Where Can You Find PPC Talents?
Besides managing multiple paid search marketing projects with a very talented campaign management team, recently with the help of some very experienced human resource personnel, I have also been chatting to possible candidates who may eventually be working for Clicks2Customers as campaign managers. The major duties of a campaign manager include:
- Campaign planning, strategy and implementation
- Conducting research, collating and reporting on competitive data, targeting, keyword research
- Setting up, trafficking and tracking of media campaigns
- Creating campaign optimization rule sets
- Campaign monitoring, data analysis and optimization
- Financial management of paid search campaigns
- Forecasting of financial performance
Having the qualities below will be advantageous:
- Knowledge of paid search marketing and affiliate marketing industries and/or experience in running and managing PPC Campaigns, specifically on Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing & MSN Adcenter Advertising Platforms
- One of these language skills: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Portuguese, Polish, or Russian
- Analytical, numerical, systematic and creative aptitude
- Extremely high attention to detail
Anyway, I have categorized the possible talents into 5 different source types:
- Have you worked as part of a PPC ‘In-house team’ of a business?
- Have you worked in a search marketing agency?
- Have you worked in both mentioned above?
- Do you have no PPC experience, but have some Internet marketing background?
- Do you have no PPC experience nor Internet related background, but have potential?
Those who have worked as part of a PPC ‘in-house team’ (or business)
Companies that have their own PPC in-house team usually are either of very large size or are in some specialized sectors (e.g. financial services, etc). The PPC guy is a real specialist in the sector of business with fairly good PPC experience.
If he (or she) happens to work for a large company, the environment can be a little more complex which should have allowed him (or her) to sharpen some important inter-personal skills.
However, the true problem with this is in-house team are usually small. Ideally with a large business and assuming the business has over 30 web properties, a team from 5 to 6 people should be able to handle. In some small businesses, a single person is the PPC team. With this type of environment, it is never easy for your PPC guy to grow in experience as there is simply lack in competition and co-operation.
Those who have worked in a search marketing agency
Comparing to a PPC guy from an in-house team, normally an expert from a search marketing agency is slightly less expensive and has a bit more solid experience to offer. He (or she) usually gained his (or her) experience from working with various types of clients in different sectors (For example, travel and retail).
Also in the same company, there are more employees specialized in paid search marketing, this means constant competition and collaboration in the same (or similar) skill-sets will only drive up skills of one another.
Those who have worked in both
The advantage of having this type of PPC expert in your company is that he (or she) would already be extremely experienced due to the exposure to large variety of clients including both internal and external clients. Those clients who may be in different sectors including travel, retail, financial services, education and more. This expert can give you a large range of business insights and directions besides his expertise in paid search marketing.
The one problem is that he (or she) can be extremely expensive. However, the person may worth his price, if you desperately require a guy with both experience and insights to drive your business to the right direction.
My own experience
About myself, I have experience from initially working in an in-house team of a business (in one of the very specialized sectors) and then in a highly performance-driven search marketing agency (affiliate) company servicing multiple sectors. The experience that I gained in both places allowed me to build up my in-depth knowledge both in PPC and a large variety of sectors.
Posted on August 3, 2007
Filed Under PPC |
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5 Responses to “Where Can You Find PPC Talents?”
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Hey Gordon!
I guess this make you extremely expensive!!!
B
Barry, you’ve got the point!
But seriously, we’re still really looking for talented people who can be successful in paid search. It would be great in you can refer someone to us.
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Gordon,
Why not train your own team of specialist?