Archives for 2013

Happy Holidays & The Spirit of Giving

Happy holidays, and Merry Christmas! Today is a special day. It’s a day to spend time with family, reflect, enjoy great times, and open a few presents. The last two years, I shared some of the cool digital marketing gifts I received from partners (2011 gifts, 2012 gifts). 2013 was no exception, with a multitude of generous gifts coming my way from treasured partners within the digital marketing space. Rather than share pictures of those gifts, however, I wanted to take an opportunity to share an image (and a story) of some very special gifts I gave this year…

Family Giving Tree Gifts

What you see above are gifts that Nicole and I donated to the Family Giving Tree. My amazing employer sponsored a huge Family Giving Tree drive and we took this opportunity to select three gift packages for in-need children. How does Family Giving Tree work? They are really amazing… They find families and individuals who cannot afford gifts this holiday season. They determine the gift wishes of those in-need and then share those gift wishes with elfs. Nicole and I decided to buy gifts for three children this holiday season. We purchased Star Wars action figures, a Thomas & Friends train set with extra train, and a doll stroller system. We had so much fun shopping for the children, and know that these gifts will bring joy to three special children today!

Overall, 2013 was a record year for us in terms of charity/donations (and was one of my major goals going into the year). Those of us in the digital marketing space are so incredibly fortunate. Take a moment to reflect and help others. Do everything you can throughout the day to help your team, co-workers, partners, and really anyone you interact with. Outside of work (or as a work/team activity), donate your time to those less fortunate. Outside of work (or again as a work/team activity) find ways to donate money and gifts. This truly is the season of giving. It’s time to give back and help others in need. As an industry, we can make a truly positive impact on this world, not only through our work but through our kindness and spirit of giving!

Image of Family Giving Tree Gifts © PPCIan.com

Introducing Backyard Blogging With Presentation Tips

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 22 6

Happy holidays, everyone! It’s around this time of year (with the new year quickly approaching) that I’m always thinking of great, new ideas to improve all areas of my life: my career, my personal life, and of course my blog. Just last week, I posted a video about Brainstorming For 2014.

Well, the other week while brainstorming, my wife suggested a new idea called “Backyard Blogging”. This would be a fun video blog series that I would do each week (or as often as possible) here on PPC Ian. It would be a great way to keep it fun and casual, and shoot informative videos without much/any need for fancy editing. The end result: This becomes a new and exciting way to connect with others in digital marketing / customer acquisition (you), and keeps things super fun here on PPC Ian. Also, it’s a fun way for me to practice my own presentation and speaking skills (something I’m truly passionate about).

Well, I’m thrilled today to share my first episode of Backyard Blogging. Please check it out below, and make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Playing into the theme above, I thought the first topic should be all about public speaking and presentation skills for businesspeople. In the exciting world of marketing and customer acquisition, there are always opportunities to present, oftentimes to large audiences. Superb presentation skills create a world of opportunity in one’s career. Thanks for watching and wishing you an amazing 2014!

Video © PPCIan.com

I’m In The Acquisio 14 On ’14

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 16 0

I’m excited! My good friends at Acquisio just published the must-have eBook of 2013/2014. Their free eBook called 14 On ’14 highlights 2014 digital marketing predictions from leaders in our industry. I’m especially passionate about this particular eBook because I’m one of the 14 in the eBook. (Thanks, Acquisio, for the amazing opportunity and honor.)

Are you planning for 2014 right now? Trying to determine the best strategies to grow your digital marketing in the new year? Look no further than Acquisio’s 14 on ’14. It’s a great collection of thoughts, predictions, and insights. It’s easy: Simply click the following banner for your free copy, and see what I (and 13 other digital marketing professionals) foresee in 2014!

Image of 14 On ’14 © Acquisio

Brainstorming For 2014: Take a Hike

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 15 0

Can you believe it? 2013 is almost over! I have been spending a lot of time lately brainstorming new ideas for 2014, both for my personal life and also for business. I have found hiking to be an incredible way to exercise, think, brainstorm, relax, and gain positive inspiration in life and business. In today’s video, please join me on one of my recent hikes! And, please make sure to subscribe to the PPC Ian YouTube Channel. Many more videos on the way in future posts…

Video © PPCIan.com

Check Out My Guest Post At AdMedia

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 15 1

I’ve had a blast lately contributing guest posts to some of the best digital advertising blogs around. In my last post, I highlighted a cool AdLift Guest Post. Today, I’m thrilled to share another…

I’m great friends with the AdMedia team. AdMedia is one of the best ad networks around. They also happen to have an incredible blog. When they presented the opportunity of contributing a guest post, I brainstormed topics that would be relevant not only to the digital marketing professional but also specifically to someone considering advertising on AdMedia and other ad networks. In an industry that’s incredibly focused on the big three (which, of course, makes complete sense), I decided to write a post about Diversifying Beyond Google, Yahoo!/Bing, and Facebook.

I absolutely love Google, Yahoo!/Bing, and Facebook. They are to the digital media portfolio what large cap blue chip stocks are to the investment portfolio. The cornerstone of any great investment portfolio (or digital marketing portfolio) is diversification. What about the mid cap and small cap equivalents within digital marketing?

There exists great opportunity for the savvy marketer to diversify and add to the big three with complementary media sources. Manage your digital marketing program like a well-diversified portfolio of investments, and you will find new levels of consistency and efficiency. I hope you enjoy my post!

Image of guest post © AdMedia

Cyber Monday Deals For Marketers, Part Two

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 2 0

It’s shopping bargains season, and I’m not talking about retail! The time is here for digital marketers to enjoy special Cyber Monday offers. A few days back, I shared three amazing Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals For Marketers. (I hope you took advantage of those special offers. If not, hurry up, you still have a few hours left tonight.)

Number Two

Cyber Monday is not yet over, and today I’m thrilled to share two more deals that you will surely want to take advantage of! And, don’t worry about rushing tonight, you can take advantage of these two new deals through end of day tomorrow (Tuesday, 12/3).

First, I wanted to highlight a special offer from my great friends at AdMedia. Have you heard of AdMedia? They are a long-time sponsor of PPC Ian, and an incredibly impressive ad network (and so much more). AdMedia helps you advertise, engage, and convert across multiple channels and platforms. Customer acquisition is all about diversification. AdMedia provides a fantastic avenue to diversify your traffic sources, and an opportunity to acquire customers a potentially less competitive environment than the highly competitive, big search engines. And, they reach 98% of the web, drawing 40 million users every month across their expansive network! To celebrate Cyber Monday, AdMedia is offering a free $100 advertising credit. It’s easy: Simply open an account, deposit $100, and AdMedia will match that $100 for free. Click here to get started or check out this post to read more about AdMedia and their special offer. Way to go, AdMedia, what a sweet offer!

Kenshoo is a company that requires absolutely no introduction! They are one of the biggest leaders and most sophisticated digital marketing platforms in existence. This technology-driven company truly knows how to empower digitial marketing professionals and many of the most sophisticated operations around rely on Kenshoo technology every single day. A fun side-note: Kenshoo just posted this neat blog post that illustrates how mobile (phones and tablets) accounted for about 40% of all paid search spend on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Simply staggering numbers! Do you have a mobile strategy? To celebrate Cyber Monday, Kenshoo is offering an exciting free demo. Make sure to ask them about how Kenshoo can help with your mobile strategy!

That’s it, everyone. I wish you great fun exploring these exciting Cyber Monday opportunities, both in this post and my previous one.

Image of Number Two © iStockPhoto – tiler84
Disclaimer: PPC Ian is sharing deals compiled from others, for entertainment purposes. Please consult the companies providing the deal for specifics, terms are subject to change.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals For Marketers

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Nov 30 0

Hi Friends,

Cyber Monday Sale

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! There is so much I’m thankful for, including this blog and you, my readers. It has been such an amazing year, and I’m thankful that PPC Ian is 4 years old, thanks to your support. To share the holiday spirit, I have compiled some really exciting deals to share with you today, thanks to my amazing sponsors.

Think Black Friday and Cyber Monday are all about retail? Think again! Today’s post shares special deals for the digital marketer.

Two out of the three deals below are FREE! The other, in my opinion, is close to free since the pricing is so incredibly low (and the returns you will get should very far outpace the cost).

Have fun shopping, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,
Ian

Deal 1, Today’s Special: Acquisio Platform at 1% of Ad Spend OR Acquisio Platform Plus Budget and Bid Management at 1.5% Ad Spend (First 6 Months)

The headline says it all, I would totally understand if you stop reading and drop everything to head on over to Acquisio for this very special opportunity.

Have you heard of Acquisio? They are one of the best digital marketing platforms around, and one of the original sponsors of PPC Ian. The prices mentioned above are truly outstanding, among the lowest I have seen for any top-tier digital marketing platform. Are you in the market for digital marketing technology? Confused by the sea of start-ups and multitude of options? My experience in this industry: It’s often advantageous to go with one of the larger names, those who have been around since the beginning and offer economies of scale. Hint: There are only a handful of larger name platforms that have stood the test of time. Acquisio is one of them, and I highly recommend seeing if Acquisio is the right fit for your agency or business.

Moreover, Acquisio leaders (such as my good friend Marc Poirier, Founder and EVP) are unparalleled values-driven business leaders.

Deal 2: Free PPC Account Audit From Rocket Clicks, Digital Agency

Whether you’re new to PPC or an industry veteran, an account audit from an unbiased third party is always incredibly welcomed. A free audit from one of the most advanced digital agencies in existence is a true blessing! An expert look at your account will always yield helpful insights and optimizations. I’m thrilled to share a really special deal: My good friends at Rocket Clicks digital marketing agency are offering a special account audit to the first 10 people to contact them by end of day Monday, December 2! Simply head on over to their Contact Us page and enter "PPCIAN" next to your URL.

They are offering a free condensed PPC account audit, that will have 5 immediate account optimization suggestions. The audit will be performed by my good friend Nicole Mennicke’s team (Director of PPC Advertising). How can you beat that? Timing is perfect as well, you can add the optimizations to your 2014 roadmap (anyone planning for 2014 right now?).

Deal 3: Free SEO Site Audit From AdLift, SEO Agency

Have you heard of AdLift? They are one of the most amazing SEO Agencies in existence. They do SEO for some of the biggest and best brands around, those brands who require industry thought leaders when it comes to SEO. Prashant Puri, CEO of AdLift, is thrilled to share an exclusive free website audit with PPC Ian readers (thanks, Prashant!). Want to sign up? It’s easy, simply enter your contact info and the code "BLACKFRIDAY-PPCIAN" on the AdLift Contact us Page. AdLift is offering this special deal to first 10 who respond by end of day Monday, December 2. This deal is the perfect complement to the last one. Take advantage of both opportunities and you will have a full queue of PPC and SEO optimizations for 2014 and beyond!

I hope you find this list of deals helpful, and I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving weekend. Have fun shopping, digital marketing style!

Image of Cyber Monday © iStockPhoto – marekuliasz
Disclaimer: PPC Ian is sharing deals compiled from others, for entertainment purposes. Please consult the companies providing the deal for specifics, terms are subject to change.

The Values-Driven People Manager

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Nov 23 0

A few posts ago, I shared some of my tips for the Values-Driven Business Professional. I wanted to follow a somewhat similar theme today, from a people management standpoint. What drives me each and every day? More than the digital marketing craft itself, it’s the people, especially those who I manage. Effective people management takes a special mindset. I have seen (and heard stories about) poor people managers. Don’t be a poor people manager, someone’s entire life is depending on you! Here’s how to do what’s right and manage from a values-driven perspective:

Management Leadership

Always arrive at work with great responsibility and purpose. Remember that you are responsible for someone’s (or many people’s) career(s). That is nothing to take lightly. It’s a huge responsibility and involves an immense amount of maturity and purpose to handle the responsibility with care.
Do what’s best for the company and the employee, that always involves motivating, mentoring, and growing those who report to you. Happy employees drive the best results for the company, and are most likely to stay and contribute to your company for the long haul. Life is short, everyone should be empowered and doing their personal best.
Find ways to get your team in the spotlight. When you’re a great manager, it’s no longer about you. It’s about growing and driving results through others. Give amazing opportunities to your team.
Find ways to reward those who truly deserve it! One of the absolute best accomplishments for the savvy people manager is encouraging/championing growth, and then promoting those on your team as they achieve, succeed, grow, and deserve.
Act with complete fairness and equality across the board. Always think rationally.
Create a family-like environment. Most of us spend more time working than anything else. Those who work together should bond like a family. Everyone is on the same team and shares both success and failure. Everyone in the family looks out for each other.
Never, ever act in a self-promotional manner. Don’t brag about your material possessions, your intellect, nor your accomplishments. When you’re a people manager, it’s all about the team and the company. The team’s success and growth will reflect on you. Those managers that brag about themselves demotivate the team. This should seem somewhat obvious to most, but I’m pointing it out because this type of behavior does happen, surprisingly!
Not everyone is cut out to be a manager. Are you not only willing, but honored to spend hours helping others through challenges and hurdles (on top of your own work, even if it involves working long shifts)? Are you willing to put your own reputation on the line for someone else? Are you willing to do whatever it takes, no matter how difficult/long, to help someone on your team through a challenge? If your answer is “no” to any of these, that’s ok. People management requires true dedication, dedication that not everyone is cut out for. It takes an amazing leader and self-aware business professional to consciously turn down people management opportunities. Think critically, it is ok to opt out of people management opportunities if it’s not right for you.
Are you committed for the long haul? Everyone has had this experience… They have an amazing manager who later leaves, only to get a less desirable manager. The manager is the company to many employees. You owe it to your company and your team to stick around for the long haul, even if tempting offers come your way, as a people manager (especially of a larger team).
Are you comfortable in uncomfortable situations? Do you thrive in a challenging environment? Growing careers is not easy. You will have to deliver negative news/feedback. From time-to-time, people may not be happy with you. Can you handle those difficult times, in order to do what’s right? As a manager, you see the long term vision and can lead others through challenging times, even if they don’t see the full picture yet. You are ok taking harsh feedback and criticism along the way, always sticking to your plan of what’s best for your team.
Do you like to have fun at work? Do you love what you do? Are you enthusiastic and high-energy? the most successful people managers bring that excitement to the office each and every day. They are true motivators!

Happy 4th Birthday To PPC Ian

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Nov 19 6

I’m a few weeks late here, but wanted to take a moment to celebrate the 4th birthday of PPC Ian! That’s right, it all started back on October 29, 2009 with my first post about how Passionate I am About PPC. Since then and many blog birthday posts later (1st birthday, 2nd, 3rd), It’s been quite the amazing run, both on this blog and in my career/life!

Happy Fourth Birthday

I wanted to start out and sincerely thank you, my loyal readers! I thank you for the emails/questions, comments, post ideas/requests, and, most importantly, support! I also wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank my sponsors. Here at PPC Ian, I partner with the best and brightest companies in our industry (folks like Acquisio, Kenshoo, 3Q Digital, InsideVault, and Rocket Clicks), I’m lucky to have such an amazing group of loyal sponsors. It’s the sponsors that keep the lights going here at PPC Ian!

PPC really has come a long way since my first post… Some fun statistics:

367 posts (including this one)
2,452 approved comments
26 categories
423 tags
432,346 spam comments blocked thanks to Akismet (unreal!)
~1,468 hours or 36.70 work weeks worth of hard work on PPC Ian. Posts typically do not take 4 hours (only the really long ones), however there is so much work that goes into blogging above and beyond writing posts, such as coding, marketing, networking, accounting, contracts, formatting images, and so much more… It has been a huge, fun commitment!

Over the last four years, I’ve truly learned a lot. Some of my favorite lessons as a blogger:

My amazing wife, Nicole, is my biggest PPC Ian fan by far! Thanks, Nicole, for the amazing inspiration, support, and ideas.
It’s about so much more than PPC. My career in PPC started out in 2004. In 2009, I launched PPC Ian with the goal of empowering and educating pay per click professionals. Now, PPC Ian is all about digital marketing and business in general, although you will certainly find me blogging about PPC quite a bit, even to this day. My day-to-day in 2013 is all about PPC, marketing, customer acquisition, and business/management, in general. I like to mirror those themes here, while still staying true to my PPC roots!
Pay per click can take you really, really far in your career. It’s amazing. Don’t overlook the huge opportunity in this rapidly growing career, it keeps getting better and better.
Blogging is an incredible way to network and meet others. I have met so many amazing professionals as a result of PPC Ian. It’s all about the people!
Blogging requires incredible determination and hard work. However, the lessons you learn about SEO, coding, writing, social media, and marketing in general are priceless. PPC Ian has provided a true wealth of knowledge, and I am thankful for the lessons.
Blogging is challenging. These days, I am so incredibly busy that I rarely have any free time. That said, I always make time for PPC Ian! It’s totally worth it. I have so much respect for anyone who blogs on a consistent basis, this is not easy work!

Thanks everyone for reading and I hope you will follow PPC Ian for the next four years and beyond! Lots of excitement ahead!