PPC Interview Questions and Answers (How to Hire a PPC Manager)
PPC Interview
Hiring top quality PPC candidates, freelancers or agencies can be tough, especially when those said experts work within a field you know nothing about.
The only way to guarantee you’re making the best hire is to learn how to separate the actual professionals from the frauds. Here’s what to ask during an interview and how to hire your next PPC specialist.
PPC advertising is a great way to ‘buy’ visits to your website and generate leads for your company. If you’re going to pay for people to click on your ads but you know nothing about the challenging industry, hiring a qualified PPC expert is a great business decision.
Finding an SEM/PPC expert who is trustworthy and knowledgeable is achievable, but you might have to do a little digging to find them.
With the right interview questions and general knowledge to back your thoughts up, that new PPC Specialist could potentially be the best addition your organization makes this year.
Why Hire A PPC Expert?
Hiring a PPC expert (pay per click or SEM) can save your organization time, provide valuable insights, and drive higher returns through cost effective paid media channels.
This dedicated specialist makes data backed decisions to optimize campaigns and drive your target audience to the desired website/landing page to generate leads and sales.
It takes technical know-how to properly run paid campaigns – not fully understanding the tactics/strategies involved often leads to wasted ad spend and a low ROI.
How To Hire Dedicated PPC Experts in 2023
1. Understand The Basics Of PPC
With some background in PPC, you can ensure that you are hiring or outsourcing the right person for the job (and your company).
PPC stands for Pay Per Click. PPC is a marketing model where advertisers pay for each click their ads generate. Google Search Ads, Microsoft Ads (Bing), and Amazon Ads are typically what comes to mind when you hear the word PPC, with Google Search Ads being the largest player in the space.
These “Search Ads” are often listed at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) when someone searches for terms related to one of the keywords you are targeting. Advertisers bid on those spots in an attempt to display their created ad to a targeted audience.
2. Filter Through Suitable Candidates
Filtering through candidates can be a struggle, especially when algorithms on sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and even Indeed can make searching a challenge.
Before even thinking about setting up an interview, you should screen applicants for basic PPC knowledge.
3. Look For These Skills In A Candidate:
Communication
Communication (both written and verbal) is key to an effective relationship between a PPC specialist and others within the organization.
Analytical
A substantial amount of time is used to analyze current PPC campaigns, therefore PPC specialists need to be analytically and mathematically minded. PPC managers need to be able to handle numbers, statistics and data in order to make improvements to campaigns.
Creative
It’s not as simple as throwing up a few ads within the platform and seeing what happens. To generate the most bang for your buck, PPC managers need to use their creativity to generate the best results. That could be within audience targeting, writing ad copy, or how they set up their ad campaigns.
Organized
PPC managers need to be organized and have good time management skills to ensure they are using their time effectively. Most PPC managers make to-do lists, others go as far as creating a weekly planner to maximize their efforts while in the office.
Passionate
Great PPC managers are typically passionate about online advertising. This can often be on display when you are discussing a current or previous campaign they managed. The willingness and desire to continue to learn also shows a passion for the industry that most experts obtain.
Technical
PPC specialists need to know how to track conversions, build retargeting lists, and possess other technical skills needed to run an effective campaign. Understanding the ad platforms only scratches the surface of the technical skillset required for the job.
Basic PPC Interview Questions (With Answers)
Now, the most important part of making a great PPC hire – the interview questions! Asking the right questions in a PPC interview is the key to finding your PPC expert. Every interview should be personalized to your specific organization and the applicant, but here are a few basic (but crucial) PPC questions you can use for hiring a qualified and trustworthy candidate.
Start out with these simple, yet essential questions to gauge an interviewee’s knowledge before digging into the more difficult and technical PPC questions:
What Does PPC Stand For And Which Ad Platforms Have You Used?
Answer: I know what you are thinking, this is too simple, but you’d be surprised at the number of self proclaimed “experts” who don’t know that PPC stands for Pay Per Click. The ad platforms used all depend on what your organization is looking for, but Google is a must (Bing and Amazon are also important).
What Makes A Good Google Search Ads Campaign?
Answer: Look for answers related to proper keyword research, writing great ad copy, building high converting landing pages, testing within the campaigns, generating a good quality score (QS), etc. They should have a few answers to throw your way if they have properly run a Google Search campaign in the past.
Which Keyword Research Tools Do You Regularly Use?
Answer: Any keyword research tool like; Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, Google Keyword Planner, Answer the Public, Ubersuggest, Long Tail Pro, and Spyfu will do just fine. Keywords are an essential part to a successful campaign, so if they don’t use any, it might be time to move on.
Are There Any Other Tools Or Platforms You Use While Running Campaigns?
Answer: Some experts use campaign management software like Wordstream and Opteo but almost everyone should be utilizing Google products like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Trends. Many PPC experts also build landing pages for clients so they often have experience with website builders such as WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Unbounce, Instapage, etc.
How Do You Calculate Click Through Rate (CTR)?
Answer: Click-Through Rate (CTR) refers to the number of times someone “clicks” your ad when they see it on the SERP compared to the number of times it was viewed. Clicks divided by Impressions = CTR
What Is Quality Score (QS) And How Do You Go About Increasing It?
Answer: Quality Score is determined by how beneficial and relevant your advertisement is for the user. It’s primarily based on the ad’s CTR, relevance of the keywords, and quality of the landing page. To increase your quality score, write better ads to generate a higher CTR, separate keywords into more related ad groups, and update the landing page to show highly relevant content or products.
If they can’t provide some kind of response to the beginner PPC questions mentioned above, it might be time to move on.
Ideally, an applicant should be able to break down each of these questions and elaborate on how they have utilized them in previous campaigns.
An even better response would be explaining how they could implement certain PPC strategies that would work for your company or industry.
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Final Thoughts | PPC Interview Questions
Overall, any good applicant will be well versed in everything Google, which should be at the core of any PPC professionals’ realm of expertise.
If you sense this is true and they have the basic knowledge to back up your initial list of questions, a second interview with more difficult questions is a great second step!
Hopefully, with the help of this article, you will be on the right path to finding the best PPC expert for your company’s needs. Best of luck in your PPC candidate search!
PPC Interview Hiring Guide
We will be releasing a new PPC Interview Hiring Guide with a full list of the best questions and answers to help take the risk out of hiring.
Created by PPC experts, this DIY Template will help organizations who don’t fully understand the PPC realm, confidently hire the right candidate, agency, or freelancer through a simple question, best answer format.
If you are interested, we are providing early access and a 50% discount to the first 100 users that sign up. Send us an email at contact@thejub.com and we will update you when it’s ready!
Title: How to Hire a PPC Expert (PPC Questions with Answers)
Category: Employer Resources
Tags: ppc interview sheet, SEM interview sheet, ppc interview question answer, ppc manager interview questions, digital marketing interview, how to hire a ppc expert, hire dedicated ppc experts
Author: Reid is a contributor for theJub. He’s an employment and marketing enthusiast who studied business before taking on various recruiting, management, and marketing roles. More from the author. | Author Profile
