how I would learn digital marketing (If I could start over)

I

start

ed my career in

digital

marketing

eight years ago and during this tenure I have worked with clients such as prime minister's office Dubai Sky News Arabia Nissan Abu Dhabi Emirates hospitals etisalat and many more, some of these clients have an annual budget of 10 million dollars and above I have trained Google support teams around the world for two and a half years. I worked on some training projects with some prestigious institutions like Amit University Dubai, Manipal University Astro Labs and many more. Overall I had a smooth ride but when I look back I think some things

could

have been even better and that's what I'm going to discuss in this video.

How will I

learn

digital

marketing

if I

could

start

over? The purpose of this video is not just to tell you what I think. about my career path, but it's really about answering a lot of questions I receive through emails and messages. People usually ask me how they should

learn

digital marketing now. These questions usually come from people who are just starting out or want to pursue digital marketing as a career and want to start from the beginning now, if you go to let's say YouTube or go to Udemy or any other website to learn about digital marketing and search for courses of digital marketing, you will find many things like Google ads, Facebook ads.

SEO smm programmatic advertising email marketing affiliate marketing and it doesn't even stop here then there is growth marketing performance marketing content marketing account based marketing advertising Tech bi analysis and I don't know some people even make up their own terminology like content Drip strategy and I don't know what, with that said, let's get started. I have divided this roadmap into nine different steps. The first step is to avoid shortcuts and have the right mindset, believe me, this is where most people who want to learn digital marketing. Get it wrong because when they go to YouTube, Google and all these resources to learn about digital marketing, they go down this rabbit hole called how to make money using digital marketing.

What happens is that when you search for these resources, you somehow end up in the flashy place. content that talks about how to make a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars with digital marketing, you will end up in videos that talk about promises that tell you to create blogs that will make you two thousand dollars a month within five days, you can start your upwork jobs and What It happens, it's even fun to watch some of these videos now, if this is all wrong, if we have to avoid shortcuts, what is the right mindset, then now I

would

suggest basically doing at least five to seven days of research on what marketing is.

What are the basics of marketing? You don't need to read the academic books that they teach in the MBA, just understand the basics of marketing, probably what a funnel is in marketing and then you need to understand why you guys use digital marketing, which is the most important thing is to just do your research. what people use digital marketing. Why companies use digital marketing. What are the benefits of digital marketing? Without anything else, just focus on these topics and at the same time you must understand that this learning process. Digital marketing and making a solid career out of it will take time, it will require efforts, you will have this path, you will have some moments where you will feel frustrated and this is what you need to understand and expect from starting now, once you are done with it, You will have a fair understanding in a few days, two days, five days or a week, then you will move on to the next step, which is to create a blog or a website.

This is very important because when it comes to digital marketing, ninety percent of digital marketing is focused in some way on driving people to websites or any digital property, your YouTube channel, your Facebook page, but in the end it is our website. Now you cannot learn digital marketing before understanding the basic components of the Internet, which is a website, now what you have to do is spend a few hours watching a video to understand how to buy a domain from GoDaddy or any other platform and how to use a theme and create a website now. you can create a website as simple as mine which is Senator V on ads.com where you create a landing page that talks about you just create a contact page to try to add a form and get the basic idea in this period .

You have to focus on how to make your website live for some people, it may take a day, for some people it may take two days, for others it may take even four days, but this is what you have to do, you don't have to understand. web development or something like that you just have to be able to buy a domain and create a website now if you don't have money to buy a website or a domain that doesn't cost much but you can still access resources like Google sites. You can create a Google site for yourself now, in most cases, if your friends and family have a business and don't already have a website.

I'm sure if you offer it to anyone, it's fine. We will buy a domain for you, create a website for free, you only pay for the domain. Most people will agree, even if it is a small business, they will be happy to have an online website with their business name on it. This brings us to 2.2. Once you are done with the website, what you have to learn is HTML, the basics of HTML. I am not suggesting learning the entire HTML language because that is a world and career in itself, but rather being a strong digital marketer based on my experience.

Now you will need to be familiar with HTML, even if you are not a technical person. I don't think it's very difficult to understand the basics of HTML, which you can do from websites like w3schools, for example. I'll even link the chapters. in W3 schools, the HTML course that you have to follow and that shouldn't take you more than a day or two and you just have to understand the basic functionality because later in your career you will come across technologies like adding tags and things like that. conversion tags will actually give you an age so most people at the time don't know what this is in my experience early in my career the company actually asked me to do an HTML course and then it was very very beneficial for me.

In many ways, if you've reached the end of the second point, then you've come a long way. Some people might finish it in a week or some people might take a few weeks, but trust me, you've come a long way. and you have created a solid foundation, so now it brings us to our third point, which is to be an expert and avoid noise, that's why I say avoid noise, because this is where most people have faced problems because a As they go and Try it, some people tell them okay, learn social media marketing. Advertising on Facebook is booming.

Some people tell you to learn half of marketing. Some people tell you that nothing affiliate marketing is so you can start making money from day one, but if you are here to learn how to do it. Be a strong digital marketer, where you can compete with people, where you can have a strong career, where you can even become an independent consultant, then what you have to do is cut through all this noise and become an expert in one of the platforms, it can be Facebook ads but I

would

suggest going with Google ads because in my opinion Google answers the mother of the mother and the Portal of all paid media advertising and the reason why I suggest any of the platforms of paid media is because if you understand paid media. then affiliate marketing and all that, SEO and other things, will be much easier for you.

I tell you, these people may have different opinions, but I tell you this, this is why you have to choose a paid media platform. I would suggest Google Ads, for example, in my case at the beginning of my career, I worked on a platform that is dfp for two years. I didn't work on anything else, but I became so strong in pfd that it was easy to learn anything else afterwards. platform and I think this is the way to go, for example, if you want to be a driver who can drive any car, you just become an expert in one car, probably a Toyota, probably a Mercedes, but once you know it, you become an expert.

If a driver drives a Mercedes or a Toyota, even if I give you a Volkswagen, just look at the switches for five minutes, okay, the wipers are on the other side, the lights are on the left side, but you won't face any challenge when driving. drive a Volkswagen, but at first if you only focus on the good, Volkswagens have the lights on the left side. Mercedes has them on the right side. The parking button is on the panel. The parking button is on the steering wheel. At some brand, you will feel overwhelmed and lose track of what you really wanted to learn, which is driving a car, so how do we learn Google Ads now?

To learn Google Ads, you need to start a course on Udemy. You can start a playlist on YouTube. There are many, like me. Google Ads Playlist, some people I know from YouTube, like him, have a Google Ads Playlist that you can learn from anywhere, but in this period when you are learning about Google Ads, just you have to learn google ads, don't focus on anything else, just avoid the noise. Invest some time, an hour or two, watch the first video of three playlists or three YouTube channels you want to try, so watch their intro video on their Google Ads playlist or whatever course you prefer, start with it and in parallel go to free Google resources like Google Skills Store and Google Help Center you can't just learn from Google Help Center and Skills Store, but while taking a course or watching a playlist from someone on YouTube, going parallel to the Google Skills Store and different Google Help Center articles will be much more.

It is most beneficial for you while you are learning about Google Ads. Don't feel like you're missing out on so much information. You should always keep in mind that this is part of a larger plan now as you learn about Google Ads. When you're viewing a course or playlist, they'll start with Google Ads search, then they'll start with display video remarketing campaigns and probably app marketing. The good thing is that, while you're at it, you can also create a free Google Ads account and practice the campaigns try to implement different types of strategies try to create display campaigns search campaigns without even publishing them or using your own money now, in certain cases, some of you might do it when you create a website for someone who you will be able to tell Okay, can you give me some budget?

I want to run a campaign so that you get traffic, sales, whatever and you might have a chance even if you don't have a chance, just try to structure campaigns, create campaigns and come up with innovative ideas. and use your free Google Ads account to create these demo campaigns, you just have to do it because even when you go to an interview they will ask you, what have you done? You can tell them that I have worked for a client like this. The strategies that I implemented, this is how I structured the campaigns, you really have to do that and you will learn a lot more than just watching theoretical videos and doing the courses now, once you are done with this step and probably have obtained a certification from There is also a store of Google skills, which I mentioned before.

At this point, you will have the opportunity to get a freelance client from upwork or from your friends and family or even get an internship somewhere, but even if you don't, we are anyway. Moving on to the next step now, once you have created all these campaigns, you learned how to create campaigns in Google Ads. Obviously, most of it will be to create traffic to the website. Now you need to start thinking about when these users go to the website. landing page, what should the landing page look like? Obviously, you would have learned about the keywords, the quality score, so for one of your hypothetical clients, I'll say, "Okay, for this automotive brand, I'll start a campaign and you'll design a landing page for that." campaign if you have a domain and you have already purchased it and do it, otherwise you can do it again on Google sites for free of course and all these links that I have put are in the description so you can think about your knowledge of Google ads.

You can design a landing page because a normal website and a landing page are very different. This is where you will experience that and apart from that, you also have to basically learn some design tools like Canva. Canva is probably one of the best and has It's also a free plan because once you makesearch campaigns, okay, but if you're actually doing display or video campaigns, you need to know the basics of layouts, you need to understand, you know Google ads, but you need to know a little bit? of design or if you are also very good at canva, it is even better, but you had it, it works as a combination now, if you have made it this far you will probably find a way on your own, but if you still need my opinion, I would say now It's time to move on to the next stage, which is learning how to generate reports and analysis as well.

Now, when it comes to analytical tools, the best resource is probably Google Analytics. It's free for everyone if you have already created a website. Place the labels. your website and start fetching data now for Google Analytics. You can initially start with a one-hour course taught by someone to familiarize yourself with how Google Analytics works. What are the different types of reports? I even have an hour-long video to get you familiar. with Google Analytics and then you can play and learn on your own and if you have time you can also do a course an extensive 5 hour or 10 hour course to learn more about Google Analytics now if you don't have a website where you can integrate your Google account Analytics Google Analytics account has a demo account.

Once you sign up to create a new account, you can get access to a demo account that is actually connected to an active Google products website and you can check all the reports in real time and you don't have any problems, but what What you need to understand is that even if you learn about Google ads or social media advertising or any type of paid media advertising, learning Google Analytics is inevitable in all digital media. As a marketer, no matter what channel you are an expert in, you need to understand Google Analytics. Now, in addition to Google Analytics, you can learn tools like Microsoft Clarity.

I even have a video on Microsoft Clarity that gives you an idea of ​​what Microsoft Clarity is. It's pretty easy in an hour. Now you too can be a Microsoft clarity expert. If you've made it this far, chances are you'll get a job. You can get a job interview. Get a freelance project from Upwork or from friends and family, but either way, we'll do it. You will move on to the next stage, even if you get a job right now, I will still tell you what your next steps should be. Remember that we have to become a solid digital marketer.

Now I know that you are an expert in one of the fields that you know how things work, you know how Canva works, you briefly know how Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity work, but now you have to move to the next stage, which is to learn the ecosystem or the marketing staff. Now all companies like Google, Adobe, Facebook have their own analytics. tools creative platforms that form a kind of marketing stack or ad stack that connect with each other, all these tools connect with each other, so in this stage you will learn extensively about Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and Data Studio , these are like the minimums.

The least you need to do now, at this stage, you'll be able to see the bigger picture, not just one platform like Google Ads, you'll have an overview of the entire ecosystem and you'll have an overview of the entirety of a marketing stack. or advertising technology. Stack, whether it's Google Adobe or anything else, it all works the same way. If you know how Google Analytics works, you can probably find your way around Adobe Analytics. If you know how Google Tag Manager works, you'll be able to figure it out. your way into any tag management platform now again, the good thing is that all these platforms are again free and you can connect them with date class studio and start using the templates, create some basic reports here and there, but you must have practical experience like Well now all of these things are going to be a game changer because if you go to an interview and you tell them these are the things that I know and I'm a Google Ads expert, this is going to be a game changer, anyone can hire you, anyone will hire you and no. only.

Once you know all these platforms, probably if you get a job as a PPC analyst or specialist, learning these things from the beginning will take you a long way. Believe me, I mean, I know a lot of people who have been working as PPC specialists for a long time, but they don't know how Google Tag Manager works. They don't know how Google Studio works, but these things make a big difference in your career progression and now you have to trust me. This brings us to our next stage, which is taking a step back, so until now you were moving forward, you were learning one platform after another and you kind of understood the stack and understood all these concepts.

Now is the time to take a step back. The noise you avoided at the beginning what I mean by this is that you are now an expert on a channel. Now you should understand the basics of other channels. You can't be an expert in everything, but you need to understand what affiliate marketing is. Now you can. watch videos and you will understand because if you are an expert in say google ads, learning facebook ads should be a piece of cake for you if you know google ads, google tag manager analytics, learning affiliate marketing should be a piece of cake for you now at this stage.

You have to focus on other channels. How do we run campaigns on Facebook? It's the same, but the formats are different. You have to understand at this stage what are the different formats we use in Facebook ads. Snapchat LinkedIn Twitter What is it? Some differences between running campaigns on Google Ads and Twitter. Because? How does it help us increase reach? What are the incrementality factors that come into play? Why we, along with Google Ads, use other channels and it is necessary to get a brief overview of the market. and Horizontal, you have to understand what the different formats are.

If I open an app, I see an ad. What happens if I go to Facebook? Sometimes I see ads. What are those formats on YouTube? I see skippable, not skippable. You have to understand basically. the whole ecosystem and it shouldn't be very difficult for you now is the time when you already know how to drive a Mercedes and a Volkswagen and now you can try different cards like Toyota or Nissan once you are done with this. Well, you also have this perspective, even if you have been working for a year, now is the time to focus on some advanced topics and learn things like app marketing in detail, learn programmatic advertising, learn affiliate marketing, learn email marketing electronic. you learn different EDM solutions you understand what dmps are you understand what cdps are you understand what all these things do and once you have a brief overview you focus on these things you are very aware that you are familiar with all these technologies you understand the basics of DMP CDP this will put you in the top five to ten percent of talent in the market and you will find that you will feel it because when you talk to people in the industry and watch other people's videos, you will realize that okay, already knows.

You are very much among the best when you talk to clients, when you talk to your colleagues, you will understand, you will realize that you have come a long way and you will get that confidence in yourself and only at this stage you will be able to do what all those fake gurus promised at the time. principle that by using your skills in different innovative ways to make money you will be able to reject that okay, this guy is fair and at the same time you will be able to come up with your own ways on how to do it. how can I make money with my skills should I work as a freelancer should I create an affiliate network I should probably work as a consultant should I work in a company where you will be valuable and you will probably also thank me at this stage and Understand that if I had turned to those fake gurus at the beginning you would have lost track of learning digital marketing and making a career out of it and at this stage you will understand that if you want to change fields then you probably started with PPC but you will realize that okay you know what I love the most the affiliate marketing, you know what I love most, creative strategy, you know what I love most, programmatic advertising and you'll be able to focus on that, but that.

Basic concepts and fundamentals that you have learned. They will even help you at this stage and you can specialize in programmatic advertising or any other technology like cdps implementing cdps and all that now once you have chosen your path you will probably be working in a company for two or three years. You have become a specialist, you have become a resulting concern for now, but this is the stage where you move on to the ninth stage of this video, which is learning strategic skills like media planning, you have to learn strategies about how you should be able to create.

There is a strategy, let's say, a startup or a mid-sized company that comes to you and says, okay, you know what this is, these are the goals for our next year, this is the budget, can you tell us how we can? Use it and you should be able to give them a proper strategy from start to finish that includes media buying reports, for example, this particular strategy that I created for one of the clients, you will be able to create this type of strategy for any client at this time. From now on you probably won't even need my advice because you'll be able to find your way from now on and that's where you and I part ways.

Thank you very much, I'll see you in the next one.