Holistic approach to PPC, Raising Your Rates, PPC Live UK - What a year!

2 Podcast episodes and PPC Live UK recap of the year

Dec 20, 2022

Welcome to our eighteenth edition of the #PPCChat Roundup Newsletter - your fortnightly update on the latest of the #PPCChat Roundup podcast, interesting reads concerning the episodes, London’s only locally run and organized PPC-focused event (PPC Live UK), and more on what’s going on in my (Anu) world of Paid Search. We have also moved to Substack as Revue will be shutting down next month.

While you are here - if you want to support me financially, why don't you buy me a coffee? I promise - it WILL go far. :)

#PPCChat Roundup Podcast🎙

As usual, I have two podcast episodes to share with you. Two weeks ago, we discussed achieving a more holistic approach to your PPC marketing efforts. Firstly Julie got an idea of who we had in the discussion in regard to agency, consultants and in-house. And we had a mixture of all. We then discussed what holistic looks like right now and what we would like it to look like in the future.

Melissa Mackey shared how she pulls in data beyond PPC performance:

Melissa L Mackey @beyondthepaid

A3 We are using imported conversions for smart bidding. That way we can optimize for what's most important to the client. #ppcchat

Lawrence is grateful for having a wider view:

Lawrence Chasse @lchasse

A4: No, I work as a marketing partner vs. just a PPC partner for most of my clients. I get asked about everything from emails to catalogs depending on the brands. Thankfully I get to look at the whole picture, which is very helpful. #PPCChat

Shaun then shares with us the data he misses the most:

Shaun Elley @selley2134

A5: CRM Data. For lead gen clients, especially those like car dealerships that have been around forever & don't necessarily have lead scoring systems we have to do our best to show them why those systems are necessary & do a lot of work to set those up #PPCChat

In last week’s chat, we then went on to discuss Raising Rates and also shared tips on how, when and why to do it. With a lot of freelancers and consultants in this community who do suffer from imposter syndrome, raising rates is something we probably don’t look at often enough. And the upcoming beginning of a year is always a good time to review your rates and ensure it matches the extra efforts you are providing your clients. Thankfully we have the likes of Julie, who has owned her business for over 20 years, and several other longstanding Paid Search community members who know how to give concrete reasons why to increase their rates.

Ryan Scollon gives a very good reason why rates should increase in 2023:

Ryan Scollon @ryanscollon

@NeptuneMoon A2: Most likely raising rates with the way things are looking. The cost of living in the UK is getting worse. #ppcchat

Julie advice having different strategies for new and existing clients:

Julie F Bacchini @NeptuneMoon

A3: For new clients, it's about charging more for the work than I did this past year. Probably increase by 15-20%. They have no idea the rate is higher, so it's easier. Existing clients it can be trickier. But if you're up front & do the annual review, it's easier. #PPCChat

And Gil Gildner shares the importance of targeting the right customers:

Gil Gildner @gilgildner

@NeptuneMoon A5. In the beginning we did (but we also had *very* small clients). As we have gone upmarket, there is essentially no pushback on rates, ever. We have found that clients past the $1-2MM/year ad spend mark are the easiest to work with in terms of budgets. #ppcchat

And that's our two topics for the past fortnight. Please do go check out those episodes - there is a lot to learn from them. If you have listened to more than 30 seconds of them, why don’t you take 5 seconds of your time to leave a rating/review?

Relevant Articles/Links📑

6 Steps To Prioritize Natural & Paid Search In A Holistic Search Strategy - Search Engine Journal

Five Ways To Take A More Holistic Approach To Paid Search - Forbes

How marketers can create a holistic search strategy - Search Engine Land

How can I increase my freelance pay? - Money Mentor

Freelancers: How to Raise Your Rates and Ask for More Money from Clients - Fiverr

Proven Ways to Increase Your Rates and Keep Clients - Keap

PPC Live UK🗣

Our third PPC Live UK event (and the last one of the year) was a huge success!🥳🤗 And of course, we needed to recap the year. Look at those numbers. Over thousands of followers, many hundreds of tickets sold, hundreds of pizza slices eaten, and don’t forget the drinks, prosecco, mince pies and more. I couldn’t ask for a better community to do these events for. See the full recap here.

Don’t forget we’re back for our first event of the year on the 2nd of February. Our awesome speakers have given me the topics they will speak about too.

Maddie Crawford will be talking about The Ad Copy You Think Matters vs The Ad Copy Your Audience Cares About.

Azeem Ahmad will share actionable tips on Proving the value of PPC in your overall marketing strategy.

Tiffany Shears, who, according to her team, is the tracking Yoda, will show us how to be a GTM pro.

And last but by no means least, Sophie Logan will wake us up to the golden nuggets there are to be found with the Microsoft Audience Network.

It won't be one to miss. Get your tickets here.

A goal of mine for 2023 is to get into Campaign magazine. A black female-led industry event that has successfully run three events so far - someone for sure must be interested in hearing about and writing about that, right? If you know of anyone or have tips on how to do that, please do get in touch.

Finally, here is some great content from PPC Live UK relating to the topics of our most recent event:

Conclusion

That brings us to the end of the fun happenings in my PPC world and beyond over the past few weeks. If you have any feedback, please send it to mindswanppc@gmail.com with “Newsletter Feedback” in the subject line. I really do want to ensure you are getting news that you enjoy. And if you really did like it, please tell your colleagues, family, friends, and pets too. 😉

If you don’t feel you are benefitting from this newsletter as well, click the unsubscribe link below. No hard feelings - I promise.

Feel free to connect with me on Twitter or on LinkedIn and more especially, follow the PPC Live UK Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, where you will also get up-to-date info on future events especially.

Hope to speak to you in a couple of weeks.

Anu Adegbola aka TheMarketingAnu.