Google Ads training: day course, online course or in-company programme?

There are three types of Google Ads training, and they sell something different. A classroom day course teaches you how the platform works. An online course teaches you the same thing at your own pace. A in-house training programme teaches your team to build a channel that keeps running. The first two cost a few hundred to well over a thousand euros, the third a multiple of that.

So the question is not which one is the best, but which one suits what you want to be able to do afterwards. Below I compare them, including when we ourselves would say: take that day course.

The classroom-based day course

One day, one trainer, one group, usually a certificate. You learn the structure of an account, the campaign types, how bidding strategies work and where the most important settings are located.

Select this as: you want to understand what your agency or colleague does, you need a basis to ask better questions, or you are exploring whether this profession is for you.

Do not choose this as: You expect there to be a channel after that day. That is not a criticism of day courses, it's simply not what they sell.

The online course

Videos, your own pace, often lifetime access and sometimes a community included. In terms of content often more extensive than a one-day course, because there is no day that ends at six o'clock.

Select this as: you are disciplined, have your own account to practise on, and can ask questions when you get stuck.

Do not choose this as: You notice that you rarely finish courses like that. That is not a matter of character: without an appointment in the calendar and someone keeping an eye on things, almost everyone loses out to the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

The in-company training programme

With us: six sessions spread over eight weeks, followed by a video call after each session. Your team builds the campaigns themselves, while we guide you. Between sessions, it takes half a day to a full day per week. One-off investment of 7,500 euros, media budget is separate.

The difference from a course is not in the amount of knowledge, but in the sequence. In a course, you learn everything first and only then do you start building, usually alone. In a programme, you build directly for your own situation and learn along the way, with someone who corrects you before a mistake costs three months of budget.

Select this as: you have a marketer or team that really wants to take advertising into their own hands, there is a budget that can grow along with it, and your offer is already selling somewhere.

The question that actually determines the choice

Not your budget, but this one: Will someone be logging into that account weekly afterwards?

If the answer is no, a one-day course is the sensible choice. You are buying understanding, not execution, and that is precisely what you need to keep an agency or freelancer on their toes.

If the answer is yes, the follow-up question is how much time that person has. Less than half a day a week in the set-up phase is too little, because the knowledge will fade before the first campaign yields results.

Why we do not run a one-day course

We get that question with some regularity, and we don't do it. The reason is that on the day itself we can leave behind a satisfied room and three months later we don't know whether anything has changed. That is an enjoyable product to sell and a difficult product to live up to.

Where we can promise something, however, is in a trajectory where we oversee it as it is being built. Then we can see whether the measurement is correct, whether the message aligns with the stage someone is at, and whether adjustments are being made based on the right signals. That is also why our price cannot be compared to a one-day course: it is a different product.

What a good training course should cover in any case

Whichever format you choose, this must be included. If it is missing, you will be learning buttons without context.

• Measurement first. Without accurate conversion tracking, you are steering based on flawed data and the algorithm will aggressively optimise in the wrong direction.
• Campaign type per phase. Search harvest existing demand. Whoever also wants to create demand needs different campaign types and different metrics within the same account.
• When you should not intervene. The most common beginner's mistake is making daily adjustments, meaning the algorithm never gathers enough data to learn anything.