PPC Associates Is Now 3Q Digital

I’m thrilled today to share a mini interview with my good friend, David Rodnitzky. David is a true leader in the digital marketing industry. David and his agency are also long time sponsors and supporter of PPC Ian. I have some exciting news! David’s agency, PPC Associates, is now 3Q Digital. You can read all about the rebrand here. 3Q is one of the best digital marketing agencies around, I cannot say enough great stuff about them. Want to learn all about 3Q Digital? Let’s jump into my mini interview with David…

Ian: David, congratulations on your big announcement!

David: Thanks Ian. It’s been a long journey to get to this point and I’m excited it’s finally arrived!

Ian: How did you decide to re-brand your company?

David: Over the last couple of years our clients have increasingly asked us to do more than “just SEM” for them. The most frequent requests we got involved SEO, Facebook PPC, display advertising, and creative work. We responded to these needs by building out dedicated teams to service each of these areas. Whereas three years ago 100% of our spend was SEM, today almost 20% is a combination of Facebook and display, plus we have about 10% of our customers also using us to manage their SEO. Our name – PPC Associates – implies that all we do is PPC (or SEM, same difference!). While we still see SEM as our core offering, we now have many people on the team that focus on other online marketing services, so it just made sense to come up with a new name that wasn’t so PPC-centric!

Ian: What’s in the future for 3Q Digital?

David: In the short term, we want to just get better at what we are already doing – SEM, SEO, Facebook PPC and display. In the long-term, we are continuing to evaluate different marketing channels that are complementary to our existing channels. If we think we can do an awesome job of servicing clients in these new channels – and we hear from clients that they need help in these areas – we would certainly consider expanding into new areas.

Ian: As a marketer, it must have been so much fun thinking through your branding strategy. How did you arrive at your new brand?

David: We actually had an internal contest where we asked everyone on the team to submit recommendations for the new name. We got about 100 responses and then we narrowed those 100 down to 17 semi-finalists. We had a management team vote on the 17 finalists and ended up with two finalists. We submitted the two finalists back to the greater team to vote and we went with the one that got the most votes. To give you a sense of how much we believe in democracy, the name I voted for lost!

Ian: David, huge thank you for the mini interview. As always, it’s such a pleasure connecting with one of the top marketers ever. I have so much respect for you, your amazing team, and your incredible business. You are an inspiration in our industry!

David: Thanks Ian. We are big fans of you and PPC Ian. If you decide to change your name from PPC Ian to something more generic, let me know, I can help!

That’s it for today, everyone. Make sure to head on over to the 3Q Digital website, and make sure to check out their amazing blog.

3Q Digital Logo © 3QDigital.com

PPC Associates Must-Have 2013 Facebook Ads Guide

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jul 24 0

I’m a huge fan of PPC Associates Digital Marketing Agency. I’m personal friends with their co-founder and CEO, David Rodnitzky. I’m also great friends with their several other team members at PPC Associates including Hillary Read, their Director of Marketing. I truly appreciate their breadth of experience across all channels of digital marketing. I also truly appreciate the fact that they know how to market their own agency, the sign of a truly passionate marketing team. As just one example: PPC Associates runs one of the greatest digital marketing blogs on the Internet.

Today, I wanted to share with you the brand new PPC Associates 2013 Guide To Facebook Advertising. I thought it would make perfect sense given that Facebook just announced their second quarter earnings and beat estimates handsomely (thanks to digital marketing professionals like you and me). Right now is the time to advertise on Facebook, and PPC Associates is there to guide you every step of the way with their free tutorial.

I really like this guide, and here’s why:

It’s jam-packed with 24 pages of free insights.
It talks about all the possible objectives of advertising on Facebook. Facebook is a lot different than traditional search marketing. Perhaps you’re looking to drive brand awareness. Perhaps you’re looking to generate likes. Perhaps you’re looking to drive direct response conversions. PPC Associates covers all of these objectives, and discusses the different types of ads and how they relate to each objective.
PPC Associates goes into incredible detail to educate the reader about all types of Facebook ads. I’m talking about marketplace ads (marketplace standard ad, marketplace event ad, marketplace like ad, and marketplace application ad), sponsored stories (page likes, check-ins, and page posts), mobile advertisements (mobile sponsored stories, mobile promoted posts, mobile page posts, and mobile app install ads), premium ads (photo, video, question, status, event, link, app ad, video app ad, standard ad, and video standard ad), sponsored search results, and Facebook Exchange Ads (FBX). Wow, that was a looooong list! I wanted to list it all out, however, to show you the comprehensiveness of this great resource.
This guide also dives into a ton of other topics: targeting options, custom audiences, metrics, and more.
It’s written in a logical, easy-to-follow format. It’s a true reference that you can share with your entire team.

When it comes to digital marketing, I really enjoy learning from agencies. They get to see so much, across so many different verticals. PPC Associates’ amazing wealth of knowledge comes through in their guide and I highly recommend downloading your free copy.

Image in this post © PPCAssociates.com

Check Out My Geo-Targeting Tips

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 3 0

I’m a huge fan of geo-targeting. While it’s been around forever, there are so many unique and great ways in which you can leverage advanced geo-targeting. So, when I got the opportunity to write a guest post on the amazing PPC Associates blog, I thought it would be a super idea to share my Top 5 Geo-Targeting Tips. Have you heard of PPC Associates? They are Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency, and have a truly great blog (one of my favorites). Also, they have one of the best teams around. I’m really honored that my guest post got a lot of interest and even made Search Engine Land’s Day In Search, May 2, 2013. Please check it out and let me know what you think! Do you have any special geo-targeting strategies?

Image in this post © PPCAssociates.com

Check Out My PPC Landing Page Tips

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Mar 17 2

Last week, I attended SMX West and bumped into my good friend Hillary Read from PPC Associates, Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency. PPC Associates is a great friend of yours truly, PPC Ian. From time to time, I have the pleasure of guest posting on the amazing PPC Associates blog, and today I wanted to share with you my latest guest post: A Landing Page Checklist For PPC Pros. This post went live last week on Wednesday, March 13th and wanted to highlight it here in case you have not seen it yet!

PPC Associates Guest Blog Post

With ever increasing competition on Google AdWords and Bing Ads, how do you stay ahead? Well, you certainly need to be a world class campaign manager. You need to be on top of your game when it comes to keyword generation, account structure, match types, negative words, ad copy, bid strategy, beta testing, tracking, cross-channel advertising, reporting/analytics, and so much more. However, the lever that perhaps holds the most leverage is landing page testing. Increase your conversion rate and your media margin will immediately expand. You can either pocket the profits or reinvest them via bid increases. Often, it is advised to bid higher since you will get exponentially more traffic volume and oftentimes increased dollar margin, especially if you look at cross-channel attribution (although at slightly lower percentage margin). Thanks PPC Associates for the opportunity to guest post, make sure to head on over and read my guest post today!

Image of PPC Associates © PPCAssociates.com

Interview: Sean Marshall From PPC Associates

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 16 0

Today I am truly lucky and honored to interview Sean Marshall, Senior Director of Client Services at PPC Associates. PPC Associates is Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency. They are awesome! A while back, I had the honor of interviewing their CEO and Co-Founder, David Rodnitzky. Today, I am so excited to interview Sean because his experience is truly exceptional. Joining PPC Associates as the 5th member of the client services team, Sean has enjoyed 3 years of success and is now part of a 50-member team. Without further ado, let’s jump into the interview:

Sean Marshall

Ian: Sean, thank you so much for interviewing with me. I know PPC Ian readers are going to be truly thrilled with this one.

Sean: Thanks for having me Ian.

Ian: You have built an exceptional career in paid search. How did you first get started?

Sean: I took kind of an odd route. I started my career in lead qualification with a company called Tippit in 2006 and quickly realized making 100+ calls a day wasn’t really for me. I ended up pivoting into a freelance recruiting role for them and the first position I helped them fill was that of SEM Manager. I liked the idea of recruiting as a way to explore the job landscape but half of my reqs were for SEM. The exposure to these PPC jobs and the folks we were recruiting got me thinking: hey, I should be doing that.

Ian: How has your career evolved over the years? How did you grow your career in online marketing?

Sean: Well, after getting snubbed by David at Mercantila (true story), I wound up at Webtrends working on their SEM tool. It was an account management gig but more of a hybrid services/tech/SEM role. It taught me a lot and I got exposure to all sorts of programs. In the meantime, I’d kept in touch with David and heard he was getting his agency off the ground. After about a 6 months of back and forth, he decided it was time to scale the operation and I jumped at the chance.

Ian: What’s it like at PPC Associates? What’s your favorite thing about working at PPC Associates?

Sean: I love to build things, break them, and then build them back up again. Working at PPCA gave me the chance to do that. We were a small scrappy team of 6 when I joined and no one really had agency experience. The company was founded by in-house marketers and combining that mindset with some agency experience was a winning formula. I was able to soak in all sorts of marketing knowledge, contribute things they didn’t know about and then teach it to a new wave of account managers after that.

Ian: You’re a leader at PPC Associates. What are some of the most important lessons you have learned about team leadership? Any recommendations for those just starting out in people management?

Sean: Everyone wants to get into management until they actually start managing… and realize how hard it is. The reason is pretty simple – managers put out fires. Now if your entire job is putting out fires, you should probably rethink your process but that doesn’t mean you won’t deal with tough situations. Having a thick skin and understanding that a large part of the job is managing problems and crises is key. The reward comes in creating and implementing solutions to drive continuous improvement.

Ian: What’s your favorite thing about online marketing? What part of the job do you enjoy the most?

Sean: I’’m definitely one of those guys that appreciates the quantifiable aspects of what we do. I’m a poker player and I need a way to keep score. Tracking and measurement are addicting. That said, I love that it’s still a people business. Sure you can bury your head in excel and AdWords editor but the crux of this is to understand audiences and, on the agency side, clients. The mix of math and people means things will be different every day and if you’re tired of one, you can retreat to the other any given day (just not everyday).

Ian: Any tips for PPC Ian readers looking to grow their career in online marketing?

Sean: Be patient and keep grinding. The internet never shuts off and the work never stops. You need to invest the time but make sure you’re being productive. Doing busy work just to say you worked 60 hours a week won’t accomplish anything. Take the same quantitative approach youdd bring to a marketing campaign to measure the impact your work has and use that to adjust where you spend your time.

Managing online programs can feel like running on treadmill so you need to find finish lines. If you can’t find ways to say “mission accomplished” for various projects, it just feels like you’re perpetually working and that will drive anyone crazy.

Ian: Any campaign optimization tips that are top-of-mind for you right now?

Sean: Attribution is definitely top of mind. We’re focused on an RFP of various attribution/tracking vendors to make sure we can offer clients the best of what’s out there. Each channel influences the other in different ways – not to mention cross device implications. Last click is dead!

Ian: Looking forward to 2013 and the future, how do you see online advertising evolving? What can smart professionals do to stay ahead of the curve?

Sean: Well if you listen to everyone out there, it’s mobile and social. They can’t be looked at in a vacuum though. Mobile commerce sucks and will never equal desktop commerce (now it might generate more traffic but the conversion issues wont magically fix themselves). Connect the dots to measure the true impact. Beyond that – I’d pay more attention to tablets than smart phones. Maybe I’m too fixated on usability but tablets (and eventually larger screened phones) will have a greater impact than people think.

Ian: Sean, thank you so much for the amazing interview. This has been a true pleasure. Any closing thoughts/advice for PPC Ian readers?

Sean: There’s a lot of great content out there – keep reading blogs like these!!

Ian: Thanks again, Sean! Wishing you and everyone at PPC Associates all the best, you guys are true leaders in our industry!

Image of Sean Marshall © Sean Marshall

My Holiday Wish List

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 19 0

Hey Everyone,
Today I’m excited to share a guest post that my friends at PPC Associates were kind enough to publish earlier this week. Please head on over to the PPC Associates blog and read my Online Marketing Holiday Wish List. This is my wish list for the holiday season, from a search engine marketing perspective. You’ll find all kinds of fun things on my wish list such as PPC agency help, online marketing platforms, beta test budget, and more. What’s on your holiday wish list this year? Big revenue numbers? Less competition in the AdWords landscape? Whatever your wish may be, I hope you get it! Happy holidays and new year! PPC Associates, thanks so much for the opportunity to guest post.
All the best,
PPC Ian

Image in this post © PPCAssociates.com

PPC Associates Impression Sculpting eBook

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 2 3

Have you heard of PPC Associates? They are one of the absolute best SEM agencies around. I’m personal friends with many employees over at PPC Associates (they are all awesome) including their CEO, David Rodnitzky. Search engine marketing is a very difficult and complex field. Its agencies like PPC Associates, those that truly “get it”, that raise the bar. Today I’m thrilled to review and share with you the latest free eBook from PPC Associates, Impression Sculpting: Master GDN Advertising. This is a true must-read eBook, make sure to download it today!

Do you advertise on the Google Display Network? When launching new GDN campaigns, most start with a keyword-driven architecture. These contextual campaigns allow you to show up within relevant articles about your product/category. If you’re selling car insurance, you get to show up within articles about car insurance. However, there are only so many articles about car insurance on the Internet. What if you want to go bigger with your display advertising efforts but are out of ideas? That’s the purpose of today’s eBook.

Will Lin, Co-Founder of PPC Associates, introduces a new concept called “Impression Sculpting”. This technique allows advertisers to go big, while still driving cost-effective conversions. It allows you to drive effective display programs, even on websites/articles that are not directly about your product/category. Impression sculpting hinges on the new Google AdWords demographic targeting launched to all accounts in July, 2012. I know I have found success with this strategy and highly recommend downloading this free eBook.

Turbocharge Your PPC Beta Testing Initiatives

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 10 0

I’m a huge fan of beta testing. If you’re a large spending advertiser on Google AdWords, Bing Ads, or both, you probably have had (or will have) opportunities to get involved in beta tests. What are beta tests? They offer the opportunity to help search engines by testing brand new features before they get released to the public.

I have developed an entire strategy around beta testing and am thrilled that my good friends over at PPC Associates ran my guest post today about Getting The Most Out of Beta Tests. This post covers the basics of why beta tests are great and then goes into six specific beta test tips. The tips cover beta testing strategy and how to achieve the best possible results (both in the short run and long run). Moreover, the post covers ways to give back to search engines so you continue to get invited to exciting beta tests. I highly recommend checking out the post, it’s one of my best guest posts (in my opinion).

I wanted to sincerely thank PPC Associates for running my post. Their blog is amazing and is part of my daily reading. Make sure to head on over there and bookmark their blog. If you’re looking for an SEM agency, PPC Associates is one of the best so you will certainly want to reach out and schedule a consultation. Also, you may want to check out my other recent guest posts on the PPC Associates blog:

It’s All About The Wide Tail of SEM

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 21 3

I’m a huge fan of PPC Associates, one of the best SEM Agencies around. PPC Associates took the Silicon Valley by storm earlier this year with their Billboards on 101, one of my favorite offline marketing campaigns of this year. Over the last few years, I’ve gotten to know David Rodnitzky (CEO of PPC Associates) quite well, and I’m here to say that he is a true leader in our industry. This all brings me to the topic of today’s post: My review of Introducing the Wide Tail of SEM eBook.

I’m a big proponent of reading eBooks and whitepapers about online marketing. The beauty of our industry is smart people are always willing to share their perspectives and insights. Via their eBook series, PPC Associates does just that. Here’s what to expect in their wide tail eBook:

An explanation of why the long tail is losing its power, except in a few rare exceptions.
The emergence of the wide tail and how it differs from the long tail.
How savvy marketers are changing their perspective from the long tail to the wide tail.
Several trends that comprise the new wide tail phenomenon.
Best practices for managing the wide tail.
13 pages packed full of SEM insights.

I really enjoyed this eBook because the content is great and because it’s a well-written quick read. I recommend taking some time today to download and read Introducing the Wide Tail of SEM. It’s free!

PPC Account Assignments As A Narrative

By Guest Blogger Leave a Comment Jun 19 0

Hey everyone, PPC Ian here. Today, I’m thrilled to share a guest post from my friend Todd Mintz from PPC Associates, Silicon Valley’s SEM Agency. You can read all about Todd in his bio at the end of the post. Todd, thanks for the great post and I hope you all enjoy.

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.” – Hunter S. Thompson

PPC Associates

I’m going to have a new paid search client assigned to me shortly. Each client offers a distinct set of challenges and objectives, but the general framework of every new engagement remains the same.

I will be dropped into the middle of an ongoing narrative, and I’m not only expected to learn the characters and become part of the story but actually take control of the plot and create a positive outcome where temporal happiness and satisfaction is achieved.

A basic narrative structure has three components: Setup, Conflict, and Resolution. Unless the account is brand new, chances are that most of the setup has happened well before the new account manager comes on the scene…and even with a new account, one could say that the setup that led up to the agency engagement occurred when the business was formed.

Now, if the setup was conflict-free and everyone was happy and content, the business wouldn’t need to engage an agency (or a new agency, as the case may be). The conflict facing the business could be any combination of poor PPC results coupled with failed relationships with consultants, less than stellar employee management/oversight, competitor conumdrums, overall lack of knowledge and experience, or a combination of all the above.

Much of the earlier pre-engagement narrative will be anecdotal to the new account manager. He/she must build relationships with each of the stakeholders in the story which will, in effect, be creating minor subplots leading to the creation of a solid structure for the plot to proceed comfortably without costly detours.

The expertise of the new account manager is his/her ability to write a positive outcome to the tale. What makes up account manager expertise? Part of it is his/her technical ability to manage the accounts in a profitable manner that meets the aims of the business. Part of it is to manage the personalities that are part of the process…getting them to contribute to the effort to the best of their ability while making sure they feel valued as people and as teammates. Part of it is to manage the internal stakeholders in the agency…in my case, our wonderful production staff, our design team, and the other office personnel who might interact with the account. Finally, part of it is totally out of the account manager’s control…things such as marketplace events or client circumstances that might impact the paid search efforts but can’t be helped by the consultant.

The skillful account manager can take any plot circumstances and weave an ending that can satisfy all the characters as well as most audiences. Hopefully, the ending will be “totally groovy and far out” for everyone involved, and all can live happily ever after.

Once in a while, the narrative doesn’t end in the manner hoped for…in those cases, everyone can learn from the poor outcome and take those lessons to apply to the next narrative…where I will be dropped into the middle of an ongoing narrative and I’m not only expected to learn the characters and become part of the story but actually take control of the plot and create a positive outcome where a sort of temporal happiness and satisfaction is achieved.

Todd Mintz

– Todd Mintz is a Senior Account Manager at PPC Associates, a digital marketing firm with offices in the Bay Area and downtown Chicago. Todd has over 10 years of experience in search marketing and has used Google AdWords since it began. He also is very visible in the SEM social media space and is a curator/contributor at MarketingLand and one of the founding members of SEMpdx (Portland’s Search Engine Marketing Group).