A great project manager can help streamline your company in many positive ways – including your PPC campaigns.
Yes, PPC. All the things that good project managers do – set short term goals, keep a project on budget, juggle the data and numbers, communicate internally and externally, manage a team and build trust – are the kind of skills that increase the efficiency and profitability of a PPC campaign. Like any facet of Internet marketing, PPC at its core is about creating honest communication and establishing realistic goals and budgets.
Here are the 4 project management skills that will help better focus and simplify any PPC campaign.
1. Setting both long-term and short-term goals
Trained project managers are not only versed in setting reachable goals for the companies that employ them — they are also able to create long-term vs. short-term goals and set realistic expectations for both. Without a project manager, short-term and long-term goals are often muddled together, and stakeholders can’t differentiate the big picture from the reachable short term steps to get there.
Take a cue from project managers. Look at your entire PPC campaign and set immediate goals that are attainable for internal teams. These, of course, are based on the overarching long-range goals. A good project manager can also predict fluctuations — seasonal traffic, emerging market trends, etc.— and tweak goals accordingly without discouraging employees.
2. Tackling the numbers
Good project managers also bring another essential skill to the table: they don’t balk at the numbers.
Channel that as you manage the financial side of your PPC campaign. PPC campaigns must be monitored closely — data reviewed, budgets established, spending managed, user traffic anticipated, investments strategized and so on. It’s vital to be able to read PPC data and create sound goals and investments based on that data.
3. Communicating to clients and team members
Communication is a vital skill for anyone managing people or projects.
In the case of PPC, the lines of communication must be kept open both with employees and with clients. Talk with clients about their PPC accounts in order to build and strengthen external business relationships (such as word-of-mouth referrals). But don’t stop motivating your internal team – this is the step that improves morale and team dynamics and encourage company loyalty and the drive for success.
4. Being transparent and trustworthy
An effective project manager seeks to communicate honestly with clients and strives for transparency in his or her interactions with his team — because without a motivated, loyal team, a project manager can’t do it all. This is why transparency is so important when dealing with employees. Making an empty promise to employees regarding goals, overtime, promotions, or bonuses will create an air of mistrust within the company, and your campaigns will suffer as a result.
Instead; bring each employee on-board with a confidentiality agreement to ensure their discretion, and ensure any communications that go out to clients (be they social media, e-newsletters, or a simple email communication) are honest and help build long term trust in all business relations.
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