Do you know the feeling when you want to start to learn more about online marketing, find an internship and gain the first experience, but you do not know how to get into digital marketing, what it is about and how to stand out from other candidates? At the moment digital marketing is a very wide field and includes such areas as for example e-mail marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, social media marketing and performance marketing. My personal story starts with the latter and I would like to recommend you some courses, share my story and tell about places where you can find the first job.

Learn more about digital marketing

In my opinion, it is almost impossible to get a job in digital marketing without any knowledge, experience or graduate studies. Fortunately, there is a lot of online courses or blogs where you can gain knowledge. So, everything you really need is to spend some time on learning. Where to start? Some time ago Google announced “Digital Garage” project. It is a really good place to start your journey with digital marketing. In Digital Garage you will find 26 topics with 106 lessons inside. Upon completion of the course, you can pass the test and be certified. Thanks to the Polish version of this course, Internetowe Rewolucje, I have found out about pixers – an international e-commerce based in Wroclaw – and started my digital marketing career right after high school.

If you complete Digital Garage course, you will have basic knowledge about digital marketing in general, but it may be not enough. Definitely, there is at least one more course with certification you can complete before looking for a job. I am talking about Google Analytics Academy and two courses: Google Analytics for Beginners and Advanced Google Analytics that ends with an exam, so you can obtain Google Analytics Individual Qualification Certification (valid for 1 year). Why is it worth? Almost every company uses Google Analytics. Gaining a basic understanding of web analytics will help you recognize what works better (for example which acquisition channel converts the best) and also base suggestions and recommendations on the data. This is another one certification that you can put in your Curriculum Vitae and stand out from other candidates. There is also another one aspect – you are showing future employers your willingness to learn new things and personal development.

Academy for Ads

Another one great source that can help you get into digital marketing and start your’s digital marketing career in Search Engine Marketing/Pay Per Click Departments. Academy for Ads is learning platform from Google. You can find here courses like Google Ads Fundamentals, Google Ads Display Certification, Google Ads Mobile Certification, Google Ads Search Certification, Google Ads Video Certification and a lot of more with a various scope – from advertising in Google Ads through growing channel on YouTube to course about best practices for creating, managing and optimizing (site’s performance always matter!) mobile websites.

I would recommend you to start with the basics – Google Ads Fundamentals that treats in general about Google Ads ecosystem. You will learn here how Google Ads work, how to write effective ads, about bidding strategies and aligning campaign’s budget. If you will gain first experiences with Search Engine Marketing and you will want to develop in this direction – you can complete more advanced courses with an exam like Google Ads Search Certification.

Note: Bing also has his own academy – if you are thinking about advertising in the United States, you should consider Bing Ads. Bing Search Network is responsible for 35% of searches in the United States and it grows [Source: Share of search queries handled by leading U.S. search engine providers].

Facebook Blueprint

Do you want to get into social media marketing or paid social media teams? Facebook Blueprint is a large knowledge base with video courses for everything related to digital marketing on Facebook – you will find here simple sections such as Getting started with Facebook (f.e courses about creating a facebook page, introducion to the Instagram) to Getting started with advertising about how to create, edit and manage Facebook Ads and also some useful information about targeting and audiences. There is a lot of more content here and at the beginning, you should think where you want to start and what you will need in your first job. Facebook offers us a lot of features and tools, so I would recommend you to personalize your learning path. Still, in my opinion, there are few topics you definitely should check (you have to Sign In to see content):

For advanced Facebook Marketers, there is also a possibility to obtain two certificates: Facebook Certified Planning Professional and Facebook Certified Buying Professional. Each exam costs $150. To receive a certificate, you also have to pass the Facebook Advertising Core Competencies exam.

Places where you can start

I have prepared short lists with sources where you can learn a lot of useful techniques.

A good source about Digital Marketing (that covers different areas)

Best sources about Facebook Ads

Best sources about Google Ads ((not Adwords since Google’s rebranding that happened 5 days ago (2018-06-30))

Best sources about Web Analytics

Best sources about SEO

Getting into digital marketing

There is a lot of things I did not mention in the article about how to get into digital marketing. I showed you where you can find practical knowledge about digital and performance marketing, and what you can do to get the first job. To summarise, if you do not know anything about digital marketing, you should spend some time learning general topics. A huge advantage is knowing Google Analytics. Then you can move to specific topics, such as Search Engine Marketing or Facebook Advertising. Please remember, that there is a lot of ways and topics you can be expert at. I tried to show you what is the closest for me, but there exist areas like content marketing, e-mail marketing or affiliate marketing that I have not sacrificed too much space.

In the next article, I would like to guide you through working on your resume and social media presence. Also, I would like to share with you some not well-known places where you can start looking for internships. Please feel free to leave a feedback.