SHOW RESOURCES

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LinkedIn Certified Marketing Hub

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NEW LinkedIn Learning course about LinkedIn Ads by AJ Wilcox

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SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Are you a LinkedIn certified marketing expert yet? It’s time to get on that. This is your study guide to get certified on this week’s episode of the LinkedIn Ads Show.

Welcome to the LinkedIn Ads Show. Here’s your host, AJ Wilcox.

Hey there LinkedIn Ads fanatics! After announcing that I was one of the first six certified marketing experts with LinkedIn, lots of you reached out to ask how you could get the same certification. So this episode is a walkthrough of the certified LinkedIn Marketing Program. So you can get certified as well. We’ll cover what it takes to achieve all the levels of certification, as well as how to stay certified once you get there. First in the news, we had a little scare happened last week, where some advertisers suddenly found that several features of the LinkedIn Ads platform we’re missing. Hat tip to JD Garcia for pointing this out in a post he put out. We found that on some accounts, text ads were gone as an ad format, website visits campaigns could no longer bid by max delivery, message ads were gone, which is not totally unexpected from what we talked about in the news last week. So all of us advertisers were totally up in arms, trying to figure out what are we doing without these features. Luckily, LinkedIn confirmed later that day that it was just a bug, but we still got some fears around it. So we’re planning an episode soon that will go into depth on all of these things, what it means the future, and what we can do to work around things like this, if they ever do change permanently. So stay tuned for that. I wanted to highlight a review here, the username, thecrusher1263 said, Great podcast. This is easily the best resource on LinkedIn ads that I’ve ever found.” So the crusher, I don’t know who you are. So I can’t thank you by name. But I certainly appreciate the shout out there. Me and my team all work super hard to make sure that this stays the best resource on LinkedIn Ads out there. So thanks for that. And you listener, if you agree that this is the best resource out there on LinkedIn Ads, please follow the incredible example of thecrusher1263 and go and leave us a review. Honestly, it’s the best way that you can say thanks for all the work that me and my team put together for the show. And of course, I will give you a shout out. So go leave a review, Apple podcast is usually the best place to do that. But anywhere you can leave a review, I would love it. Okay, without further ado, let’s hit it.

So we’re talking about LinkedIn certified marketing program. And for those of you who want me just to read you the address, you can go to training.marketing.linkedin.com. And of course, that URL is in the show notes below so you can just get easy access. Just scroll down look at the show notes. This program has been a long time coming. For years and years, I’ve been talking to LinkedIn about having a certification program. Five years ago, I was even working with the team to create a certification exam. And then that project kind of got shelved and it got pushed off. But now that it’s out, it actually turned out to be a much bigger deal than I originally thought. I remember the early days of Google Ads and Google Analytics certifications. I believe Google Ads was always free., but the certification exam has been kind of difficult. But I definitely remember Google Analytics.  remember paying $50, and you only get one chance. And if you don’t pass, you have to go pay another 50 bucks. But it was a really complete training course. And the end exam was something I really had to study for. $50 is obviously not a ton to invest into your career, but it definitely shows if you’re willing to pay 50 bucks, you’re in and you’re invested. And that was also a low enough amount that companies would sponsor their employees. We’d be willing to pay 50 bucks to get an employee certified. Then Facebook blueprint came along and to become Facebook certified, it was actually kind of expensive. I don’t remember the cost, I want to say it was like $2,000 or something like that. But you had to really want it. So going into this LinkedIn have some great models to follow. And here’s how the program ended up being structured. First of all, it’s free, anyone can do this, which I really appreciate. It’s also a very complex program with lots of requirements that goes way beyond just passing a test. And actually, there are multiple tests in a variety of different areas of marketing. When you go to get signed up for the first time, you’ll sign in with your LinkedIn credentials. And the instructions are pretty clear how to work your way through the program. I’ll also say that especially later on in the program, in levels two and three, it is very hands on. You’re not just passing tests that you work on, you’re actually working with LinkedIn staff all along the way. And there’s a selection process to get you into the higher tiers. I’m going to walk you through the whole program and share insights that will help you get through it faster and more effectively. With one caveat, the program is always subject to change. It’s always in flux. So your mileage may vary and the requirements may certainly change.

So the very first level that you get to earn you get to earn it through taking certification exams. This is called level one certified marketer. Currently, there’s a fundamentals course, and a marketing strategy course, and a content and creative design course. For each one, you can watch modules that are 40 to 60 minutes long. And they’re essentially training courses on the ads platform, and other areas of marketing on LinkedIn. A lot of it is even just theory. Once you’re done watching all of those videos, you can then take the certification exam. And actually, you are able to just take the certification exam without watching the videos, which is totally something that you can decide to do, I’m not going to tell you how to do it. What I will say though, is I did not get a 100% on any of them. And I know you might expect the host of the LinkedIn Ads Show podcast to get 100% on everything, it’s important to understand that a lot of the questions are subjective, or maybe a little bit trickily worded. And there were even plenty of the answers that I didn’t actually agree with. But all of them are taken directly from the content of the videos. So it’s definitely worth your time. What I would do, if I were you, I would set aside an entire day, just to watch all of the videos and take the tests and the exam, just knock it all out in one day. But of course, you can string this out over time. But after you take these exams, you’ll get a certificate, and you can then add that certificate to your LinkedIn profile, you can share it with your network, and just generally be proud of getting a level one certified marketer. Now, I originally took all these exams over two years ago. So by the time I got to the highest level, my certifications had actually expired. And so I needed to go back and retake the exam. It’s not a big deal to retake. I think the tests are something like 60 questions. So it’s not huge, but you do have to plan on re-upping those every so often. But that gets you to level two. And at level two, they call you a certified marketing Insider. And by the title insider, you’re obviously starting to think, oh, there’s something more involved here, I’m going to be part of a group. And that’s because at this level, you get access to the network of other certified marketing insiders. So it’s a LinkedIn group that you’re then invited to. You also have new events put on by LinkedIn that are available to you. Now, these are digital events and you can and should start attending the events that you see. You also get access to a bunch of resources. There’s guides on how to use LinkedIn business manager, there’s getting started with document ads, there’s all about the LinkedIn Audience Network. So lots of great reading material that you can get read up. And you get here by passing all of the certification, the fundamentals, the marketing strategy, and the content and creative design tests. So really not hard. Like I said, you could get to this within a day. But once you’re here, you now need to attend quarterly virtual events. So you don’t want to miss those. They don’t happen all the time. You’re also expected to participate in the insiders group on LinkedIn. So make sure that you’re in there actively participating. Okay, here’s the quick sponsor break, and then we’ll dive into what it takes to get to level three certified marketing.

8:03
The LinkedIn Ads Show is proudly brought to you by B2Linked.com, the LinkedIn Ads experts.

Managing LinkedIn Ads is a massive time and money investment, want some of that investment back? Consider booking a discovery call with B2Linked, the original LinkedIn Ads performance agency. We’ve worked with some of the largest accounts over the past 12 years. And our unique scientific approach to ADS management, combined with our proprietary tools, allow us to confidently optimize and scale your LinkedIn Ads faster and more efficiently than any other agency in house team, or digital ads. Just go to B2Linked.com/apply and we’d absolutely love the chance to get to work with you. All right, let’s jump into the level three certified marketing expert. And this is a little bit of a misnomer, because this is actually two level. Because once you get here, you’ll become what’s called a certified expert in training. There’s even a badge for that. And this is actually a little bit funny. But I really wanted to rush through this level as fast as possible, because I didn’t want to have no training on my badge. So I didn’t even post this certification to my profile. But you remember those quarterly events that I was talking about in the previous one? Well, these are still really important at this phase as well. Now you need to attend all of the expert training workshops as they come along. You also have to host your own training session about LinkedIn fundamentals as part of this training. And don’t worry, LinkedIn provides you with materials to make that a lot easier, but you do have to lead a training whether internal or external. You’ll get periodic communication from the LinkedIn team. And they want you to make sure you’re filling out surveys and questionnaires so they’re learning along the way. And currently, you’re required to participate in an in person event in order to fully fulfill the requirements of the certification. Okay, does that sound like a lot of work to you? It certainly did to me as well. But here’s what you get for unlocking this level. Number one, you get to be showcased on the LinkedIn Marketing Lab site, you’ll be invited to attend regional certified marketing experts networking events, and you’ll get the certified marketing experts badge that you can attach to your LinkedIn profile and just generally be very proud of. It’s not currently clear how many of the quarterly events that you need to attend. So I’m sure LinkedIn is still working this out. But suffice it to say, this needs to be something that you’re focused on and committed to. I should also mention that it takes a lot of LinkedIn resources to put together these regional events. So we don’t know how often these are going to happen and in what regions. All of that to say, it’s probably really important to make sure that you are in every one of these quarterly trainings, and really active in the group. Those are the things that I think you can do to stand out to make sure that you get invited into this group. And then of course, once you get the badge, your job isn’t over. At this point, I get to call myself a LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert, but I don’t get to keep this forever, unless I actually keep up on it. So to keep it up, there are compulsory and optional activities to maintain my standard is what LinkedIn lists on the website.  still need to attend all of the quarterly events to make sure that I’m keeping my certification. So yeah, you’ll see me there. I also need to keep hosting these LinkedIn trainings at least once per year. And although it’s not currently a requirement, LinkedIn does share that they want success stories shared with the insider’s community. So there you have it, this isn’t something that you willy nilly do and then check off. You’ve got to attend all of these quarterly meetings for the foreseeable future. You’ll have to retake the exams every two years, and keep up on it. So it is a time investment. But I’ve always loved certifications, because they are an implicit nod that yes, you are an expert at what you do and you can be trusted to talk about these topics. I totally see everyone out there who’s a LinkedIn Ads expert wanting to make sure that they also have this badge to back them up that they’re not just some fly by night, showed up yesterday, decided to come out with a course. Okay, I’ve got the episode resources for you coming right up. So stick around.

12:19
Thank you for listening to the LinkedIn Ads Show. Hungry for more? AJ Wilcox, take it away.

Like we talked about in the episode, if you look in the show notes, you’ll see the URL to go and actually get set up and on your path to becoming a LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert. If you or anyone you know, is looking to learn more about LinkedIn Ads, check out the course that I did with LinkedIn on LinkedIn Learning, all about LinkedIn Ads. It’s by far the highest quality and the lowest cost course out there for LinkedIn Ads. Now you did just hear me talk about LinkedIn certification program, and how they have essentially a course and it’s free, you should definitely go take those especially because you need to for getting the certification. But I will say the course that I did with LinkedIn is much more complete, and walks you through from the beginning, all the way until your setup and advertising well. But the link is there in the show notes. If this is your first time listening, I want to welcome you. Thanks for joining us. Please do hit that subscribe button if you’ve liked what you’re hearing, so that you hear every episode as we come out with. But if this is not your first time listening, I would encourage you I might even go as far to plead with you. Please do leave us a review and rate the podcast. It helps the algorithms weigh more than any of us understand. And this is how you can do your part to share this material with other marketers out there who need to know about LinkedIn. With any questions, suggestions or corrections, reach out to us at Podcast@B2Linked.com. And with that being said, we’ll see you back here next week. I’m cheering you on in your LinkedIn Ads initiatives.

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