If you’re trying to level up your digital marketing game, there is no better advertising platform to master than Facebook.
With over 2.5 billion active monthly users, Facebook is primed for advertising and ripe with opportunities to promote businesses to custom audiences. But running advertising campaigns on Facebook is not intuitive, and it takes some developed skills to do it well.
Learning to operate within Facebook’s Business Manager, as well as some essential marketing knowledge will set you up for digital marketing success.
There are tons of courses out there, free and paid, that boasts the ability to turn you into a digital marketer, but how do they hold up on delivering that promise?
We’ve taken a look at some of the top trainings on Facebook advertising, and have all the details in this post. The options we looked at were the top-ranking courses offered on a variety of platforms and searches, and are not necessarily endorsements by Laptop Empires.
Top Free and Paid Facebook Advertising Trainings
We are no stranger to the world of digital marketing here at Laptop Empires, so we feel pretty comfortable in assessing courses and trainings on Facebook advertising. When we’re looking at these trainings, a few things, in particular, go under the microscope:
- Depth and intensity of content
- Access to content
- Support and accessibility to course creators for assistance
- Long-term value
Let’s take a look at a couple of trainings and courses!
Facebook Blueprint
Facebook is highly aware of how valuable their platform is for digital marketing. They created an entire site dedicated solely to trainings and continuing education for the digital marketer interested in utilizing their platform for advertising.
Facebook Blueprint has both free and paid content available. Developed in 2015, Blueprint is designed to provide free, unlimited access to tons of courses covering a variety of topics related to advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Blueprint currently offers over 100 trainings.
The only issue with Facebook Blueprint (aside from the potential for information overload) is that it’s geared more towards the knowledgeable digital marketer. Blueprint might be a better fit for someone who already has a strong set of digital marketing skills, and wants to learn how to apply them to Facebook. It’s less helpful for someone who is just starting out in digital marketing.
The paid content (or Blueprint certification trainings and tests) can also run you over $1,050 in expenses, assuming you pass the tests the first time through.
It’s not a bad option for the well-versed digital marketer.
For more information about Facebook Blueprint, read more in Facebook Marketing Training: How the Top Resources Compare.
Facebook Ads and Facebook Marketing MASTERY (2020)
If you Google Facebook advertising training, “Facebook Ads and Facebook Marketing MASTERY” will be one of your top hits. Available on Udemy and created by Coursenvy, this course has some pretty favorable ratings from past students.
The course creator has some hefty brags about the content of this course. They suggest that after taking this course you will be a master of many things, including advertising funnels and Facebook Ads Manager, as well as getting your cost-per-click down to $0.01.
It also suggests that you’ll learn more expert skills like utilizing Facebook pixels and the “advanced features” in Business Manager.
Interestingly, perhaps the most luring offer is the promise made by the course creator to personally answer every question you might have about the course content. With over 130,000 students have taken this course, we imagine that would be a full-time job!
The course is decently affordable at only $99. The old sayings “You get what you pay for,” and “If it seems too good to be true, it is,” come to mind.
Since the course description is a little short on details as to how you will master everything for such a low cost, we find ourselves a little skeptical But it does have high ratings from a large group of people, and the cost is super low, so we can understand the draw.
Social Media Marketing: Top Tips for Growing Your Following and Going Viral by Cat Coquillette
If you have any experience with e-learning, you’ve probably heard of the website Skillshare. It’s a platform that hosts video-based courses on a wide variety of topics, including social media marketing.
The top “staff pick” course when you search for social media marketing is a course called “Social Media Marketing: Top Tips for Growing Your Following and Going Viral”.
Created by a self-described digital nomad named Cat Coquillette, this course primarily focuses on the tips and tricks she used for growing her own art side hustle into a full-time gig.
The course is heavy on brand building and seemingly light on specifics about actual social media marketing behind the scenes skills. It covers a variety of platforms in a “mile-wide, inch-deep” kind of way. This is not surprising, considering the creator lists this as a beginner course, and it’s also completely free.
If you are a creative looking to get a surface-level understanding of how to market your brand, this isn’t a horrible place to start, but it definitely won’t propel you into marketing agency territory.
When Mike Yanda and Bobby Hoyt set out to create a content-rich course on Facebook advertising, they had seen so many courses that promised to turn you into a virtual copy of Gary Vee that they lost count.
Many courses made amazing promises upfront without offering much in the way of specifics as to how they would get their students there.
Several of the more reputable courses were incredibly expensive – well over $1,000.
And almost none of them offered training on how to take your knowledge and turn it into money (aka getting clients).
That is why they created an entire module (the biggest one in the course) on how to find clients. They knew that would be the biggest hangup for people looking to invest in learning how to run ads on Facebook.
The Facebook Side Hustle Course is the most comprehensive, from-the-ground-up course on Facebook advertising out there.
Not only does this course have all the basics on how to set up ads in Business Manager, but you’ll also learn what good ads look like – including lessons on copywriting and ad image selection. The course is also hyper-focused on all the different methods you could use to find clients willing to pay the recommended $1,000 retainer fee.
Perhaps the best part of this go-at-your-own-pace, lifetime-access course is the support group hosted on Facebook. The course purchase ($497) comes with a free month-long subscription to a group full of real-world digital marketing experts, including the course creators. They answer any and all questions students have about course content, as well as problematic ads.
Support is vital to success at any new skill, and this course has it in spades. They also offer a library of additional trainings inside the support group on topics like setting up your taxes for your side hustle business, email marketing, using networking events to find clients, and more. Weekly live trainings, open-ended coaching calls, and guest speakers round out the incredible amount of continuing education and support included in this advertising course.
Social proof is a valuable thing. The private support group is legitimately so beneficial that there are students who have maintained their membership since 2018 when Mike and Bobby started the course. When asked for tips, they tell new students that the group is what made the difference in their journey and to be as involved in the group as possible. Many of them have made it to the 5K Club, meaning they are generating at minimum $5,000 a month running Facebook ads for businesses.
If your goal is to learn how to be a digital marketer who can apply their skills to a wide variety of marketing aspects, consider the Facebook Side Hustle Course.
The final word on Facebook advertising courses
There’s no shortage of options available if you’re searching for trainings and e=learning courses on Facebook advertising. Not all are created equal, and not all are worth your time. The varying levels of information and support should be the first thing you take into account when you are weighing out the value of a course, free or paid.
With all the “gurus” on the internet promising to turn you into a six-figure success overnight, it can be hard to weed through the trash to find the good stuff.
Our advice would be to narrow down your goal. Do you want to learn a skill limited to a single platform? Are you merely looking to grow your brand and get more followers? Do you want to create a business that can replace your day job income? Are you looking to learn how to advertise your business to people in your community?
Find a course that best suits your needs! The options are endless.
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