What Is a Paid Media Executive and Why Be One?

There’s never been a better time to explore a career in Paid Media. Innovation is at an all-time high and, more than ever, businesses and advertisers are turning to pay-per-click to fuel their business growth.

As a Paid Media Executive, your role will be centred on learning the ropes of building, running and optimising efficient PPC accounts. It is the first step in a career which is diverse, challenging and engaging, and awash with opportunities to learn and grow.

We are always on the lookout for enthusiastic marketing protegees with the ambition to develop new skills in a constantly-evolving industry.

Want to find out more? Keep reading below for insight into life as a Paid Media Executive in one of Brighton’s leading digital agencies.

First off, who is Bamboo Nine?

We are Bamboo Nine, a creative digital agency proud to call Brighton our home sweet home. From humble beginnings in 2014, we have built up a formidable team of digital marketing gurus (read: nerds) to become an innovative full-service agency.

Across the business, we manage PPC, SEO, Digital PR and Social campaigns and work collaboratively with clients across a fascinating variety of industries such as healthcare, construction and law to name but a few.
We’re a growing business, but the ethos upon which our founders built Bamboo Nine remains strong: to be transparent, collaborative and educational in all that we do.

Who is the Paid Media Team?

Our Paid Media team are the data-led dynamos of Bamboo Nine. In an industry inching closer towards automation every day, we manually build, nurture and grow PPC campaigns which seamlessly blend manual control with flashes of automated brilliance.

We pride ourselves on being at the forefront of the Paid Media industry, responding to innovations and updates as they surface. A collaborative bunch, we share our wins and losses to ensure that our clients receive the best service possible and no fellow PPC team member falls through the gaps.

As a Paid Media Executive, you’ll form an essential part of our stellar PPC team.

To excel in this role, you’ll need to be a curious individual who is always keen to learn, with outstanding communication skills and excellent attention to detail. A desire to build and maintain strong relationships both within the team and with clients is a must.
You can learn more about the work of our successful Paid Media department here.

A day in the life of a Paid Media Executive

When you start as a Paid Media Executive at Bamboo Nine, you might have some basic experience in pay-per-click advertising or you might be starting from ground zero. Either way, from day one you’ll have access to our in-house training programme, built to be a comprehensive introduction to Paid Media advertising and Bamboo Nine processes.

You’ll be an essential part of the team from the get go, providing support and learning the foundational knowledge which you’ll rely on throughout your career.

On a typical day as a Paid Media Executive, you might find yourself doing any of the following:

Account management

Paid Media advertising is fast-paced and competitive, and the client accounts that we manage require daily checks and frequent changes to ensure that they’re performing as efficiently as possible. Once you’ve learned the ropes, you’ll begin to manage your own PPC clients.

On a day-to-day basis, this might involve pacing your client’s monthly budget to ensure the account is spending what it should be, or carrying out a search query report to understand what searches are triggering your client’s ads and whether they’re relevant.

As you grow in confidence and experience, your role will expand further than simply maintaining your accounts. Having developed an in-depth understanding of the trends and idiosyncrasies of the campaigns you manage, you’ll be able to identify opportunities for growth and improved efficiency by carrying out analyses – looking at devices, locations or audiences, for example – implementing changes and running tests.

New account builds

One of the most exciting tasks as a Paid Media Executive is being given your own account to build from scratch. It’s true what they say: no one forgets their first PPC client.

Armed with your growing understanding of Paid Media, you’ll perform keyword research to identify important keywords and flex your creative muscles to craft compelling and clickable ad copy that stands out on a busy SERP.

As you work your way up to more complex accounts, you’ll be given the opportunity to develop your skills further by building different campaign types, such as Shopping and Display.

Client communication

At Bamboo Nine, we pride ourselves on working collaboratively with our clients. We see this as a symbiotic process that benefits both sides: our clients gain insight into account performance, and we stay up-to-date with any changes to the business which might affect our campaigns.

If you’re someone who thrives in presentations or enjoys a good chinwag, this is a side to the Paid Media Executive role that you’ll excel at. We strive to build long-lasting rapport and be a friendly, knowledgeable and reassuring voice at the other end of the phone for our clients.

Weekly, monthly & quarterly reporting

We have established communication touchpoints with our clients; perhaps the most important are the monthly and quarterly reports. Reviewing the fruits of your labour laid out in a report can be a rewarding experience, as you gain insight into how your actions have impacted an account.

However, even the most optimistic of PPC-ers knows that performance might not always tell the happiest of stories. Our monthly and quarterly reporting processes mean that we dedicate time to exploring where there is room for improvement as well as understanding what is going well.

To succeed at this, a Paid Media Executive will need to be inquisitive and analytical by nature, and constantly looking for the next opportunity for growth.

Google exams and industry conferences

Google never stands still, and anyone who chooses to work in the Paid Media industry will need to keep themselves in the loop. At Bamboo Nine, we aim to continuously improve our mastery of PPC tools by taking Google Skillshop certifications. As a Paid Media Executive, you’ll take time to review and understand the course content, before taking the examination at the end (and no doubt passing with flying colours!).

What’s more, we’re avid attendees of Google webinars as well as industry conferences (such as our well-known local, Brighton SEO) to keep our skills sharp. There’s no threshold to entry and you’ll be encouraged to make time for self-learning from your very first day.

Our goals

However our day-to-day looks, our constant aim is to provide the best service for our clients and take pride in the work we do, constantly striving for excellence. This ultimately helps us to:

• Drive growth for our clients
• Utilise client PPC budgets effectively
• Meet client KPIs and objectives
• Be industry leaders in what we do

We work with clients with a range of budgets but work hard to treat every account with the same care and dedication, no matter the spend.

Is there training for a Paid Media Executive?

The Paid Media Executive role begins with a training course which provides the foundations for any successful analyst. However, regular team training and skill refresher sessions are carried out beyond this to allow senior team members to pass on their knowledge, supporting more junior employees.

Bamboo Nine value career development for its employees, and alongside regular training sessions you’ll benefit from biannual reviews to assess performance and identify how your role can work better for you.

What’s it actually like working in the Paid Media Team?

The Paid Media team at Bamboo Nine are a friendly and hard-working bunch, with an affinity for Excel that verges on concerning. There’s a lot of variety in our daily tasks but similarly there are a number of mainstay processes, refined and perfected over time, which you’ll come back to every day.

With regular updates and innovations, the Paid Media team is an exciting, fast-paced place to be, where flexibility and the ability to adapt is key. Your impressive attention to detail and exceptional communication skills will help you to succeed, as well as a results-driven mindset.

Above all, we work in an environment where teamwork is foundational to our success. Although we manage accounts independently and become an individual point of contact for our clients, your fellow Paid Media team members will always be ready to lend an ear to help unravel a PPC conundrum or talk through a seemingly outlandish strategy idea.

What is the Bamboo Nine culture like as a whole?

At Bamboo Nine, we recognise that the passion and enthusiasm of our employees is what allows our agency to perform at such a high level. We take pride in our low staff turnover, and place an emphasis on work-life balance and the happiness of our employees.

There’s something for everyone here. We’re a tight-knit bunch and partial to a company social event, be it our annual Summer and Christmas parties or a relaxing pint at our local on Friday lunchtime. But if that’s not your scene, there are plenty of other ways to get involved be it through a ping pong tournament at lunch or contributing to the themed office playlist on a Friday – guilty pleasure tunes heartily welcomed.

From a career perspective, we’re keen to develop and nurture budding digital marketing talent through personal development plans, frequent training sessions and annual payment reviews which reflect your growing contribution and experience. We’ll supply you with the training and experience you need to fulfil your full potential and take leaps and bounds in your career.

Our people are truly our greatest asset. So, what are you waiting for?