Is the Pay Per Click (PPC) world sexy?

Jul 27, 2018 - Marcel Odena

Is the PPC world sexy? When you say that you do PPC advertising, what face do people put on? Well in my case if someone outside the advertising sector asks me what I do, I don’t even joke around and say “PPC”, because I know he would not understand me and it would be a bit repellent even. I tell him that I’m doing online advertising for companies. And I do not say B2B, which would be shorter, because again, I have the feeling that it would be like vacillating.

You can see that this article is a little out of the academic and orthodox line of the previous articles, but I wanted to make a freer article, so here you have it.

The Anglo-Saxon world, unlike the Spanish-speaking world, has that ability to invent acronyms and then make them popular , this is what I truly admire, with two words they are able to define to a large extent what you do: PPC and B2B. This would be:

PPC : manage advertising Pay Per Click (Pay Per Click, luckily the acronym is the same in English as in Spanish). This can include advertising management on various PPC platforms, such as Google Adwords, Linkedin Ads, Twitter Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Adroll, etc. This is why they invented this name, because if as a manager you are dedicated to conduct advertising on various platforms, it is very cumbersome to have to say: “I manage advertising on Google Adwords, Linkedin Ads, Twitter Ads, etc.”, so basically you end up saying “I manage PPC advertising.” Furthermore, the term “PPC” is seen as synonymous of “digital”, as opposed to “classic” advertising (advertisements on TV, radio, in the press, on street signs, etc.).
B2B: Acronym that comes from “Business To (2) Business” , and that in conjunction with “PPC” would mean that you manage Pay Per Click advertising for companies that want to generate business through other companies; in other words, a company that sells to another company. This term is in contrast to the B2C term “Business To (2) Consumer” , which is used when a company wants to indicate that it generates business by selling to individuals. B2C is very typical in ecommerce, surely dozens of them come to your mind, in recent years they have proliferated a lot around the world. Most of these E-commerce sell to individuals, so their focus is “B2C”. The strategies and marketing techniques for B2B and B2C are usually quite different, so in the industry these 2 acronyms were quickly invented to clarify what you do.

To manage Google Adwords is sexy?

Is it cool to say that you are doing Google Adwords? What face do your friends or acquaintances put when they find out that you are one of the magicians that ensure that your ad runs in the first position?

In my opinion when I started with Google Adwords I got caught because it seemed sexy to me. That “black box” that was for me Google, knowing how to appear in first positions caught me and I went deep into the world of Google Adwords. By the way, the official name recently changed and now is Google Ads, why? I guess when the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergei Brin started, the main thing that made their “invention” was a search engine with ads based on keywords (keywords): putting Ad with Words came out as “Google AdWords. ” But over time the platform has been offering much more than ads with “keywords”, you can do display advertising , video advertising, etc. And I suppose that the time has come to do the “re-naming” along with a mega-update of the platform, whether in aesthetics terms of the interface as new features.

The feeling of the Google Academies

In the case of Google Adwords, I think the Google Academies theme also influenced. I had the opportunity and luxury to attend several of them. They are face-to-face classes with a Google teacher who imparts a course to accelerate your learning in the use of Google Adwords, typically lasting 1 day or 2. All free (a priori, for Google is an investment, if you invest in training professionals, then it recovers the money with the advertising accounts that these managers will work on). Well, I remember my first class, in Barcelona. The Google Academies class was taught by Sergio Falcón, and I loved it. In the room maybe we were about 200 people. There I met a dear friend, Joan, whom I will always remember, and who unfortunately is no longer because of cancer.

The feeling of the room was: wow, how cool is all this. And I still think the same.

Then I went to several companies to help them with PPC issues. On more than one occasion, being in-situ working in these companies, several people have interpellated me with interest throughout this world; At least what I have perceived is that they are fascinated by this whole world, how to be the first on Google, how to get thousands of users with advertising, how to get leads, etc.

What’s after the first cool feeling?

After a first rush of “how cool is Google Adwords,” or “how cool is this thing that people are doing here,” there is a harder reality. A path to learning, which like everything in life, requires tenacity, perseverance, hours of study, practice, passion. Passion? Did I say passion? Yes, a little passion at least, because everything is more complex than people think, and passion manages to break down those barriers.

Playing Google Adwords is like entering the cockpit of an airplane pilot (in other PPC platforms too, but Adwords is perhaps the most sophisticated and complex). Have you seen that dashboard on planes with a lot of buttons, lights, indicators? Well, in Google Adwords this is similar, there are a lot of options, each one of them if they are explained to you are easy, but all together can overwhelm.

So, when people get into this world, several things happen:

No passion / No aptitude : nothing to do, if the subject does not motivate you and you are not good at it, better go to another topic.
Yes passion / No aptitude: in this case if you are very passionate about the PPC theme, but you see that you are not very good at it, you can improve. How? applying yourself a lot and having good teachers to accelerate learning.
No passion / Yes aptitude : this is the case in which you are good at PPC, you can manage a campaign in Google Adwords (who says Adwords says another PPC platform), you know how to structure a campaign, what keywords to configure, what negative, how to analyze the metrics, etc. but after a while of doing it: it bores you, you do not like it. Better leave it. Or look for something from the PPC world that motivates you. Maybe the accounts you manage are boring? Maybe the environment in which you work makes it boring? It does not have to be boring, especially if you combine these tasks with other digital marketing aspects.
Yes passion / Yes aptitude : this would be the ideal scenario, you are passionate about the PPC world (to some extent huh?) dnd you are good at it. Moreover, with time, diligently dedicating yourself to this, each time you get better (like everything in life).

And the rest of the PPC platforms are sexy?

Well, I suppose that for some more than others. The issue here is also that for something to become popular and “sexy” in the sector, you need promoters that give value to it and divulge it (here my little contribution with this post). In the United States, the PPC has become more popular because there are organizations that have promoted it. For example, it exists:

PPC Hero: reference blog in the world of PPC. They talk about everything that has to do with pay-per-click advertising, and of course, Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, etc. This blog is from the Hanapin Marketing agency.
Hero Conf:congress around PPC, also a reference in the sector. It is organized by the Hanapin agency.
PPC Rockstars: podcast of reference in the world of PPC.
PPC Week: week dedicated to the PPC formationnorganized by Unbounce, reference platform in the creation of landing pages.
PPC Chat: Twitter channel related to the PPC world, in which people share things, PPC aspects are discussed, etc.

And you, what is your experience with PPC?

Well, does the PPC world seem sexy to you? How do you see it if you are far from the PPC? Or how do you see it if you are inside the PPC world?

Marcel Odena

CEO at Magnetica Advertising | LinkedIn Ads Expert

Since 2013 I've been working in the Pay Per Click Advertising Industry. I manage Google and LinkedIn Ads accounts for several B2B companies. I work to deliver results to my clients as well to contribute to do better B2B marketing. I like to learn and share my knowledge at the same time.