Productivity: It’s All About The Warm-Up

It was an incredibly productive Monday for me, and I’m so thankful. However, not all of my Mondays are like that. Have you ever had a Monday where you just can’t get started? The time seems to pass by, but you just can’t gain any momentum? You don’t know where to start and your mind is still in the weekend? Today, I’m thrilled to share a productivity hack that could take your Mondays to the next level. I want to share my warm-up strategy for generating great momentum, on Mondays and any other day that you need a little extra push!

Warm Up Vomero

As a running enthusiast, I’d like to leverage a running analogy today. That said, you could really think about any sport. What’s your favorite sport? Would you just jump into that sport without a proper warm-up? Definitely not advised!

Whenever I go running, especially at fast pace (when participating in a charity 5K for example), I always warm-up. Why? My body is not ready for the intensity of the running without a transition period. The body cannot just jump from one thing to another. An intense race is a very different undertaking than the activities that typically precede the race: Getting a good night’s sleep, eating healthy food, drinking plenty of water, and driving to the event. I warm-up to tell my body it’s race time, and no longer sleeping, eating, hydrating, and driving time. I warm-up to get my muscles ready so that they do not get torn. I warm-up to perform my best, while minimizing the chances of an injury.

Let’s think about the mind for a minute. My warm-up strategy for Monday mornings is based on the observation that my mind also needs a warm-up period. What did I do all weekend? While I certainly work some weekends, I really try to take as much time as possible for my family and myself. Weekends are about relaxing and doing fun things, with some household chores thrown in. While I do try to think out-of-the-box and accomplish some reading, my mind is not in intense Excel modeling mode.

Enter Monday Morning: An incredibly complex Excel model is so different from my weekend activities. Oftentimes, my mind is not ready for that immediate jump. Without a warm-up, I may go slower than normal, and not do my best work. I may even risk a mistake (the work equivalent of the sports injury). My solution: I warm-up my mind.

Let’s use today as an example… Heading into today, I knew that I had an incredibly complex Excel model to build. However, being a Monday, I wasn’t quite ready to build that model first thing in the morning. So, I spent all morning on emails and easier tasks. I crossed five easy tasks of my list.

After lunch, I was fully warmed-up. I felt a great sense of accomplishment since I completed so many tasks in the morning. While they were easy, warm-up tasks, they got me moving. Just like a runner, I started gaining momentum about half-way through the race. At the exact moment my momentum really started kicking in and I felt my strongest surge of energy and focus, I went for it and built my model. I got my model completed in about four hours, and I had complete focus and peak efficiency the whole time. I also felt completely exhausted afterwards, just like the runner who’s momentum builds right into that sprint towards the finish line.

After building my model, I did a little bit of cool-down work (another easy task or two) before calling it a day. It’s all about accomplishing as much as possible in as little time as possible, and leaving the office knowing that you had a rock star day! I hope the warm-up strategy helps you operate at peak productivity.

Taking Advantage of Surges In Energy

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jul 29 0

I’m always focused on time management. As a digital marketing professional, I’m always wishing for more time. There is so much opportunity out there, and so little time. Today, I wanted to share a time management framework that has been helping me a lot lately, centered around the concept of embracing and taking advantage of surges in energy. It’s a strategy that continues to improve and evolve every single week!

Today

I like to equate my time management philosophy to digital marketing media planning. From a media planning standpoint, we allocate budget to the most productive channels, and take away budget from lower performing channels. Even within a channel (such as paid search), we allocate budget to the most profitable keywords, and remove budget from less productive keywords. By optimizing a portfolio of many on a granular level, the overall sum has the best aggregate results.

Time management is the same. Do you ever feel inspired? It doesn’t matter if it’s 6:00 am, 9:00 am, or 11:00pm. Inspiration comes in waves, it can just hit you! When I feel inspired, I like to harness that energy and keep going until I drop. I view those times of the week when I’m most inspired as the best components of the overall portfolio that makes up my productive workweek. You want to overweight those great moments, so I invest in them heavily. The challenge here is they can come and go. You don’t always know when they’ll hit, so be ready.

Have times of the day or week when you are less productive? Under-invest in such times. If it’s 5:00pm and you’re not getting much done, go home. If it’s mid-day and you’re feeling sluggish, focus on easy tasks. I especially like filling lower energy time periods with more routine tasks that don’t involve quite as much creativity. I also give myself a rest during unproductive times. There’s only so much time in the week. If you go all out during those surges of energy, you need to conserve your energy (within reason) during those slower times (of course, only if outside standard business/work hours). By minimizing low productivity times, you again improve your average productivity for the entire workweek.

Want to supercharge this strategy? I truly recommend getting into work early. There are certain times when you can expect a surge in energy and it will often come (at least for me) when I’m at work super early. It’s a very calm time of day and a great time to surge through work. I also enjoy the night hours after work so I’m super open to working very late at night, embracing my surge in energy. I know that I’ll reward myself later that week with an easy day when I feel lower energy so the strategy is very sustainable.

Another way to boost this strategy? Eat well, exercise well, and drink plenty of water. I have found that a healthy diet helps supercharge productivity as well. You will find increased overall surges of energy if you take great care of yourself.

Some other tips that can enhance this strategy:

Surround yourself with positive, happy, inspired people. You will find yourself more inspired and productive if you’re around high, positive energy.
When you’re inspired and riding the wave of energy, stay focused. New ideas will pop into your mind. Take notes so you don’t forget later but quickly get back to project at hand. I like to listen to music (with my headphones) to stay super focused.
Make sure to give back. As a leader at your company and field, try to inspire productivity and surges of energy in your team and others. The productivity is contagious!

Image of today © iStockPhoto – AnsonLu

Time Saving Tips For Digital Marketing Professionals

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 28 1

Digital marketing is a very exciting and high powered career path. It’s also a career where time is always your most limited resource. We’re dealing with Wall Street’s 24/7 cousin here. Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and all other online advertising platforms never sleep. Personally, as my career has grown, time has become more and more scarce. I’ve written some similar posts in the past, however this one will touch on some of my newer thoughts around time management, ideas that are top of mind right now. I hope these help, because time management is not only about your career but it’s also about optimizing your overall life.

Hourglass

Think very carefully about your PTO/holiday schedule. Plan your PTO strategically, when there is a lower volume of work. Just like digital marketing campaigns, there is a flow to each week. Is it easier for you to take off a Monday or a Friday? Typically, Fridays are the way to go since it’s a “lighter” day. Take off a Monday and you may be feeling the pain for the rest of the week. Planning a big vacation? Try to schedule it during your company’s light season. Perhaps schedule it around an existing holiday weekend, with a few extra days. Personal Example: I’m taking today off, the Tuesday (after the 3-day holiday weekend). My PTO is about to expire since I have accumulated so much (so I had to plan some sort of day off). While Fridays are typically easier to take off, I decided to go for today since I had a big, important meeting on Friday I could not miss. Today is a great day to recharge my batteries, and I can rest assured I planned my day off with sound strategy.
Empower and grow your team, fast. I created PPC Ian with the goal of educating and empowering those in this exciting online marketing career path. Think of ways you can empower and grow your team every single day. I’m talking about on-the-job training, delegating difficult/challenging projects, mentoring, team activities, and more. The fastest way to scale is to delegate, however you can only delegate so fast. The faster you can grow your team, the more they can take on and the more the overall organization grows. From the employee’s perspective, this is also an ideal situation because this means fast paced career growth! It’s a win-win-win for you, your team, and your company.
Invest in short bursts of energy. When you are getting a lot done, zone everything else out. It’s ok to reschedule meetings, delay responses to emails, miss phone calls, and simply focus on the task at hand. When you are feeling a burst of energy, you need to harness that energy for one single task at hand (until that task is done, and you move onto the next highest priority). I’m a huge multitasker, but try to multitask only during more normal and lower energy levels. High energy levels are reserved for the most important projects, one at a time. Tip from personal experience: It’s ok if you “catch” yourself getting distracted and/or multitasking. Simply correct course and get focused again. It’s nearly impossible to be fully focused, but just the conscious effort will help you cross the most critical projects right off your list.
Save tasks forward. Are there any repetitive tasks that you work on? This does not have to be boring, manual work. It just has to be something that has to happen more than once. Some examples from a social media standpoint: writing blog posts and writing tweets. I have often found that if you are energized and in the right frame of mind, you can get a few such projects done in a row. Then, you have essentially saved work forward, work you can use in the future. A personal example: I’ll probably end up writing two blog posts today but will not release the next one until later this week. It will help even out my schedule this week.
Leverage SEM and SEO agencies. I recently met Prashant and Johnny from AdLift, an amazing SEO agency here in Palo Alto. I view great agencies as instant scale. You can assign them work on your off-hours. You can rest assured they have amazing expertise. You can count on them to be part of your team and help leverage your and your team’s time.
When you’re done, don’t keep reading/revising the same thing over and over. It’s important to find closure on projects. It’s important to instantly jump away from your task, either to the next one or to a break. As a perfectionist, I have faced this challenge since I will keep perfecting something. However, at a certain point, you need to move to the next priority. With that in mind, see you guys next time!

Image of Hourglass © iStockPhoto – koya79

Check Out My PPC and SEO Guest Post

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Mar 28 3

About two months ago, I did a guest post on the PPC Associates blog about SEM Agencies. I’m thrilled that PPC Associates invited me back to do another guest post. Today, my post went live. It’s all about PPC and SEO Collaboration. I definitely recommend checking it out. When you work in the corporate world of online marketing, it’s fairly typical to have different teams (or at least different people) managing PPC and SEO. However, there are some true synergies between these two online marketing channels. If both teams collaborate closely, the results can be truly astounding. I hope you enjoy my guest post and take some helpful tips to your PPC or SEO job!

Image © PPCAssociates.com

I Worked All Weekend

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 11 3

When you’re in corporate online marketing, you have to work from home on the weekend from time to time. The projects line up and you just have to work form home to meet deadlines. (Side note: Always meet your deadlines, no matter what you need to do to get there.) It just so happens that I had an important deadline for my job. So, I worked from home all weekend this weekend. I’m really excited that I finished my project and feel quite energized for the upcoming week. If you’re in corporate online marketing, I’m certain you face this same situation from time to time! Following are a few of my favorite tips when it comes to working weekends.

Tip 1: Take It A Little Easier The Next Week

To Do List

First and foremost, we must recognize that the weekend exists for a reason. No matter how much you love online marketing (believe me, I can’t get enough of this stuff), you need to remember that balance is everything. It’s not about how many hours you put in, but how much you accomplish. After working the weekend, you need to take it a little easier the next week. I’m talking about getting to the office on time (versus early). I’m talking about leaving at the end of the day (as opposed to getting wrapped up in a project and staying late). It’s important to force the balance because career longevity is everything in online marketing.

Tip 2: Make Sure To Exercise

I tend to exercise quite a bit on weekends. When I work at home on weekends, I never compromise my workouts. It’s the balance of exercising and working that keeps my head clear. If you’re in a high power career like online marketing, I always recommend exercising. When the work piles up, always keep up the workouts. It’s amazing how they will help you generate new ideas and excel even more at work.

Tip 3: Don’t Work Every Weekend

I’m the number one proponent of corporate online marketing. When I’m not doing online marketing for my job, I’m blogging about it. It’s an addictive field. That said, it’s all about balance and longevity. Make sure to take time off to spend with your significant other and family. It will keep you balanced and in the game for the long term. While I worked all weekend this weekend, I’m going to strive to take the entire next one off.

Tip 4: Make Your Hard Work Known

In most high powered corporate careers, it’s expected that you work from home (nights and weekends) from time to time. Everyone does it. However, let’s say you go above and beyond. You’re putting in some serious hours on weekends and driving amazing numbers as a result. Let your manager know. You don’t want to go overboard, but subtly make your hard work known. This is something that will likely help you in your next performance review. Want to learn more SEM career tips? I recommend downloading my free eBook highlighting my Top 5 Online Marketing Career Tips.

Image of To Do List © iStockPhoto – CT757fan

Internet Marketing Productivity: Start Small

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Mar 27 6

It’s been a while since I blogged about SEM leverage and productivity. Internet marketing, especially in the corporate world, is a discipline where you can easily feel overwhelmed. Add on top of that your commitments outside of work – exercising, hobbies, family, friends, and blogging/affiliate marketing (if you’re like me) – and you could quite possibly lose your sanity! Today’s short post is for those times when you feel so overwhelmed that you don’t know where to start. It’s all about starting small and building momentum.

Prioritize Your Smallest Projects First

Man In Labyrinth

The header above really says it all. If you’re in one of those situations where you’re so overwhelmed you don’t know where to start, I highly recommend starting small. This is actually quite counter-intuitive. Small tasks are typically low leverage. Some small tasks are so small that you could theoretically cross them off the list. However, this tip is not really about getting leverage instantly. It’s not about adding a ton of value instantly. It’s about building up momentum so you can break out of the rut, feel a sense of accomplishment, and then later build up to the big, high value projects.

Of course, if you’re already very focused and already have momentum on your side, I don’t recommend this tip. If you’re in an empowered state of mind, it’s all about harnessing that power and going right after the big projects.

Some of My Favorite Small, Momentum-Building Tasks

In terms of making this advice actionable, here are some small projects I regularly tackle to build up my momentum:

Find one exciting blog article about Internet marketing and send it to my team at work, with my commentary on why it’s useful. (Of course, remember to send the email with a low priority flag).
Search Google (or Yahoo/Bing) and find one or two interesting paid ads within my vertical. Send the ads to my team to spark creativity in ad copy testing.
Search Google (or Yahoo/Bing), just like in the last tip, and find interesting landing page experiences within my vertical. Send the landing page experiences to my team to spark creativity in our own strategy.
Search all major search engines manually for trademark violations on our trademarked terms. Even if you have automated software that polices trademarks it’s good to double check it works once in a while!
Generate a few keywords manually (just a handful) based on my own industry knowledge and experience. Make sure the new keywords don’t cannibalize old ones (make sure we don’t broad match to the terms), and then deploy them.
Record the projects I’ve worked on recently (or plan on this week) in Sharepoint. Our world is moving fast and it’s essential to record completed projects so you remember everything when annual reviews come around.
Get routine stuff done such as expense reports, timesheet approvals, invoice approvals, and other similar tasks.
Find a project that someone on my team did particularly well and send out a short email to the entire team that celebrates success. I really like this strategy because it not only gets my momentum rolling, but it empowers my entire team.

So, there you have it! Just a few small tasks that can quickly build up my own momentum when I’m feeling overwhelmed. Want to push your productivity even further? I recommend checking out my post about controlling your PPC mind. Thanks for reading and I’d be super curious to see if this start really small strategy works for you?

Image of Man In Labyrinth © iStockPhoto – Petrovich9

Search Engine Marketing Spring Cleaning

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Apr 6 2

The spring is finally here and my wife and I are doing some spring cleaning around our home. It’s time to streamline our lives and get rid of stuff we don’t need. Similarly, it’s the perfect time to think about spring cleaning in the world of online marketing. Today, I’m excited to highlight a few brief tips around how you can remove clutter and stress from your daily routine. Keep your search engine accounts in perfect order and the simplicity will take your numbers (and sanity) to new heights!

Tip 0: Back Up Your Search Engine Accounts

Window Cleaning

The following spring cleaning tips will potentially transform your search engine accounts quite a bit. For that reason, please back up your accounts before making any of these changes. It’s important to always have a PPC rollback plan. Mistakes happen. It’s all about how quickly you can recover. Above and beyond having a rollback plan, I’m a huge advocate of regular backups because I worry about the worst case: What if something major happens to your account(s) completely out of your control and you need to reproduce them immediately? Have great backups and you’ll be the hero of your organization! My tips for successfully backing up your search engine accounts:

Leverage AdWords Editor for Google
Leverage bulksheets for Yahoo (and remember to include all components)
Leverage your search engine reps for adCenter (or their editor if you’ve got it)
Store all of your backups somewhere very secure that’s being backed up routinely by your IT department

Tip 1: Remove 0 Impressions Keywords

About a month ago, I shared a few simple tips to easily grow your PPC campaigns. For those of you that know me, tip number one was no surprise at all: Consistently deploy keywords. Looking back at day one of my online marketing career, I was advised to consistently deploy keywords and that keywords are the primary driver of growth. To this day, the keyword deployment strategy holds very true, especially on Yahoo and Bing. However, here’s the downside with consistent keyword deployment: Your search marketing accounts can get massive, cluttered, and even unmanageable.

I’m going to flip things around for my first PPC spring cleaning tip: Filter through your keywords and delete those keywords which have driven 0 impressions in the last month. If a keyword has driven 0 impressions after a month (and bids are at reasonable levels), it’s ok to remove that keyword permanently from your account. There are very few cases I actually advocate deleting keywords, and this is one of the rare ones. Of course, you’ll want to review any keywords on your list that have high search volume. There will be exceptions and you’ll want to break those out into new adgroups and optimize until they work. However, the vast majority of the keywords caught by this filter will be superb candidates for deletion.

Another important tip: Keep a log file of the deleted keywords so you don’t generate and deploy them again by accident.

Tip 2: Clean Up Old Ad Copy Tests

After campaigns pass through enough hands and survive enough years, the mess of abandoned ad copy tests can be astounding! We all have those adgroups that have five or more ads in them set to rotate evenly, but have one or two ads that are the clear winners in terms of click through rate and conversion rate. Now is the perfect time to go through all of your old adgroups and pause all ads except the best ones. Some things to think about in your ad copy test cleanup:

It will be a manual task that involves judgment but is well worth the time investment
After you’re done, shoot to have just one or two ads in each adgroup
The ads to keep are the ones with both the highest click through rate AND the highest conversion rate
Once you’re done pausing the loser ads, make sure to turn ad rotation to optimize (unless, of course, you plan on running some new tests right away)

Tip 3: Face Reality on Failed Tests

Many of the campaigns I have launched have turned out to be complete failures. I embrace failure because I know it’s part of my journey towards success. Moreover, failure means I’m getting out there and testing creative PPC ideas. However, I also must admit that I sometimes let a test run a bit too long with the hope that it will build up history and turn around. In your spring cleaning, it’s time to face reality!

Go through your tests as objectively as possible and pause the losers. Each campaign you pause frees up resources to try the next big thing. Even consider pausing entire search engines. We all have certain second tier search engines that work and those that fail. Sometimes we let the failing second tiers run too long because the reps are extremely convincing and we believe it will turn around. In my experience, second tiers that don’t produce quickly are simply not worth your time if you’re managing a multi-million dollar pay per click business. It’s time to face reality and pause the losers. The beauty of it all: Time to start thinking about the next round of ideas to test!

Tip 4: Spend Some Time Organizing Your Desktop

I could go on and on about PPC campaign spring cleaning, but I feel the above tips are the perfect start. Complete these tips across all major search engines and you’re on your way! However, this list just wouldn’t be complete without drawing focus to your computer desktop, your files, and your physical desktop. In the world of corporate PPC, we’re rushing around from one thing to the next. We’re like Wall Street traders, except our market is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, I can’t underscore it enough: You need to take time for yourself. One great way to improve your overall leverage, productivity, and sanity is spending a few hours doing the following:

Clean up your computer desktop
Clean up your physical desktop
Clean up your email inbox and file important emails accordingly
Take time to reflect on your accomplishments and record them in your company’s task manager (this comes in super handy when performance reviews come around)
Back up all important files and emails on your company’s file system
Actually take some time to dust and clean around your desk
Maybe bring in a plant or photo or two for your desk

There you have it: My top spring cleaning tips for online marketing professionals. Now, it’s time for me to start executing upon these initiatives!

Image of Window Cleaning © iStockPhoto – matspersson0

Search Engine Relationship Management Tips

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Mar 30 5

I’m really excited about today’s post because it covers an important component of the pay per click career path that sometimes gets overlooked: Search engine relationship management. Specifically, I’ll be discussing a few tips to get the most out of your relationships with Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. At the end of the day, it’s all about leverage. Manage your search engine relationships efficiently and your profits will skyrocket!

Tip 1: Your Search Engine Reps Are Part of Your Extended Team

My first tip is really simple, yet extremely powerful. It’s easy: View your search engine reps as if they are part of your internal team sitting just a few cubes away! Thinking of your reps this way is very powerful. Let’s say your internal team is comprised of three people, one for each first tier search engine. Now, let’s say you have three search engine reps, again one for each search engine. Rather than having three team members, you actually have six! Now, just think how much work six hard working individuals can accomplish, it’s very powerful stuff.

In reality, this tip is not completely true because your reps are not exclusively dedicated to your account. Even if you’re one of the largest spenders out there, your reps will still have a handful of clients. At the same time, if you are a large spender, your reps will have extra support on their end making the relationship quite powerful.

Tip 2: Your Reps Are Resources – Keep Their Queue Full

So now that we’ve established that your reps are part of your search marketing team, we’ll discuss some great ways to manage these "new" team members. First and foremost, would you ever have your internal team sitting around without any projects to work on? Of course not! Pay per clickers are very expensive and valuable resources. As such, you want to manage your reps just like your internal team and keep them working on the highest leverage projects possible at all times.

From my experience, most reps will go the extra mile. Some projects you may want to consider assigning your reps: keyword generation (both positive and negative), keyword review, keyword categorization, content match suggestions, account growth opportunities, and advanced intelligence. From my experience, those teams that invest sweat equity really do win the PPC game. Sometimes, however, you really need to divide the manual work on the keyword generation, review, and categorization side of things. Involving your reps in the process (in addition to your internal team) is the perfect way to gain scale on those valuable sweat equity type projects, helping the divide the work!

Tip 3: Leverage Search Engine Reps For Advanced Intelligence

What can your reps do that you’re not able to internally? They can provide advanced intelligence around your overall market, search engine trends, and most importantly what your competitors are doing. Therefore, I always like to have at least one intelligence style project in the queue. Now, here’s a word of advice: If you’re always looking at the market and competition, you’re looking backwards. For that reason, I’m always focused on setting new trends. I want the competitors to be following me. At the same time, it’s important to be aware of the market, just don’t spend too much time or else you may lose your first place position.

Tip 4: Manage It All With Weekly (or Bi-Weekly) Calls

The cornerstone of my personal management style hinges around weekly 1-on-1s with my reports. The 1-on-1 provides the perfect opportunity to dive into projects and also career progression. Now, you’re not going to dive into career progression with your reps, but you’ll definitely want to stay on top of their queue. How will you do this? Weekly (or bi-weekly) calls are essential. You’ll want to take close notes, get ETAs, and really stay on top of your reps just like you would with our internal team. Execute on all of this properly and you’ll ensure great productivity!

Now, let me flip this the other way. Excitingly, many reps will bring up great new ideas that you never thought of! They will help drive your priorities. I also like to view these weekly 1-on-1s as a status check on your own work, the work that is being driven by your reps. It’s a great two way street and a reality check for your own progress as well.

Tip 5: In-Person Meetings Are Key

Something I’ve learned over the years: Personal connection is critical in building great business relationships. You really need to know your reps on a personal level and meet them in person for the optimal relationship. It’s easy if you’re in San Francisco like me and can hop on over to Google’s office in a matter of minutes. However, if you’re out of town, I strongly encourage you to make the trip. It will really impress your account management team and will take your search engine relationships to the next level!

As a closing thought: I’m a huge proponent of beta tests. Build strong relationships with your reps (and add as much value for them as they are for you) and you’ll get included in beta tests. This can be a tremendous way to advance your business while being the first mover on new and innovative products before they’re released to the general market.

Growing PPC Campaigns Is Easy

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Mar 1 5

While I’m passionate about all the topics I discuss on PPC Ian, today’s is toward the top of the list. It’s at the top of my list because I’m about to reveal one of the most fundamental secrets behind success in corporate PPC. My secret is extremely simple, but also extremely difficult at the same time. Let’s jump right to the punchline: Growing pay per click search engine marketing campaigns is very easy! I’m serious here. There’s absolutely zero magic. If you have a basic understanding of business operations and math, you are totally capable of understanding all the mechanics behind PPC.

Easy Road

Of course, this is only half of the picture. If PPC were so simple, why do some organizations fail while others succeed? Why do some managers make it to the top and others lose the game? Here’s the difficult part: You need to be an absolute master of process, systems, and execution to thrive in pay per click. While the fundamental mechanics of pay per click are reachable, building scalable systems and consistent execution (on the right projects) is extremely challenging.

Recently, I wrote all about conditioning your PPC mind to focus and execute on difficult PPC projects. When I say "difficult" in this article I really mean "difficult to execute". In theory, the mechanics of what you’re trying to accomplish (especially on a small scale) are not that difficult. However, the execution side can be extremely challenging for a number of reasons:

You’re tired of doing the same thing over and over
You’re constantly looking for the next big thing
You find it challenging to stay focused through large PPC projects
The scale of your keyword set is overwhelming and you’re having trouble building a system to scale
You and your team become complacent and slow down the pace of execution because numbers are doing really well already

In addition to my tips around search marketing leverage, today I’d like to discuss basic pay per click strategies that are easy mechanically but potentially difficult in execution. I’m going to call out some of the execution challenges behind these projects and how you can overcome those barriers. The goal of today’s article: Let’s grow your pay per click campaigns to the next level by executing on the right projects!

PPC Project 1: Consistently Deploy Keywords

Rewinding to my first day in pay per click, I can remember my checklist vividly. Towards the top of my checklist, my manager had something like this in bold: "Deploy keywords each and every day. Keywords are the fundamental driver of growth." Today, this statement is more truthful than ever. However, it constantly astounds me that very few organizations deploy keywords daily, weekly, or even monthly!

There are a number of things that get in the way. The big ones: categorizing keywords, finding the right adgroups, determining the right bids, and simply doing it! My suggestion: Build a system and then execute on it every single morning, pay yourself (and your campaigns) before doing anything else! Your system may include PPC automation, it may even include hiring an intern or two. The key here is developing the most efficient system possible and then running that system as if your life depended on it, no matter how mundane things may become. (It’s ok if you feel like that guy on LOST pushing the button over and over if the results are powerful.) Remember, numbers going up and to the right are never mundane!

PPC Project 2: Consistently Test Ad Copy

Just like keyword deployment, I’m consistently shocked by the small number of organizations that routinely test ad copy. I’m shocked even more by the small number of organizations that leverage statistical significance in their framework. Just think about it: An improvement in ad copy will not only benefit that campaigns you’re testing on, but will potentially lift all (or many) campaigns across all accounts across all search engines!

My overall advice: Develop a framework (in conjunction with your stats team or someone who’s really great at math) and execute upon it routinely. Never fall into a rut and always remember to retest old copy because trends change over time. As another huge tip (one that applies to ad copy testing but also everything else in today’s article): Never become complacent. I’ve seen it many times: The campaigns are doing extremely well and beating expectations so the team starts to take it easy, focus on non-core activities such as beta tests and meetings, and execution on core projects halts to a grind. PPC is volatile so when the storm hits, the system is broken and the team disappoints. In pay per click, even when things are good, I always like to anticipate the bad days and overcompensate for them in the present. If you always force yourself to execute on core projects (and leverage fear to fuel your execution), it is possible to always hit numbers (even when the storm hits).

PPC Project 3: Add Negative Keywords and Sites Weekly

In my opinion, it’s impossible to make broad match work effectively without the right set of negative keywords. It’s impossible to make Yahoo work without the right set of negative partner sites. It’s impossible to make content match work without the right set of negative sites. The natural solution: Add negative keywords and sites weekly. The challenge: Nobody does it. Just like the other tips, it’s up to you to build a system and execute. A system does not always need to include yourself of your team. Make the case to management that you need to expand your team or outsource certain tasks. I’m a tremendous fan of managing remote India SEM Teams.

PPC Project 4: Update Bids Regularly

I’m leaving my favorite project for last! Everyone updates their high volume keywords regularly. However, when it comes to the mid volume and low volume keywords, bids are regularly updated. Why? There’s never enough statistically significant data when you use the same time offset as with your high volume keywords. The solution: Leverage different time periods to evaluate different keywords. The challenge: You need software to accomplish this effectively. This is where many organizations stop. My challenge to you: Audit the solutions out there, think through the build versus buy decision, and make it happen! Your numbers will be thanking you!

Breaking Up The Pay Per Click Grind

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 28 1

If you’re in the corporate PPC world, you definitely know that things can get rather crazy. After enough analysis, keyword generation, keyword deployment, bid changes, ad copy tests, landing page tests, account restructures, product requirements, and executive presentations, your head can really start spinning! I’m here to tell you that it’s all about PPC longevity. After all, longevity has been one of the cornerstones of my early success in the corporate pay per click world. Today, I’d like to take a step back and discuss ways of breaking up the PPC daily grind. Whether you’re an associate or director, I strongly encourage you to take these tips seriously. At the end of the day, they will only increase your employee retention and team morale!

Tip 1: Attend Search Engine Marketing Conferences

Daily Grind

Search engine marketing conferences have been extremely good to me over the years. They’re incredibly beneficial from two angles: First and foremost, conferences present the ultimate networking experience. As someone with well over 500 connections on LinkedIn and a big binder of business cards at home, I cannot say enough about the power of networking. At the end of the day, people are everything in terms of finding long term success in your corporate pay per click career.

Second, conferences are extremely worthwhile in terms of staying up with current trends and sparking innovation. The natural tendency in PPC is to think you know it all. Well, at least that’s my natural tendency. The problem, however, is that things change extremely fast. Even if you know everything today, you won’t necessarily know it all tomorrow. Even if you’re consistently innovating and driving the direction of the industry, a great speaker can totally spark new ideas.

Directors, managers, and team leads: My overall suggestion here is that you get your team full passes to the major conferences such as Search Engine Strategies (SES), Search Marketing Expo (SMX), and ad:tech. I’ve been at companies in the past that have unfortunately been cheap about getting full passes. I definitely suggest pushing for full passes. It’s an extremely small investment in your team’s education and morale, one that will pay huge long-term dividends. From my personal experience, I always come back from conferences extremely energized, full of new ideas, and ready to go! Thinking about things through that lens, conferences are the ideal way to break up the daily PPC grind.

Tip 2: Enjoy PPC Team Activities

I like to compare pay per click campaign managers to Wall Street traders. We’re in the details of a very competitive and focused trade. For that reason, we often forget to take a step back and get away from the computer. From my experience, team activities are always a very welcome break from day to day campaign management. Moreover, the bonds formed during team activities can directly improve teamwork within the office.

My suggestion: Plan a team activity at least once very six months and ideally once per quarter. Some great examples include go-karting, miniature golfing, and bowling. I particularly like team functions that involve actual activity because we’re typically at the computer for so much for our day. The key here is that the team activity is held during the workday and that it concludes right around the time people typically leave the office. That way, the team activity functions as a true reward. Also, team activities are always more rewarding if the company pays for them!

Tip 3: Schedule Regular PPC Team Lunches

This tip is very similar to the last one, but I suggest an increased frequency of perhaps once per month. It’s too easy to rush out of the office and grab a quick lunch, only to come back and start working again right away. From my experience, the time savings from a quick lunch does not add any value. If you actually break up the workday and increase the "fun" factor, the entire team gains immense productivity. For that reason, I highly suggest having PPC team lunches to celebrate milestones, birthdays, or really any reason at all. Another great idea: Invite members of other teams as well, it’s a great way to learn something new!

Tip 4: Proactively Assist Other Departments

One of my absolute favorite things about pay per click search engine marketing is the fact that we’re in the center of it all. PPC is an operationally intensive role, one that involves useful data. For that reason, I enjoy thinking about proactive ways to assist other departments. Some simple examples: Share your PPC keyword list with the SEO team, share your top ads with the design team, send competitive benchmarks to the partnership team. At the end of the day, there exists a plethora of ways you can directly help your coworkers in other departments. Not only will this break up your day a bit, but it will help your overall organization grow. Moreover, I truly believe that the more you give, the more you receive. Next time you need help from someone else, you can rest assured that help will be available immediately.

Tip 5: Give Back To The Paid Search Community

I created this blog to give back. I regularly enjoy acting as a reference for old reports. I thoroughly enjoy writing letters of recommendation. At the end of the day, it’s all about giving back in my opinion. The best managers in the world are your manager for life. It doesn’t matter if you’re at a different company. If someone’s a great manager, they will always support and invest in your career. This is how I view management. Unfortunately, this is against the grain of many managers out there.

My strong advice: Invest in old reports and co-workers. I’ve found this to be a very powerful way to help the community while breaking up my day a bit. Like I said in the last tip: The more you give, the more you will receive. Corporate PPC is a very small but rapidly growing community. Give back today and make a real difference, while keeping things fun and interesting.