1. Skills to Pay the
Bills: A Career in
Paid Search
Navah Hopkins
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Agenda
• What is Paid Search
• Why Should You Consider Paid Search
• Resources
• Worked in digital marketing since 2008
• Work with agencies and advertisers across
WordStream’s international customer base.
• I’m a proud pet mom and just adopted dog
named HK
About Me
Put images or other content here.
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• Impression: see the ad
• Click: clicked on the ad
• Conversion: took a valuable tracked
action
• CTR: clicks/impressions
• Quality Score: Google/Bing’s assessment
of a keyword
• Max CPC: the most you’re willing to bid
• Average CPC: what you pay per click on
average
Important Definitions:
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How is an AdWords account organized?
MCCs host accounts.
Billing is handled on the
account level.
Campaigns control where and
when ads show.
Ad Groups host
keywords and ads.
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How is an AdWords account organized?
Campaigns should be structured by Theme and Budget…
Divorce Prenuptial Child Support
Budget: $75/day Budget: $150/dayBudget: $500/day
Divorce Attorney
Divorce Lawyer
Divorce Litigation
Pre-marital Agreements
Prenuptial Agreements
Postnuptial Agreements
Alimony Payments
Child Support
Spousal Support
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• Holds the money and power
• Sets the strategic objective
• Delegates tasks to operatives it
trusts (read has data)
Campaigns are the Sith Lords (CEOs)
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• Cares about employees
(keywords) and wants them to
get raises (access to budget)
• Has some strategic autonomy.
• If promoted too early, could get
ignored.
Ad Groups are the trusted operatives (managers)
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Sort By Impressions to See Where Ad Networks are
Trying to Put Your Money
60% of
impressions
Budget will
only go to
“winners”
instead of
everything
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• Doing all the work (entering the
auction) and always wants a raise
(more access to budget)
• Always fighting to prove
themselves and hates competition
• Can steal credit or get completely
ignored depending on the culture
(account structure)
Keywords are the troopers (employees)
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• The Keywords Chosen
• The Bid
• The Ad
There are three key
elements to paid search:
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Broad Keywords Can Drag Your Budget into
Unintended Auctions
162%
More
Than
Average
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3% cheaper
& perfect
conversion
rate!
Depending on Match-Type, Your Keywords May Not
Exactly Match The Query
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The Order of Match-Types
1. Exact: all keywords must be present, but they can be in any order. Implied terms are
allowed.
2. Phrase: keyword phrase must remain in-tact, but there can be keywords before and after.
3. Mod. Broad: all keywords must be present, but they can be in any order and there can be
additional keywords in between, before and after.
4. Broad: so long as at least a synonym of one of your keywords is there, your ad can show.
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A Pirate is Looking for Supplies
• Anti Fairy Repellant
• Mustache wax
• Crocodile hunters
• A way to stop child abduction
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• Anti-Fairy Repellant
• AntiFairy Repellant
• Repellant for Fairies
• Fairy Repellant
Exact Enters First
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Exact Enters First: The
Following Would Be
Duplicates on Exact
• Anti-Fairy Repellant
• AntiFairy Repellant
• Repellant for Fairies
• Fairy Repellant
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Phrase Enters Second: The
Following Would Be
Duplicates on Phrase
• Mustache wax under $20
• Organic mustache wax
• Mustache waxing
• Mustachewax
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• I need a crocodile hunter
• Crocodile hunting permit
• CrocodileHunter boots
• Hunt crocodil groupon
Mod. Broad Enters Third
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Mod. Broad Enters Third:
The Following Would Be
Duplicates on Mod. Broad
• I need a crocodile hunter
• Crocodile hunting permit
• CrocodileHunter boots
• Hunt crocodil groupon
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• Child abduction hotline
• Runaway children
• Gps tracker for kids
• Donate to amber alert
Broad Enters Fourth
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Broad Enters Fourth: The
Following Would Be
Duplicates on Broad
• Child abduction hotline
• Runaway children
• Gps tracker for kids
• Donate to amber alert
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Writing Ads for Different Demographics
Ad shown only to men: Ad shown only to women:
CTR: 7.31%
CVR: 1.82%
CTR: 11.59%
CVR: 4.35%
CTR: 9.25%
CVR: 3.80%
Improved CTR 60%!
Improved CVR 140%!!
Improved CTR 30%!
Improved CVR 110%!!
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• No more than 5-7 ad groups per
campaign
• No more than 5-10 keywords on
different match-types.
• No Bid should exceed 10% of daily
budget.
• If it’s two words or less, go phrase
match or exact.
Golden Rules:
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• Your job has demonstratable
impact on the bottom line of your
brand/clients.
• Salary
• Always learning
• Remote work/Gig work is 100%
possible!
A career in Paid Search has
the following benefits:
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Average Paid Search Salaries
$0
$20,000
$40,000
$60,000
$80,000
$100,000
$120,000
$140,000
$160,000
$180,000
Entry Level Specialist Manager VP Agency
2018 Average Salary
Average salary
*Sourced from
Indeed,
Glassdoor, and
ZipRecruiter
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In-house Vs Agency
In-House
• Own a single brand
• The only sales you have to do is sell finance
on your budget.
• You may have a legal team to deal with.
• Depending on the brand, you may be asked
to wear all the hats (including SEO and
Social)
Agency
• Serve many
• Must be able to sell clients to work with
you and potentially increase budgets.
• You may have frustrating clients to deal
with.
• Most agencies silo their talent (still have
teams)
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• Capable of data analysis and taking
action/empowering others to take
action on the data.
• Strong business acumen that
balances real world profit with
account performance/choices.
• Flexible strategist who can work
across industries and international
trends.
• Embraces workflow tools, but
doesn’t sacrifice human touch.
What would I look for in an
applicant
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• Getting Certified on Google and
Bing (linked)
• Follow #PPCChat #SEMRushChat on
twitter
• Link to my favorite blogs about ppc
and digital marketing
• Consider applying to WordStream
Yay, you want to explore
PPC as a career! Now What:
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• nhopkins@wordstream.com
• @navahf
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/nava
hhopkins/
And of course, connect
with me! I’m happy to help
however I can!
Check out this diagram which shows how an AdWords account is broken down. Starting with campaigns – these should be a fairly broad theme surrounding a product, offering, location, target audience, or budget depending on what your PPC goals are.
A good way to break up your campaigns is based on which products or services sell the most so you can easily allocate a higher budget to your top sellers. For example, if you’re a law firm that offers services for family related legal issues, but your main source of revenue is from divorce cases…
…then place the highest budget on your divorce campaign
and lower budgets on other services like prenuptial agreements and alimony cases.