As part of my Day in the Working Life of series, I caught up with Jessie Leong, the PPC Manager at Fleximize! Read on to find out how she got into marketing, developed her career to managerial level and her advice for anyone looking to progress in digital!
Please describe your job. What do you do?
I’m responsible for the PPC (pay-per-click) at an alternative business lender.
Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to?
I work within the marketing team, where we each focus on a different area of marketing. I report to our Head of Marketing.
What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?
Given that the role is data-driven, you need to be analytical, astute at data analysis and logical when it comes to decision-making. Of course there’s the creative side with ad creation, and with the move towards more visual content, graphic design skills are useful, but certainly not vital for the role.
Tell us about a typical working day:
I begin my day by getting a general overview of the previous day’s performance, as it helps me to flag anything abnormal that I might need to work on immediately. I’ll start work on optimising our highest spending accounts, whether that’s through creating new ads to increase our click-through rate, or reviewing our landing pages to improve our conversion rates. I might also do a quick audit of our accounts on small tasks that can vastly improve the account. Finally, due to the nature of our team, I might be roped into writing content for our website. It’s not PPC, but I enjoy it nonetheless.
What do you love about your job? What sucks?
I love the buzz that comes from putting a new campaign live and I’m always eager to see how it’s doing in its early days.
I love the ad content creation side of PPC, and it always feels good when you approach it from a different angle, and it works. I also like being able to use stats and data to understand the characteristics that make up our typical customer. But because there are so many external factors, such as the rest of the market, that affect any PPC account performance, it can be frustrating when you’re doing everything right and you’re still having a slow week. That never normally lasts for long though.
What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success? This depends on the overall business’ objectives, so what might be more useful for one company might not be a priority for another. For me, I focus on generating new leads, so key metrics are: conversion rate, cost per conversion and click-through rate.
What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done?
SEM Rush is great for seeing what your competitors are doing, but I love AdWords scripts, and I think they’re often overlooked but really powerful. They can take out the human error that comes with data analysis, allowing you to make decisions on accurate data. There’s an AdWords script for just about anything, and what’s more, they’re readily available online (Brainlabs has lots of useful ones), so you don’t need to know JavaScript to implement them.
How did you become a PPC Manager, and where might you go from here?
I started my career working for a venue hire startup in London, before working freelance for a variety of startups, including a fashion accessories brand and a photo-sharing app. As is the norm with most young businesses, I did everything from social media management and business development to content creation and influencer outreach. What I didn’t know, I had to teach myself. A year later, I started full-time at a Google Premier Partner marketing agency, which did a lot of PPC among its other marketing efforts.
Within eight months, I was responsible for the agency’s highest revenue account, and I was able to prove myself by delivering record profit figures consistently. After two years, I decided it was time for a new challenge; I switched to in-house where I was able to specialise in PPC, and I went from a B2C to a B2B environment. The digital landscape is constantly changing, which is incredibly exciting, but it’s difficult to know how this will shape our future job specifications.
What new technology / platforms are you most excited about (if any)?
I’m really looking forward to seeing how machine learning develops to create smarter marketing solutions for marketing professionals. Whilst I don’t think robots will be taking over our jobs just yet, I do think it’ll help us to make more informed decisions.
Do you have any advice for people who want to work in marketing for a finance brand?
Take the time to find out which area of the finance industry you want to work in, as that will affect what type of marketing you do. Ultimately, as with any industry, success hinges on a balance of understanding the business’ needs and being able to apply your knowledge to the relevant industry.
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