When I started working in the digital marketing industry six years ago, I was fortunate enough to have excellent trainers. They were knowledgeable, professional and did all they could to help me learn and be a successful PPC account manager. My fellow new hires and myself went through three months of training. We covered everything from basic terminology to editors to advanced topics paired with exercises to help us understand the ‘why’s’.
The longer I’m in this industry the more grateful I am for that stellar training, and I see the great need for it to continue. Technology has changed quite a bit since I was in college; back then, it was still pretty rare for a student to bring their laptop to class, and PPC was a much lesser-known marketing channel than it is now. College grads nowadays are much more knowledgeable of all things interwebs than we were then. Regardless, excellent PPC training is still needed, so here are my three crucial tips to remember when you’re training PPC newbs:
#1) Slow. Down.
As a trainer, you know PPC inside and out. Your new hires probably don’t. Maybe they’ve heard of PPC, but if they’re new to the industry there’s a whole lot they don’t know. Don’t breeze through any topics. Don’t talk fast. There are so many moving parts to an account and there is so much to learn. Talk slowly. Break things down. And don’t move on until they fully understand what you’ve just said.
#2) Don’t speak in acronyms
PPC. SEM. CPL. CPA. CTR. Their heads will be spinning and they’ll probably have no clue what you’re talking about. I know this one is hard but you’ve got to guard against it when you’re training. Better yet, devote a portion of a training session to explaining all of these crazy acronyms. Then you can use them in later trainings without losing your new hires’ attention. Make sure you cover what these acronyms and phrases mean to you, but also cover what they could mean. Back in April, we took a poll to see the different ways that people within the industry use different terms and acronyms and let’s just say the results varied.
#3) Make sure they understand the whys
When you’re first learning PPC it’s easy to get bogged down with the maintenance task list and lose sight of the whys. So you teach someone they should review the search terms report at least once a month – WHY should they do that? So you teach someone how to adjust keyword bids – make sure you explain how they can use account goals to most effectively make those adjustments. If you don’t fully explain the whys behind maintenance tasks, your new hires could be left simply checking off items from their task list without understanding why they’re doing what they’re doing.
PPC is a beast. There’s a lot to learn and great training is crucial. So be patient when training your new hires and remember that there was a time when you were new too!
What crucial advice do you have for training PPC newbs? Let us know in the comments below!
