eBay Is A Microcosm of the Entrepreneur’s Journey

Over the years, on and off, I have been selling items on eBay (and occasionally buying too). Recently, I started selling a few items again and have been having a blast. If you’re a digital marketer and/or entrepreneur, I want to encourage you to start selling on eBay. It’s not about the profits you will earn, it’s about the education you will receive in what I like to call, “The school of eBay.” eBay is a microcosm of the entrepreneur’s journey. Let’s explore some of my personal eBay insights…

Entrepreneurial Insight 1: You are a salesperson and marketer

I’m a big fan of digital marketing as a career path because the best digital marketers are set up to do anything, including staring their own business or even running a huge business. Why? Sales and marketing skills are absolutely foundational. If you do not know how to sell/market, how are you going to convince people to buy your product, get investors to invest in your company, and influence employees to join your team?

Want to test a new sales strategy? Want to test new marketing ad copy? eBay provides the most amazing platform to test anything. I have experienced first hand that great sales and marketing drives more bids and a higher sales price on eBay. While I want to stay humble and keep challenging myself, I feel like I’m an eBay copy master. These same transferrable skills impact everything you do as an entrepreneur. Never stop selling!

Entrepreneurial Insight 2: You better understand your market

Certain categories on eBay are hot and others are not. You can’t sell just anything. You need to enter the right market with the right strategy. The same goes for starting a company. You can have an amazing idea, but it’s not going to thrive if the market is just not there. Let eBay teach you market research skills. Research all kinds of crazy markets that you never knew existed. Maybe it will come full circle and eBay will inspire you to start a business in a category you have never knew existed.

Entrepreneurial Insight 3: Higher risk often equals higher reward

Are you a risk taker? Do you like to start your eBay auctions at $1 with no reserve, auctioning off items of high value? Or, do you prefer high opening bids with reserves and high buy it now prices? Different strategies work for different situations. Try them all!

In my experience, especially if you researched your market well and developed an incredible sales strategy, it’s best to just start with a very low opening bid and no reserve. By taking on risk as a seller you create a ton of bidding and interest in your auction. You likely achieve a higher selling price as bidders fight to win. The same is true for great entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need to be comfortable with risk and know when a calculated risk is warranted.

Entrepreneurial Insight 4: Patience is everything

When you’ve been selling on eBay for a while, you will have some buyers fall through. You will have an incredible auction that received tons of bids. You will be so happy with your sold price, and ready for your top bidder to pay. Then, the top bidder will go silent and refuse to pay. You may even need to open a "resolution" request with eBay to get things cleared up. That payment may never come through and you may need to run another auction for the same product or offer the product to your next highest bidder via a second chance offer.

Selling on eBay is not easy work. You need to be patient. You can never count your money until it’s in your PayPal account. The same is true of any entrepreneur. Start a company today and your payoff may be in ten years. And, while you’re waiting for your payoff, you may face a ton of challenges. Be ready and embrace the challenges!

Entrepreneurial Insight 5: Be comfortable wearing all hats

If you’re a one person operation like me you’ll be researching markets, finding the right products to sell, writing ad copy, building your reputation as a reliable and trustworthy seller, creating auctions, communicating with buyers, packing and shipping items, managing your ratings and reviews, and so much more. Entrepreneurs wear so many hats, many more than the eBay seller. However, eBay certainly gives a flavor of what it’s like to wear a ton of hats. Be comfortable wearing lots of hats, this skill will take you far in life and business.

Entrepreneurial Insight 6: The customer journey is never over

You sell your product, receive payment, and ship it to the customer. You’re done, right? No way! It’s all about customer service. In fact, Your Customer Care Is Your Brand, in my opinion. Don’t just ship your item, go above and beyond. Did the buyer pay only for regular mail? Happy with your sales price? Why not invest a few extra dollars (out of your margin) and ship via Priority Mail? Will that impact the buyer? Absolutely! I’m sure they’ll write a glowing review and visit your store often. It’s all about the details and delighting your customer.

Entrepreneurial Insight 7: Do you have "street smarts"?

I went to Stanford. I know a lot of people that have amazing book smarts. However, do they have street smarts? And, what does this really mean?

I think of street smarts as intuition and judgment. When you deal with customers in business, you will hear the most wild stories. Which stories do you trust, and how do you react in the moment?

An example: While eBay policy is to pay within 48 hours of an auction closing, buyers will come up with stories on why they can’t pay until later. Do you trust them or not? If you have good street smarts, you’ll know when to trust them. Entrepreneurs need to have book smarts and street smarts.

Summary

As someone who’s always looking to sharpen my skills, I truly value the testing and innovation done on nights and weekends, after work. If you’re looking to raise your game in business, consider selling on eBay. The insights you learn will make you a better entrepreneur!

Image of eBay © eBay Investor’s Website

Advanced Strategies For Digital Marketing Job Seekers

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 23 0

I’d like to share advanced tips on how you can land your next digital marketing job. Before we get into the tips, however, I’d like to share some background trends that directly affect the job market.

Background Trend 1: The Economy

We are certainly progressing in the economic cycle. We are almost 7-years into the economic upswing that started on January 1, 2009 when the S&P 500 bottomed at 797.87. Fast forward to September 23, 2015 and the S&P 500 is at 1,938.76, an increase of 143% from the low. (Data compliments of Yahoo! Finance.) Currently, the S&P 500 is hovering around all-time highs.

What does all of this mean? Investors are starting to get cautious. While the economy always marches forward, it’s not always in a uniform, straight line. That forward march is marked with peaks and troughs. As you get close to a peak (many think we are getting close now), investors tend to remain cautious. They tend to park cash on the sidelines in anticipation of uncertain times and potential future deals.

In my opinion, employers are a class of investors. Instead of investing in stocks, they invest in people, projects, and technology. Companies have a fixed investment budget, and that budget may be getting a little more cautious than it was a few years back. Of course, this does not apply to all situations, I’m speaking more in general. Also, it’s worth noting that this generalization is really difficult to apply to Silicon Valley tech scene that always seems to march onward and upward!

Background Trend 2: Our Profession

Digital marketing has matured as a career path. Back when I started in 2004, nobody had heard of digital marketing. It was the Wild West! I’ll never forget that it was nearly impossible to explain my job to others.

In the last 11+ years, a lot has happened. Our profession is the darling of job seekers everywhere. There are a lot of digital marketers out there. The talent pool is strong, and getting stronger every single day. I equate it to getting into Stanford. While it was incredibly, incredibly difficult getting into Stanford when I applied and attended, I’m sure it’s even more difficult now. The trend is towards more competition.

The Solution: Differentiate Yourself

Now, let’s say you’re in the market for a new digital marketing job. Are you going to let these trends frighten you? Are you going to give up? As someone who just started a new job a few months back, I personally encourage everyone reading to pursue your dreams. Your dream job may be your current one. Or, it may be something completely different!

How can you stand out in today’s dynamic job market? I just wrote an incredibly thorough guest blog post on this very topic over at the incomparable Acquisio blog! Please head on over and read my post on Ways To Stand Out In the Digital Marketing Job Market. I hope you enjoy the post!

Employment Tip: Don’t Catch A Falling Knife

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 13 0

If you’re an investor, you have probably heard the phrase, "You don’t watch to catch a falling knife!" This phrase basically means that you want to avoid investing in a stock that is plummeting. You never know when an equity in free-fall will reverse, and you can certainly get cut, seriously hurt, or even destroyed by catching a falling knife that keeps falling. Today’s post applies this very same concept to choosing your employer. You never want to work at a company that consistently underperforms (a falling knife), as this will certainly damage your career.

Now, as an aside, I don’t fully subscribe to this rule 100% in the world of investing. I’m a value investor, one that optimizes towards cash flow. When a stock I like is plummeting, I average down (lower prices mean higher yields as long as the yield is sustainable). I keep buying in small increments and ride the wave down. By avoiding a big lump sum investment, I spread my risk of catching that falling knife, a concept known as dollar cost averaging. Unfortunately, this side note will never work with your career because you are either all in or all out for the purposes of this article. You either work somewhere or you don’t, you can’t average down as in investing.

In Silicon Valley, your experience is everything. When you work at great companies, ones that are constantly growing, doors unlock. Everyone wants their business to grow and flourish. When building a world-class team, such companies hire employees who have experienced rapid growth before, employees who know what it’s like to work in a growth environment. Growth often comes down to the people and their way of operating. If you’ve been through rapid growth over and over, you have the right habits that all the top companies want!

Moreover, employers want top talent, a team of "A Players", so to speak. Just as a big name school (such as Stanford) improves your chances of landing a great job, having that big name success story on your resume improves your chances as well. Great schools and employers are not only about what you learn, they also represent one’s character, work ethic, and overall capabilities since it’s so difficult to get into those top schools and companies. They pre-screen you as a rock star candidate.

When you work at bad companies, ones that are shrinking or consistently facing challenge, doors close. Your experience is a reflection of you. Employers wonder why you stuck around so long at that dud of an employer. Could you not do any better? Did you not have the foresight to see what’s ahead? Did you personally contribute to the poor performance?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I commend those who take risk, those who enter a difficult situation and turn it around. Those turnaround artists are highly sought after in Silicon Valley. The key here, however, is to understand when to cut your losses. Not all turnarounds work out. You need to know when it’s time to throw in the towel, and move on.

Also, I like those who have a true breadth of experience, both good and bad. Bad experiences build character as a business leader. It’s ok to have one or two poor-performing companies on your resume, as long as the others are rock stars and as long as your tenure at those companies carries a story. Again, know when to cut your losses and have the foresight to choose wisely. Your experience is a reflection of you.

As an investor at heart, I like to choose employers wisely. When choosing your employer, you are making two investments. First and foremost, you are investing in yourself and your future, the topic of this post. Second, you are investing in the classical sense (for employers that provide stock options or other forms of ownership). In my opinion, you always want to gravitate towards high-growth companies, and cut your losses when you find yourself catching a falling knife.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed investment advisor and this post is not investment advice. This post is for entertainment purposes only.

From Digital Marketing To Loyalty Programs

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 7 0

You have a thriving career in customer acquisition marketing. You’re an expert at Google AdWords, retargeting, the ion interactive landing page platform, managing multi-million dollar campaigns, and so much more. One day, you decide to leave your job for a new one, and try something different: loyalty programs. Everyone around you questions your actions, but you are convinced. I actually know somebody who did just this (someone who used to be on my team), and I believe she made an incredible choice. Here’s why…

Starbucks iPhone app

Customer Acquisition Is A Springboard

I’m the biggest fan of digital marketing and customer acquisition marketing around. I have personally grown in this career from Marketing Associate at a startup to Vice President at a publicly-traded Nasdaq company. Then, I springboarded to Partner at a 40-year-old real estate development company, becoming the in-house resident technologist. While I still do marketing and customer acquisition, I also do so much more. I’m an investor. The skills you learn in customer acquisition prepare you for anything! At some point, I recommend that all customer acquisition professionals take advantage of that springboard to broaden their horizons. Enjoy the present moment, but also think about what’s next.

The professional who went from digital marketing to loyalty programs knows about career velocity. There are two types of learning: Depth and breadth. It’s a balancing act. Once you have depth (which is very difficult in something complex like customer acquisition), think about gaining breadth in something else, especially something related. In my opinion, this is the path to true leadership. Most importantly: Think about how you can leverage ideas and frameworks across channels, disciplines, and practices. It’s this high-level breadth of experience and thinking that adds great value to companies. This is only possible when you take risks and expand your horizons, at the right time.

Customer Retention Is Paramount

Those in digital marketing know that cost of acquisition is increasing each and every year. The marketplace keeps getting more and more competitive. CPCs are increasing in paid channels, like pay per click. Even free channels, like SEO, require more dedication and expertise than ever before.

When you acquire customers, it’s all about retaining them! My prediction: Customer retention will become the most important marketing practice. Despite the skepticism of others, the professional who decided to get into loyalty programs knew exactly this! You retain customers through an incredible product and customer service. You also retain customers through loyalty programs. A few examples: The Starbucks App, United MileagePlus, and Chase Ultimate Rewards.

I picked these examples because these are loyalty programs that I personal utilize, programs that keep me incredibly loyal to their brands.

Because of the Starbucks app, I think twice before going to Peets.
Because of MileagePlus, I only fly United, even if the route is not as ideal.
Because of Ultimate Rewards, I mostly use Chase credit cards.
Because of the ability to convert Chase Ultimate Rewards to United MileagePlus miles, I’m even more dedicated to these programs.

Loyalty Programs Bridge Marketing and Product

One of my favorite trends in marketing is the convergence of off-site and on-site experiences. Marketing is just as much about conversion rates as acquiring traffic. Marketing is just as much about back-end retention and lifetime revenue as it is about volume of orders. The professional who jumped into the loyalty programs made a move that gives her direct control over customer experience and ultimately lifetime revenue. Great marketers these days are also great product managers. Getting into the loyalty programs space gave this professional a great opportunity to leverage both disciplines at once.

Do you have any favorite loyalty programs? Have you taken any risks or big moves in your career?

Image of Starbucks App © Starbucks (and © PPCIan.com Starbucks Account)

My Favorite Digital Marketing Career Tips

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 19 0

I’m a huge fan of the digital marketing career path and have been truly lucky over the last ten-plus years. I’ve grown all the way from SEM Coordinator at a startup to Vice President, Customer Acquisition at a large, publicly-traded company. And, I’ve had the true honor of helping many others build long-lasting, thriving careers in digital marketing too.

Career Development

When my good friends at Acquisio offered me the opportunity to guest post on their amazing blog, I just had to write all about my top lessons learned from a career standpoint. Check it out: Digital Marketing Career Lessons Learned. In my guest post, I went all out! It’s a really long post, packed with tips. I’m always learning and growing. The tips in this post are those that are top-of-mind right now, and I hope they help in building your career.

While you’re over at Acquisio, I highly recommend subscribing to their blog and checking out their performance marketing platform. Their blog and technology are among the best in our industry.

Image of Career © iStockPhoto – rafal_olechowski

Travel Tips For Marketing Professionals (Long Post)

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jul 21 0

If you’re a digital marketing professional, it’s likely you have opportunities to travel. A few years back, I wrote a post about how PPC Jobs Are great For Travel. Fast forward a few more years, and I’ve learned a lot more about travel, tips which I’m thrilled to share in today’s post. Today’s post is a long one, with lots of tips, grab a cup of coffee and read on!

Tip 1: Take Advantage of Travel Loyalty Programs

Business Travel

In the world of business travel, it’s all about frequent flyer miles and hotel points. Make sure you sign up for airline and hotel loyalty programs. If you’re going to be traveling anyway, why not accumulate some miles and points? You’d be surprised: I’ve been super inconsistent about this in the past. There are certain trips where I wasn’t diligent to enter my loyalty program ids, and those points are lost forever! That said, going forward, I’m all about the points. (Side note: If you have good records/receipts, you may be able to get credited points and miles for trips taken in the last year, even if you didn’t enter your loyalty program id at the time of the trip. I recently did this with Marriott, for example, and they made it super easy.)

Most of us will not travel enough to qualify for the top tiers of these loyalty programs ("status"), that is unless you are a global client services professional, an agency professional that works with a geo-diversified portfolio of clients, or on the sales/business development side of things. That said, most of us manage to attend at least a few conferences/events each year. Don’t worry about having more miles and points than others. It’s not a race! Just focus on yourself. Don’t avoid signing up because you think your points are inconsequential.

Some of my favorite loyalty programs:

You’d be surprised how they add up over the years. As long as you remain loyal to a focused portfolio of airlines and hotels, your points will add up over time. Case in point: I recently leveraged 15,000 United MileagePlus award miles to upgrade to first class on a business trip from SFO (San Francisco) to ORD (Chicago). I was only able to upgrade on the way there, and not the way back. However, I didn’t really care about the way back, because at that point (pun intended) my presentation was done. I cared about sleeping, eating well, and preparing for my presentation on the way there. First class upgrades, in my opinion, drive great business results for someone who has a big presentation or business deal on the line.

Some helpful tips:

Sign up for the loyalty programs now. It’s never too late, even if you missed out in the past like me.
When booking your travel, always enter your ids. If someone else is booking your travel, share your ids with them ahead of time. You can log into your loyalty accounts to see your upcoming trips, that’s a super way to confirm everything has been entered correctly.
Keep great records of your travel (receipts and tickets), in case you need to retroactively add those to your frequent flyer and hotel accounts later.
Make sure you keep your points active, so they don’t expire. Check out these posts about Airline Miles Expiration and Hotel Points Expiration on Million Mile Secrets, one of my favorite travel hacking blogs. You can keep your points active, even if you aren’t traveling!
Remember that it doesn’t matter how many points and miles you accumulate. I want to underscore this tip for digital marketing professionals especially since we won’t be the most traveled business professionals. That said, you aren’t in a race. Even the infrequent traveler should take advantage of these programs because points add up fast!

Tip 2: Open Airline and Hotel Credit Cards

If you’re a customer acquisition marketing professional, it’s likely you’ve got some bills each month. If you’re like me (living the SF Bay Area), the cost of living can be high. Also, if you’re a successful business professional, odds are you have good (and probably excellent) credit. Take advantage of these dynamics to open and leverage airline and hotel credit cards. Leverage your credit to get the cards, and leverage your expenses to earn free miles and points. That said, make sure you don’t spend more than you would have anyway. It’s all about getting value for what you’re already doing, but not changing your existing spending habits to earn more points (that is a losing proposition).

Very important tips when it comes to these credit cards:

Only open the cards if you’re going to get a big miles/points bonus for opening. These deals change by the month, but I have been very lucky following the deals and earning some sizable sign-on bonuses. Example: Chase Sapphire is now offering 40,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for opening a card. These points are super valuable and can be used for many purposes, including transferring in a 1:1 ratio from Chase Ultimate Rewards to United.
Only open cards if you can actually hit the amount of spend required to get the sign-on bonus. Don’t spend extra. Be realistic and don’t alter your normal expenses just to get the bonus.
Use the right card in the right place. For example, you’ve got the Starwood card, make sure to use it to pay for your Starwood hotel stays. You can earn up to 5x points in those scenarios, depending on your level of status (most of us infrequent business travelers will receive 4x points). If you’ve got Chase Sapphire, leverage it when dining out for 2x points (and 3x points on the first Friday of every month). That said, break these rules when trying to hit spend for sign-on bonuses. Just use the same card for most/all of your expenses regardless of situation if that’s what you’ve got to do to hit the sign-on threshold (so you don’t have to take on extra expenses).
Be very careful about fees. Most of these cards carry annual fees, typically waived for the first year. Rationalize to yourself whether the fees are worth it or not. Being able to board in group 1 on United is worth the annual fees for United’s card (and then some), in my opinion. (When traveling for business, overhead space is important since you won’t be checking bags, and you need that group 1 to get optimal overhead space.) Also, Marriott’s free night at a category 1-4 hotel each year is worth the annual fees, in my opinion. That said, everyone’s situation is unique. Get too many of these cards and the annual fees can truly add up. It’s ok to cancel cards, if that makes financial sense in your situation. Understand the fees and incorporate them in to your overall strategy.
Always pay your card balance in full each month. Don’t carry debt to get points, that’s not worth it!

Tip 3: Upgrade At The Right Time, and Right Place

Traveling with your boss on a big business trip? Thinking of using your awards points to upgrade to first class? I discourage this for obvious reasons, it would just be strange. Traveling alone or with a colleague who wouldn’t really care about your upgrade? By all means, go for it if you feel comfortable (this was my situation in the example above)! It’s a judgement call. Just be smart about it.

Want to play it safe? Don’t upgrade for business trips at all. Save all of your points. Leverage them for an amazing family vacation. That way, you don’t have to explain to others why you’re flying so luxuriously for business.

This one really depends on your company culture, who you’re flying with, and your role. If you fly for a living and have status, it’s likely you’ll often be in first class and that’s no big deal since people know you fly for a living. However, if you’re like me (the occasional business traveler), then you’ve got to leverage your judgement when using award miles.

In the world of business, it’s all about being humble.

Tip 4: Cater Your Career Development To Your Travel Preferences

Do you like to travel a lot? There are certain jobs that offer a lot of travel. For example, one of my friends used to do all of the global client onboarding for a big digital marketing platform. I’m sure he racked up an amazing number of airline miles while seeing some amazing cities and sights around the world.

Within digital marketing, here are a few jobs that may involve more travel than others:

Client services
Client onboarding
Professional Services
Business Development
Executive Management (Multiple Office Company)

However, maybe you’re like me and enjoy traveling occasionally. Maybe you want to travel really well when you go, but you don’t want to be away from home all the time. There are jobs for that too (in fact most of the jobs are like this within digital marketing).

Just be strategic about it, and do what’s best for your personal situation.

Tip 5: Read Great Blogs About Travel Hacking

The world of travel is exciting. Those of us in digital marketing thrive on data and optimization. It’s amazing how the parallels exist between digital marketing and travel hacking. Want to stay up-to-date and learn more? I personally enjoy following several blogs about travel miles, points, and strategy. Two of my favorites: Million Mile Secrets and The Points Guy.

Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on credit cards. I’m not a financial advisor. This post is just for entertainment. Please consult your financial advisor before making any financial decisions.
Image of Airplane Business Travel © iStockPhoto – felix140800

Embracing Change In Your Marketing Career

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 19 2

I’m the biggest fan of the digital marketing career path around. In fact, that’s the precise reason I created PPC Ian nearly four years ago! PPC Ian is here to educate and empower those in the online marketing career path. Today, I wanted to write a quick post about embracing change in your marketing career. Change can come out of nowhere. Sometimes, it can catch you off guard with surprise. Sometimes, you may not look forward to change. Other times, you are the one planning the change, via exciting innovations, as an instigator of change and progress. Change is often exciting and fun. Learn to embrace and enjoy the excitement that comes with change and your career will flourish to new heights.

Change Ahead

Change creates so much opportunity for one’s career! There are two main reasons why:

Change and innovation is at the core of a successful business. Only those enterprises that move quickly will remain #1 in their industry. Take it easy and remain complacent in your practices and your business will slowly (or sometimes quickly) go downhill. Push forward quickly and the sky is the limit.
Not everyone is able to manage change. Change requires a unique perspective and attitude. It requires a true leader to embrace change with an open and fearless attitude. It takes an even greater leader to envision the future and lead others through change.

Today, I wanted to share a few types of change to expect in your digital marketing career. Prepare for these changes and you will thrive. Even better: Be an instigator of change and progress and the sky is the limit. One thing is for sure: Never have a closed mind. Always be open and willing to evaluate new opportunities, even if they do not seem intuitive right away.

Just a few changes to be ready to embrace:

Marketing campaign budgets – Be ready for increases or decreases, the beauty of paid media is the flexibility to throttle up and down.
New marketing platforms and technologies – Platforms are always changing. The top platform of yesterday is not always the top platform today. The top platform today is not always the top platform tomorrow.
New managers and leadership
Changes in responsibility
Search engine algorithm updates
Competitive changes on search engines
New office locations, new seating arrangements within your current office
Times of rapid growth and long hours, combined with incredible opportunity
Increased complexity, new technologies, new ways of marketing
Very timely requests, real time adaptive marketing
Changes in overall goals and targets
Changes in strategy and priorities
So much more!

Every day is an opportunity to learn and grow, and change within your marketing career supercharges your growth!

Small Agencies Rule

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 14 0

I’m a huge fan of smaller SEM/Digital agencies. I’m good friends with several digital advertising professionals who decided to start their own agencies. They are absolutely thriving! I even considered myself a single-client agency of sorts in years past when working on a consulting project here and there, although it has been a long time. In my professional career, I have had the true pleasure of working with a multitude of agencies of all sizes.

Over the years, I have grown a true affinity for smaller agencies. You get an unparalleled level of attention and dedication. For a smaller agency, every single client truly matters. I especially respect those smaller agencies that embrace all of the advantages of being smaller while also offering many of the advantages of larger operations (technology, scale, and breadth of experience).

Is was not always easy in the past since technology can be expensive for a smaller operation. However, recent technologies such as Acquisio Dashboard Edition open tremendous doors for smaller agencies everywhere, those who may have a lean technology budget and/or want to expand their technology over time as their agency grows. Acquisio is the performance marketing platform of choice for agencies, so Dashboard Edition is a natural fit.

When my good friends at Acquisio offered me the honor of guest posting on the blog, I thought I’d do a fun post about small agencies. In particular, I offer suggestions on Starting and Growing Your Small SEM Agency. Make sure to head on over to Acquisio to check it out. Thanks, Acquisio, for the opportunity, you are the best!

Fun Times Speaking At Google

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 8 3

I absolutely love public speaking. I always get an incredible rush, especially when speaking to large audiences. It’s also a fun and amazing way to give back to the digital marketing industry, one of my core goals each and every year. I have featured quite a few of my speaking events here on PPC Ian over the years. Here are some of my favorites:

Stanford Graduate School of Business (2010) – Part 1, Part 2
Stanford Graduate School of Business (2011) – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Search Insider Summit (2013)

Recently, an amazing opportunity presented itself: I had the incredible honor of speaking to the Google AdWords Product Marketing team. It was a truly amazing experience, one of my favorite speaking opportunities. Formatted as a pure Q&A format, the Google team asked some truly great questions. I particularly enjoyed sharing my large, enterprise-level AdWords experience with Google, and hope my presentation helped spark some ideas in Google’s product marketing roadmap.

I also enjoyed staying after the presentation and forming friendships. It truly is all about your network and friendships, that’s how this unique opportunity presented itself. Matt and Google, I truly appreciate the opportunity, please let me know if I can ever be of assistance!

PPC Ian Speaking At Google

Speaking At Google

Are Junior Level PPC Jobs Disappearing?

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 16 0

I recently wrote a post about SEM Automation and PPC Careers. An amazing PPC Ian reader (ppcKnight) was wondering in particular if all these amazing automation platforms, those built in-house and those available to purchase, are actually taking away from career opportunities? I shared some of my thoughts on the topic in that post, in particular why I think automation is actually helping build careers in digital marketing. Today, I wanted to answer a follow-up question from another PPC Ian reader (and friend), in response to that post. Sid wonders in particular if those more junior level jobs are becoming irrelevant due to automation. Thanks, Sid for reading and for the inspiration, I really like your question and I’m honored to answer with my 2 cents on the topic!

What About Junior Level Jobs In SEM? Are They Going Away?

Get Your Dream Job

Hi Ian,
It’s always very nice to read your blog. Of course, adopting the automation within the SEM will certainly help a company to scale or ramp up the campaigns and diversify your skills and driving new initiatives. However, the automation will eradicate entry level jobs within the SEM industry, what do you think? One has to be an expert level to work on the bid management tools like: Marin or Kenshoo or should gain superior knowledge before rubbing hands with the tools. What has been your experience like once you’ve executed the automation? Can you share what kind of jobs were created once the automation was deployed?

Moving forward, companies would like to automate the digital process be it SEM or display network through integrating demand side platform. I look forward to hearing for your thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Siddharth

The Argument In Favor of Junior Level Jobs

Siddharth, thanks again for the question. Here are some of the core reasons I think junior and intermediate level jobs in SEM are here to stay.

Certain projects require manual execution. One great example is writing customized ad copy. Another is executing upon an account restructure. While the strategy behind the ad copy approach and the strategy behind the account reorganization may be derived as a team effort (with leadership from more senior team members), there is a clear need for more junior and intermediate level marketers to execute upon the strategy. Many of the SEM accounts in existence today are the result of years and years of different managers. In short, many could use a good reorganization, creating a multitude of manual work.
It’s impossible to automate everything. A large number of second and third tier search engines do not offer APIs. For the foreseeable future, I see a more junior/intermediate role in managing/optimizing second tier search engines. It’s incredibly valuable, leveraged work, but requires massive time and attention. With more and more marketing dollars flowing online, marketers need to explore all opportunities including second and third tier engines. Someone needs to manage them.
Human interaction cannot be automated. Certain aspects of PPC require frequent human interaction and follow-up. While overall relationship management with search engines is a more strategic, senior role, various day-to-day aspects of the relationship are perfect for someone newer to the PPC career path. For example: Policing your trademark. Even though automated systems exist to locate the offenders, an employee needs to follow up with search engines, websites, and the internal legal team to appropriately address trademark offenses. They never stop, creating an unending queue of work.
Someone needs to take notes and document meetings. The plethora of opportunities in digital marketing is unparalleled. I have found it challenging at times to keep everything organized because we move at such a quick pace. Senior leaders on the team can rely on newer team members to document meetings and send out notes.
What about testing new keywords and ads? These are two projects at the core of search marketing that will never go away. Automation and platforms make all of this easier, but cannot fully automate it. Why? The best ads have never been created. The best keywords have no search volume because they take advantage of future trends. Start showing up before the trend hits and you will be a true winner. While the more junior team member will work with a more senior team member on the strategy, the process of deploying the keywords and ads is a great project for someone newer to paid search.
Great digital marketing platforms are not just for experts. When it comes to build vs. buy decisions on SEM automation, I’m a fan of buying. Why? In house platforms are rarely pretty. They are rarely easy to use for junior team members. However, when you buy a platform, you’re buying not only an amazing back end technology, but also an easy to use front end interface, complete with tutorials and documentation. There is no reason junior employees cannot leverage these platforms, of course with some guidance and supervision from a more senior level team member.
As an overall trend, more money is flowing online. With increased money being spent on digital marketing, there is more work. I feel it each and every week – more and more to do, more and more opportunities! With more work, the only way to scale is to hire, expand, and delegate. A well-functioning team requires members of all levels. As digital marketing professionals, we are all stretched for time. I see no end in sight for junior, intermediate, and advanced digital marketing professionals!

Agree, disagree, thoughts? Please write in with your opinions!