What questions do we ask ourselves when sitting, hunched over a laptop, reviewing a client’s account?
Kirk Williams shares some answers to that question in his book “Ponderings of a PPC Professional”. My first impression was resonating with the silhouette of a man hunched over a laptop. I imagine myself pouring over analysis of a client’s account as poignant thoughts fill my mind. It strikes me as an appropriate start for the conversation this book promises in the title.
Things open on a topic of hot debate – our relationship to user data we pay for as advertisers. (Pondering related to PPC? Check.)
“What data do we advertisers have the RIGHT to access?”
He starts out with a doozy – this question stems from the age-old debate between those who do the advertising, pay for the advertising and host the advertising. As those that do it, Kirk is firmly in the “we are only owed access” camp and I agree. But access to what? Everything? That’s a bit of a stretch. I think, and as he points out, making every data point accessible is not feasible and every data point is not useful. However, we are advertisers and data access are essential to doing the job well so of course we always want more. Sometimes, we’re all just greedy little buggers.
“I think that our belief that we can track everything is the dot com bubble.”
Talk about hitting advertisers right in the gut – this statement stings. We want to track everything, every moment with anything we put out there to be consumed. I think it’s driven by both a need and a fear to judge user intent with a certainty approximate to the existence of gravity.
“Regardless, being able to spend less time invoicing and chasing down overdue invoices is worth its weight in gold.”
The quote is self-explanatory and if you’ve been there, you know. I have heard too many stories of businesses starting and ending because chasing down payments tipped the scales too far towards “This s*it is not worth it.” I’ve been there myself. In my first successful run at building a PPC agency, I ramped up 10 clients. Two months later, I let half of them go because I was tired of chasing them down for payments. It’s not so much an awkward conversation as it is an infuriating one when you know you’re making them money, they agree, but somehow the invoice remains overdue.
Moving from pseudo-philosophy to self-accountability to actionable insight is an accomplishment.
Don’t let the easy read fool you – there are deep insights. You’ll start off provoking thoughts on lofty, ongoing debates happening within the PPC industry and land at concrete recommendations to unavoidable roadblocks as you build your own PPC agency.
You’re going to have to push through to the meat on this one, as those first few chapters don’t really pull you in. But the pondering quickly starts zeroing in on issues you’re probably facing right now and the solutions he came up with for his agency are damn good. Hell, I’m rethinking my pricing model right now. Thanks Kirk.
