Digital Advertising Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Digital Marketing Managers, Marketing Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-DM-065

Before you join: This intermediate course assumes participants can explain basic marketing objectives, customer segments, websites and social media channels, and have used spreadsheets to review simple performance data.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Digital advertising teams must decide where to spend, whom to reach, how often to show an advert and how to prove commercial value. Poor campaign structure, weak audience definitions, incomplete tracking and reactive optimisation can waste budget quickly. This course addresses the practical decisions behind paid search, paid social, display, video and programmatic campaigns, from the initial brief through reporting and improvement.

Participants learn to translate marketing objectives into measurable campaign goals, select channels against customer intent, define target audiences, set budgets and build credible forecasts. They work with Google Ads campaign logic, social platform buying models, search keywords, bidding, creative formats, landing-page alignment, attribution and GA4 measurement. The course also covers programmatic buying, viewability, invalid traffic, consent requirements, cookie deprecation and brand-safety controls.

Instructor-led sessions combine short technical briefings with campaign cases, planning tasks, platform-style simulations and structured reviews of advertising data. Participants produce a reusable campaign brief, media plan, measurement framework, optimisation register and 30-day application plan based on their own organisation or a realistic case. The five-day course is available in classroom locations in more than 50 cities or live online, runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, and includes a certificate of completion.

The course suits marketing professionals who need to plan, manage, review or commission digital advertising with greater commercial discipline. It is particularly relevant where teams work with agencies, platform representatives, in-house media buyers, analytics teams or external creative suppliers.

What you will be able to do

  • Construct a channel and audience media plan using funnel objectives and reach estimates
  • Build a Google Ads search campaign structure using keywords, match types and negative keywords
  • Select paid social, display and video formats against audience behaviour and campaign objectives
  • Create a campaign measurement framework using KPIs, conversion events, UTM parameters and attribution windows
  • Calculate CPM, CPC, CPA, ROAS and customer acquisition cost for budget decisions
  • Apply bidding, pacing and experiment methods to improve campaign performance
  • Assess programmatic inventory quality using viewability, invalid traffic and brand-safety controls
  • Produce a launch checklist and 30-day optimisation plan for a digital advertising campaign

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Stronger judgement when reviewing agency recommendations and media proposals
  • Practical confidence planning search, social, display and video campaigns
  • Ability to explain advertising results using commercial metrics rather than platform jargon
  • Reusable methods for diagnosing poor delivery, weak conversion and wasted spend
  • A documented action plan for improving current advertising activity

For your organisation

  • Better allocation of advertising budgets across channels, audiences and formats
  • Clearer links between campaign activity, conversions, revenue and acquisition cost
  • Reduced waste from irrelevant targeting, duplicate reach and incomplete tracking
  • More effective briefing and governance of agencies, platforms and creative suppliers
  • Improved controls for consent, brand safety, invalid traffic and campaign quality

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can translate a business objective into a structured digital advertising brief.

  • Digital advertising ecosystem: advertisers, publishers, agencies, networks and demand-side platforms
  • Paid, owned and earned media roles within integrated campaign planning
  • Marketing funnel stages mapped to awareness, consideration, conversion and retention objectives
  • STP segmentation, targeting and positioning translated into media decisions
  • SMART objectives linked to business outcomes and controllable campaign metrics
  • Customer journey touchpoints identified before selecting channels and formats
  • Media brief structure covering audience, offer, budget, timing and constraints

Participants can define target audiences and allocate channels against campaign goals.

  • First-party, second-party and third-party data distinctions for audience planning
  • Persona hypotheses built from CRM, web analytics and research evidence
  • Audience sizing using reach, frequency and addressable market estimates
  • Contextual, behavioural and lookalike targeting matched to campaign objectives
  • Exclusion audiences and suppression lists reduce wasted impressions
  • Frequency caps set against creative wear-out and incremental reach
  • Media plan grids allocate channels, formats, spend and flight dates

Participants can plan and structure a paid search campaign using Google Ads principles.

  • Keyword research separates branded, generic, competitor and problem-based queries
  • Search intent classified as informational, commercial, transactional or brand-seeking
  • Google Ads account hierarchy: account, campaign, ad group and assets
  • Match types, negative keywords and search terms reports control relevance
  • Responsive search ads structured around themes, benefits and proof points
  • Quality Score drivers: expected CTR, ad relevance and landing-page experience
  • Search campaign settings govern geography, schedules, networks and devices

Participants can select and specify paid social, display and video campaigns for defined audiences.

  • Platform selection compares user intent, inventory, formats and buying models
  • Meta, LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok objectives matched to funnel stages
  • Social audience construction combines interests, professions, engagement and customer lists
  • Display placements evaluated through context, viewability and brand-suitability controls
  • Video advertising planned with hook, message sequencing and completion metrics
  • Native, carousel, lead-generation and short-form video formats assessed
  • Creative specifications checked before trafficking assets to each platform

Participants can assess programmatic buying options and apply inventory quality controls.

  • Programmatic buying roles: DSP, SSP, ad exchange, publisher and data provider
  • Real-time bidding auction mechanics explain clearing prices and bid decisions
  • Private marketplaces, preferred deals and open exchange inventory compared
  • Viewability, invalid traffic and brand-safety metrics protect media quality
  • Supply-path optimisation examines fees, duplication and authorised sellers
  • ads.txt and app-ads.txt checks verify authorised inventory sources
  • Programmatic deal brief defines inventory, audience, pricing and safeguards

Participants can align advertising creative and landing pages to improve conversion potential.

  • Message hierarchy aligns customer problem, proposition, proof and call-to-action
  • Copywriting uses benefit-led headlines, specificity and controlled urgency
  • Creative variants isolate offer, visual, headline and call-to-action changes
  • Landing-page message match reduces post-click friction and abandonment
  • Conversion-focused pages apply visual hierarchy, form design and trust signals
  • Accessibility checks cover contrast, captions, alt text and readable typography
  • Creative review workflows verify claims, approvals, rights and specifications

Participants can build a measurement framework and interpret campaign performance evidence.

  • Measurement framework links business objectives, KPIs, leading indicators and guardrails
  • Conversion tracking maps events, parameters, values and attribution windows
  • UTM naming conventions preserve source, medium, campaign and content attribution
  • GA4 reports distinguish users, sessions, events, conversions and engagement
  • Attribution models compare last-click, data-driven and position-based credit
  • Incrementality testing separates advertising impact from existing demand
  • Dashboard design combines pacing, performance, diagnostics and decision thresholds

Participants can calculate campaign economics and make evidence-based optimisation decisions.

  • Budget allocation uses marginal returns, constraints and channel response curves
  • CPM, CPC, CPA, ROAS and customer acquisition cost calculations
  • Bid strategies compared: manual CPC, maximise conversions, target CPA and target ROAS
  • Forecasts translate impressions, clicks, conversions and value into budget scenarios
  • Pacing controls identify underspend, overspend and delivery risks early
  • Optimisation cadence prioritises statistically credible changes over reactive adjustments
  • Experiment registers document hypothesis, variable, success metric and decision rule

Participants can apply privacy, consent and brand-safety requirements to advertising decisions.

  • Consent management requirements affect tags, audiences, measurement and remarketing
  • GDPR principles applied to lawful basis, minimisation, retention and transparency
  • Cookie deprecation changes targeting, attribution and frequency-management approaches
  • Server-side tagging and enhanced conversions improve measurement resilience
  • Data processing agreements define responsibilities between advertiser, agency and platform
  • Children's advertising restrictions and sensitive-category policies shape targeting choices
  • Brand-safety escalation procedures address unsuitable placements and adverse adjacency

Participants can prepare a controlled campaign launch and prioritise improvements after review.

  • Campaign brief translated into channel strategy, budget, KPI and measurement choices
  • Account build checklist sequences tracking, audiences, creative, bids and approvals
  • Pre-launch QA checks links, tags, targeting, budgets and brand requirements
  • Performance review separates delivery issues, creative findings and audience signals
  • Optimisation recommendations state evidence, expected effect, owner and review date
  • Stakeholder reporting distinguishes executive decisions from specialist diagnostics
  • Thirty-day application plan schedules account improvements and measurement actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Digital advertising campaign brief template
  2. Channel and audience media plan
  3. Google Ads campaign structure worksheet
  4. Campaign measurement framework
  5. Budget, bidding and pacing model
  6. Pre-launch QA and optimisation checklist

Who should attend

  • Digital Marketing Managers — responsible for paid media performance and agency coordination
  • Marketing Managers — need to connect advertising spend to commercial objectives
  • Paid Media Specialists — require structured methods for planning, optimisation and reporting
  • Brand Managers — need to evaluate channel choices, creative performance and audience quality
  • E-commerce Managers — depend on measurable traffic, conversion and acquisition campaigns
  • Agency Account Managers — need to brief, assess and communicate campaign decisions credibly

Skills and tools covered

Media planningPaid search managementAudience targetingCampaign measurementBudget optimisationProgrammatic buying

Tools and standards

Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Google Analytics 4

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish concepts, followed by realistic campaign cases from B2B, retail, financial services and public-service marketing. Participants analyse media plans, keyword sets, creative assets, performance reports and budget scenarios in small groups. Platform-style simulations develop campaign setup and optimisation judgement without requiring access to live advertising accounts. Facilitated discussions examine trade-offs between reach, relevance, cost, conversion quality and measurement confidence. Each participant completes structured application planning for a current or proposed campaign.

Requirements and prerequisites

This intermediate course assumes participants can explain basic marketing objectives, customer segments, websites and social media channels, and have used spreadsheets to review simple performance data. Experience placing adverts is useful but not essential; the course starts with campaign architecture and quickly moves into planning, setup logic, measurement and optimisation. Participants do not need coding skills, design software expertise, access to a live advertising account or prior Google Ads certification. Familiarity with their employer’s products, customers and current marketing activity will make application planning more useful.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic marketing objectives, customer segments and common online channels. Previous experience running advertising campaigns is helpful but not required, and no coding or Google Ads certification is needed.

Bring a laptop for planning work, spreadsheet analysis and access to course materials. If permitted by your employer, bring an existing campaign brief, media plan or anonymised performance report for use during application planning.

It suits marketing managers, paid media specialists, brand managers, e-commerce managers and agency account managers. It is also useful for professionals who commission advertising agencies and need to assess their recommendations.

This course covers paid search, social, display, video and programmatic media within one campaign planning and measurement framework. It focuses on media decisions, campaign economics, governance and performance improvement rather than a single platform or organic social content.

You will use the campaign brief, media plan, measurement framework and launch checklist to assess current or planned advertising activity. The final application plan identifies practical account, tracking, creative or reporting improvements for the next 30 days.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is distributed across strategy, channels, campaign setup, creative, measurement, optimisation, governance and structured application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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