Meta certifications

Meta Blueprint offers free self-paced courses, study guides, webinars and practice tests for people who buy ads on Meta's apps. The certification exams are a separate step. They are proctored, either online under observation or in a Pearson VUE centre, and Meta prices them in a band that varies by exam and country. A failed attempt means five days' wait and a second full fee. The entry point is the Digital Marketing Associate exam, 100-101: sixty questions in ninety minutes, 700 points needed out of 1,000, seven languages, valid for two years. Higher up, Meta certifies specific roles: community management, media buying and planning, creative strategy, marketing science and business marketing strategy.

What the fee buys

Free, unproctored certificates prove that someone with the candidate's login passed a test. A proctored exam proves that the candidate did, under time pressure, without help. For an employer hiring a junior paid social specialist that difference is real, and it gives the Meta associate credential a kind of weight its beginner label does not hint at. The trade-off is scope. Every Meta certificate is about one company's platforms and tools, and none of them tests whether you can make an advert people want to watch.

Before booking

• The free practice test comes before paying; it exists to show whether the candidate is ready.
• Budget for a possible retake, since each attempt is charged in full.
• Pair it with a free, broader certificate such as HubSpot's Inbound Marketing or Google's Search, which cover the parts of marketing Meta's exams leave out.