Facebook provides a marketing certification program called Facebook Blueprint.
It gives digital marketers the ability to showcase their skills using Facebook and its other products.
In this guide, I’ll explain in detail how the Facebook Blueprint Certification works, how you can get it, and if it is worth your effort.
What is Facebook Blueprint Certification?
The Facebook Blueprint Certification is the official Facebook certification program for marketers.
It validates a digital marketer’s mastery of Facebook and its other properties like Instagram and Messenger.
There are nine different certifications available:
- Facebook Certified Digital Marketing Associate
- Facebook Certified Marketing Science Professional
- Facebook Certified Creative Strategy Professional
- Facebook Certified Media Planning Professional
- Facebook Certified Media Buying Professional
- Facebook Certified Marketing Developer
- Facebook Certifies Advanced Marketing Developer
- Facebook Certified Advertising API Developer
- Facebook Certified Community Manager
Each certification has an exam that you will need to pass before becoming certified.
Passing the exam requires you to study important concepts and have experience on Facebook’s platforms. The exams are a bit more challenging than other certification exams as they have a more thorough testing process.
This helps make the Facebook Blueprint Certification even more respected.
When you pass the exam, you’ll receive a digital badge verifying your achievement.
The badge will contain the issue date, the expiration date, and the specific exam that you passed.
You can share this badge on your LinkedIn account and other social media profiles.
There are two types of Facebook certifications; Associate and Professional.
Associate certifications are valid for 24 months. Professional certifications are valid for 12 months.
Facebook provides its own study material in the form of Facebook Blueprint Courses, study guides, and practice tests.
The Blueprint Courses cover all the topics related to the certifications and are a great place to begin preparation.
Facebook Blueprint career benefits
Having a Facebook Blueprint Certification can prove beneficial throughout your marketing career. When you’re applying for different digital marketing positions the certification shows that you know how Facebook marketing works.
You will appear a more qualified candidate than anyone who is not certified.
A team full of Facebook-certified professionals can also help a digital marketing agency stand out to prospective clients.
Is the Facebook Blueprint Certification Free?
Facebook Blueprint Certification is not free. It requires you to pay $150 for each exam you take with advanced exams costing more. If you fail the exam, you’ll have to pay to take it again.
The exam fee is the only cost required to obtain a Facebook Blueprint Certification. You can use the Facebook Blueprint Courses to prepare for free.
Is Facebook Blueprint Certification Hard to Get?
The Facebook Blueprint Certification exams may require more preparation than other digital marketing certifications.
That said, with enough studying and working experience using Facebook products, you can get the certification without much trouble.
With the FaceBook Blueprint courses and other available studying material, there are plenty of resources to help you prepare.
You are also able to retake the exam as often as needed.
How to Get Facebook Blueprint Certification
These are the four steps to follow to become a Facebook Certified Professional.
- Start With Facebook Certified Digital Marketing Associate
- Choose a Professional Certification Based on Your Job Role
- Prepare for the Facebook Exams
- Pass the Blueprint Certification Exams and Get Certified
1. Start With Facebook Certified Digital Marketing Associate
You should start your Facebook Blueprint journey by becoming a Facebook Certified Digital Marketing Associate.
This entry-level certification covers the core concepts of Facebook products. By the end, you’ll know how to plan, create, and monitor campaigns on Facebook.
The 100-101: Facebook Certified Digital Marketing Associate Exam covers the following topics:
The Value of Facebook (8%)
- How to identify the different Facebook products
- How to communicate the value proposition of the Facebook
Establish Platform Presence (13%)
- How to establish a business presence on Facebook and Instagram
- How to explain to set up an ad account
- Mobile creative best practices
Advertising Fundamentals (25%)
- Know the difference between an ad and a page post
- How to structure a Facebook campaign
- How to match business goals to campaign objectives
- Know the value of the Facebook Pixel
- How Facebook charges for ads
- Know how Facebook protects user data
Create and Manage Ads (46%)
- Know the tools available to create and manage ads
- Know the settings available at the campaign, ad set, and ad level
- How to determine the campaign objective to achieve business goals
- Know the different audience targeting options
- How to select the right ad format
- Know the different budget and scheduling options
Reporting (8%)
- Know how to read campaign results through ads reporting
- Know how to measure the success of a campaign
Facebook gives you a list of the best Blueprint courses to review in preparation for the exam. They also have a study guide and practice exam.
The 200+ page PDF study guide goes through all the skills you need to know to pass the exam. Beyond Facebook’s own courses, there are plenty of other Facebook online courses you can take to help you prepare.
The exam costs $99. It can be taken online but you must schedule it in advance.
2. Choose a Professional Certification Based on Your Job Role
Once you get the associate-level Facebook Blueprint Certification, you can start preparing for the professional certifications that best suit your job role.
Facebook offers a variety of certifications for marketers and developers. Here are the Facebook Blueprint Professional Certifications:
200-101: Facebook Certified Marketing Science Professional
This certification verifies your ability to use data insights and measurements to make marketing decisions.
Facebook states that the ideal candidates have data manipulation and statistics skills along with three years of experience consulting on measurement strategies.
Possible job roles:
- Data scientist
- Media analyst
- Quantitative researcher
- Technical consultant
- Facebook Ads Specialist
300-101: Facebook Certified Creative Strategist Professional
This certification shows that you have advanced strategic skills to create data-driven creative briefs. It also shows that you know how to design creatives to maximize the results on mobile.
It is a good choice for professionals with experience developing creative advertising strategies.
400-101: Facebook Certified media planning professional
This certification verifies your ability to design a Facebook marketing strategy from start to finish. In the exam, you’ll have to create a Facebook ad campaign including selecting a budget and other ad settings.
The certification is a good fit for digital planners, programmatic planners, media planners, and digital marketing consultants.
410-101: Facebook Certified media buying professional
This certification verifies you understand the tools, best practices, skills, and policies related to buying ads on Facebook.
The certification is a good choice for digital media buyers, account managers, marketing executives, account executives, social media managers.
500-101: Facebook Certified Marketing Developer
This certification verifies that you know how to implement Facebook’s technical solutions like its Business Manager and Tracking Pixel.
The certification requires you to pass both a multiple-choice exam and a coding assessment.
It is a good fit for frontend engineers, software developers, IT consultants, and technology consultants.
510-101: Facebook Certified Advanced Marketing Developer
This certification shows that you know how to install the Facebook SDK for Android and iOS. It also tests your ability to troubleshoot issues related to the SDK.
The exam has a multiple-choice section and a code assessment.
The certification is ideal for software developers, full-stack engineers, and mobile web developers.
520-101: Facebook Certified Advertising API Developer
This certification shows that you know how to configure and troubleshoot the Facebook APIs. The exam contains multiple-choice questions and a code assessment.
This certification is a good option for full-stack engineers, software developers, and solutions architects.
3. Prepare for the Facebook Exams
After you determine which Facebook Blueprint Certifications you want to get, you’ll want to begin preparing for the exams.
As I’ve mentioned, there is plenty of material available that you can use to prepare for the exams. Some of these resources are from Facebook while some are from other digital marketing companies.
Let’s examine some of the best tools you can use to prepare for the certification exams:
Facebook Blueprint Courses
Facebook’s own Blueprint Courses are a great place to learn what you need to pass the exam.
The courses are broken into the following categories:
Get started with Facebook – These courses teach about the fundamentals of Facebook. They teach how to use Business Manager, how to create Facebook pages, and how ad policies work.
Get started with advertising – These courses teach the basics of advertising with Facebook. How the Ads manager works, how to create ads, how to measure ad performance, and more.
Learn advanced buying options – These courses go into more detail about buying options like reach and frequency.
Target the right audience – These courses explain how to target the right audience in your campaigns. They include lookalike audiences, custom audiences, core audiences, and more.
Build awareness – These courses teach how to use ads to increase your business’ visibility.
Increase online sales – These courses teach you how to structure your ad campaigns to maximize sales for your online channels.
Increase in-store sales – These courses teach brick and mortar businesses how to increase foot traffic and sales to their physical location.
Choose ad formats – These courses teach you how to select the most effective ad format for your campaigns. It includes how to create effective ads for mobile users.
Get creative inspiration – These courses teach you creative best practices and how ad creatives affect your campaigns.
Manage ads – These courses teach you how to monitor your campaigns’ performance and how to make adjustments to optimize results.
Measure ad performance – These courses teach you how to thoroughly analyze the data from your ad campaigns.
Learn about Messenger – These courses teach you how to use Facebook Messenger to reach more customers.
Learn about Instagram – These courses teach you how to run effective ad campaigns on Instagram.
Distribute and monetize content – These courses teach how to use native ads, stories, Facebook live, subscriptions, and more to monetize content.
To find the lessons you need to study for your specific certification, go to the exam page for that certification.
There you will see an Exam Preparation section with resources to help you get ready. Click ‘Get Started’ in the Learn With Blueprint box.
This will take you to a collection of Facebook Blueprint courses related to the certification.
Practice exams
One of the best ways you can prepare for the certification exam is to take practice exams. Facebook provides a 20 to 30-minute practice exam for all its certifications.
These exams will give you an idea of the nature of the real exam. Facebook will show you which questions you got wrong. You can use these insights to know what you need to study more.
The link to the practice exam is on the main page for the exam, the same as the link to the Blueprint course collection.
Study Guide
Each Blueprint Certification also has a study guide available on the main exam pages.
The guides are in PDF format, each giving you hundreds of pages of material to review.
This may be less engaging than a video course, but the guides will cover everything you need to know for the exam.
Other Facebook Courses
In addition to Facebook’s Blueprint courses, there are other Facebook marketing courses you can review to prepare for the exam.
A good course will go into just as much (if not more) depth as the Blueprint courses. It will also provide you actionable resources like step-by-step guides, templates, and checklists.
An example of one such course is the Facebook Ads Course by Reliablesoft Digital Marketing Academy.
The course gives a step-by-step walkthrough on how to run successful campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.
The Reliablesoft team has helped clients more than 5X their ad spend. With the course, you can learn the same blueprint to generate consistent results.
The course format is made up of both video and text. There are tutorials, screenshots, checklists, and step-by-step instructions.
It is designed for total beginners as well as individuals who have dabbled in Facebook marketing but have never had much success.
A few of the topics covered in the course include:
- Facebook Pixel Installation
- Custom and Lookalike Audiences
- Facebook Campaign Structure
- Facebook Sales Funnels
- Facebook Retargeting Campaigns
- How to Create an Ad Set
- How to Create Facebook Ads
- Facebook Campaign Optimization
- Facebook Campaign Monitoring
- Landing Page Optimization Tips
- Running Campaigns on Instagram
4. Pass the Blueprint Certification Exams and Get Certified
Once you’ve finished preparing, it’s time to take and pass the exam.
The length of each exam depends on the level of the certification. This can range from 90 to 105 minutes. Certifications for developers also have coding assessments which can last up to two hours
Exams are scored out of 1000, with a 700 needed to pass. You can find a complete breakdown of all the subjects covered in the exam on that certification’s main webpage.
The cost of each exam ranges from $99 to $150.
Local test center
A local test center is a public place for delivering the exam in person. You’ll need to bring your government ID and will be asked to empty your pockets. You are unable to bring any personal items or food into the testing room.
Note, that taking the exam at the local center is not an option for every Blueprint Certification
Take the Exams Online
You also have the option to take the exam online whether at home or your office. After you schedule the exam, Facebook will test your internet connection to ensure that it meets the minimum requirements for online testing.
The exam is monitored by an online proctor. Participants must agree to have their entire test session recorded for both audio and video.
Like the in-person exam, personal items are not allowed in your testing room. Participants must remove all items from their test-taking workstations.
You’ll also need to have a copy of your government ID and be prepared to take a photo of yourself using your webcam
Private Access Code
Another way to take the exam is at a testing event. These exams are not open to the public and require a private access code for you to register.
When you select this option on the exam registration, a text field will appear asking you for the code.
Once you provide the Private Access Code you can proceed with the registration.
After The Exam
You can then log into CertMetrics to view your exam score and report.
If you’ve passed, congratulations. If not, you’ll have to take the exam again.
You can retake the exam as often as needed but there is a five-day waiting period from your most recent attempt.
You’ll have to pay the full exam fee for each time that you take the test.
Getting recertified
The Facebook Blueprint Associate certifications are valid for 24 months. The Professional certifications are valid for 12 months.
Facebook requires you to show that your expertise is up to date to renew the certificate.
There are two options for keeping the certificate active
Retake the exam – Starting six months before your certification expires, you can retake the certification exam. The procedures will be the same as when you took the exam to initially receive the certification.
Refresh – Every other year, you can choose to renew your certification by taking a two-hour online course and a quick 20 question assessment.
The course becomes available six months before your certification expires. It is pass or fail and you can retake the assessment after 24 hours. The course and assessment are both free.
Facebook Blueprint Certification Alternatives
The Facebook Blueprint Certification certainly has its benefits. That said, it is not the only digital marketing certification that can benefit your career.
Here are some of the other benefits of pursuing a digital marketing certification:
Clear learning path – Courses give you a path to follow, helping you to learn digital marketing faster than you would by randomly researching material.
Keep up with changes – Many digital marketing certification programs are updated regularly to reflect changes in digital marketing best practices. You can review these updates to keep your expertise current.
Learn from experts – Good digital marketing certification programs are taught by industry experts. This is a great way to get practical guidance from people who have real-world success.
In addition to digital marketing certifications, there are also other social media marketing and digital marketing courses you can follow to expand your knowledge.
Is Facebook Blueprint Certification Worth it?
If you are a digital marketer who uses social media for marketing, you can benefit from a Facebook Blueprint Certification.
With its rigorous testing protocol and deep knowledge requirements, the certification is well respected among digital marketers.
It validates your knowledge and skills and shows that you took the effort to further your career by pursuing the certification.
As a Blueprint certified marketer, you will refresh your knowledge of the Facebook platform by keeping your certification active.
There are other digital marketing certifications you can use to improve your knowledge and verify your skills.
These certifications can be more or less intensive (and expensive) than the Blueprint certifications. While they focus on a broader-level of digital marketing, they can be equally beneficial to your career.
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