PPC (Pay Per Click) refers to paid advertising on the Internet, typically through Google Adwords, Bing Ads or social media ads. Companies that implement PPC into their marketing strategies pay every time a user clicks on an online ad, which is where PPC Strategists come in.
PPC Strategists are experts at internet advertising and they can be found within agencies, in teams at Fortune 500s or even at small to midsize organizations.
A good PPC Strategist will have the ability to ensure that the organizations or clients they work for spend a minimum amount of money for a maximum amount of ad clicks. Their efforts should drive more traffic to a website or a specific web page at the best cost possible to the organization.
What does a PPC Strategist do, typically?
A PPC Strategist is continuously monitoring changes in ad trends and internal analytics to optimize ad spend. Their daily responsibilities may include:
- Delivering PPC campaigns to the most relevant and effective networks, based on analysis, monitoring, review and active decision-making
- Fully assessing and understanding business objectives and translating those goals into a PPC strategy and action plan
- Monitoring and reporting on key performance indicators and presenting progress to stakeholders and senior management
- Undertaking smart buying decisions to ensure maximum effect for a given online budget spend
- Collaborating with other marketing colleagues to ensure joint strategic marketing objectives align with paid ad activity
- Working with IT and web development teams to ensure there is a technical capability to deliver, capture and ensure the success of key aspects – such as landing pages, tracking codes and integration of analytics
A PPC Strategist is not:
An SEO Specialist
A PPC Strategist is focused on purely pay-per-click, whereas an SEO Specialist is focused on both paid and organic search strategies and well as web optimization. See our full description for SEO Specialist here.
A Paid Media Specialist
Paid Media Specialists are largely focused on search and web best practices and while keywords are included in PPC responsibilities, they are mainly focused on overall ad strategy and budget spend. See our full job description for Paid Media Specialist here.
Important metrics for a PPC Strategist
- Conversion rate
- ROI
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Click through rate (CTR)
- Quality Score
