Free digital marketing certification courses by channel
The 19 in the table are all issued by Google Skillshop or HubSpot Academy, and the quickest way to choose is by the channel you work in. Each Skillshop certification is awarded by passing an assessment, with the study modules optional; each HubSpot certification is awarded by passing an exam at the end of a video course with quizzes.
Search, display, video and app advertising
Google certifies its own ad products. Google Ads Search (3 hours 40 minutes, intermediate) covers the auction, responsive search ads and AI-powered bid strategies; Google Ads Display and Google Ads Video (4 hours 1 minute) cover the Display Network and YouTube; Google Ads Apps covers App campaigns; Google Ads Creative is about the ads themselves rather than campaign settings; and AI-Powered Performance Ads covers cross-channel automated campaign types. HubSpot's Digital Advertising (3 hours 48 minutes) is the platform-neutral alternative, working through social advertising, paid search, Google Ads strategies and programmatic advertising.
Analytics and measurement
The Google Analytics Certification is rated intermediate and validates going beyond basic setup: the event-based data model, the Reports, Explore and Advertising workspaces, key events, conversions and audiences, and connecting Analytics with Google Ads; the page shows no total duration. Google Ads Measurement (2 hours 40 minutes) covers conversion tracking, attribution, incrementality and marketing mix modelling, and requires a short pre-survey before its optional modules unlock. HubSpot's Inbound Marketing Optimization (4 hours 34 minutes) approaches measurement from the website side: marketing analytics, conversion rate optimisation and user experience.
Content, SEO, social media and email
These channels are HubSpot's territory. Content Marketing (8 hours 23 minutes) is the longest HubSpot course here, with topic clusters, pillar pages, video and guest blogging; AEO Fundamentals (2 hours 20 minutes) replaced the SEO certification and covers visibility in AI answer engines as well as search results; Social Media Marketing (5 hours 18 minutes) runs from strategy and listening to social advertising and return on investment; Email Marketing (3 hours 59 minutes) covers segmentation, deliverability, design, copy and testing and is described as useful with any email platform; and Inbound Marketing ties content to the buyer's journey.
Retail and store campaigns
AI-Powered Shopping ads (1 hour 15 minutes) is the shortest Google Ads certification and covers Merchant Center, product feeds and Performance Max for Retail. Grow Offline Sales (2 hours 38 minutes) covers Performance Max for store goals and measuring in-store impact; the record notes it is not relevant to online-only businesses.
Is the Google digital marketing certification free? The Fundamentals course
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing is the successor to Google's Digital Garage course and the broadest record on this page: 17 modules over 40 hours, labelled beginner and self-paced, from building a strategy and knowing your digital customers through content, business data, social media, search, websites and apps, online shopping, international and local customers, channel budgets, email, video and Google's marketing tools. Unlike the Google Ads certifications it has no assessment: on completion you earn an award that appears on your public Skillshop profile and can be added to LinkedIn or shared by URL, and Google's help centre notes that an award is not a formal credential in the way a certification is.
The HubSpot free digital marketing certification
HubSpot's Digital Marketing course is the inbound-first counterpart: ten lessons in 3 hours 24 minutes covering consumer behaviour and psychology, ethical strategy, ads and social media, content marketing and SEO, the website, email and AI, delivered in 30 videos with eight quizzes before the certification exam. It is offered in German, Spanish, French and Japanese as well as English, and HubSpot's knowledge base lists the certification as valid for two years.
How the certificate is earned, shared and renewed
Google states that Skillshop is available at no cost and that its foundational Google Ads certifications continue to be free of charge, and the Google Analytics course page shows no price; once certified you get a unique link per certification, and Skillshop certifications are valid for one year from the date issued unless the certificate says otherwise. Access to the study material is unlimited, so you can prepare and retake at your own pace. HubSpot's account is free, each course page is labelled a free certification course, and passing the exam issues a certificate and badge you can view, download and share. HubSpot's knowledge base lists most of the certifications here as valid for two years; Inbound Marketing Optimization lasts one year, and no period is published yet for AEO Fundamentals. HubSpot renews by retaking the course and exam before the badge lapses.
Do these replace paid digital marketing credentials?
No, and the vendors say so in different ways. Google describes these as foundational certifications and says its newer professional certifications are proctored and will require a fee, so those are not listed; Google Career Certificates on Coursera are a paid subscription and are not listed either. HubSpot's software certifications for Marketing Hub, Sales Hub and Service Hub need a Professional or Enterprise subscription for their practical exercises, so they are left out. University digital marketing courses on edX are free to audit but charge for the certificate and appear on the digital marketing subject page.
Related certification pages
The marketing certifications page adds HubSpot's Inbound and Inbound Sales methodology courses to this list. The Google and HubSpot pages show each vendor's free credentials together.