PPC as a career in South Africa

So you want to get a start in a career as a PPC marketer?

Digital marketing and especially paid media is a demanding career as you’ll have the responsibility to generate results for your clients (typically leads or sales). It’s a career where last year’s skills may not apply this year as there’ll be many Google Ads updates throughout any given year or new PPC platforms to test.

What type of salary does a PPC marketer earn?

This will vary widely depending on the agency or client you work with. This could range from R15,000 per month for a junior PPC specialist up to R60,000 for a digital marketing strategist and more if you start working directly with clients. You’ll likely earn less whilst working for a marketing agency, but the experience you’ll get working across multiple industries will be invaluable.

What qualities do you need to succeed in this career path?

As a paid media marketer who has worked across multiple agencies (OMD, IPG Mediabrands, Incubeta) and directly with clients, here are the qualities you’ll need to succeed with paid media:

• Tenacity

  You’re actively working on a live platform where your ads are triggered on a near constant basis. You need to ensure you’re getting the most out of your accounts on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. The number 1 quality you need is tenacity and to consistently strive to improve your targeting, messaging, settings and test new features.

• Hunger for learning

  Digital marketing is an industry that moves extremely fast. You’ll have to keep up with the latest changes whether it’s privacy updates, new features or new ad formats. Embrace being a lifelong learner and student.

• Proactiveness

  There could be many instances where there’s a dip in performance on factors beyond your control (a website could go down, new landing pages could not perform as expected, seasonality could become a factor and on and on). It’s best to meet this head on and create mitigation plans ahead of time.

• Communication

  It’s very important to be on the same page as your client. Celebrating because you think an account is doing well while the client is not experiencing it within their CRM is not a situation that you want to be in. It’s vital to track and report on the metrics that’s important to your client.

What’s the future of PPC?

Paid media as a career didn’t exist 30 years ago. There’s a lot of risk with AI replacing the field entirely and the biggest platforms pushing for complete automation. My view remains that no matter the amount of automation, there still needs to be a person overseeing it since the risks are too great for advertisers spending millions of rands and euros on their advertising.

What skills do I need, and where can I learn?

In this industry, there is no substitute for learning on the job. Experience here really is the fastest teacher. There are a few ways you can prepare:

Google Skillshop - here you can get all different Google Ads type of certifications which will help familiarize you with important industry terms and lingo. I can’t think of an industry that has more acronyms than PPC.

Meta certifications - These certificates will help you from media planning to buying. They last a bit longer than the Google ones. Both Google & Meta certifications expire after a certain period of time. You don’t have to keep renewing them, but it’s good to retake the exams just to stay up to date.

CXL.com - I’ve subscribed to many of their courses and they are superb. Some classes will resonate with you more so than others, but their quality and overall training is some of the best out there. I have no affiliation (zero) with them and they are a bit more on the pricier side.

Excel or Google Sheets - you’ll need to learn a few basic formulas the very least and a pivot table or two in order to manipulate data and get more insights from your accounts.

A Worrying Marketing Recruitment Trend in South Africa

Many recruitment agencies have approached US based companies with a unique selling proposition: get great talent for 50% or 70% less.

Here's a thread on reddit discussing this:

Yes there's incredible value in South African marketing landscape.

It's not a good idea for businesses to hire crucial paid media roles for the lowest possible amount. Its too big a responsibility in managing hundreds of thousands (or millions) of ad-spend to hand that over to the wrong fit.

I'm a firm advocate of not supporting this hiring practice. Viable alternatives exists for US businesses by using independent PPC consultancies (such as us) or by hiring talent directly on platforms such as clicktrain or by using ppcjobs.com (these are great for candidates too).

Closing thoughts

It’s my firm belief that PPC is one of the best entry points into a digital marketing career.

You’ll be exposed to so many different elements of marketing - all ingredients for any great marketer.

From data analysis, to copywriting and softer skills such as communication and collaboration. You’ll be able to transition to other areas of marketing if you so wish, whether it be analytics, digital strategy or account management.

I wish you the very best of luck in your future career.