Hiring a PPC expert – a complete guide

There are many reasons why you’d decide to hire a PPC expert. For example, maybe you have relied on a digital marketing agency, but you realized your output demands an in-house professional. Or perhaps you never did any PPC campaign, and you’d prefer someone in your team so you’d have more control over the process.
In any case, hiring a PPC expert will require specific skills from the candidate and special care by you, the manager, to ensure you choose the right person.
I have a few insights to share about hiring PPC experts based on my experience doing interviews, testing candidates, and managing people. So here is the complete guide to hiring your PPC expert.

Create an exciting PPC expert job description

First things first. Before scouting your new PPC expert, you should outline your business needs and how this person will help you address them. Having cleared this, outline the skills your new hire must have. What technical skills and experience do you expect them to have? What soft skills or personality traits would be mandatory?

With this in mind, you’re set to create a compelling PPC expert job description that gives as much detail as possible about the position: tasks, mandatory and desired skills and experience, education level, salary and benefits, and more.

Spread the word about your job opening

Job boards and social media can help you advertise your job opening and hire the right PPC expert. Platforms such as Glassdoor and Indeed usually attract knowledgeable digital marketers of all experience levels, which improves the chances of finding a great employee.

As an option, social media has become a new platform for recruiting good professionals. Besides LinkedIn, already known for matching companies and candidates, Twitter and Facebook are also great for raising awareness about your job opportunities.

Screen your best candidates carefully

You’re likely to receive piles of résumés and applications for your job. After all, we are in a booming industry filled with excellent opportunities and competent professionals to fit them. Given that, it is crucial to screen your PPC expert candidates diligently. First, review their CVs with utmost care and then prepare a questionnaire for the primary interviews. Be sure to elaborate on technical and behavioural questions so you understand your candidates comprehensively from the beginning.

Test PPC expert candidates for their skills

Deciding on a candidate based only on their experience is not wise. Besides providing you with a good CV, they should be able to prove their skills and resourcefulness. To solve this, try and set up micro-tests that can provide you with a look into what and how much your candidates know about PPC and digital marketing.

For these tests, set them free and try not to direct them much, avoid giving a deadline (unless you’re desperately hurried for hiring) and, more importantly, pay the candidates for the task so they don’t feel you’re wasting their time.

Get ready for the final interview(s)

The hiring process is well advanced, and it’s time to set up the final interviews and make your decision. Before booking an interview, dedicate yourself to analyzing your candidate’s test results. Then, write down your questions about it and head to the interview.

One valuable tip: try to make it conversational. The candidate should be comfortable talking to you to provide more truthful answers and information about themselves. As for your questions, try to ask about their professional experience and attitude towards work and being a part of a team, since you should have more than enough information about their technical skills at this point.

Prepare the best job offer possible

When you find the right PPC expert and make the job offer, you want this person to be happy and ready to give you their best. So, along with the job and the salary, consider providing benefits and perks that will improve their life, flexible work hours, paid time off, gift cards, commission on budget managed, shared internet bills for remote work, and more.

It would help to put development opportunities on the table, like training programs and coaching sessions. It’s proven that developing staff is key for retention. Finally, be ready to bargain. Don’t be put off if your future PPC expert wants to go fully remote, but the position is in the office, or if they ask for more benefits, like a relocation package. Try finding a middle ground.

Make an informed salary negotiation

Does your new hire want a higher salary? No problem if you believe they are the one and you’re open to negotiating. But be careful not to blow your budget: getting too flexible during a salary negotiation is more common than you think.

Do diligent research about the job market and ensure your salary range for this position conforms. After that, set your plan for the negotiation and stick to it as hard as possible, so you don’t compromise your company’s finances. Finally, don’t share your figures with people in the team or outside the hiring process to avoid small talk.

Integrate the new hire into the team

It’s common to see great employees feel uneasy by a lousy onboarding process, being left on their own with no clue about company culture or office policies. So ensure your new PPC expert is appropriately integrated via a specific PPC onboarding process to avoid your hiring process starting all over again.

Ensure they find a welcoming environment, fostering socialization and embracing their inputs. Besides, onboarding must start before day one, so provide them with videos or presentations that help them learn more about the company. Finally, respond quickly to their questions (remember: the first impression is the last impression) and consider assigning a mentor for your new PPC expert to resort to whenever they have questions.

Again, this is a guide with a general overview of the process of hiring your next PPC expert. However, you may know that no two job openings are the same. Therefore, you might want to consider any specificities your processes will have and go through a few changes in the steps I’ve presented in this article.

Anyhow, I hope this guide can be helpful and handy for your hiring process, and if you have any questions or need any help, just let me know!