5 Personality Traits PPC Professionals MUST Have
1 See the big picture
As we all know PPC is a great digital marketing channel because everything is so measurable and can be attributed. So running a PPC campaign and seeing your impact on increasing the number of conversions and lowering the cost per conversion is always a great thing right?
Wrong! You always need to remember how PPC and the campaigns you are running fit within the bigger and wider picture of the overall marketing goals.
For example, if I run a PPC campaign and I know that a particular region of the world is known to produce poor quality sales leads that seldom lead to revenue, and I continue to produce conversions from this area, am I doing my job well? Quite frankly, no.
Sometimes being a good PPC marketer means losing glory for the bigger picture. So that fantastic campaign with tons of conversions and a low cost per conversion that looks beautiful in your reporting, just pause it if you already know that the conversions from the campaign don’t turn into money.
2 Great communicator
You are the expert. You are the numbers guy/girl. You are the one that makes sense of all of these acronyms (PPC, CPA, CTR, CPM…). Your clients or stakeholders don’t need to know all of the technical intricacies of what makes a campaign tick. However they need to know what actions you have taken in general to manage their PPC campaign and make them profit.
Being able to put technical jargon into layman’s terms is a must for anybody who works in PPC. Sometimes it feels good to think you are one of the smartest people in the meeting, however your clients/stakeholders won’t appreciate being blinded with science.
3 Patient
A PPC marketer must be patient. They say patience is a virtue, so be virtuous. If you take on or build a new campaign and you begin work on optimising the performance, the fruits of your labour may not be apparent straight away. With PPC there are so many different factors at play, so sometimes it can take a while to find the winning formula.
But when you hit that winning formula and you really get a campaign to excel, isn’t it a lovely warm fuzzy feeling? Remember all the blood sweat and tears that went into it, and remember the patience you needed to get there. Don’t give up, you will always find a way.
4 Honest
This is a tricky one. I have seen many a situation where a client or a stakeholder wants to run a new campaign. They are absolutely buzzing with how great this new campaign could be, they are literally bouncing off the walls.
However you with your PPC knowledge know full well that this campaign will tank!
As a PPC professional you need to be able to tell the client/stakeholder that their brilliant scheme isn’t so brilliant. This kind of goes back to point number 2, as you need to be a great communicator to do this. You don’t want to hurt their feelings, but I am sure they would rather have their bubble burst than lose money!
When you tell them honestly why their campaign will not work, you will need to explain what you think will happen and the implications of running it. Always be honest, even if it means hurting someone’s feelings, because at the end of the day, if the campaign isn’t a success, you will be the person accountable.
5 Hunger To Learn
The search engine marketing industry is one of the fastest changing and high paced industries in marketing globally. There are always new tools, new methods, new options and interfaces to contend with. As a PPC marketer you must be like a sponge, always curious, always wanting to learn what happened and what is happening.
Seek knowledge, subscribe to blogs (maybe this one?) listen to opinion from peers and experts. Attend conferences and most of all don’t get left behind. If you aren’t providing your clients or stakeholders with the latest tools and technologies, or at least making them aware, are you really being a great PPC marketer?
Summary
Putting the obvious ability to interpret and manage data/numbers aside, as well as having technical know-how, there are many personality traits that a PPC professional needs in their locker. We will all be stronger at possessing some of these traits than others, but the most important thing is to keep growing and work on our weaknesses.
- 5 Personality Traits PPC Professionals MUST Have - December 11, 2018