What Does a PPC Specialist Do?
The prevalence and competition within PPC marketing make specialists in high demand, with the ability to target campaigns to defined audiences and demographics, improve and optimize the returns generated, and select paid marketing channels and platforms based on research, data, and market trends.
Like most digital marketing jobs, the exact capabilities you’ll need to be short-listed as an applicant for a PPC Specialist position will depend on the nature, location, and function of the recruiter.
A PPC Specialist working for a smaller business in-house will typically be expected to take on all responsibilities and tasks linked with PPC australia email lead campaign design, implementation, and monitoring. In contrast, PPC Specialists working within a digital marketing agency might deal with one granular aspect of PPC or work on specific types of campaigns on behalf of clients.
This guide explores the role of a PPC Specialist, how this position slots into a wider digital marketing department or team, the types of criteria and eligibility most recruiters look for, and how to establish yourself as an experienced PPC Specialist.
Understanding the Job of a PPC Specialist
PPC Specialists are primarily responsible for managing and monitoring paid online advertising campaigns, including every element from research to campaign strategy, designing promotions and ads, implementation, and tracking performance against targets.
Most PPC Specialists also need SEO expertise to optimize all ads and campaigns to ensure they gain maximum traction and visibility.
The typical tasks and functions you might expect to deal with during a day as a PPC Specialist will often include the following:
- Keyword research: Understanding how, where, and why consumers search for a particular term and how phrases and keyword strings relate to your ads. PPC Specialists will regularly conduct in-depth research to align campaigns with audience priorities and select the types of channels most used by their target consumer.
- Campaign design: Creating compelling landing pages to ensure respondents have positive, memorable brand experiences, using clear calls to action, formatting, and offers to encourage a response.
- Tracking trends: PPC Specialists need to keep pace with search engine algorithms, advertising channels, and mediums, as well as shifts in audience expectations. They must also know how to use creativity, targeted advertising, and technology to augment advertising returns.
Specialists working for an in-house digital marketing department may monitor a series of campaigns or handle all aspects of PPC, while those employed within a digital marketing agency might deal with a specific area of PPC marketing.
The Role of a PPC Specialist Within a Digital Marketing Team
As with all digital marketing professions, PPC Specialists can work in varied work environments, either developing and implementing campaigns on behalf of clients or running PPC functions for one business or brand.
The diversity of roles means PPC Specialists need to be confident in liaising and collaborating with colleagues, senior managers, stakeholders, and third-party clients and communicating ideas, solutions, suggestions, and results.
Since PPC Specialists handle research and initiate campaigns across all digital, social, and marketing channels, they might work closely with copywriters buy lead and content creators to develop high-performance ads for each platform, act as account managers to maintain positive client relationships, or focus on campaign analytics and trend monitoring.
This type of specialist role is also generally more senior, beginning at a mid-level or managerial seniority, which means a PPC Specialist may need to manage junior colleagues, provide instructions or specifications for other digital marketing professionals, and report to senior leadership teams.
How to Become a PPC Specialist
PPC is a high-growth subsection of digital marketing, and there is a strong demand for experienced PPC Specialists who can utilize paid search to use viral marketing for optimal benefits generate great returns, augment sales and profitability, and ensure all paid advertising campaigns contribute to brand goals.
There are frequent vacancies for PPC Specialists within advertising and digital marketing agencies and companies of all sizes, although the niche abilities of a PPC Specialist mean larger corporations tend to outsource this role to their preferred agency.
One of the best ways to establish the skills and know-how necessary to be a PPC Specialist is to stay up to date with industry news and trends, access podcasts and publications, and grasp changes in the digital marketing industry.