According to multiple recruitment agencies, January and February are the biggest months of the year for hiring, with the largest numbers of open jobs.
There are a few reasons why this time of year is the hottest for hiring. The start of the year brings new budgets and objectives to many organisations. It also marks an end to the festive pause (and festive campaigns) so hiring managers can finally focus on new plans and needs.
So, if you are interested in a career switch or have sadly been made redundant, now is the perfect time to take action.
Being strategic and spending time doing your homework will ensure faster success and greater job satisfaction.
How to plan your next career move
There are a few things to consider when going through a career switch/job hunt:
Review your skills and goals. You should ask yourself where are you, whether you are happy there and where you want to be.
Research industries and career matches. Hopefully, the previous questions will give you some guidance to navigate through different roles and industries that can match your skills and aspirations.
Do your homework. Spending some time preparing for interviews is key to rapid success. Research the companies you are applying for, and your line manager and get your potential answers ready.
PPC specialist questions for junior, mid-level and senior roles
At PPC Live UK we are committed to helping and enhancing our community of talented professionals so we have asked PPC hiring managers their top questions when hiring for PPC roles. We hope this gold list of PPC interview questions, tailored for junior/mid-level/senior roles can help you to find your next dream job.
What is your go-to question to ask for a junior PPC role?
Fraser Andrews: What are some of the most important elements when planning a Google Ads campaign?
Veronika Höller: Do you know current trends and formats on different platforms? How can these be used for our company?
Chris Ridley: How did you get into PPC and what attracted you to the industry?
Menachem Ani: What are your favourite strategies for Google Shopping / Performance Max?
Meriem Nacer: Why PPC? - That simple, I want to know they have actually Googled it and understand that it's not just 'Facebook'... which is super common.
Akvile DeFazio: Why are you interested in a career in online advertising?
Greg Kohler: What is one of your proudest accomplishments at your current or most recent role or in school?
Kasim Aslam: Flash me forward 5 years, and the world is perfect. Where are you? What are you doing? Paint that picture. I'm less worried about PPC proficiency and more worried about their long-term view of their skill set. If someone doesn't want to be in the space for the long haul (there are a lot of "tourists" who just want to pick up a skill and move on) then we typically pass.
Boris Beceric: How do you measure the success of a PPC campaign, and what metrics do you find to be most important?
Inderpaul Rai: Explain how Quality Score works, and what you can do to improve it.
Pauline Jakober: It's hard to pick just one; we like to find out precisely what they find attractive about joining our team and what got them interested in digital advertising. One of the most important areas I like to gain a strong understanding of is how they want to, and best learn. This is paramount to understand immediately. We are 100% virtual and train and meet on Google Meets. For some, this is great, but only for some. Understanding their preferred working and learning style is key for us to be good mentors and leaders for new team members coming in.
Glenn Schmelzle: When's the last time you taught yourself to use a new platform and which platform was it?
What is your go-to question to ask for a mid-level PPC role?
Fraser Andrews: How would you go about structuring an account? Are there any specific processes you follow when it comes to this?
Veronika Höller: How do you build campaigns from scratch?
Chris Ridley: How have you been finding the recent changes in Paid Search and which changes, in particular, have been the most challenging for you?
Menachem Ani: How would you improve lead/call quality on a lead-gen campaign?
Meriem Nacer: What's their favourite part of PPC and why? It's good to know what they actually like about the role... e.g. if they start buzzing about shopping and we don't have an account for them in shopping then it might not be the role for them... always be upfront about what we have.
Akvile DeFazio: Tell us about a product or service that you successfully advertised and what was your strategy behind that success?
Greg Kohler: What do you look for in a manager?
Kasim Aslam: What's your favourite bid strategy? It's a trick question, it depends on the situation.
Boris Beceric: How do you balance the need for short-term performance with the need for long-term sustainable growth for a PPC account?
Inderpaul Rai: If two clients (if agency role, or two stakeholders if brand-side) both wanted you to complete a piece of work by the same date, but you only had time for one, how would you prioritise between the two and how would you go about informing the one you don't prioritise?
Pauline Jakober: We have often hired women that have been out of the workforce for some time, so there may be gaps in their experience. I ask about these years and encourage candidates to provide more details about their gap years and come prepared for our initial calls to discuss this. For example, a recent new hire had many years of solid corporate marketing experience, and her resume focused on that. Her corporate experience was essentially why we initially wanted to talk with her. Still, in recent years she has led her son's PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) and led her neighbourhood's book club (online surveys/polls for upcoming books and created an online shared scheduling system) - both showed her leadership and organizational skills as well as her ability to work with many different types of people all while being the lead person running a household that includes multiple humans!
Glenn Schmelzle: What's your approach to analyzing multi-touch attribution as a means of evaluating your media budget allocation across 2 or more channels?
What is your go-to question to ask for a senior-level PPC role?
Fraser Andrews: What is your current understanding of attribution and how it has changed over the last 3 years?
Veronika Höller: Can you describe a digital marketing campaign that you were involved in that didn't go to plan? Why did it go wrong and how did you react?
Chris Ridley: What are your ambitions and desires within your career? What element of PPC and marketing interests you the most?
Menachem Ani: Tell me about a custom/complex feed implementation you've set up and the strategy it was used for.
Meriem Nacer: Why PPC? - Hang on, I already said that. This is when you see why they are still doing it and if they still love it. Some are just moving jobs for the money, and their light for PPC has gone out. Understanding if you can reignite that fire and inspire them or if they are looking for a 9 - 5 is important to ensure it’s the right fit for both parties.
Akvile DeFazio: What metrics do you track on a regular basis and how and when do you inform your team of the results and next steps in order to achieve company goals?
Greg Kohler: Do you have any examples of being given a task and there wasn't a process in place so you built one?
Kasim Aslam: Tell me about your most complicated Google Ads account. What did you do? What problems did you encounter? How did you solve them?
Boris Beceric: Can you discuss an example of how you've integrated PPC with other digital marketing channels, such as SEO or social media, to drive better overall results for a client or company?
Inderpaul Rai: Tell me about a time when you have had to deal with poor performance in the team and how you dealt with this.
Pauline Jakober: We have primarily promoted within or hired someone we have prior working/collaboration relationships with, so we don't often hire at a senior level. At all levels, we create a hiring committee (including seniors). It's really important to lean on other team members to gain their perspective and decide who we are next welcoming as a team.
Glenn Schmelzle: What strategies are you ready to apply in grooming junior and mid-level PPC pros to develop to your level?
If there are any questions you would ask that isn't on this list yet - please let us know by sending it here, we would love to add it to this post. We will be updating this post with any new questions.
About our experts:
Name: Fraser Andrews
Bio: My name's Fraser and I'm Head of Paid Media at HDY Agency. I've worked in paid media for six years, working on client strategy and optimization across a range of industries. When I'm not at work, I love spending time with my family and getting behind a pottery wheel.
Website: hdyagency.com
Name: Veronika Höller
Bio: Hi I’m Veronika I work in SEO and PPC marketing for 14 years. I‘ve got many interviews in both channels and I‘m involved in the hiring process to check the skills
Website: cgm.com/deu_de
Name: Chris Ridley
Bio: Paid Media Team Lead & Public Speaker
Website: evoluted.net
Name: Menachem Ani
Bio: Founder of JXT Group
Website: jxtgroup.com
Name: Meriem Nacer
Bio: International Performance Marketing Consultant at 4M Digital Consulting.
Name: Akvile DeFazio
Bio: Akvile DeFazio is the President of social media advertising agency, AKvertise.
Website: https://www.akvertise.com/
Name: Greg Kohler
Bio: Helping Local Service-Based Businesses drive leads and grow awareness
Website: https://twitter.com/PPCGreg
Name: Kasim Aslam
Bio: Founder & CEO of Solutions 8
Website: sol8.com
Name: Boris Beceric
Bio: Boris is a freelancer specializing in Google Ads.
Website: https://borisbeceric.com
Name: Inderpaul Rai
Bio: Head of Acquisition & Performance Marketing at ufurnish.com
Website: ufurnish.com
Name: Pauline Jakober
Bio: I lead a women forward digital advertising agency. We focus on B2B Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads management.
Website: grouptwentyseven.com
Name: Glenn Schmelzle
Bio: I'm a marketing professional, a speaker at industry events and a Canadian (eh?). I help B2B companies implement Google's analytics stack to visualize their funnels and train ad-platform algorithms to optimize their campaigns. You can find my podcast at FunnelReboot.com and me at Heyglenns on social media.
Website: Marketing What's New
Don’t forget that ongoing learning and being on top of trends are key within our industry so ensure you attend the next PPC Live UK. It is a great opportunity to learn more about the future of Search and to network with potential colleagues and hiring managers. See you there!