The Top 5 Qualities for Beginning PPC Employees

When I graduated college, I felt pressured to find a job, which caused me to rush into a position that was not right for me. Around a year in, I realized I needed to find a new job, one that made me excited to come to work, and where my daily work left me feeling fulfilled. The second time around the job search, I knew the qualities that were important for me, and I was not going to rush to a decision.

Starting on a new path can be daunting, but take time to learn what you want first. Image via Pexels.

As I began the research process with Metric Theory, I knew this was the right place for me. I was excited by the challenge of learning an entirely new area of marketing, to work with incredibly intelligent people that would push me every day, and to join a rapidly growing company that strives to produce the best services possible.

But did I have the right qualities for a successful PPC Analyst?

During my interview process, Metric Theory was completely transparent about the five main areas in which they evaluate each candidate. Having an understanding of these five qualities allowed me to understand how my interviewers were evaluating me, and also helped me understand if I would be a strong Metric Theory employee in the long term.

After 3 years working at Metric Theory, I have a solid understanding of why these qualities are important, since my colleagues and I must deploy them everyday. As a rapidly growing agency, we are always looking for new candidates that bring the following qualities to our team.

Analytical Skills

Analysis is the backbone of paid search, and arguably the most important quality for a top-performing paid search pro. Every strategy decision that we make is rooted in our understanding and interpretation of performance data.

My business degree and my experience at my previous job suited me well for this category. Not only did I come in feeling comfortable with numbers, I had experience analyzing the performance of different sales departments and providing recommendations based on this data – the same type of analysis I perform at Metric Theory to continue improving my clients’ bottom line.

You don’t have to be a math or statistics major to succeed at paid search, but you will need strong analytical skills to drive account performance. We do not discriminate in terms of major – our CEO was a zoology major, and we have English, Biology, and Geography majors who excel as Account Managers – but you will need to be able to review, analyze, and take action on large amounts of data every day.

Communication Skills

Paid search is a client-facing industry, so it’s essential that you have strong communication skills to explain how paid search principals and strategy drive improvements for your clients’ businesses.

I learned a bit about business communication in college business courses, and I honed my skills working with vendors and customers at my first job. The vendors I worked with had limited time, so I needed to explain concisely where their numbers stood and what improvements we needed to make. Concise communication and preparation were key for executing strong meetings, something that is equally true in paid search. Our account managers might not have finely-honed communication skills immediately, but through practice and preparation, they are able to communicate effectively to small business owners and CMOs alike.

Communication skills involve not just transmitting information, but also receiving it. Metric Theory uses a thorough feedback process to accelerate the learning curve and promote employees to account management roles sooner than many agencies. And we rely heavily on feedback from our employees to continue improving our training program and our organization. We therefore consider accepting, understanding, and acting on feedback a communication skill of primary importance.

Drive

My first job out of college was at a large company with thousands of employees, and it was sometimes tough to tell if my hard work was really making a difference. That’s not a problem at Metric Theory, where the new employee I help with an assignment today will be managing his or her own accounts in just a few months. There are no anonymous employees here, everyone contributes to our company’s growth, and we are looking for employees who will push themselves to drive the best possible results.

When we evaluate new candidates, we are looking for more than just hard workers. Are you a self-motivated person who is going to continue to push yourself to see even stronger results? If your client saw a 20% improvement in revenue last month, are you going to try for a 30% improvement this month? Paid search provides direct results and feedback, in the form of account performance numbers, and the best employees are always pushing themselves to drive better results.

Leadership Potential

Not long out of college, I was promoted to a role in which I managed up to 20 employees at a time. It was a challenging job, but it also helped me realize how much I love mentoring new employees and helping them grow and reach their professional goals. I knew I wanted to remain in a management role, and now I manage a team of Account Managers.

Metric Theory is a rapidly growing company, and we evaluate all new hires based on how successfully we believe they will perform in a management role or leading a new initiative. Previous new hires have spearheaded the planning of social events, created new analysis tools, and led company-wide trainings, and several graduates of our PPC Analyst program are now Directors at Metric Theory.

We don’t expect every candidate to have professional management experience, but you should have the communication skills, intelligence, and drive to be a leader within our agency. Strong candidates have already demonstrated leadership ability through previous internships, group projects, volunteer work or other extracurricular activities.

Cultural Fit

I was one of the earliest employees at Metric Theory’s Denver office, and starting so early meant helping with a lot more than just paid search. I helped decorate the office and plan office outings, to name just two examples. Metric Theory’s core mission is paid search, but as a small company, all employees pitch in outside of their core responsibilities.

We are a team-oriented and collaborative organization, and we want to ensure that all employees are going to support one another, and the company as a whole. Will you drop what you’re doing to help a fellow employee with an Excel formula? Will you create a training to share that great new mobile performance report you created?

We also want to make sure that you will enjoy coming to work every day in this type of collaborative environment. Do you enjoy collaborative assignments? Are you able to accept and give honest feedback? Will you enjoy spearheading some initiatives, but also collaborating on others to achieve common goals?

If you believe you fall into these categories and are excited by a new opportunity, please submit your application. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!