10 Marketing Certification Sources Every Marketer Should Explore

While updating my LinkedIn profile, I decided it was time to ensure all of my MarTech and AdTech certifications were up to date. In addition, I also wanted to explore additional available certifications for platforms I have used or considered using in the past. There is more high-quality marketing certification content available for free today than ever before. These are the 10 most essential sources I discovered for everyone interested in creating a better MarTech and AdTech experience for their organization or that simply wants to explore a new skill.

Most of these certifications listed below are introductory or intermediate level, but they should be evaluated by marketers in every career stage:

1. For new marketers with little experience, an introductory certification demonstrates a willingness to learn to employers.
2. For experienced marketers, these certifications offer an opportunity to learn what is new in the platforms they use every day. These platforms are not static and it is all too easy to just stick to what you know rather than explore valuable platform advances. Not to mention that there are requirements for an organization to maintain a certain number of certifications for some partner programs!
3. For the marketing manager, it is important to stay current with the certifications you expect your team members to earn. This ensures you share common terminology with your teams, stay current on a platform you do not use every day and can properly assess which certifications are right for each of your team members.

There are many more available certifications available that either require an active platform license or require a fee for certification -- including most CDP, CRM and Marketing Automation platforms. I focused here only on the 10 available sources of free marketing certifications every marketer should explore:

1. Google Skillshop is an essential source for Google certifications. This includes for the Google Ads platforms as well as the Google Marketing platforms and Google Analytics. The GA 4 certification course is especially compelling because it includes access to demo accounts that let you experiment with building various report types!
2. LinkedIn Marketing Labs is a great place for both B2B and B2C marketers to learn how to use the platform to reach their markets. There are three certifications available: Fundamentals, Marketing Strategy and Content/Creative Design. If you earn all three certifications, LinkedIn provides you with a Certified Marketing Insider badge and offers the opportunity to apply to becomes a LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert.
3. Meta Blueprint is an essential source if your organization uses Facebook ads to connect to your customers and prospects. There are seven different certifications available that represent different job functions and levels of expertise.
4. HubSpot Academy is a welcomed addition to this list. iUnlike most of the other sources in this list that focus on platforms, it includes certifications on the various techniques a marketer needs in their toolkit to use the HotSpot platform most effectively. There are 25 available certifications, including SEO, content marketing, email marketing, sales enablement and more!
5. ZoomInfo University focuses on seven ZoomInfo platform certifications. I suggest you check out the MarketingOS, SalesOS and Engage certifications.
6. Semrush Academy offers a number of certifications focused around the SEO and SEM skills that are essential of a marketer.
7. Drift is an outstanding chatbot and they offer two certifications: Playbook Basics and Conversational Marketing. as chatbots become an essential part of a marketers toolkit, these are important topics to learn more about.
8. Twitter Flight School offers seven ad platform certification courses.
9. Amazon Ads offers 13 certifications for marketers of every level to validate their proficiency for the Amazon Ad products and solutions.
10. Microsoft Advertising Learning Lab offers three certifications, one for each of their three ad platforms: Native & Display, Search and Shopping.

I hope you find these resources useful. If you have another certification source you would like to share, please add it to the comments.