Just wondering if anyone here actually is working as a SEM / PPC Marketer? How's the salary and work environment having that as a career here?

Well, you're going to contend with a market where most are claiming remarks like:

"Guaranteed #1 or Top 10 in Google/Yahoo/Bing/etc"

As much as the education client goes, it's very tiny. Most of them only think "I want to be #1..." but don't care about the method used. Therefore, a company could do it the black hat method way and the client wouldn't care - until, they kena blacklisted.

In terms of business doing it, there are a number of them. Big and small. It's just which client segment will you be looking at because there's a lot of misconception of it.

Doing PPC means you need to monitor the traffic at all times. If the traffic drops, you'll need to do something, if the web site goes down, you need to pause your campaigns immediately.

At the same time, you'll also need to monitor the CPC, daily budget, monthly budget, etc.

PPC job is not for everyone. You need a lot of commitment and sometimes, you may need to sacrifice a lot of time.

excuse me gentlemen, what does a "PPC job" mean?
is it to make a living by conducting PPC campaigns on behalf of clients?

Probably like what CDM is doing now.. handling PPC for other marketers.

I'm hired by a UK company for PPC and SEO job right now, the pay is really good but hell lots of work.

lots of work?? You serious buddy??

I usually only pay attention to my clients account for a month... and after that I leave it to fend for itself. Only do a weekly update for their account. But the pay is indeed really good

The SEO part I'm not sure. Because SEO isn't my forte... what I usually do for my client and my own websites is simply link exchange. That brings the best results in the fastest time frame my client desire.

Ofcourse I do depend on Linkvana and Unique Article Wizard as well... but the best is still to go after the website to exchange link by ourselves

But PPC is not that hard buddy. Only the first two weeks... the rest is smooth and simple. After that you can start searching for another client... get busy and leave it to work by itself.

As long as you have the right tool (which I believe you have.. otherwise you won't be able to offer your service to your client at all).. for example, KeywordSpy, Market Samurai, Affiliate Prophet, Clixtale (if you do their site for them as well) and the most important is Google AdWords Editor.

I literally won't be able to survive another minute without Google AdWords Editor. They really shorten a week long job into a mere 5 minutes.

Maybe you felt a bit overwhelmed... but don't panic. You'll get used to it. This is better than 9 to 5 office hour work don't you agree?

But yes.. the pay is really good. A good friend of mine is driving a Skyline and the money all comes from PPC consultation. Really young some more.. 21 only. But a genius in PPC.

Good luck and godspeed buddy

::EDIT-ed.. forgot the word 'Editor' behind Google AdWords.

This post has been edited by Phantom Renegade: Nov 1 2009, 03:54 PM

Yeah it's not hard if the website, landing page and campaign that is well established and it's ready to go. This company have like 9 products and I even need to build landing page for each of them. Now it's non-stop split testing 9 landing page, 9 campaign, conversion rate and not to mention heavy link exchange job.

And yeah buddy I do agree with ya although its lot work but damn it's so much fun doing it. Are you doing it with your friend? I'm 21 too but just getting started.. Don't have a Skyline just a viva. LOL

Do it slow bro...

Split test only two at times.. with only two differences at one time. Or else you won't know which brings in the best ROI.

Use Clixtale to register a heat map of the visitors so you know which part to improve.

Ofcourse... Affiliate Prophet or Xtreme Conversions for the sake of knowing which exact keywords are converting. You straight away scrap non-performing keywords after that.

And pay attention closely for these two weeks.. afraid if some keywords suddenly take off like a jet and received more impressions than another set.. if that's the case you won't be able to track which one converts better.

And as usual.. aim for 3 to 5 or 6 placements. 1 and 2 never do well for me. I don't know why. A lot of clicks but no conversions. Maybe just happy clickers or tire kickers.

For converting keywords... create a new landing page specifically targetted to that keyword alone. That will do much better QS wise.



BTW,
I'm doing this as a side job. I have my own affiliate business that I'm focusing a lot on (Clickbank, Commission Junction etc..).

PPC / SEO service is just during my spare time. Usually I took one to two client at times.

My friend however.. is working alone but has a full tea of outsourcers doing all the dirty job for him. Just working home and all he do is managing other people / company's PPC account for them.

His outsourcers handles website, tracking setup and keyword research. He is doing it full time.. so its not strange to see him owning a Skyline.

Try look for Creative Digital Media (owned by Jason Cox something). He has a report about mass-managing AdWords account via Google AdWords Editor. A golden nugget for me when I first started the whole PPC game on my own. Received it after buying Mass Control 2.0 (product by Frank Kern) as a bonus.

Try searching in Google.. you might learn a lot of stuff from it even if you are an expert. I know I did. Creative Digital Media (CDM in short) is one of the best successful example of PPC manager company that I know of. Their service is really good.. so since you are doing the same thing with them.. why not go ahead and see how they do stuff their way.

Thank you I definitely learn one or two things from your post. I'm thinking of taking some side job too, do you charge by hour or percentage from the budget?

This post has been edited by WhoIsKenneth: Nov 1 2009, 05:03 PM

You're on the right path. Yes, PPC is management of the Pay-Per-Click campaigns of the client. And most importantly, is the client obtains results from the money spent in the campaign. In other words, ROI.

However, some sell the services of PPC as a method to boost the client's search position as well.