Course Information

  • Course Fee:

    $249 USD

  • Free Demo

    Start Learning

  • Skill Level:

    Intermediate

  • Class Duration:

    4H 30M

Course Introduction

Social media advertising is becoming an indispensable part of the modern marketing landscape.

The most sophisticated organizations use paid social—including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram ads—to drive business objectives at every stage of the customer journey.

This certification gives marketers the knowledge and skills they need to use these tools most effectively.

Course Curriculum

  1. Lesson 1: The Social Advertising Landscape [Free Demo]

    Course Level: Beginner

    In this lesson, we’ll discuss how social advertising can be leveraged to help your organization achieve both brand awareness, as well as performance goals.

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    • Lesson 1: The Social Advertising Landscape
    • 1.1 The Social Advertising Landscape
    • 1.2 Introduction to Social Advertising
    • 1.3 Using Advertising Strategies to Achieve Organizational Goals
    • Take Your Learning Deeper

  2. Lesson 2: Setting the Stage for a Successful Social Media Ad Campaign [Free Demo]

    Course Level: Intermediate

    In this lesson, you’ll learn what an ideal campaign looks like, in addition to valuable best practices for setting achievable campaign goals.

    You’ll also learn best practices for optimizing the organization of your campaign, from naming conventions, to setting up effective landing pages, and tracking website data using Pixels.

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    • Lesson 2: Setting the Stage for a Successful Social Media Ad Campaign
    • 2.1 Setting the Stage for a Successful Social Media Ad Campaign
    • 2.2 What a Successful Brand and Conversion Campaign Looks Like
    • 2.3 Best Practices for Setting Ad Campaign Goals and Determining Parameters for Success
    • 2.4 The Ad Journey - Optimizing Your Organization, Budget, Landing Pages, and Campaign Tracking
    • Quiz
    • Take Your Learning Deeper: Additional Resources
    • Best Practices for Using Search and Social Advertising Together [Webinar
    • Next Steps

  3. Lesson 3: Advanced Best Practices for Targeting Social Advertisements

    Course Level: Advanced

    In this lesson we’ll discuss best practices for selecting and applying a buyer persona to your campaign, in addition to the unique targeting methods offered by Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You’ll also learn how to leverage customer and audience information to increase audience targeting even further, through the use of remarketing and lookalike audiences.

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    • Lesson 3: Advanced Best Practices for Targeting Social Advertisements
    • 3.1 Advanced Best Practices for Targeting Social Advertisements
    • 3.2 Strategic Selection and Application of Buyer Personas
    • 3.3 Advanced Targeting Strategies for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn
    • 3.4 Advanced Use of Remarketing and Lookalike Audiences
    • Quiz
    • Take Your Learning Deeper: Additional Resources
    • Next Steps

  4. Lesson 4: Creating and Iterating on Social Ads

    Course Level: Advanced

    In this lesson, you’ll learn some industry tips and tricks for taking your visual assets and ad copy to the next level. We also discuss how to create and edit campaigns in bulk using Facebook’s Ads Manager, an important tool that every social advertiser should get comfortable with.

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    • Lesson 4: Creating and Iterating on Social Ads
    • 4.1 Creating and Iterating on Social Ads
    • 4.2 Optimizing Visual Assets for Engagement
    • 4.3 Taking Ad Copy to the Next Level
    • 4.4 Pro Tips for Mastering Facebook’s Ads Manager
    • 4.5 Best Practices for Building and Testing Social Ads
    • Quiz
    • Take Your Learning Deeper: Additional Resources
    • Next Steps

  5. Lesson 5: Bidding and Buying Social Ads

    Course Level: Advanced

    In this lesson, you’ll learn how to keep your cost per click low, and engagement high by strategically optimizing your efficiency metrics. In addition we’ll look at calculating a manual bid, tactics for optimizing ad campaigns that feature video, and what really goes on behind the scenes in a Facebook bidding auction.

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    • Lesson 5: Bidding and Buying Social Ads
    • 5.1 Bidding and Buying Social Ads
    • 5.2 Tactical Budgeting and Optimizing Efficiency Metrics
    • 5.3 A Quick Introduction to Calculating Manual Bid Amounts
    • 5.4 Tactics for Optimizing Social Video for Brand Engagement
    • 5.5 Advanced Strategies for Winning Facebook Bidding Auctions
    • 5.6 Driving Optimal ROI through Ad Analysis and Iteration
    • Quiz
    • Take Your Learning Deeper: Additional Resources
    • Next Steps

  6. Lesson 6: Tracking the Impact and ROI of your Social Ads

    Course Level: Advanced

    In this lesson, we’ll walk you through the process of measuring the engagement and impact of your ad campaigns, including tips for analyzing and gathering the data from a finished campaign, as well as utilizing benchmarking tools to help contextualize your success.

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    • Lesson 6: Tracking the Impact and ROI of your Social Ads
    • 6.1 Tracking the Impact and ROI of your Social Ads
    • 6.2 Measuring Engagement and Impact of Ad Campaigns
    • 6.3 Using Data to Grow Future Campaign Success
    • Quiz
    • Next Steps

  7. Lesson 7: How Hootsuite Helps with Social Advertising [Optional]

    Course Level: Advanced

    In this optional lesson, we’ll show you how Hootsuite Ads can help you easily create detailed campaigns, take your ad testing to the next level, and create dynamic reports that can be shared with stakeholders.

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  8. Hootsuite Advanced Social Advertising Certification Exam

    Price: $249 USD

    Take our exam now to earn your official certification—proving your expertise to employers and clients.

    Get Certified

What you get with your Hootsuite Advanced Social Advertising Certification

  • Industry-recognized certification that shows you know how social supports organizational goals and objectives.
  • A permanent online certificate to showcase your expertise that you can link to from your blog, website, and any other online profile.

How to get your Hootsuite Advanced Social Advertising Certification



Get your Hootsuite Advanced Social Advertising Certification by passing a 50-question online exam, testing your knowledge of the core principles of using social media in advertising. The exam is  based on Hootsuite’s online Advanced Social Advertising Course—a comprehensive series of easy-to-follow video tutorials that cover everything from setting campaign goals, the use of remarketing and lookalike audiences, building and testing social ads, and measuring the impact of ad campaigns.

Frequently Asked Questions

$249 USD.

No. Once you pass the exam, the certification is yours forever.

The exam is based on the Advanced Social Advertising courseware that teaches pro tips and best practices to optimize social ad campaigns from start to finish. We strongly recommend reviewing the course before attempting the exam.

50-question timed online exam.

The minimum passing grade for the exam is 75%

You’ll have 60 minutes to complete the 50-question exam.

No. You can take the exam as many times as necessary until you pass, at no extra cost.

Yes. If you’re confident in your advanced social advertising skills, you can go straight to the certification exam.

The Hootsuite Academy team creates exams following established instructional design best practices. More information can be seen here.