What is Google Skillshop?

Google Skillshop is an updated version of Google’s previous Academy for Ads. It’s a thorough rebranding with many changes and additions.

This guide will give you a comprehensive rundown of the Google Skillshop program, including how it works, what it offers, and how it can help your professional career. So, keep reading to learn about Google’s inclusive digital program.

What is Google Skillshop and How Does It Work?

Google Skillshop is an e-learning online platform that offers a variety of courses on Google tools and services. Whether you want to optimize your website or scale up your online advertising services, Google Skillshop will teach you all.

It’s for both individuals and companies with different skill levels. And the best part? It’s free!

You can take up a course and specialize in a certain Google tool or service or brush up your skills all for free.

Also, at the skill store, each course is divided into different modules. And you have the flexibility to progress through these modules at your own pace. You won’t have to rush through the material, you can pause and resume later at your convenience.

When Do You Need Google Skillshop?

Google Skillshop is for anyone who uses the below-mentioned products and wants to learn the basics or enhance their skills:

• Google Ads
• Google Ad Manager
• Google AdMob
• Google Analytics
• Android
• Google Digital Academy
• Google Marketing Platform
• Google My Business
• Google for Education
• Waze
• Android
• Authorized Buyers
• With more to come

Step-by-step Guide On How to Use Google Skillshop

Step 1: Accessing Google Skillshop
You don’t need a separate application to access the skill store. Just launch your web browser and search for the “Google Skillshop” page.

There, if you already have a Google account, sign in with that by clicking on the “Sign in” button in the upper right corner. Or, in case you don’t have a Google account, you need to create one
to access Google Skillshop.

Step 2: Browse Through Courses
Once you’re in, you’ll see a catalog of product categories on the home page. Select your required product category and browse through the available courses.

You can even select a skill level in a course from beginner to advanced. Just click on a course and go through its details. Now, click on the “Get Started” button, if the details fit your
requirements.

Here, you might have to pay for a course, if it’s not free or an advanced level one. However, not
all courses are paid, and most of them are free. But, even if it is paid, you’ll get an authentic,
Google certification at the end.

Note: You must adhere to the instructions to verify your enrollment in a certain program.

Step 3: Lessons and Exams

Each Google Skillshop training course is divided into different modules. Each module has a set
of videos, text-based lessons, and quizzes to help you progress through the course interactively.

It all depends on how long you’d like to take to complete a course. You can pause and resume
your lessons whenever you want. Usually, it takes a few hours to a day to complete a Google
Skillshop online course.

Also, gone are the days when you were supposed to pay for the Google Skillshop exams. Now,
it’s a once-paid service. Just in case, your chosen case is a paid one. Or else, No Fees for
anything!

Each exam will contain 46-50 questions, depending on the course with a time limit of 75
minutes to complete your exam. You can even retake an exam after a certain period.

Step 4: Obtain Certifications
Once you’re done with the course and exam, you’ll be notified to get your certification. You’ll
receive an email if you win a badge or get a certificate. Or you can track down your certification in your profile.

You have the option to either save, download, or both with your certification. It’s especially important if you’re looking to display your skills for potential companies and employers. For
instance, if you’re in the digital marketing industry, a Google Ads certificate will be a decisive advantage for you over other applicants.

Therefore, eventually, add these certificates to your resumes or your LinkedIn profiles.

Step 5: Keep Up with the Updates
Google Skillshop constantly keeps updating for the changes in products and Google services, and also for the best practices. So, it’s always a good idea to keep up with the updates.

Keep visiting the Skillshop homepage and dust off your skills. You would definitely don’t want to be a boomer. Plus, Google Skillshop certifications expire after a certain time. So, you anyways have to retake an exam or a whole course to keep up with your certifications.

Tips to Use Google Skillshop

● Always track down your certifications. It’s best to get them saved or downloaded immediately.

● Some courses offer hands-on laboratories and you must take advantage of this
opportunity. There’s nothing comparable to a real-world experience.
● If you have any queries or need assistance, please visit the community forums or help center.

What will You Learn With Google Skillshop?

Google Skillshop is a comprehensive resource, offering a detailed know-how of Google’s tools
and services. With this e-platform, you can even choose between different levels of learning
from basic to advanced.

Here’s a list of the major courses offered by Google Skillshop and what you can expect from
them.

1. Google Skillshop Courses for Google Ads

What You Can Expect: This course is all about online advertising from Google search ads to
display ads and video ads. So, either you’d like to learn about the basics of search ads (including how to do keyword research or how the bids work) or you want to go deeper into the Google ads strategies ( including remarketing and ad re-extension), a Google Ads course by Google Skillshop will do.

For instance, to be Google Ads certified with Skillshop, you can select from certain courses:

● Google Ads Search
● Google Ads Display
● Google Ads Video
● Shopping Ads

2. Google Skillshop Courses for Google Marketing Platform

What You Can Expect: In these courses, you can learn about integrated advertising across
multiple platforms and devices. You will be introduced to different Google analysis tools, such as Display and Video 360 or Search Ads 360.

Eventually, you can obtain Google marketing platform certification for free. And then, you will
be able to offer your company or your employer a host of additional features that Google Ads doesn’t offer.

Pick from different Google marketing platform courses from beginner to intermediate level, which include Analytics 360 and Display and Video 360 certification exams.

3. Google Skillshop Courses for Google My Business

What You Can Expect: Whether you’re a small business owner or you own a huge organization, getting your business registered on Google is a must. With Google My Business, you will be able
to showcase your business on Google search results and Google Maps.

And it doesn’t stop there. You will learn about other features of Google My Business as well,
such as:

● Adding photos to your business listing
● Managing customer reviews
● Updating opening hours
● And using insights to learn more about your customers.

4. Google Skillshop Courses for Google Cloud Platform

What You Can Expect: With Google Cloud training programs and certification courses, you will be able to enhance your Google Cloud skills. For instance, at the beginner level, you will learn
computing and data storage. And then, on the advanced level, you’ll move towards machine
learning and data storage.

So, if you already know how to use data in the Cloud stores and retrieves, we suggest moving toward advanced topics, such as learning to use TensorFlow for building machine learning models.

5. Google Skillshop Courses for YouTube

What You Can Expect: Skillshop offers a set of courses from beginner to advanced levels to help
you build a strong YouTube channel. You can learn from how to optimize your YouTube channel to how you can protect your content with copyright.

It’s a long list of YouTube courses and certifications that’ll help you ace your YouTube journey.
Stuck about how to place ads that run in front of other videos? Skill store will help. Also, you’ll
get many more other tips in a single course.

6. Google Skillshop Courses for Authorized Buyers

What You Can Expect: In the category of authorized buyers, you’ll get to learn more about Google’s programmatic purchasing system. It’ll help you have a deep dive into how real-time
bidding works and how you can get the best return on investment with an optimized bidding strategy.

Overall, you’ll learn bidding strategies, auction types, and more.

These are only a few course categories you can pick from. And for sure, there’s so much more
to discover among 11 different main categories with Google Skillshop offering courses that go
beyond marketing. Plus, since it’s Google itself, there should be no doubt about the accuracy
and quality.

Advantages of Google Skillshop

Google Skillshop offers some convincing benefits. Here are some major perks of learning with Google Skillshop.

• Google Skillshop is Free: Yes, it’s right. Google Skillshop is free. You don’t need to pay for the subscription or the
  premium perks. It’s free to access and easy to get in. In fact, you don’t even have to create a separate account. Save yourself this hassle and just sign in with your Google account. It’s quick to get started with and free of course.
• Official Content Directly from the Source: Imagine you have a race match and the opponent lets you know about the tips and tricks of How you can beat them. Crazy, right? But this is precisely what you can get with Skillshop. You’ll find courses and certifications that’ll let you know how you can ace the optimization game and, eventually, how you can be at the top of everything. And it’s from the Google itself! The source that you’re working on is itself giving you the most reliable and up-to-date information.
• Self-Paced Learning: By this point, Skillshop is getting unreal, because it’s not just free and reliable, it’s flexible as well. So, you can pause and resume your courses at any point. Also, you can watch these courses from wherever and whenever you want. These courses are well-structured as well. So, it’s easy to progress through them from beginner to intermediate and then advanced levels. Do you want an assessment after the basics in a leisurely evening? Google Skillshop makes it possible.
• Practical Examples: Google Skillshop doesn’t just offer theoretical courses. It lets you have real-time experience as well, with quizzes and exams to test your knowledge and real examples and case studies to help you have a sneak peek into the real world. Moreover, you’ll be given examples of the real campaigns and the problems they faced. Then, you will be presented with how they overcame those issues and get some tips on how you can be successful too.
• Up-to-Date Content: Want to get reliable knowledge about any of the Google updates? Check at Skillshop. It keeps updating from time to time to compensate and include all the new changes and additions that Google products made. For instance, let’s say you want to learn about a new feature of YouTube. Google Skillshop will update after a while and include a short course on how to use that feature.

Disadvantages of Google Skillshop

As with every advantage, there’s a downside as well, similar is the case with Google Skillshop.
Though it’s a goldmine for digital marketing knowledge, some aspects of it can be considered as
disadvantages.

Let’s take a closer look at what you have to be aware of:

• Unilateral Perspective: Since it’s all about Google and its products, you’ll only get to hear from Google’s perspective. And you won’t get a comprehensive view of the entire market. For instance, you’ll get to learn all about Google Ads on Google Skillshop but you won’t find any information related to other alternative advertising platforms like Facebook Ads or Bing Ads.
• Lack of Hands-on Experience: There’s no alternative to the real-world, hands-on experience. So, even if Google Skillshop
  offers real examples and case studies, it's still no comparison to what you can learn through your personal experience. Also, each case is different. Though you will be able to get some tips from the examples, you still are a beginner until you get out in the world.
• Overwhelming for Beginners: Skillshop can be an overload for beginners and newbies with its whole load of categories,
  courses, and certifications. You might feel like it’s too techy and there’s a long way to go if you start learning something. Therefore, if you’re a complete beginner to a certain Google product or service, we suggest don’t go for Google Skillshop. Instead, first, get a hold of it with help of YouTube tutorials and blogs.
• Time Intensity: If you’re looking for a quick answer to fix a certain problem, Google Skillshop ain’t for you.
  Here, some courses can be really detailed and long and to get to the point you’re looking for
  can take some certain levels. Instead, just go for a short YouTube video or read a specific blog on Google.
• Validity Period of Certificates: Unfortunately, the certifications that you receive on Google Skillshop aren’t for an indefinite period. Whether it’s a Google Skillshop certification for SEO or digital marketing, it’ll expire after a certain period.
  So, you will have to retake the Google Skillshop exam from time to time to remain certified.

Takeaway:

The Google Skillshop is definitely a promising platform to learn from, especially if you’re in
Google marketing and all. However, success is not a single-ingredient recipe. It takes a lot of
other things as well to finally get to the goal.
So, alongside Skillshop, you also need to think of other resources and hands-on experience.
Plus, you need to be a constant learner and keep yourself updated in the realm of the digital
world.

FAQs

● Is a Google Skillshop certificate worth it?

Yes, it’s definitely worth it with its wide list of courses and certifications to pick from and its
overall coverage of Google products and services. Just remember, practice is the key to success and you must remain updated.

● Do you have to pay for Google Skillshop?

No, it’s completely free to access. Just log in with your Google account and browse through the
courses available. However, there might be a few courses that are paid. But, you only have to pay for them once. Other than that, most of the Google Skillshop courses are free.

● How to earn from Google Skillshop?

You cannot directly earn from Google Skillshop. However, you can enhance your skills there to start earning immediately.