Google certifications: which ones actually count

By Miguel Maio · Published 19 October 2026

Google has half a dozen marketing certifications and most people take the wrong one. The one that counts for an employer is in Skillshop, it's free, and it expires every year.

The problem isn't a lack of options. It's the excess, all with the Google name attached, and almost nobody knows which is which. Let's sort this out, because putting the wrong one on your CV isn't just useless: it shows you didn't understand the difference.

The maze, untangled

Google has so many things called a "certification" that you'd almost need a certification just to tell them apart.

There are four different things with the Google stamp, and they serve different purposes.

Skillshop holds the platform certifications: Google Ads and Google Analytics. Free, exam-based, and these are the ones a performance employer recognises.

Grow with Google and the old Digital Garage are the fundamentals and digital-literacy courses. Good to start with, not expert credentials.

The Google Career Certificates (on Coursera) are long career-change programmes. Paid, and a different purpose.

And Google AI Essentials, which I covered in the article on AI certifications.

Memorise this split. Half the CV mistakes in this area come from swapping one of these four for another.

The ones that count: Skillshop, free, and renewed every year

The Google Ads certifications live in Skillshop, they're free, and you have to retake them every year to keep them valid (they last 12 months).

And it's not just free. You pass the exam and get a verifiable digital certificate, with an expiry date, that you add to LinkedIn, your CV and your site. It's proof that can be checked, not a screenshot of some course.

There are nine in total, and it's not worth taking all nine. It's worth taking the right ones for where you want to go.

Search is the baseline. If you work in SEA, it's the first and it's non-negotiable.

Video is one of the most underrated. It's YouTube, the world's second-largest search engine, and far fewer people are certified in it than in Search. On a CV, it sets you apart more than the obvious one.

Display still counts for prospecting and visual remarketing. AI-Powered Performance Ads is, in practice, the Performance Max one: it's where Google is pushing the spend, so it's the one rising fastest in job ads. AI-Powered Shopping Ads counts if you're heading into eCommerce.

And the layer nobody should skip: Google Ads Measurement and the Google Analytics Certification (GA4). Without measurement, the rest is faith. These two are the analytical backbone that separates people who manage campaigns from people who just switch them on.

That leaves Apps, Creative and Grow Offline Sales: specific, only if it's genuinely your case.

One honest caveat, which is the core of this article: these certifications prove platform literacy. They prove you know where the buttons are. They don't prove you know how to decide.

What happened to Digital Garage

If you're looking for Digital Garage and the "Fundamentals of Digital Marketing" course, don't lose sight of them: they didn't shut down, they moved house. The training migrated into the Grow with Google and Skillshop ecosystem. It's still a good free first step for someone genuinely starting out who wants the big picture.

But call things by their name. It's a fundamentals badge, not an expert credential. Put it on your CV as what it is, the starting point, not as proof that you master the tool.

The Career Certificates: paid, and a different league

The Google Career Certificates on Coursera (like the Digital Marketing & E-commerce one) are a different thing: long programmes, built for people changing careers from scratch, with projects and a structured path of months. They're paid (a Coursera subscription, with financial aid for those who apply).

They're worth it for people who want the structure and guidance of a full course. For someone who already has a base and just needs the platform credential, they're expensive for what they add over Skillshop, which is free. Decide by what you need: structure or credential.

The unbreakable limit: knowing the tool isn't knowing how to decide

Here's what the certification doesn't give you. A Google Ads certification proves you can set up a campaign. It doesn't prove you know whether that campaign should exist, with what account structure, against which keywords, with which negatives, and at what Quality Score.

I see it in interviews and in real accounts: certified people who build the whole campaign neatly and burn the budget, because the decision upstream was wrong. The certification is the entry ticket. The account structure and the strategy are the work, and those are in the Google Ads account structure that converts.

Verdict, and what to do this week

If you do or want to do SEA, take Search in Skillshop this week, and then GA4. It's free and it opens the ATS. Add Video if you want to stand out, because there's less competition there. Leave Apps and Creative for when they're genuinely your case. Use Digital Garage as a way in if you're starting from zero, without mistaking it for an expert credential.

And mark your calendar: they expire in a year. An expired certification on your CV is worse than none, because it shows you took it and let it lapse.

This is one vertex of a larger triangle. The full map, of what a certification is worth and what it has to go hand in hand with, is in the digital marketing certifications that are worth it.

Sources

• Google Skillshop
• Grow with Google
• Google Career Certificates
• Guide to Google Ads certification (Loves Data)

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