In order to manage your Pay Per Click advertising efficiently and achieve the highest ROI possible, you need to have competent managers leading skilled marketers. Only with both of these pieces in place can you hope to use PPC marketing to its full potential.
Hiring a PPC Manager
A PPC marketing manager will take responsibility for overseeing your PPC campaigns. This means that they will be actively involved in discussions from the moment you first begin planning your campaign, right up until you are ready to execute it and unleash it onto the world. Some businesses prefer to hire a dedicated PPC marketing manager who can take charge of these campaigns as their sole duty, while others will be looking to elevate individual members of their PPC team to a management position on a project-by-project basis.
Both of these processes can work, but you need to have a coherent strategy for deciding exactly who you should bestow this honour and responsibility upon. If you choose the wrong person to lead your PPC marketing team, the effects will be detrimental to them, your business, and the other members of your team. Whether you are going to hire a PPC manager or you are going to promote an existing PPC marketer from within your business, you need to go into the process with a clear picture of what you are looking for and why.
Defining The Role of Manager
Before you can seriously begin looking for candidates to apply for the role of PPC manager, you need to have a very clear picture in your own head of what the role is and what it will entail. There is no external authority that decides who qualifies as a PPC manager; it is up to individual businesses to decide what that role entails within their own corporate structures, and what it is that they expect their PPC managers to do on a daily basis.
Naturally, a PPC manager will need the same basic set of skills that any good manager has. Namely, they will need to be able to manage a team of subordinates without becoming a taskmaster. You don’t want a PPC manager who is forcing their team to work so hard that they end up burned out and resentful. Instead, you want one who is eager to share their knowledge and expertise, and who appreciates the value of teamwork.
Below we have put together a list of what we think are the most essential key skills for any PPC manager to have. Be sure to adjust this list, adding some key skills that you think we have forgotten, and removing any that you don’t think apply to your business. Remember, no one knows your business or your team better than you do.
Key Skills for a PPC Manager
Respect
Of course, any PPC manager must have reasonably good people skills. A manager is no good to you if they cannot clearly and respectfully explain their ideas and positions to those around them. We will talk about communication in more detail shortly, but it isn’t just the ability to communicate with you and the rest of the marketing team that is important in a PPC manager.
Anyone who has worked a few different types of jobs will understand that managers have different motivations. The first type of manager is only interested in their own prestige, and the benefits that come with being a manager. However, managers who were actually passionate about the work that they do and the people that they work with are much better. These are the managers who are willing to go above and beyond and sometimes work a little overtime if it benefits one of the employees who work beneath them.
Communication
Your PPC manager will serve as a conduit between you and your frontline workers. If there are issues in communication, either between you and your manager or between your manager and the rest of the marketing department, it will make everyone’s jobs much more difficult. On the other hand, if you managed to land a marketing manager who is adept at communication and who is able how to get your more introverted employees to come out of their shells a little and join in with discussions, they can be exactly the shot in your arm that the entire department needs.
You would be surprised by just how much of a difference it can make having a good communicator at the helm of a group. Sometimes, the same people will go from being all but useless to being among your most productive workers if you can find the right person to lead them. Ideally, you want someone who already has managerial skills, even if it is not as a PPC marketing manager. But everyone needs to start somewhere, and if an applicant can demonstrate their communication skills to you in other ways, then you should still consider them for the role.
There is little sense in spending the time and money necessary to hire dedicated PPC experts if they aren’t going to be able to effectively share their expertise with the rest of the team. Use your interview as an opportunity to test their ability to communicate their plans, ideas, and reasoning to other people.
Ability To Cope Under Pressure
In the physical world of online marketing, even the best-laid plans sometimes have to be adjusted in response to unexpected circumstances. One of the key reasons for having a single manager overseeing groups of people such as marketing departments is precisely because it is almost impossible to get a group of people to think on their feet in the same way that an individual can. If there are difficult or unexpected decisions to be made, your PPC marketing manager can step up and direct the rest of your team so that you can correct course as soon as possible.
It is a good idea to throw some hypothetical scenarios at your interviewee to see how they would respond to the kind of common problems that a marketing manager might face. In fact, you might want to test them using examples that have actually occurred in your business. These scenarios are good because you know how they played out in at least one outcome. You can then compare the suggestions of the interviewee against what actually transpired to make a judgment as to how good their idea is.
How To Choose A Final Candidate
Hopefully, you will end your interview process with a shortlist of potential names. If there is one clear stand-out candidate who you simply cannot allow to slip through your fingers, don’t waste any time in bringing them on board your team. However, if you are faced with a difficult choice between several names, here are some winning traits to look for in your final pick.
Establishing An Interview Process
If you are processing a large number of applications and have several candidates on your shortlist to choose from, a final interview can be a great decider. Use this as an opportunity to dig a little deeper and get to know how these candidates might perform as managers.
Find Out Their Philosophy
A manager’s philosophy encompasses their approach both to their job and to the people that will be working beneath them. You want a manager who has respect for those that they oversee, someone who is able to pass on their knowledge and expertise – and can help to teach as well as to lead.
Make Sure They Are A Good Fit For Your Team
Finally, you want a manager that is going to be a good fit for your existing team. You can look at previous managers for an indication of how they are likely to respond to different types of managers; try to replicate and build upon your most successful setups.
Defining The Role Of A PPC Marketer
PPC marketers will make up the bulk of your PPC marketing team. These are the elves that your manager will be directing. Neither component, your workers or your managers, can be successful without the other.
Key Skills for a PPC Marketer
Obviously, having PPC marketers who are experienced with PPC marketing is a boon, but there are a number of other important skills that you should look for when you hire a PPC marketer.
Communication
Good communication, in this case, doesn’t just mean being able to listen and take instruction. You also want PPC marketers who are able to give useful feedback to their managers and can play an active role in helping to shape your future procedures.
Long-Term Goals And Aspirations
If you can hire a PPC expert who has an excellent understanding of PPC marketing, coupled with years of real-world experience, this is clearly a real coup for any marketing department. However, just as important as looking at candidates’ pasts is looking to their futures. You want candidates who have the drive, ambition, and tangible goals for the future. These are the workers who will bring the most to your business.
An Analytical Mind
The best PPC marketers in your business will be able to provide thoughtful feedback to their managers following any campaign. This feedback can be used to shape your future campaigns and ensure that your business is constantly refining its approach to PPC marketing, not stagnating.
How To Choose a Final Candidate
Recruiting marketers is easier than recruiting managers, in large part because you don’t have to be so wary of untested talent. Many inexperienced marketers show significant promise early in their careers. When you are deciding on a PPC marketing hire, the potential you see in them should play a big part.
Check Out Their Past Portfolio
If the interviewee already has some experience in PPC marketing and can show you some examples of their past work, ask to see it. Don’t just look at it. Encourage them to talk about it and tell you what they wanted to achieve and whether they were successful. Ask them what they would do the same or differently in the future.
Make Sure They Are a Team Player
A harmonious team will be a productive team. No marketer, no matter how talented, is worth sacrificing the unity or consistency of your team. Your first priority when deciding who to hire should be ensuring the integrity of your team as a whole.
If you make the right choices when you are hiring managers and marketers for your business, you will be able to achieve successes you never thought possible. On the other hand, if you don’t have a reliable recruitment process, you are going to be setting yourself up for difficulties down the line. Make sure you have a clear picture of what it is that you want from candidates and how you will test them to determine if they are suitable or not. Never settle for anything less than the best for your business.
