September 2023 Update

September was another busy month for me in the World of PPC Ads and Digital Marketing at large. I personally managed about $300K in Ad Spend which served my clients about 15 Million Ads, resulting in 189,000 Users being brought to client websites and 15,970 Leads Generated or Products Sold. Very Similar numbers to what I did last month, which is good in the current economic context.

At Music City Digital, We have 2 websites in Development for clients, 12 Wordpress/Wix maintenance accounts, 11 Google Ads / Bing Ads Clients and are also actively promoting new SEO Services to all of our existing clients.

I believe it is critical to close out the End of the Year with as much momentum as possible heading into 2024.?We are ALWAYS out at Nashville Cars and Coffee and I am shifting advertising mediums aways from Digital and back to Networking / In-Person for Pipeline fulfillment.

Speaking of last month, that Solar client I was excited about decided to jump ship after just a few weeks. That was pretty disappointing. The new marketing director decided that going after “Angie’s List” type-leads at $40 a pop was better for them. If you have purchased these types of leads before, you know that they can be “Oversaturated” , Old and no longer interested in whatever service they initially expressed interest into. Now, This client initially told us that they wanted a $2000 bottom of funnel CPA spending about $5K a month. Well, what a client says and what reality is are usually 2 different things. As you can see, we only spent $4,300 over less than 2 Months. If you have ever heard me say “ You never know tell you try” , this is a great example. This account was a very small radius geotarget in a very rural, population sparse area.? I hope this company generates lots of leads however they can, but I do have doubts on the quality of leads at $40 a pop.???

Here is a little walk through of the account. The Account launched on Aug 14th, GTM/Event tracking install was done on the 28th due to waiting on clients Web Development team to install GTM Script, Payment Issue from Sept 9 - Sept 13,? with good performance on the 15th- 25th.??

For every door that is shut, a window opens. Opportunity abounds in Digital, however, I need to make a few observations about the market. If you are just looking to get into working Digital or remote, now is not a good time. I have been working remotely since 2014 and in Digital since 2009 and I see the difficulties in landing clients with no background and no case studies to provide clients. Anecdotally, I have had multiple people reach out to me over Upwork looking for work. This dude wants to be my Personal Squire!?

Throttle Back there Timmay, You might not like what indentured servitude translates to in the Land of Dave. ;)?

I have also had Junior PPC managers and Graphic Designers, gasp, CALLING ME ON THE PHONE. Wow, Talk about desperation... when Millennials and Gen Z pick up the phone, you know it's about to hit the fan.

Looking at verticals, Home Service / Real Estate related business continue to get hammered. We managed about $45-55K specifically in this vertical for clients this month. It seems like we are going to ride out the rest of the year at our current, or higher, interest rates. That is not good news for the Market and the outlook for 2024 is a big question mark. Prices are already starting to be cut in some markets, Owners are putting up commercial assets up more and more frequently. It is an election year, we have multiple economic and geopolitical flare-ups around the Globe. I can promise you this, the next 15 months won’t be boring.?

IT Companies represented another ~$100K between Google and Bing for me this month. This vertical is tough. B2B has long sales cycles, is very sensitive to seasons ( AKA C-Levels on Vacation all summer) and has a generally low overall volume of related searches. Nevertheless, we are generating leads on both platforms and continuing to generate business for dozens of clients across the country.

That is enough for Today! I am excited to see what October will bring. I hope you were perhaps mildly entertained and also learned something about the state of the PPC Markets. Make it a great one.

September 2023

?15.119 M Impressions

?189.666?K Clicks

?15, 970 Conversions?

?$300.6?K Managed Ad Spend?