Skool vs Discord vs Reddit vs Slack for Learning Google Ads
Where should you learn Google Ads: Skool, Discord, Reddit or Slack? An honest comparison of each room, who it fits, and how to tell a good one from a dead one.
- 12,000+PMax campaigns audited
- 200+Live ecom clients
- €200M+Tracked sales
For learning Google Ads, use Reddit for quick second opinions, Discord for fast chat if the server is active, Slack for peer groups at a similar stage, and Skool when you want a learning path and live calls in one place. No room beats a small real test budget. Pick by the problem you have this week.
One honest note first. We run the Google Ads eCom Lab, a free Skool community at skool.com/google-ads-ecom with 1,600+ ecom operators inside, so we are not neutral. We will tell you where each room is weak, ours included. Everything below is checkable, and we link the sources. If you want the full picture for a store owner, start with our Google Ads dropshipping guide.
What Makes a Learning Room Good?
Forget the app for a minute. The platform matters less than four things.
- Who answers. Someone who runs live accounts, or whoever happens to be online?
- Fit. Does the room cover ecom and Shopping, or is it every kind of ad mixed together?
- Proof. Do people post real screenshots with real numbers?
- Is it alive. Does the owner still show up?
That last one is a trap with free rooms. A free community dies if the operator checks out. A free Discord that went quiet six months ago is not worth joining, even at zero cost. Check the last week of posts before you join anything.
Reddit: Fast, Free, Unfiltered
Reddit is the biggest room. r/PPC showed 286,124 members on 2 October 2026. It is free and fast.
What it does well. Bad advice often gets argued down in the replies. Nobody is selling you anything, so answers are blunt. For a sanity check on whether an idea is silly, Reddit is good.
Where it breaks for ecom. r/PPC mixes lead gen, local services and software with ecom. The person answering your Merchant Center question may have never touched a product feed. r/dropshipping is ecom-heavy but light on ads and skews to beginners. And nobody can see your account, your feed or your margins, so the advice is generic by design.
Best use. One clean general question. Is this bidding setup sane? Is this CPC normal in my vertical? Has anyone seen this bug today? Check the commenter's history before you act on a reply.
We wrote a longer breakdown in our answer on whether r/PPC advice is reliable.
Discord: Quick Chat, Uneven Quality
Discord is where a lot of the younger dropshipping crowd talks, usually attached to a YouTuber or a paid program.
What it does well. The good servers are fast and current. Members talk in real time instead of waiting days for a reply.
Where it breaks. The bad servers are pump rooms. Questions pile up and nobody answers. Quality swings a lot from server to server, which is why the app name tells you nothing.
How to judge a server. Do members post real screenshots with real numbers? Does anyone with results stay after their course launch? If not, leave.
We list the Discord servers that exist in the next section.
Google Ads Discord Servers: What Exists
We checked on 2 October 2026. There are fewer than you would guess.
The biggest is the Google Advertising and Measurement Community. Google Ads Developer Relations runs it. It showed 24,012 members and 1,249 online. It is built for people who work with the Google Ads API and measurement tools, not for store owners.
A server called Google Ads Unofficial Support is listed on Disboard. The tag page shows no member count, and the listing was last bumped 101 days before we looked. Check that it is still alive before you join.
AB Inner Circle has a private Discord for its paying members. The invite is not public and we found no member count we could trust.
Our room, Google Ads eCom Lab, is on Skool, not Discord. If a Discord is a must for you, one of these will serve you better.
Slack: Small Peer Groups
Slack is the least common of the four for learning Google Ads. The Slack groups people name in ecom threads are peer groups.
In the ecom threads we checked, people named W6 on Slack, described as for stores over 1 million dollars a year, and Limited Supply's Slack group. The same threads mostly named newsletters and Slack groups, not Skool or Discord.
What it does well. Peers at a similar level. If you already run a larger store, a gated peer group can be useful.
Where it breaks. It is not built to teach a beginner Google Ads from zero. Entry can depend on your store size. And a Slack group is a chat room, not a learning path.
Skool: Course and Community in One Place
Skool is a community platform. Think of Slack and a course platform in one app. It is where our own room lives.
What it does well. You get a learning path, a feed of questions and, in the better rooms, live calls. For a beginner who wants structure, that is a plus over a pure chat server.
Where it breaks. Skool is only the container. Plenty of Skool groups are paid programs built around one creator's playbook. Others have a quiet feed. The same rule applies: check that the owner shows up and that members post real results.
Our room. The free Google Ads community we run is for ecom operators. It is free, has 1,600+ members, runs monthly live calls, and focuses on Google Ads and Shopping questions on real stores. It is not a general dropshipping room. Product research and TikTok strategy are thin there on purpose. If your question is not about Google, another room will serve you better.
Side by Side
| Discord | Slack | Skool | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed of answers | Fast | Fast in an active server | Chat room | Feed plus live calls in the better rooms |
| Sees your account | No | Only what members choose to post | Peers at your level | Depends on the room |
| Learning path | No | Rarely | No | Often built in |
| Main risk | Generic advice | Pump rooms and dead servers | Gated, peer-only | Paid funnels or a quiet feed |
| Best for | One clean general question | Fast chat in a live server | Peers at a similar stage | Structure plus live calls |
Which Room for Which Problem?
- Quick sanity check on a general question: Reddit.
- Fast chat while you work: an active Discord server.
- Peer talk at a bigger store size: a Slack peer group.
- A path from zero plus live calls: a Skool room with an active owner.
- Theme or checkout issues: Shopify Community, not any of these.
If your problem is a Merchant Center flag or a Shopping feed, pick a room where members run ecom Google Ads. A generic ads room will give a generic answer.
The Part No Room Can Do for You
Rooms help you think. They do not replace reps. A small real budget teaches you faster than a playlist. In our own community answer we suggest 50 euros a day for a month. That is the amount we use to test a new store, because less than that often does not give Google enough conversion data to learn from.
Read how we size that test in our answer on where dropshippers actually learn Google Ads, and see how the rooms compare for a free learner in our best Google Ads community comparison. If you are a beginner, our community guide for beginners lists what to check before you join. For the Reddit side in more depth, see the forum comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Skool better than Discord for learning Google Ads?
It depends on the room, not the app. Skool bundles a course and a community in one place, which suits people who want structure. Discord is faster and looser. Judge any room by whether members post real numbers and whether the owner is still active.
Is Reddit a good place to learn Google Ads?
It is good for quick second opinions and bad for anything that depends on your account. Nobody can see your feed or margins. Use it for one clean general question and check the commenter's history before you act.
Are Slack groups useful for Google Ads?
Sometimes. The Slack groups people name in ecom threads are small peer groups, and one is aimed at stores over 1 million dollars a year. They help if you match that stage. They are not built to teach a beginner.
Is There a Google Ads Discord for Ecommerce?
We did not find a public one built for ecom. The biggest Google Ads server is the official Google Advertising and Measurement Community, with 24,012 members on 2 October 2026, and it is for API and measurement developers. AB Inner Circle has a private Discord for paying members. Our room, Google Ads eCom Lab, is free and lives on Skool.
Can I learn Google Ads for free?
Yes. Free communities, free guides and a small real test budget can teach you a lot. The risk with free rooms is that they die when the owner stops showing up, so check recent activity before you join.