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Tips & tricks to help you get the most out of your online advertising.
The 8 Best (Free!) Facebook Ads Courses of 2021 for Every Learning Level
The best way to learn is by doing. The thing is, if you’re looking to learn Facebook ads, “doing” involves spending money and competing against thousands of other businesses. So if you’re not careful, trial and error can quickly turn into trial and [drain your budget and morale] error.
Fortunately, there’s a slew of Facebook ads training and courses out there to get off on the right foot. So in this post, I’m going to share with you the eight best Facebook advertising courses currently available—all of which are free!
- Simiplilearn’s Social Media Certification Program
- Facebook Blueprint’s Facebook Ads Modules
- Andrew Zeng’s Facebook Ads Tutorial
- Alison’s Facebook Advertising for Beginners
- WordStream’s PPC University Facebook Ads Course
- HubSpot Academy’s Dollar-a-Day Strategy Course
- Kai Bax’s Ecommerce Facebook Advertising Course
- Coursenvy’s Facebook Master Course
For each course, I’ll provide the course type, length, level, and who it’s best suited for.
Jump to…
Instructive courses
Basics and campaign setup.
Informative courses
Intermediate topics and best practices.
Strategic courses
Tips, advice, and advanced topics from influencers and experts.
Instructive Facebook ads training courses
These Facebook training courses are geared for beginners looking to understand Facebook advertising on a general and conceptual level. They are good for people looking to get familiar with Ads Manager and set up their first campaign
1. Simiplilearn’s Social Media Certification Program
- Type: eLearning video with animation, talking heads, screen sharing
- Good for: beginners looking to run their first Facebook ad campaign
- Length: 1.5 hours
Simplilearn’s free Facebook ads course was created by Paul Lewis, a Social Media and Digital Selling expert and lecturer for universities and corporate training organizations. It’s on an eLearning platform, so you can clearly see and move back and forth between lessons. It is comprehensive for social media marketing (totaling 49 hours), but lessons 7-10 are for Facebook advertising specifically.
When you go to the link below, click “Start Learning,” and create your free account (no credit card required). You’ll then have unlimited access for 90 days. In these lessons, you’ll learn:
- How Facebook advertising works
- Facts, stats, and terms to know
- Walkthrough of Ads Manager
- How to set up your first campaign
- Campaign review, tracking, and reporting
2. Facebook Blueprint’s Facebook training modules
- Type: written content with visuals
- Good for: beginners who want to understand Facebook Ads Manager and Commerce Manager
- Length: 1-2 hours
Blueprint’s free Facebook ads training comes to you from Facebook, the world’s largest social media channel and now….Meta. The advantage with this content is that it’s always up-to-date. Plus, the courses are modular so Facebook mixes and matches them to create training tracks based on different learning goals.
When you go to the link, look for “Select a topic to get started” and choose “Start your advertising journey.” Between the start advertising and sell your products tracks, you’ll learn how to:
- Set up your campaign objective and targeting.
- Choose your placements and budget
- Use Facebook Ads Manager
- Manage inventory with product catalogs.
- Set up your shop and use Commerce Manager.
Informative Facebook ads training courses
In addition to basics and instructions, these courses cover the next layer of topics and concepts in Facebook advertising, along with general suggestions and best practices.
3. Andrew Zeng’s Facebook Ads Tutorial
- Type: YouTube video with animation, talking heads, screen sharing
- Good for: beginner to intermediates looking to grow an online business with Facebook
- Length: 33 minutes
Andrew’s free Facebook ads tutorial comes from…wait for it…Andrew Ethan Zang, an expert in digital marketing, ecommerce, and online business. This 30-minute YouTube tutorial takes care of the usual setup basics, but goes into more depth on ad creative, funnel strategy, and campaigns using the conversions objective and engagement objectives.
Andrew provides time stamps and links to resources in the description for easy navigation. He also covers the basics of the marketing funnel and generating popularity and demand. You’ll learn:
- Facebook ads account vs Facebook Business Manager
- The anatomy of a Facebook ad
- Creative design and tools
- Ad setup, scheduling, and policies
4. Alison’s Facebook Advertising for Beginners course
- Type: slides and screen sharing with voiceover
- Good for: beginners to intermediates who want to know the dos and don’ts of Facebook advertising.
- Length: 1.5 hours
This free Alison Facebook ads course is brought to you by Theo McArthur, an expert online marketer and Amazon seller. Like Simplilearn, it’s provided through an eLearning platform so you can move between specific chapters and take a course assessment. It does, however, have eight-second ads before each lesson, unless you go for the premium monthly plan.
The training offers a mix of general setup instructions, suggestions and best practices to follow, and common mistakes to avoid. You’ll learn:
- Types of Facebook ads
- Page and pixel setup
- How to run a likes campaign
- Custom conversions
- Audience insights
Strategic Facebook ads courses
These courses are for those who are already familiar with Facebook advertising and are looking to problem solve, learn new tips and tricks, or optimize for a specific goal.
5. WordStream’s PPC University Facebook Ads course
- Type: written content with screenshots
- Good for: all levels of advertisers who want to stay competitive and get the most of their budget
- Length: varies
WordStream’s free Facebook ads course has been a thought leader in online advertising for over 12 years, and is the creator of the Free Facebook Ads Performance Grader—an account audit and optimization tool that gets run 10k times a month!
In our Facebook Ads course, we provide a series of 10-minute articles where top PPC influencers and experts share tips, tutorials, and strategies that have worked for them. You’ll learn nuances of the platform as well as benchmark data to be able to understand and optimize your performance. The lessons provide strategic advice on:
- Facebook ad copywriting
- Best time to run Facebook ads
- Lowering your costs
- Strategies for local businesses
- Must-know Facebook ad optimizations
- What to do if your ads aren’t showing
- Targeting and retargeting
- Facebook advertising benchmarks
6. Kai Bax’s Ecommerce Facebook Ads Training
- Type: YouTube video with people talking and screen sharing
- Good for: all levels looking to scale their ecommerce ROI through Facebook
- Length: one hour
Kai Bax’s free ecommerce Facebook ads course comes from Kai himself, an ecommerce marketing influencer and founder of Bax Consulting, an agency focused on scaling ecommerce and info product businesses.
In this one-hour YouTube tutorial, Kai shares the process his agency uses to scale growth and revenue for its clients through Facebook advertising. He takes you from basic setup all the way to reporting, with commentary and tips to maintain profitability at every step. Just be prepared—he’s intense! (In all the best ways; he’s clearly passionate.) You’ll learn:
- Account and campaign setup
- How to measure your ads
- Columns to use in reporting
- How to make metrics-based decisions
- Checklist to keep your ROAS on track to scale revenue
7. Hubspot’s Facebook Ads Dollar-a-Day course
- Type: eLearning video with animation, people talking, slides, and screen sharing
- Level: beginner to intermediates looking to run Facebook ads on a budget
- Length: 36 minutes
Hubspot’s free Facebook training course comes from Facebook expert and BlitzMetrics CTO Denis Yu. This strategy was designed by Dennis himself to focus on using frequent, lightweight touches to get widespread exposure on a budget. You’ll learn:
- What the Dollar-a-Day strategy is all about
- How to set up and measure it, with a strategy worksheet
- How to build ad sequences with targeting/retargeting
- How to create winning Facebook video ads
8. Coursenvy’s Facebook Ads Mastery Class
- Type: YouTube video slideshow with voice overlay
- Good for: beginners to intermediates who want to understand Facebook campaign objectives.
- Length: 1h 20m
Coursenvy’s free Facebook ads mastery course is essentially a written course turned into a slideshow with someone reading the content (but it’s not mind-numbing). So there isn’t any animation but every slide is an informative screenshot with tips overlaid on top.
The course takes a deeper dive into the different Facebook advertising campaign types, sharing what each one is and how to set them up for success. It also covers additional topics like dynamic ads and budgeting—all with examples and pro tips. You’ll learn:
- Facebook advertising terms to know
- Account and campaign setup
- Objectives to choose based on goals
- Budgeting tips
- Split testing
- Facebook Dynamic Creative ads
The 8 best free Facebook ads courses (full list)
- Simiplilearn’s Social Media Certification Program
- Facebook Blueprint’s Facebook Ads Modules
- Andrew Zeng’s Facebook Ads Tutorial
- Alison’s Facebook Advertising for Beginners
- WordStream’s PPC University Facebook Ads Course
- HubSpot Academy’s Dollar-a-Day Strategy Course
- Kai Bax’s Ecommerce Facebook Advertising Course
- Coursenvy’s Facebook Master Course
More ways to learn Facebook ads
What we have in PPC U only scratches the surface of content we have for you to learn Facebook ads. We’re always coming out with new posts to help you keep up with this evolving platform. Here are some more resources for you.
Learn Facebook ads costs
- Facebook Advertising Benchmarks
Learn average CPC, CPM, CTR, and CPL for 12 different industries so you can gauge your performance. - Facebook Ads Daily vs. Lifetime Budgets: Pros & Cons
Not sure which budget type to use? We’ve got you covered. - 7 Budget-Wasting Facebook Ad Mistakes to Avoid
We turn seven costly mistakes into seven smart tips for success.
Learn Facebook ads optimizations
- 4 Ways to Make Facebook & Google Ads Work Better Together
A solid cross-channel strategy is your path to steady growth. - 5 Ways to Cut Your Cost Per Lead on Facebook Ads
Easy but effective ways to get more leads without spending more money. - Use our Free Facebook Ads Performance Grader
Hours’ worth of account auditing done in minutes, with an easy-to-read report containing suggestions for improvement.
Learn Facebook ads post-iOS 14
Apple’s iOS 14 update and Google’s upcoming deprecation of third-party cookies have caused upheaval in the world of Facebook advertising. Targeting, tracking, and reporting is becoming more difficult. These posts will guide you through:
- 8 Tips to Maintain Effective Facebook Ad Targeting in iOS 14
- 7 Ways to Combat Rising Facebook CPMs Due to iOS 14
- 2 Smart Strategies to Generate Leads on Facebook in iOS 14
You now have more than enough material to understand, get started with, and succeed through Facebook advertising! Time to jump into the metaverse…
