one of the digital marketing courses above. If you’re specifically looking to advance your skills in PPC marketing, we’ve got more suggestions for you on this list of Best PPC Marketing Courses.

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