Speaking At The Marin Software All Hands Meeting

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you know that I’m a tremendous fan of Marin Software. Marin Software is an incredible digital marketing platform for enterprise-level marketing professionals, teams, and agencies. Continuing their rapid trajectory of growth and success, Marin just acquired social media platform Social Moov.

Ian Lopuch and David Yovanno

As a long-time client and enthusiast, I recently had the incredible honor of presenting at Marin Software’s all hands meeting. Presenting at their headquarters in San Francisco, to the right is a picture of yours truly and David Yovanno, CEO of Marin Software. I cannot thank David and Marin enough for the great opportunity! It’s motivational moments like these that I truly cherish. The goal of my presentation: Thanking the entire Marin Software team for everything they do to make my life better!

I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the importance of building strong business partnerships. In the world digital marketing, we work in a truly unique space with amazing people. I view my strongest partnerships as friendships. Thanks Marin for being an amazing partner and friend!

Ian Lopuch Marin Software Presentation

Images in this post © PPCIan.com

My Big YPO Keynote Presentation

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Apr 11 0

This past Wednesday, I had the immense honor of being the keynote speaker at the YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) Wisconsin Chapter meeting. This particular meeting was all about Internet Marketing, and getting businesses excited about opportunities in digital. YPO is an esteemed group since I was speaking directly to the Presidents of extremely successful businesses. I wrote back in my 2014 goals that public speaking was at the top of my list, and had this particular event in mind when writing that goal, since this event has been many months in the making. I’m really excited that this opportunity worked out so well, it was a true honor! Today, I wanted to share a bit about the event and what I personally learned.

It’s All About Your Network

Ian Lopuch Speaking At YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization)

This event came to me, from my good friends at Rocket Clicks Digital Marketing Agency. I have been great friends with Rocket Clicks for a number of years now. I see them at nearly every digital marketing conference, and we stay in close touch. They have been loyal friends and supporters, and an all-around amazing team. They are true values-driven business professionals. (If you are looking for a digital marketing agency, I highly recommend checking out Rocket Clicks.)

Back in 2013, I got a call from my good friend Nicole (VP of Operations at Rocket Clicks) and couldn’t believe the opportunity that was coming my way: An all-expenses-paid trip to Wisconsin and an opportunity to keynote YPO. I’m in! Honestly, I was (and still am) humbled that Nicole and the Rocket Clicks team thought of me. I try to be a good guy, a values-driven business professional who helps others whenever possible. I feel like this opportunity was a reflection of the luck that comes when you help others, and my strong network with the best-of-the-best in our industry.

Lesson: Always help others and invest in your network. Especially invest in good people like the Rocket Clicks team.

It’s All About Preparation

Dinner With My Good Friends From Rocket Clicks

A 45-minute keynote presentation is no joke. As a busy customer acquisition professional, I have extremely limited free time. How did I prepare? Nights and weekends! Honestly, I left most of it until the last weekend and then worked super hard to pull it all together. I took advantage of a surge in energy and basically completed my presentation in one (long) sitting. After preparing my presentation, I felt a great sense of relief. My deck is great, I have speaker’s notes on each slide so I can easily remember all points, and now all I have to do is deliver.

Lesson: Always prepare early. Time spent ahead of time will truly set your mind at ease. Take advantage of surges in energy to get it done!

My Presentation and The Event

What happens at YPO stays at YPO. It’s an open and trusting forum for collaboration, and I owe it to everyone to uphold that trust. I’m not going to blog about the specifics, other than the fact that everything went incredibly well. Everyone was so kind, the questions were great, and my preparation paid off. I’m truly proud of this presentation and accomplishment, and look forward to future opportunities with YPO and Rocket Clicks.

Spending Time With Rocket Clicks

PPC Ian Speaking At The YPO Wisconsin Event

While my YPO keynote speaking opportunity was amazing, I had just as much fun meeting up with my good friends from Rocket Clicks. We had multiple gourmet dinners (Wisconsin has amazing food), caught up, and I even got a tour of the Rocket Clicks office the day following the conference. The highlights of my tour:

Meeting the amazing Rocket Clicks team. I don’t know how to describe it, but they are truly unique, in a values and goodness way. I don’t think I’ve run across a nicer group in my career. There is nothing more important in business and life than values, honesty, and kindness.
Meeting 1:1 with Jeff Hughes, the CEO of Biz Lab (the parent company of Rocket Clicks).
Sitting in on a very special meeting at Rocket Clicks that truly impacted me and my overall perspective.

Rocket Clicks, I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality, kindness, friendship, and generosity. You have a friend and supporter for life. Special thank you to: Jeff, Nicole, Matt, Liz, Amanda, and Chris. You truly made this event memorable.

Lesson: Cherish those friends who truly care. It’s all about the people! Gravitate toward good, honest, kind people. Go out of your way to help out good people.

PS Other Random Lessons

Southwest offers the only nonstop flight from SFO to MKE, to the best of my knowledge. How pleasant to have a direct flight on the way there.
Wisconsin is really cool, and the people are incredibly friendly.
Silicon Valley could stand to learn a lot from Wisconsin.

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

I Spoke At MediaPost Search Insider Summit

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 5 0

Last week, I had the honor of attending and speaking at MediaPost Search Insider Summit. What is Search Insider Summit? It’s a special digital marketing conference for top tier executives in our space. It’s typically an invite-only conference, and I was lucky and fortunate enough to be invited to attend and speak at this amazing conference on Amelia Island, Florida. I wanted to start off this post by sincerely thanking Rob McEvily, Junmian Sun, Jon Whitfield, and the entire MediaPost team. You guys put on the best digital marketing event ever.

Have you heard of ion interactive? These guys build the best and most impressive post-click marketing platform in the world. ion makes it easy for digital marketing professionals to test big ideas via landing page experiences, increasing their conversion rate. They not only offer an amazing platform, but they also offer amazing agency design services as well. As an ion power user of several years (I highly recommend checking them out), I was lucky enough to be invited to Search Insider Summit as ion interactive’s VIP guest. ion was gracious to sponsor me and pay for everything! And, they connected me with one of my most exciting public speaking opportunities ever (more on this later).

Ian Lopuch and David Rodnitzky (PPC Associates)

It all started last Sunday. I took an early 6:00am flight from here (San Francisco) to Houston, Texas. Then, I took another flight from Houston to Jacksonville, FL. Just 45 minutes away from Jacksonville is the beautiful oasis called Amelia Island. The day of travel was super long, but incredibly worth it! We stayed at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort. This place was absolutely beautiful and spectacular (check out photos below and throughout this post). My room directly overlooked the pool and amazing Atlantic Ocean. I arrived late in the day so I decided to grab a burger and catch some sleep. While the day was crazy with travel, I felt some true hospitality from everyone around. Those living in Jacksonville and surrounding areas are a great group, truly kind people.

The next Morning (Monday), the conference started! Monday was a really super day. I got to sit back and listen to some truly inspiring keynotes, presentations, and panels. We’re talking about the best and brightest in our industry. I took diligent notes on ideas I want to test first hand. I had lunch with Scott Brinker, Co-Founder at CTO at ion interactive. What an awesome lunch!

Later that day, I had the pleasure of partaking in a Segway tour of the island. We covered some great mileage (the place is huge) and networked as a team. It’s during the Segway tour I met Prashant Puri (CEO & Co-Founder) and Johnny Shami (Head of Business Development) from AdLift, the Bay Area’s SEO Agency. I was really impressed with AdLift, and it’s especially funny that I traveled across the country to meet two amazing marketers who live right here next to me! Speaking of Bay Area / Silicon Valley agencies, I got to spend some great time at the conference with my good friend David Rodnitzky, CEO of PPC Associates. David is such a great guy and guru within our space, I had a blast connecting with him several times throughout the conference. What a great opportunity to spend time with friends, both new and old.

Avish Dahiya (Baby Cache), Johnny Shami (AdLift), and Ian Lopuch

After the Segway tour, I enjoyed the cocktail hour and then the Yahoo! dinner. Dinner was a true blast. I got to sit with Leo Polanowski, VP of North America Account Management at Yahoo! Leo is my personal friend and a true leader in our industry. He has built one of the best account management organization around (special shout out to Justin Hill, the man). I enjoyed sitting at Leo’s table and chatting with my friend David Rodnitzky. I also enjoyed meeting George Michie, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at RKG. Earlier in the day, George was on the Segway tour with me. Fun times, thanks Leo and Yahoo! for the amazing dinner! The best part of the dinner: Leo introduced Yahoo! Stream Ads. I’m a huge fan of Yahoo!’s new ad formats. There’s huge upside here, talk to your account management team today.

After a huge and eventful day one, I was so amazingly pumped up. I got back to my room to find some amazing gift bags from Google and also adMarketplace. Search Insider Summit sponsors sure know how to make the digital marketer feel at home! I caught some sleep and then day two went very much like day one. However, instead of the Segway tour, I opted for spa services. What a great way to relax. Day two’s cocktail and dinner was sponsored by yieldbot. I got to catch up with my good friend David Rodnitzky (PPC Associates), the folks from adMarketplace, Dave Zinman (CEO at Infolinks), Laura Fell (Caterpillar), and others. Day two I went to bed a bit early because day three was my big day.

The next morning (Wednesday), I woke up super early to practice my presentation. A bit later that morning I had the privilege of presenting at Search Insider Summit on the topic of Big Testing and Better User Experiences Through Post-Click Marketing. I specifically focused on my partnership with ion interactive. The half hour presentation went fast and was densely packed with enthusiasm and tips. I heard from several folks in the audience that they enjoyed it quite a bit! Thank you to all who provided the positive feedback, it truly means a lot. My presentation marked good times and a true opportunity from a career and public speaking standpoint. Below, I have a bunch of photos from the conference with the first one from my presentation on day three (thanks David Rodnitzkey for taking the photo). Thanks, ion and MediaPost for the opportunity to present, it was an honor and I can’t wait for next time!

After my big presentation, I enjoyed some more great presentations and panels (diligently taking notes). Then, I’m sad to say, the three days of fun and excitement were over. Those thee days at Search Insider Summit went by way too fast. I learned so much, networked like never before, and had a super great time. On the way out, I shared the shuttle to the airport with my friends Bill (Scottrade) and Avish Dahiya, CTO at Baby Cache. Avish and my planes left around the same time, and Avish was kind enough to treat me to lunch at the airport. I was truly impressed with Avish’s role, Baby Cache, and their impressive business model. There is no conference I have ever attended in our industry that has this level of executive talent. What a wonderful experience. Thank you ion interactive (especially Scott Brinker, Jessica Collier, Mary D’Alatri-Ward, Stephanie Tunis) and MediaPost (especially Rob McEvily, Junmian Sun, and Jon Whitfield) for the best week ever! More pictures from the conference below…

Cool Pictures From Search Insider Summit

Presenting At MediaPost Search Insider Summit

Ian Lopuch (Me) Speaking At MediaPost Search Insider Summit

Fun Times On Amelia Island Segway Tour

View From Hotel Room Omni Amelia Island

View of Ocean Omni Amelia Island

View of Trees and Landscape Omni Amelia Island

Turtle (Tortoise) Amelia Island

Image of ion platform © ion interactive
All other images in this post © PPCIan.com

I’m Honored To Be A Marin Software Celebrity

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 13 5

Today truly was my day! It all started when my good friend Matt Lawson, VP of Marketing at Marin Software, sent me an email this morning. He asked me to check out the brand new Marin Software homepage. So, I headed on over to Marin and could not believe what I saw! I really couldn’t!

So, what did I see? There’s a big picture of me right in the middle of the Marin homepage, with a link to my Marin Software video testimonial. Head on over to Marin and check it out for yourself. Also, you can see a screenshot below (click it to see the full-sized version). I’m so honored. Marin Software is one of the best SEM automation platforms around. I personally leverage their platform each and every day to optimize and manage large scale SEM campaigns. I’ve been a Marin Software power user for years and cannot say enough great stuff about Marin, their technology, and their team. Thanks so much, Marin, this is a true honor! And, congratulations on your new homepage, it rocks.

Image in this post © Marin Software

PPC Ian Speaks At Google

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Mar 31 9

I’m really excited right now because I spoke at Google today. It was quite the honor and my second time speaking at Google (I spoke on a panel back in 2009 at Google’s Client Ad Forum). Today, I spoke for one hour to a group of 20 Google employees across marketing and product management, an event called Client Connect. I want to sincerely thank James and the Google marketing team for arranging this event, it was a true honor in my career.

Corporate SEM Offers Great Speaking Opportunities

PPC Ian with Ryan and Rich From Google

My presentation today spanned one hour, and that hour flew right by! I focused on industry trends, predictions for the future of digital marketing, and opportunities for both advertisers and Google. Throughout my presentation, I had the great opportunity to interact with amazing Google employees and field some seriously great questions! While I’m not able to share the presentation here (it’s confidential to my employer), I wanted to write a quick post to call this out as a major advantage of the corporate SEM career path.

Just in the last year, I spoke at Stanford Graduate School of Business in May, I spoke at Stanford Graduate School of Business in January, and now I spoke at Google. If you’re into public speaking and giving back to the industry (I sure am), search engine marketing is an amazing career path to consider. It’s because of the corporate SEM career path that these speaking events presented themselves.

Google Is Amazing

I wanted to close out by calling attention to Google. I couldn’t be more impressed. My account management team (Ryan and Rich in the picture above with me) in addition to all the attendees to my presentation are truly top notch. Google is innovating so quickly and I really can’t get enough of it. They’re one of the best partners ever and it’s a true pleasure working with the Google Financial Services team. I’m looking forward to my next public speaking opportunity for sure.

Image in this post © PPCIan.com

My Stanford Online Marketing Videos (Post 3 of 3)

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 25 2

Today, I’m excited to complete my three part series highlighting my recent online marketing presentation at Stanford Graduate School of Business. I first recommend checking out part one and part two of this series. In this six video series, I provide a multitude of online marketing quick win tips. These are tips that will help anyone drive affordable, effective traffic to their online business. Today, I’m excited to close out the series with two videos featuring social media, email, and outsourcing tips.

Stanford GSB Online Marketing Video Five

I cover a lot of social media topics in online marketing video five. Specifically, I cover TweetAdder, overall Twitter strategies, YouTube strategies, RSS feeds (and FeedBurner in particular). Also, I discuss lead capture via email marketing and in particular the AWeber platform.

Stanford GSB Online Marketing Video Six

Video six closes out with more AWeber email marketing tips and outsourcing tips. I’m really excited to discuss one of my favorite writers on Elance (one of the golden nuggets of my presentation) and also how to leverage Fiverr, a new $5 outsourcing platform, for video testimonials among other projects. I have literally been addicted to Fiverr lately and have been getting a lot of great, affordable, and time-efficient results from this innovative platform.

Thanks again for watching my online marketing videos!

My Stanford Online Marketing Videos (Post 2 of 3)

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 22 6

I just presented online marketing quick win tips and strategies at Stanford Graduate School of Business. My presentation went really well and I’m thrilled to have the entire thing on HD video. In my last post (I highly recommend checking it out before this one), I shared my first two videos (out of six). Those videos focused mainly on PPC and Facebook advertising tips. Today, I’m pleased to share videos three and four! In just a few short days, I’ll share the final two. What’s included in today’s online marketing videos? Some really cool stuff: SEO link building, SEO tips and strategies, social media marketing opportunities, and more. Thanks for watching and a big thank you to Stanford Graduate School of business for hosting me!

Stanford GSB Online Marketing Video Three

In online marketing video three I cover some exciting link building topics. As you may know, link building is of paramount importance when ranking your website or blog on head terms. Specifically I do a deep dive into my ever popular blog commentating strategy. If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you may know I’m a huge fan of blog commenting and even ran a blog commentating contest that was really successful (I’m thinking of doing another one in 2011). I also cover other SEO link building topics including guest interviews and SEO-optimized press releases through PRWeb.

Stanford GSB Online Marketing Video Four

In video four, I cover both SEO and social media topics. I start out with more information about SEO-optimized press releases from PRWeb and then link building strategies via social profiles. The social profile strategy can actually backfire if you don’t have a long term, conservative perspective so I discuss how to do it right. Next, I close out with some social media tips including Facebook Fan Page optimization and gaining Twitter followers with TweetAdder.

Thanks again for watching and I hope you enjoy these online marketing quick win tips!

PPC Ian Presents at Stanford GSB Again

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 21 8

Back in May of 2010, I presented a two hour introduction to online marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business. The presentation went incredibly well and was a true honor and milestone in my career. I graduated Stanford with my BS in Computer Science so it was really exciting to go back and present at Stanford GSB.

PPC Ian at Stanford GSB

Today, I’ve got some really exciting news: I just went back and presented again this Wednesday! That’s right, I got invited back in less than a year so I’m definitely on the right track. I’m very passionate about Stanford, online marketing, and public speaking so I’m truly excited about this accomplishment.

Even better news: I have six HD videos of my new presentation that I’m excited to share with you. The first two videos are featured in this post, and then I will include the final four within the next few days.

While last time I presented an extensive introduction to the various online marketing channels, this time I provided a plethora of quick win tips for entrepreneurs. I highlighted pay per click, SEO, social media, and viral marketing tips that are easy, actionable, and effective in marketing any small business. After my first hour presenting quick win tips, I spent another hour doing a deep dive of some of the students’ sites. I especially enjoyed this part because I got to see some really amazing early stage businesses from the best and brightest minds. (Since the business are early stage with some in stealth mode, I only have video from the first hour.)

I was fortunate yet again to have an amazing audience of around 35 or so genius GSB students from the entrepreneur, high tech, and marketing clubs, students who asked some really great questions! My sincere thank you to everyone from these great clubs and everyone at GSB who attended and hosted me, especially Courtney from Wokai.

Today’s First Online Marketing Video

I have two exciting HD videos to share with you today. The first video covers quick wins on Google AdWords and Facebook. When it comes to Google AdWords, there are few marketers out there who have been directly responsible for as much spend as myself. This is really where it all started for me and how I became a guru in the online marketing industry. I’m newer to Facebook advertising but am quickly learning. I have been promoting my Facebook Fan Page quite a bit lately and discuss some tips for gaining more likes!

My Second Stanford GSB Video

The second video covers more Facebook advertising tips, the Yahoo/Microsoft Search Alliance, keyword generation (via broad match), and blogging. I really hope you enjoy these videos and can’t wait to share the next four. Thanks so much for watching.

PPC Ian and Some of My New Friends From Stanford GSB

Below you can see yours truly with some of the students from Stanford Graduate School of Business. I actually spoke to about 35 or so students. We took this picture after the presentation with some of the students who stayed after to ask questions. I sincerely appreciate the great turn out and all the support from Stanford GSB’s entrepreneur, high tech, and marketing clubs! Also, I want to especially thank Courtney (next to me in picture) for organizing this event!

PPC Ian with Stanford GSB Students

Video: Stanford Graduate School of Business

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 13 16

Hello Everyone,

In my last post, I highlighted my presentation at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. The presentation went extremely well and spanned two action-packed hours of PPC, SEO, and more. I’m definitely proud of this milestone.

Stanford GSB Presentation

Today my friend David Rogier, VP of Stanford GSB’s Entrepreneur Club, uploaded the video of my presentation to the Entrepreneur Club’s website! You can check out my online marketing presentation by visiting the Entrepreneur Club’s website or by simply watching it below!

I sincerely hope you find it helpful. Also, I wanted to close out by sincerely thanking Stanford GSB, the amazing organizers of the event, everyone who attended, and of course everyone reading my blog!

All the best,
Ian Lopuch (PPC Ian)

PS – As mentioned in my last post, my PowerPoint presentation is available for free! Simply sign up for my free PPC newsletter by entering your first name and email address in the top right corner of this page or by visiting my PPC newsletter page. You’ll receive my Stanford GSB presentation in addition to my eBook featuring high leverage PPC career tips, all for free! I recommend following along with the PowerPoint as you watch the video. Don’t have enough time to watch the full two hour video? You may wish to scan the PowerPoint and then fast forward to the sections of the video that are most interesting to you! Thanks again!