The common situation today is more comic than tragic:
A businessman is walking home one night and there is a young man on the street, his trunk open, and a sign reading “Electronics Bankruptcy Blowout” on the ground beside the car. Seeing inside the trunk, the businessman notices a new “iPad” for sale at only a hundred dollars. Delighted and sure of the young man’s professional demeanor, the business man buys one and continues walking. The new tablet works, albeit slowly, but just before he gets home, the label on the back of the tablet falls off and reveals a new label.
“iPid,” it says. Infuriated, the businessman runs back to find the young man and his car, only to discover they are both gone.
This sounds like a bad gag, but more people experience this than they’d care to admit. With digital technology being so readily available today, it’s hard not see why there are so many shady practices going on. In online business, you have to be ready for this kind of incident and others in order to avoid swindles, gain success, and actually learn how online business really works.
A pay-per-click (PPC) specialist is something online business pros need to be aware of. There is a real difference between a PPC specialist who actually knows what they are doing and one who just says they do without backing it up. Like the iPid incident, being labeled as a professional does not always mean having the palpable experience and knowledge the real professional might have. For online business, you need the real deal, no question about it.
The starting point to find a real PPC specialist is to see their knowledge base. Now, they don’t have to be wizards, with the whole PPC dictionary locked in their skull, but they do need to know what they are talking about and must be able to communicate it with the right terminology. If you interview a PPC candidate for your business, they should be able to tell you what PPC optimization is and how it works. They should also know how PPC works in relation to Google “AdWords” or any other possible PPC program out there on the World Wide Web. The PPC specialist must have some background knowledge, be able to articulate it with the necessary terminology, and then put it all into easier terms for you to understand right from the get-go.
Along with knowledge, a true PPC specialist has a plan. That is, they can take whatever information you give them about your business—product information, sales information, etc.—and turn everything into a great PPC campaign online. They can create the right ads, can show where money must be spent, and know how to use analytics and how the money will come into the company. Don’t ever worry if PPC isn’t working for you. It’s a tough game to master. But also know that others have been successful with it. Other business folks have seen successful PPC campaigns, so why shouldn’t you? Even if you can’t quite get the hang of it, someone else can for you. In turn, they can show you how PPC campaigns run and reap part of the reward with you.
A real PPC specialist has credentials. Even with the ever-changing technology of today, and no matter how many new algorithms exist, there are those who actually know about this in regards to PPC and have the experience to back it up. Past work with a great business or PPC company with credible references is perfect, but even some online business experience with a smaller business in a related field is helpful. Real experience breeds real success, as in any business. A real PPC specialist has the former and can deliver the latter.
There is shame in trying to be too aggressive in today’s world by thinking everyone is lying, crooked and unethical. The world is not that evil. But there is no shame in taking some precautions to see which professionals are what they say they are. If you have to take a few precautions and weed out the real PPC specialists from the false ones, do it. Finding the real deal will bring in the real rewards for everyone involved.
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This article The Difference Between a Real PPC Specialist and a Not-So-Real One was originally published at Numero Uno Web Solutions and has been republished with permission.