Offered By
What you will learn
Understand the major advertising platforms, including: display, video, audio, sponsored, native, social media, search and programmatic.
Execute tailored digital advertising campaigns on: Google Ads (Search), Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Taboola.
Interpret ad performance metrics for most popular advertising types and develop measurement plans for a business given an objective.
Earn the Google Ads Search Certification.
Skills you will gain
About this Specialization
1) Students should have strong web skills. Do you work at your computer often and enjoy everything but the carpal tunnel? While the platforms and tools we leverage for this specialization don’t require computer programming or a technical degree, strong computing skills always translate into success. If you’re “good with computers,” you’re technical enough for this course.
2) Students should be curious when it comes to digital ads. Do you notice the advertisements you see online? Do you have opinions on whether an ad was good or bad, or relevant to you or not? Are you interested in thinking critically about how these ads might be used for business objectives? If so, you’ve got the right disposition that will allow you to learn a lot about the digital advertising ecosystem, and you’re a great fit for the subject matter here in this course.
1) Students should have strong web skills. Do you work at your computer often and enjoy everything but the carpal tunnel? While the platforms and tools we leverage for this specialization don’t require computer programming or a technical degree, strong computing skills always translate into success. If you’re “good with computers,” you’re technical enough for this course.
2) Students should be curious when it comes to digital ads. Do you notice the advertisements you see online? Do you have opinions on whether an ad was good or bad, or relevant to you or not? Are you interested in thinking critically about how these ads might be used for business objectives? If so, you’ve got the right disposition that will allow you to learn a lot about the digital advertising ecosystem, and you’re a great fit for the subject matter here in this course.
How the Specialization Works
Take Courses
A Coursera Specialization is a series of courses that helps you master a skill. To begin, enroll in the Specialization directly, or review its courses and choose the one you'd like to start with. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. It’s okay to complete just one course — you can pause your learning or end your subscription at any time. Visit your learner dashboard to track your course enrollments and your progress.
Hands-on Project
Every Specialization includes a hands-on project. You'll need to successfully finish the project(s) to complete the Specialization and earn your certificate. If the Specialization includes a separate course for the hands-on project, you'll need to finish each of the other courses before you can start it.
Earn a Certificate
When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.

There are 4 Courses in this Specialization
Introduction to the Digital Advertising Landscape
The digital advertising landscape is complex. There are many different types of ads, including: display, video, audio, sponsored, native, social media and search. Consumer data and the ad tech that action on that data are both ubiquitous and complicated. As a result the sheer number of options available to digital marketers is hard to comprehend and manage. This course covers the major forms of digital advertising, from basic display ads to search to cutting-edge programmatic advertising concepts. The Trade Desk, the leading programmatic advertising provider, joins us as our programmatic experts and offers an actionable roadmap on how small businesses can leverage state of the art advertising technologies to accomplish business objectives. In all, this course leaves students with an understanding of digital advertising in its various forms, and how to strategically identify digital advertising opportunities.
Search Advertising
Consumers search for virtually everything. This includes the things that small businesses do, from restaurants to bespoke products. When consumers search they get organic results along with paid results. Paid search ads are systematically designed to be relevant. As a result, they’re often useful at getting consumers where they want to go. Consumers don’t tune out paid search like other types of digital ads.
Social Media Advertising
Social media platforms are driven by digital advertising. As a result, social media advertising is affordable and can be purchased at almost any budget. Targeting options in social media advertising are also sophisticated. It is possible to tailor ads around a user’s behaviors (e.g., likes, posts and clicks). This course unpacks small business use cases of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter advertising. From basic campaigns, to advanced techniques including lookalike modeling and audience retargeting, this course shows how to effectively advertise on three major social media platforms.
Native Advertising
Native advertising is a niche form of advertising that leverages the design and format of news and entertainment content. Native advertising is less about selling products and more about producing useful content for consumers who are in the ‘consideration’ phase of the advertising purchase funnel. Often in the form of news-like stories, native advertising has been shown to persuade consumers. Native advertising is affordable, and doesn’t require graphic design to get started. For these reasons, it’s a compelling advertising technique for small businesses. This course outlines a case study where a small travel startup used native advertising to drive hotel sales. Execution strategies for a successful, no-creative native campaign are laid out, including: gathering existing news coverage, ethical content seeding, and content generation.
Offered by

University of Colorado Boulder
CU-Boulder is a dynamic community of scholars and learners on one of the most spectacular college campuses in the country. As one of 34 U.S. public institutions in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU), we have a proud tradition of academic excellence, with five Nobel laureates and more than 50 members of prestigious academic academies.
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