Grad season is fast approaching, and college students are already applying for paid search roles in anticipation of their impending release into the “real world.” These eager newcomers can make great additions to SEM teams, provided they’re given the knowledge and resources they need to do that stellar work you expect.
However, paid search today is a considerably robust topic to teach someone. You’ll want to make sure you’re covering all bases, which is why Marin's Center of Excellence has come up with tips and tricks to bring these enthusiastic new team members up to speed.
As with any endeavor, you’ll need to start by asking yourself some questions to understand how to best tailor your approach:
- What knowledge gaps exist for these new team members? Do they have any previous marketing experience, particularly in search?
- What will be the “everyday life” for your new hires? What knowledge do they need to be successful in their new role?
- How quickly do new hires need to fully assume their role? Can training be completed over a period of time?
- Who’s involved in the training? Mentors? Managers? Other?
- How will training content be developed and maintained?
- Does it make sense to invest in online courses or outside consultants to conduct the trainings?
- What methods will you use to keep participants engaged and accountable throughout the training?
- How will you assess the success of the trainings? How will you assess the competency of participants post-training?
- Are there any unique processes or strategies your company uses that team members need to understand?
The next step is to create your program for bringing these new hires up to speed. Use your answers to the questions above to decide how to best structure your program. In addition to developing clear and helpful content, establish how that content will be delivered (Will you host training sessions? Require self-study?), how participants will be assessed, and more.
We’ve created a quick breakdown of what you’ll need to do to prepare for these trainings, along with our suggestions.
Structure
New hires often inherit accounts from other account managers without much context. Understanding why an account is structured a certain way is imperative when deciding how to perform tests or when to make changes.
Those new to the industry may not understand things like segmenting match types or remarketing to specific groups of people differently if this isn’t previously explained. Keeping a record of tests and strategy for an account can be extremely valuable to a new account manager.
Workflows
Recent college grads hired to a paid search team will often perform the day-to-day tasks involved with campaign management, such as writing ad copy for testing, negative keyword expansion, and more. For every workflow, it’s also important that new hires understand the impact these tasks can have on performance.
Strategy
There are many strategies that account managers use to meet client goals within PPC campaigns. It’s important to inform new hires not only of the goals for the accounts they’ll manage, but of various methods they can use to meet those goals.
Technical
Make sure new hires have an understanding of how tracking works fundamentally, as well as the manner in which tracking conversions and revenue functions in your accounts. New hires will also need to learn how to identify and resolve discrepancies within your data, to ensure they’re able to make intelligent strategic decisions in the accounts they manage.
Although recent grads may not spend a lot of time performing deep-dive analysis within accounts, it can be helpful for them to acquire these skills early on in their careers. Bringing new hires up to speed can be a rewarding experience, but it can also be time-consuming!
At Marin, our Center of Excellence is available to develop and provide custom workshops to ensure your new hires are brought up to speed without taking up your limited bandwidth. If you’re a Marin customer and would like to learn more about this offering, reach out to your account representative!
