Your Recession Proof Career In SEM

I’ve been in pay per click search engine marketing for over five years now. When I started, the economy was rough. We were rebounding from the Internet bubble burst and companies were being very selective with their hiring. In fact, I only had one really solid job offer (thank goodness it brought me into the PPC world). We’re in another rough economy now, probably worse than the economy back in 2004. The financial industry has collapsed and we’re facing the worst recession since The Great Depression. This may all sound like doom and gloom, but I’m here to highlight the fun part of it all: Pay Per Click as a career path is recession-proof and has served me very well during all of this economic volatility.

Pay Per Click Drives Revenue and Margin

Let’s look at the worst case. Which employees do companies lay off or scale back on when things head south (either with the company or the economy)? First and foremost, they’ll lay off the poor performers. However, let’s assume you’re a star performer. (As a side note, there’s no reason not to be a star performer. Get out of bed each morning with purpose and passion for SEM. It will make your life much more fun!) After the poor performers, companies will typically lay off employees who are not critical to the day-to-day operations of driving shorter-term revenue. Restated, they’ll can the employees who are related to longer-term stuff or projects altogether that aren’t expected to bring in margin.

Now, let’s look at pay per click. What do we do in pay per click? We drive short term (and long term) revenue and marketing margin. There’s no way around it. More so than any other employee, we’re bringing in money for the company each and every day. Our job is bringing in money through our Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and second-tier campaigns! Looking at it through that lens, pay per click is just about the most important function in the company. Without pay per click campaign managers, companies lose an important component of their revenue (and with some companies all of their revenue). In my experience, search engine marketing provides a great buffer against recessions and for that reason alone is a great career to pursue (or stay in if you’re already there)!

PPC Is Just Like Sales (Enterprise Sales If You’re Managing Million Dollar Or Greater Budgets)

At most companies, which employees are respected the most? Which employees make the most? Which employees have all the expensive clothes, cars, lifestyle? Most of the time, it’s the salespeople. Within the world of sales, it’s typically the enterprise salespeople doing the big deals. Why do these employees command such a high salary? Put simply: If they’re not selling, the company can’t drive any revenue.

Now, let’s look at pay per click. In my opinion, it’s just like sales. Without pay per click, there is no revenue. Sure, we’re not on the phone in complex deal negotiations, but we are in complex software running complex algorithms. We’re making complex judgment calls each and every day. We’re oftentimes navigating complex relationships with search engines. Perhaps even more importantly we’re managing millions of dollars of ad spend! When you look at things through that lens, I view pay per click as the new sales. This is a very good thing because there’s always a job for a top performing salesperson.

How To Make Your Personal SEM Career Recession-Proof

So I’ve made the case, in general, why PPC offers a unique recession-proof career. To close out, however, I’d like to tie it back to you and offer some specific advice on what you can do to make sure your career is bullet-proof:

First and foremost, please work hard. If your campaigns are going down, join forces with you manager to figure it out. Nobody expects the campaigns to always go up (they’ll tell you they do but they never really do). As long as you’re flexible and dedicated, that’s half the battle. Never give up!
Have a great attitude. Even if the economy is down or your company is doing poorly, stay enthusiastic and optimistic. This goes a long way in terms of playing the game.
Quantify your work! The great part of SEM is you can clearly see your results. Tell your manager, “Hey, I know things are a bit difficult. Here’s what I did to save the company money and here’s exactly how much I saved.” It’s rather easy to pay for your salary over and over again if you’re a hard worker and do everything in your company’s best interests.
Be the employee that’s easy to manage. Put another way: Give your manager leverage. With as little contact with your manager as possible, do as much as you possibly can. Think of projects that you haven’t been assigned and execute upon them. Do everything you can to make your manager look good.
Invest significant time building out your network and LinkedIn. This is the topic of a completely different article, but I can’t say enough about having other opportunities lined up should things go south. This has been the cornerstone of my strategy over the past five years.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. If you combine these easy best practices (things I encourage doing no matter what) with the fact that SEM is recession-proof, you should be set for years and years to come. The benefits of this stability: Not only will you be able to sleep well knowing your income is relatively secure, but perhaps you could purchase a home in this down market at a favorable price. The possibilities are limitless when you’re in a recession-proof career!

Image of Economy Bust Boom © iStockPhoto – mevans

This is one of my favorite articles because I’m all about getting more done with less, the power of leverage. (Side note: Leverage is also one of the main teachings of my favorite author in the world, Robert Kiyosaki.) If you haven’t realized it already, time is your most valuable resource, far more valuable than money or anything else. With enough time, you can do anything. To that end, I’m always looking for ways to gain more leverage and growth, while saving time. Today, I’m going to talk all about longevity and its effect in putting your PPC career into overdrive, all while giving you huge time leverage.

Longevity Will Accelerate Your Pay Per Click Career

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I’ll cut right to the point. While it’s simple, the power is very understated. Let’s say you’re at a company with three pay per click campaign associates and a team lead managing all of you. You’re not the team lead, but are one of the three campaign associates. You want to be the team lead one day, but everything seems daunting because you’re competing with three other people and your boss already has the position you’d like with no signs of going anywhere fast. Seem familiar? From my experience, this situation is very common!

Now, let me get right to the point: Attrition is rampant in PPC. I’ve seen teams of 10 go down to 1. I’m not kidding, I lived it! PPC houses some of the brightest people in the world. They’re great at keeping their cards close and playing the game, right to the very last minute. You never know they’re interviewing or thinking of leaving, but then, all of the sudden, everyone is gone! In the story above, I mentioned that things seem “daunting” for the associate looking to become the team lead. However, let’s reframe that: This case is never daunting in pay per click for the simple fact that attrition is rampant.

My thesis: If you’re at an early stage in your SEM career (not managing people), longevity is your single highest leverage point. Seriously! If you’re an associate and want to end up leading the team, all you need to do is stick around! It may take a long time, possibly two to three years, but it will happen. Eventually, everyone will end up leaving the team or even company. It’s sad to see your teammates leave and I hate it. My personal charter as a people manager is to never lose an employee. If I do, I’m not doing my job correctly. However, with most managers, attrition in PPC is a real issue, one that can put you in the position of team lead much faster than hopping around to different companies. Hopping does have its place when it strategically makes sense, but I highly urge you to stick around if you’re early in your career and not yet managing the team. Once you’re managing the team, you’ll have far more opportunities to transition to a more favorable company and career, if that makes sense.

Pay Per Click Is A Core Operational Competency

Let’s look at the theory behind it form the company’s perspective. Often times, pay per click is the highest revenue per employee division in the company. The team is driving millions and millions of dollars of revenue (and margin), but there are only a handful of employees on the team. Now, let’s say everyone leaves except one employee. That’s a true risk for the company and a case that every people manager dreads. You never want such a large portion of your revenue hinged on just one (or a few) remaining employees. So, what does the company do? They quickly put the remaining person in a position of power. They allow them to take on more responsibility. If they prove that they can grow and handle the added responsibility, they are promoted and rewarded over time. In parallel, the company starts interviewing and hiring replacements. Who’s going to train all of the replacements? The person who’s left! Not only are you now taking on more responsibility, but you’re functioning as a first level manager, training and grooming the new SEM team. Moreover, you’re most likely now reporting to a VP or even C-level executive, yet another super opportunity to accelerate your growth path.

Let’s Keep Everything In Perspective

Now, let me take a step back. Nothing happens overnight. This if for very good reason. If you get promoted officially before you’re ready, it’s very risky for your career, your manager’s career, and the overall company. It’s very bad! You will get more responsibility overnight if you’re in this position, but it will take a bit more time to get promoted on paper. You need to function consistently and predictably at the higher level to prove to your manager and company that you’re ready to get promoted. This is better for everyone, trust me!

Work Through The Difficult Times In SEM

I hope this article helps give you a little extra incentive to stick it out when times get rough. Whether you’re in PPC or engineering, a startup or a publicly traded company, at the associate level or CEO level, there are always challenges. There are always times when you start questioning your ability to make it through. My suggestion to you (especially if you’re newer in your career): Stick it out. You will build character, strength, and judgment. The amount you learn will be tremendous. Moreover, people who might not have your perspective will leave. They won’t have what it takes to make it. When they do, an opportunity opens to grow your career rapidly. Again, I hate to see people leave, but that’s a fact of life. With a little bit of passion, you’ll be able to stick out the difficult times and emerge from it as a true industry leader. This, in my opinion, is the single easiest path to grow from associate to pay per click director in five years.