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PPC jobs and careers

A career in pay-per-click (PPC) is all about strategic internet advertising. A PPC specialist is responsible for planning and optimising the effectiveness of a paid campaign. The term PPC is often related to Google AdWords or Bing Ads, and advertisers will pay a fee each time their advert is clicked. A specialist in PPC uses their marketing expertise in order to maximise results by getting potential consumers to click-through and convert.
 
You’ll naturally be abreast of the search sector and the opportunities opening up within the market that will enhance the agency's or your business' offering. Outside of pure PPC, you may also be getting involved in paid social campaigns, display, remarketing, SEO, social media and broader digital marketing as required by the workflow in the team - however, your core focus will remain paid search.
 
Why consider a career in PPC?
If you’re a strategic thinker that loves helping businesses grow and forming technical campaigns (from writing enticing copy for adverts to pushing the campaign live and monitoring the success), a career in pay-per-click is creative, analytical and systematic. There are a range of paths you can go down, including the agency path, where you could be managing various campaigns for different clients. You could also be based in-house with one focus - growing the business of one brand through effective online paid strategies.
 
What a career or job in PPC may entail…
This career path can take you down a variety of different routes. Your role may blend more with digital marketing or you could specialise in PPC alone.
 
As a PPC Executive, you'll manage paid search campaigns on channels such as Google and Bing and social media. Part of your role is to create, optimise, report and to delve into the data and related analytics, to discover what is driving performance.

As a Digital Marketing PPC Specialist, you will work amongst a digital marketing and media team, predominantly on PPC campaigns. You will have a sound knowledge of data and strategy with the ability to drive client campaigns (if you work for an agency) or your business. You'll often manage budgets of various sizes, making sure you get the best for your spend. Across the business you’ll be a sounding board in terms of new strategies and the role paid search plays within the wider digital picture. In terms of hands-on PPC, you’ll work from planning through to implementing, monitoring, optimising and analysing the activity of a campaign.

As a PPC Digital Account Executive, you may be part of an agency team, this role would involve managing various accounts for a wide range of clients. You'll specialise in paid search, biddable media, programmatic and display. You’ll be instrumental in supporting the success of client accounts, ensuring successful digital marketing strategies for your clients. You’ll be comfortable working across commercial, analytical, communication and hands-on PPC based tasks.

As a PPC Specialist, you’ll provide day-to-day management and optimisation of paid search campaigns – to enhance performance in line with ROI targets. Daily PPC optimisations will include, query reports, budget/bid management, ad copy changes and keyword expansions. Competitor research will be key in staying several steps ahead of the competition. You’ll play part in the wider marketing team, ensuring a unified message is portrayed.

Typical role titles include
PPC Specialist
PPC Executive
PPC Assistant
Paid Search Specialist
Digital Marketing PPC Specialist
PPC Account Executive
Head of PPC
 
Career progression example
PPC Executive
PPC Manager
Head of Paid Search
 
Salary Benchmarks
At an entry level, junior/graduate PPC Consultants on average will be earning between £18-£25k. At the mid-level you’d be looking to earn £30-£40k and seniors would be looking to earn £50k+.
 
Is it right for me? The skills it takes...
You should be naturally analytical with great organisational skills, along with the ability to communicate your ideas well and explain them technically.
 
What qualifications does it take?
You may hold a foundation degree or diploma within a relevant subject such as IT, marketing or mathematics. There are other options to get your foot in the door, such as apprenticeships, online courses and on-the-job training.