Interview With Scott (Head of PPC at Journey Further)

1) Where were you born and raised? Also tell us something unique about yourself.

I was born and raised in Whitehaven in Cumbria, but have spent the last 15 years living in Leeds. Something unique about me - I’ve only ever played two games of tag rugby in my life, and they lasted 30 hours and 40 hours respectively.

2) What got you interested in marketing and what was your journey?

I’ve always had a fairly even split between my analytical and artistic sides - and marketing seems to connect those both fairly seamlessly. Whilst there is obviously a huge creative aspect to how ads look, there’s also the problem solving and numbers behind it that gets me excited.

Despite going to Leeds College of Art to get my degree in Visual Communications, I always kept a close eye on tech developments online, and after an introductory role in email marketing, I discovered PPC - the rest is history. Progressing all the way from PPC beginner, I’m now leading a team of 22 PPC-ers at one of the fastest growing Digital Marketing agencies in Europe.

3) What skills and industry do you specialize in?

I specialise in PPC - I currently manage the PPC team at Journey Further. We take on (and I’ve worked on) clients in virtually every sector imaginable. While we essentially manage anything in the Google/Microsoft ecosystems, my preference is working on Lead Gen clients (much to the chagrin of most of my colleagues who definitely prefer to work on e-Comm accounts).

4) What is your best soft skill?

I’ve been told I’m good at bringing people along on a journey with me - it’s really important to get people to understand why they’re doing something instead of just what to do - giving them a purpose rather than a task. This helps in training, in organising a team, in managing accounts alongside others - all aspects of the role where you need to work with others!

Apparently I’m also very polite, or so I’m told!

5) What softwares and tools do you use regularly?

I work primarily in platform (across Google Ads and Microsoft), which is complemented perfectly by Google Ads Editor and the full Google Workspace Suite. Outside of that, I tend to be fairly tech agnostic - I’ll happily use whatever tool will get the job done for any particular client at any given time - anything from integration tools like Zapier to competitor analysis tools such as Adthena or Similar Web.

I have to give a big shout out to Funnel (https://funnel.io/) - the tool we use to pull all of our data streams into one place, which has revolutionised our reporting as an agency.

We also have an internal toolkit of scripts and sheets that really helps keep track of, and drive strong performance for, all of the clients under our management - everything from Lost Impression Share alerts to automated n-gram reports.

6) What are your goals for the next year and into the future?

I want to make the team that I work with famous - our PPC team is full of super intelligent individuals who are carrying out (what I believe to be) some of the most pioneering work in the industry. I want to shine a light on those team members and the work they’re doing - to get them the public recognition I feel they deserve!

7) What has been the hardest thing you dealt with in your career path?

Getting to grips with the fact that people don’t care about what you’re doing as much as you think they do. It’s taken me a long time to learn that instead of looking for approval, you should find what interests you, and the recognition / rewards will follow (and I still struggle to remember that every day). You’ll do much better work if you value what you’re doing!

Especially in today’s fast moving online world - if you put your opinion out there and no one agrees - then good, time to start a debate. If you say something silly, don’t worry, it will be forgotten about in a day or two.

8) What is the biggest mistake you made that you want others to avoid?

Thinking you have to stick to one area or one industry - I’ve definitely been guilty of getting hung up on a single project or piece of work because “that’s what I’m good at” or “that’s where my focus should be” - sometimes it’s OK to move on, or change what you’re doing!

More specifically to PPC - I once switched from Manual bidding to Smart bidding and then went out for lunch - cue a hefty overspend. Always keep a close eye on any major conversion / bidding changes, and keep tight budgets in place. ;)

9) Who are your favorite people in the industry that you follow?

The online PPC community is absolutely thriving at the moment - keep your eye out for people like Navah Hopkins, Jamie Leckie and Sarah Stemen who all have interesting opinions to share! But let’s face it, if you work in PPC, and you’re not following Adriaan Dekker , you’re missing out - he has the most reliable and up to date feed of changes in the industry (more so than Google) - and he’s also super supportive of the wider PPC community.

10) Who has had the biggest influence on your career to date?

It would be difficult not to mention Chris Rowett here. Chris gave me my start in PPC proper, and we’ve now worked together for over 10 years. The basis through which I approach PPC was something that Chris taught me a long time ago, and while I question some of his more “pioneering” suggestions nowadays, this way of working still influences how I tackle problems today (both in PPC and in managing a department).

If you get a chance to check out one of his talks - I’d highly recommend it! They’re high energy and filled with interesting takes on the future of PPC.

11) What has been your favorite course that you taken and why?

When it comes to PPC, I haven’t seen any courses that match hands-on experience or active engagement with other PPC practitioners in terms of the value they provide. Whilst it might be good to jump into a course as a beginner, but because PPC is so fast moving, once you reach a certain level, you’ll always get more value from trying to solve a problem yourself, by actively following people in the same field or by asking questions.

Outside of PPC, I’ve been on some fantastic courses centred around management - focussing on how to promote a happy and productive team!

12) What would you tell yourself or someone who is just starting out in marketing?

Take on all challenges - there’s no better way to learn than to get hands on, early on, I think my career really benefited from me getting involved in as much different stuff as possible, whether it be clients in different industries, support colleagues working on other challenges, or just dipping my toes into something new. Try out as much new stuff as you can.

Put yourself out there - it’s only in the past year that I’ve started putting myself out there on LinkedIn (and even then, it really hasn’t come naturally) - but the value and learning that I’m getting from it is unbelievable. Even if you’re new into the industry, you can still have an opinion on something, or discover a new approach to things - you learn so much by shaping your thoughts, getting them written down, and being able to discuss them with people outside of your direct circle.

13) If the entire world was listening to you, what would you have to say?

Find your purpose! Everything will become easier and more enjoyable if you remember what you’re working towards.

14) Where can we find you?

You can find me primarily on LinkedIn where I try to post daily about all things PPC (a lot of tips and tricks interspersed with memes and opinion pieces), or you can get in touch with me through the Journey Further website.