Pay-per-click (PPC) industry has seen the best years for itself in terms of increased demand. Though PPC is considered as one of the highest revenue-generating forms of advertising, it still has a lack of experts and specialists to fulfill the demand. This article will guide PPC career enthusiasts to make a successful career in the PPC industry.
What is PPC?
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is one of the major forms of digital marketing which has revolutionized the way marketing is done these days. In this form of marketing, an advertiser is supposed to pay a small amount every time a user clicks on an ad and has the high power to target ads to the right audience at the right time. This is a faster and more efficient way to bring in relevant traffic to the website and enjoy higher ROI if the correct approach is followed.
Few major heroes in the PPC industry are search engines like Google & Bing and social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn & Twitter. The fundamental difference between search engines and social media is the process of targeting the audience. In search engines, audiences are targeted based on the keywords they use. This is the ultimate inbound targeting, wherein a user is actively searching for a product, service or information. In social media channels, audiences are targeted based on their demographics, location, interest, behavior, intent, etc.
Why should one consider PPC Career?
Gone are the days when marketing was all about printing media, banner ads, cold calling, and fieldwork. In the revolution of the internet, the one department which had revolutionized drastically is marketing. The need for today’s marketing professionals has shot up like a rocket. So how do we define today’s marketer? A person with the right combination of creative and analytical skills.
To be precise about the PPC career, this one has got the most attention of business owners due to its swift result driving capability, objective nature and a big ocean of optimization capability. The person responsible for PPC campaigns can bring a drastic difference to the business. Hence, companies are looking out for skilled and talented PPC experts who can drive the most desirable results.
One more major factor for the increased demand for PPC professionals are the cost & revenue balance which these platforms can bring to the company.
All these pros of digital marketing has resulted in the high investment of businesses in this sector;
What does it take to become a PPC Professional?
The good thing about choosing PPC career path is there is no prerequisite degree required. Having said that having a master’s or degree in business studies is good but that doesn’t change the fact of having PPC professionals in the market from arts, commerce, engineering, and other stream backgrounds. The common factor among these people is the passion for the PPC industry and drive to achieve the dream PPC result.
There is no hard and fast way to be successful in PPC career, but there are some tried and tested ways which have worked for many professionals;
1. SELF-LEARN
If you are determined to learn PPC, there is no stopping. The internet is flooded with content to help one to learn PPC. The catch is to find the right source and dedicatedly learn. For a fresher in this field, everything might look like a foreign language, but patience and focus is the key to achieve the target. This is the phase which will help you to decide whether PPC is your cup of tea. Once you are confident about your knowledge, take the next step.
2. GET-CERTIFIED
After getting the initial idea of PPC, it’s recommended to get professional guidance to master PPC. The knowledge shared in these PPC courses is based on real-time experience which will be a very valuable learning. It’s crucial to choose the best course in the market which enables you to upgrade your skills. A certification will also be a very important way to secure a job or first freelance project as this will be proof of your PPC skill.
3. GET GOOGLE ADWORDS CERTIFIED
Google has full-fledged resources for Google Adwords enthusiasts to learn the platform in detail. This is the free resource material organized into 5 courses; Adwords Fundamentals, Search Advertising, Display Advertising, Video Advertising, and Shopping Advertising. Individuals can take the exam in the aforementioned courses and get AdWords certification. These certifications hold a high value in the industry.
4. GET PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
As much as you learn about PPC, the knowledge of practical experience is unmatchable. PPC world is a big ocean, it’s all about varied strategies as per the nature of a business. It gets really interesting and challenging when applied in the real world. A few ways to get practical experience is by doing an internship, live projects with startups, freelance projects, etc.
These are the few useful ways to begin the journey in the PPC industry. It is a pretty challenging and dynamic industry. It is essential to keep oneself updated in this competitive era.
What are the various job profiles available for PPC career aspirants?
PPC industry has evolved over a period of time and has given birth to various job profiles. Though there are many nomenclatures available for these profiles, the major job profiles are as below:
1. PPC Account Manager
PPC Account Manager is the senior-most position. This person will be responsible for the overall functioning of PPC campaigns for the client or in-house company. The major responsibilities of this position is to ensure smooth sailing of existing campaigns by structuring proper reporting methodology, identify & launch new campaigns as per business requirement and initiate and monitor campaign optimization ideas to deliver better ROI.
2. PPC Specialist
PPC specialist is the second-highest position in the industry after account manager. This person works closely with the account manager to realize all the PPC optimization ideas. The major responsibilities of this role are to brainstorm optimization ideas with the account manager, do the necessary data analysis and practically apply the strategy to test and optimize campaigns.
3. PPC Executive
PPC executive is an entry-level job in the PPC industry. PPC executive works with PPC specialist to practically implement all the campaigns, perform campaign modification and generate specified reports. This role is an operational role and requires a lot of practical knowledge of the platform
A Typical Day of a PPC Professional
Let’s check out a typical day of a PPC professional with the aid of a fictional character Sam. Sam is an account manager in a reputed PPC agency. He handles 2 clients who are into real estate and education industry respectively. He has been recently assigned a new client who is into the e-commerce industry. Let’s see how his day rolls out
9:00 AM – Sam starts his day by checking his emails. Responds to the important ones and marks the ones which need some work to be done. He checks the dashboard which shows the important metrics of his 2 clients’ AdWords accounts such as impressions, CTR, average position, conversion rate, etc.
10:00 AM – Sam shares weekly performance report to his clients. One of his subordinate prepares the report and shares to him. Sam reviews the report and adds summary and annotations wherever necessary and shares it to his clients. He also responds to a few of the important emails.
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM – For his new client, Sam needs to prepare a presentation about the campaign plan. He needs to meet the client in 1 week. He starts doing some preliminary work for the same. He studies the clients’ and competitors’ business, website and offering in detail. He makes note of common facts and unique values of the client. He explains the outcome to his subordinate and delegates him to prepare a detailed keywords plan based on his findings.
1:00 to 1:30 PM – Lunch break
1:30 to 2:00 PM- Completes responding to all the emails
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM – Attends a meeting with his real estate client. The real estate client has a new project coming up. They have updated Sam about this and wanted him to develop PPC strategy for the same. Sam PPC strategy includes aggressive display AdWords and Facebook advertising. He is recommending to go for in-market audience, affinity audience and custom affinity audience for display AdWords and interest & lookalike audience targeting for Facebook. He works out a tentative budget for the client and concludes the meeting by requesting for professional photographs of the property.
4:00 to 5:30 PM – Receives the detailed keyword report from his subordinate. Sam works with his team to structure the keywords into ad groups and campaigns and calculates the tentative budget required for the account. He prepares 3 proposals for the client which consists of keywords of different costs along with the expected ROI
5:30 to 6:00 PM- He prepares minutes of meeting of the meeting with his real estate client and shares it with the client and his teammates. He rolls up his day.
How to Prepare For PPC Job Interview?
If you follow the guidelines of “What it takes to become a PPC professional?” there is nothing much you need to do for the interview. However, there are few things you can consider;
- Research about the company you are applying for and understand their PPC strategy by visiting their social media pages and googling their potential keywords
- Based on the research, prepare a few inputs for the company. Look for a good opportunity and be smart and humble enough to give your view. This showcases your dedication and passion for PPC
- Though you have done certifications and know the nitty-gritty of PPC, you might forget a few things. So it’s wise to revise a few important concepts. You can go through articles sharing important PPC interview questions
- Prepare a small project report of the PPC project you have done
The above steps should be decent enough to crack your dream PPC interview!
Let’s Hit the Industry
Now that you know what is PPC and how PPC is ruling the businesses today and how much demand is there for PPC career, it’s time to roll your sleeves and hit the industry. You can be a freelancer and work on small projects, be an entrepreneur and help startups in their PPC journey or join an organization and help in their growth. The choice is yours!
Image credits: freepik, raxfactor
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