Three PPC Tips For Beginners

Every day it seems another advertising agency is sprouting and trying to get picked for their piece of the PPC pie. More and more individuals are joining the ranks and advertising online.

I remember when I was one of those individuals, new to the industry without much of a clue. Looking back, there are a few things I wish I had known from the start.

Here are three valuable PPC tips for beginners that would have saved my life during the learning curve, and will be great for anyone getting started in this industry:

1. Don’t Fake It

Coming into the industry you may want to impress your colleagues or management and start making a name for yourself, but don’t let that set you back.

Your colleagues might not know everything, but they’ll see right through your inexperience. I made this mistake. I got overhyped and definitely a little cocky.

Someone in the office who thought I was more experienced, asked me to complete a simple task. I said, “of course,” and shook my head as if I knew what they were asking.

That task which now takes me 7 minutes, took me hours of research, stress, doubt about myself, considering running away, and damage to my personal brand.

Once you have a reputation of experience established, be sure you really have the experience to back it up. If not, a simple task quickly consumes your entire day and everyone will start to wonder why someone so experienced is so poor at his or her job.

If you don’t know something, ask someone who does. It’s okay if you don’t know, but don’t fake it.

2. Don’t Fall for the PPC Rhetoric

I can talk about this for an entire day! PPC Rhetoric is what I call those statements that many people say, but aren’t necessarily accurate.

For example, “SEO is a long-term solution, and PPC is immediate or meant to be short-term.” What does that even mean? PPC and SEO each have their audience.

If you’re doing both, don’t stop PPC just because your organic results are doing well!

You’ll lose on major opportunities, plus if your SEO campaign gets slammed in Google’s next big update, you’ll have nothing working and have some very difficult conversations coming your way. PPC is a beneficial asset to your marketing strategy and can be for the very long haul.

Another example, “Bing isn’t as good as Google” or “Google gets better results than Bing.” Instant red flag, consider a new mentor!!

I exaggerate a little, but really, anyone who has told me either of the above is someone who didn’t know how to advertise on Bing, and that was his or her PPC rhetoric.

Bing has a vast audience and you might find that a campaign performs better, giving you a lower CPA, and a higher conversion rate on Bing. Don’t fall for the PPC rhetoric. Instead, run tests, analyze the data, and make smart decisions based on real results. Neither is widely “better” than the other.

Last example, “the industry is always changing.” What does that mean? Is that an excuse used to cover mistakes? Is that someone faking it, like they know what’s happening and want to sound knowledgeable? Things do change, but the claim needs to be supported. Some PPC practices that worked for years still work today.

3. Find a Mentor.

It’s important to have an experienced “go-to” person for questions, but even more important, a mentor will help you to reach personal goals and better yourself in this industry.

Your goal should be to do better than your mentor. That doesn’t necessarily mean better results; results can’t always be controlled. What it does mean, is that you know how to diagnose and solve a problem.

What should you do if your CTR plummets? What caused the large increase in conversions this week? Can you afford those keyword bid increases and remain profitable?

You’ll know your mentor has done a good job when you can teach them something they didn’t know or share new ideas with them.

If you don’t know something, that’s okay, just don’t fake it. You do more damage than help by faking it. Don’t fall for the PPC rhetoric. Perform tests to find results and make smarter decisions. Find a mentor. Learn from the mistakes others have made instead of making the same ones.

Additionally, find success where others have already found it. While there is no single solution to learning PPC overnight, these things will help you to be successful quickly.

You will shortly find yourself having more meaningful conversations with your clients and co-workers, more specific goals with a plan of action to achieve those goals, and better build your own brand into something great.