• Written By
    Felipe Bernardes
  • Last Updated
    April 22, 2021

Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree Review

Nowadays, it is almost unacceptable for companies not to have a digital presence. This brings an incredible opportunity for anyone who wants to become a digital marketer.

Virtually, every company needs help standing out from the competition in this fight for more visibility on social networks, search engines, emails, etc. As a digital marketer, you can help companies get more traffic and, most importantly, sales.

Getting a specialization in the subject can help you to fulfill the requirements for jobs in this area or even enable you to leverage the growth of your own company.

In this article, we will evaluate Udacity's Digital Marketing Nanodegree in full. If you want to learn all the details about it, follow us until the end.

Here are the topics we will cover:

Online learning with Udacity: Is it worth it?

We addressed this subject in detail in our review of Udacity. If you landed directly on this page, we have some important points to highlight.

Udacity started when Stanford instructors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig decided to offer their "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" course online for free.

Nowadays, they are one of the most recognized online course providers in the market. It offers the so-called Nanodegrees, which are specializations in areas such as:

Their courses are usually made in partnership with recognized companies such as Facebook, Google, Hootsuite, AWS, Mercedes-Benz, among others.

These Nanodegrees last from 3 to 6 months and offer relevant factors for their students to achieve real results. Among these factors are real skills, project-based learning, self-paced learning, and help from mentors.

Udacity offers a unique learning model with a high degree of engagement with its students. They accompany them throughout every step of the learning journey.

What is the Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree?

The Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree was designed to help you gain real-world experience using digital channels such as websites, social media, search engines, email marketing, online display ads, and blogs to generate traffic, leads, and sales.

The program was built in collaboration with industry giants such as Google, Facebook, Hootsuite, Hubspot, Mailchimp, and Moz.

It doesn’t require any relevant prerequisites, only basic computer skills. In addition, they require that you have Gmail and Facebook accounts in order to complete program projects.

Usually, students that enroll in this Digital Marketing Nanodegree take 3 months to complete it. After completion, you’ll have learned exactly the skills you need to succeed in the field.

Since there are no specific admission criteria, you don’t need to apply to get in. All students are accepted into the program despite their previous experience or particular background.

If you want to build a successful career in digital marketing and you want to develop the right skills to run real advertising campaigns, analyze and optimize their results, then this program is right for you.

What will you learn in Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree?

The Digital Marketing Nanodegree is segmented into courses addressing different and important fields of knowledge. Below you'll find everything you’ll learn in this program:

Marketing Fundamentals

In this section, they’ll give you a framework to help you organize and plan your marketing approach. They’ll also give you examples of how to apply strategies in both B2C and B2B contexts.

You will learn the basic foundations of a business plan, to design your target audience (by the fictitious representation of the ideal customer via persona), and to outline the marketing campaign’s objective.

Upon completing the Marketing Fundamentals section, there will be a project called 'Prepare to Market', in which it will be possible to test everything that has been learned, preparing yourself for your new role as a digital marketer.

Read the syllabus >>>

Content Strategy

Content Marketing is a marketing method that does not directly promote the company's brand but attracts the target audience by bringing solutions to their problems.

This marketing strategy has been fundamental for the development and growth of companies of different sizes. It consists of producing relevant content and targeting a qualified audience.

Content marketing can be present in blog articles, ebooks, infographics, videos, and podcasts.

In this course, you learn how to plan your content marketing and how to develop content that has an impact and attracts your target audience. You will also learn how to extract the relevant metrics in order to make necessary adjustments to make your content work.

Read the syllabus >>>

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is the group of strategies for brands to operate on social media platforms so that they contribute to the achievement of the goals outlined by the marketing team.

The strategy consists of engaging and growing your target audience in order to turn them into customers. It takes place through the creation and distribution of relevant and valuable content in vehicles such as Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, Pinterest, and others.

In this course, you will learn how to use the main social media platforms, how to manage your presence on social networks and how to create content that works on each platform.

Upon completing the Social Media Marketing section, there will be a project called 'Market your Content', in which you’ll write an article for a blog, and distribute this content through three social media posts you’ll also craft.

Read the syllabus >>>

Social Media Advertising

Advertising on social networks is a way to reach a private and segmented audience. Since the organic delivery of the main social networks is low, this is an excellent strategy to put your company's product in front of the people who matter.

By advertising on Social Media your company can attract new customers, increase brand awareness, make sales, among other actions.

In this section, you learn how to make targeted ads and how to run advertising campaigns that connect with your audience.

Upon completing the Social Media Advertising section, there will be a project called "Evaluate a Facebook Campaign", in which you will receive the complete data of a Facebook campaign. From these numbers, you will be able to extract KPIs to suggest improvements so that the campaign can have a better performance.

Read the syllabus >>>

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is a set of strategies and techniques to improve search engine ranking and increase organic traffic to a website. The results on average are perceived in the medium term (from 3 months). It is an inexpensive strategy when compared to Google ads and other media.

Optimization should start through an audit to identify opportunities for improvement. The optimization must prioritize tasks, taking into account those that can bring the greatest results with the least effort.

In this section, you will learn how to optimize the pages on your site through on-site and off-site activities. Among the main activities, you will develop your list of target keywords, optimize the user experience and run a link-building campaign.

At the end of the SEO section, there will be a project called "Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Audit", in which you are going to audit a website, recommend the appropriate optimizations. In addition, you will recommend specific keywords, evaluate the user's experience on the site and suggest improvements.

Read the syllabus >>>

SEM with Google Ads

Google is the most accessed search engine in the world and so you don’t need to depend on organic ranking, there is Google Ads. Formerly called Google Adwords, the platform is used to create the sponsored ads that appear at the top of the search results page.

In this section, you’ll build a strong foundation in Search Engine Marketing to create, execute, and optimize ad campaigns using Google Ads.

At the end of the SEM with Google Ads section, there will be a project called "Evaluate a Google Ads Campaign" in which you will analyze data of a Search Campaign. With the available data, you’ll be able to create KPIs to make suggestions in order to optimize the performance of the campaign.

Read the syllabus >>>

Display Advertising

A very relevant number of sites, in order to monetize their audience, partner with Google to receive advertisements. Through the Google ads platform, it is possible to create ads that will be displayed on these sites and are very effective for remarketing.

By completing the Display Advertising class, there will be a project called "Evaluate a Display Advertising Campaign" in which you will create a presentation with the data collected from a Display Ads campaign. The idea is to evaluate all aspects of the campaign to spot opportunities to optimize it.

Read the syllabus >>>

Email Marketing

Email marketing is an extremely powerful strategy, as it is the way you build your audience on your own ground, without depending on social networks and the like. It is the means by which you achieve direct communication with your users

In this section, you will learn how to create, execute and measure the results of your own email campaigns in order to convert and retain customers.

By completing the Email Marketing class, there will be a project called "Market with Email" in which you will walk through each step of the processes of writing and running an email marketing campaign. You’ll also train how to measure and analyze the campaign performance.

Read the syllabus >>>

Google Analytics

Making decisions is not an easy task, as these choices define the company's destiny and direct it towards the set goals. That is why data-based decision-making is so important.

All actions that users take on your site can be measured by Google Analytics. Which page they land on, how long they stay, other pages they visit, whether the conversion goal is achieved, among others.

In this section, you’ll learn how to use Google Analytics to measure your audience, measure your acquisition efforts, improve engagement and understand how to optimize conversion opportunities.

This is the last course in this Nanodegree. After finishing it, there will be the final project called "Create your Digital Marketing Portfolio" in which you will develop a complete marketing strategy. You’ll be able to demonstrate everything you’ve learned throughout the course.

Cool, right?

Now it’s time to meet your instructors.

Who are the instructors?

The instructor has a fundamental role in the structure of a course. It is crucial that they have good teaching skills, mastery of the subject, and a great ability to communicate.

Next, we will explore who will be teaching you in this Digital Marketing Nanodegree.

Anke Audenaert

Anke Audenaert has an impeccable resume. For almost 8 years she worked at Yahoo!, where she was vice president of global market research and vice president of content optimization.

In addition to a solid professional trajectory, she has a solid teaching background. She has worked as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at UCLA Anderson School of Management since 2009.

At Udacity, she is responsible for curriculum design, content creation, teaching, student support for the Digital Marketing and the Google AdWords Nanodegree Programs.

Daniel Kob

Daniel Kob has an MBA from Stanford and his career has a solid track record on major online education platforms such as Udacity and Coursera. Today he is Chief Marketing Officer at Moss (corporate credit card company).

In addition to teaching at Udacity, Daniel also gives two courses at Coursera on the Facebook Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate.

At Udacity, in addition to being an instructor, he was Director of Business Operations and Marketing Director.

Julia Aspinall

Julia Aspinall is a graduate of Princeton University. She is a full stack Javascript engineer with over 8 years in the technology industry.

She has worked as a software engineer at several companies, such as Airmap and Credit Karma, where she currently works.

At Udacity, she worked as a Project Manager and Course Developer. In this Nanodegree, she participates in the email marketing course produced in collaboration with MailChimp and Facebook.

Digital Marketing Nanodegree Pricing

The Digital Marketing Nanodegree, like other Udacity programs, has two different forms of payment.

If you are disciplined and believe that you will be able to complete the Nanodegree in 3 months (which is the average time to complete this program) you can choose to pay for those 3 months at once. The advantage is that there is a 15% discount. If you need more time, you can switch to the monthly plan after the end of the 3 months.

The other form of payment is the Pay as you go plan. This way, you will be making monthly payments until you complete the course.

It is important to mention that Udacity has been offering relevant promotional codes lately. At this point you can buy the program with 75% discount (discount applied to the prices below). Learn more about this opportunity.

As Udacity charges in local currencies, below are the prices applied in each country:

  • USA
    3-month access: $1017 ($339 per month)
    Pay as you go: $399 per month
  • India
    3-month access: ₹58257 (₹19419 per month)
    Pay as you go: ₹22849 per month
  • Brazil
    3-month access: R$4167 (R$1389 per month)
    Pay as you go: R$1629 per month
  • Canada
    3-month access: C$1347 ($449 per month)
    Pay as you go: C$529
  • United Kingdom
    3-month access: £837 (£279 per month)
    Pay as you go: £329 per month

Extra Program Offerings

In addition to what has already been exposed, the program offers additional services such as:

Class content

The content of this program was built in collaboration with Facebook.

At the end of each course, students get access to real-world projects that test student knowledge and help them absorb it better.

These projects are reviewed by experienced reviewers, who contribute with personalized feedback, additional suggested resources, practical tips, and industry best practices.

Student Services

Udacity offers a Community for its students. This community is a network of students and alumni from around the world.

It allows communication with your classmates, mentors, and Udacity staff in your community channels. These channels are used to freely ask and answer questions; to share advice, adversity, accomplishments, and to feel connected.

Career Services

Besides providing in-depth content and a community, Udacity team will review your resume and provide feedback for improvements. They also offer a guide on writing a targeted resume for your dream job.

Learn more about their interview prep program.

Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree Reviews

Find out what people are saying about the Digital Marketing Nanodegree in trusted sites around the world.

Quora

"Real life projects of Udacity Digital marketing Nanodegree program will definitely benefit beginners like me who knows loads of literature but lacks scope of using them in real time."

"The DMND offer a solid and wide foundation that go through all of the digital marketing components and collaborate with the best professionals and platforms in the field."

"Is it worth it? Absolutely."

Hacker News

"If you're outside of the field, looking to break into an entry-level position, and would like to have your hand held the whole time, it is worth subscribing."

Reddit

"If you know nothing at all then it’s a good foundation."

"I'm enjoying it, learning a lot."

Trustpilot

"It is more than perfect. This program is by far the best I've seen in delivering the message in an easy way. It exceeded my expectations and made me love learning from it as much as I can."

"I am making good progress by gaining new experience in digital marketing techniques."

"It helped me to understand how to target my audience. The course is so informative and enables you to take your first step in real digital marketing specialization which will change your life utterly."

Udacity

"I took several digital marketing courses before and worked as a marketing manager but always felt like I was missing technical knowledge, guidance, and overall understanding of digital marketing. Udacity's Digital Marketing Nanodegree was exactly what I was looking for"

"I didn't know much about digital marketing before the program, but the projects have a natural progression that really helps you understand how you tie the target persona, to the marketing objective, to the marketing channels, etc."

And you? Have you formed your opinion about the Digital Marketing Nanodegree already? Don't forget to share it with us when you have finished the program.

Felipe Bernardes

I am an economist responsible for Marketing and SEO strategies at Classpert. I usually write about entrepreneurship, e-learning platforms, marketing, SEO, stock trading, and related subjects.