Hiring A Freelance PPC Consultant
Five questions to ask a freelance PPC consultant during the interview process.
The digital marketing ecosystem is undergoing major changes in response to AI and soft economic conditions. The difference between success and failure for many B2B inbound marketing programs can rely on the performance of paid media campaigns. Here are five questions to ask when interviewing freelance PPC consultants.
1. How would you describe a typical B2B customer journey?
The single biggest challenge that junior PPC professionals face when working in B2B is understanding the complexity of the buyer journey and then using that information to inform paid media tactics. It’s on the corporation to communicate buyer journey details and nuances to the PPC consultant but the individual needs a baseline understanding of the B2B buying environment first, and this question gets right to the heart of the issue.
PPC can play a meaningful, ROI-positive role in helping to fill the pipeline along all different phases of the journey — top, mid, and low funnel — but the tactics and costs differ dramatically. A freelance PPC consultant needs to bring a core base of B2B knowledge to the assignment in order to help the organization evaluate options and prioritize advertising investments.
Pro Tip: Look for candidates who have worked at organizations where marketing reported into the SVP Sales or Chief Revenue office as they will almost certainly have developed an appreciation for the typical B2B customer journey.
2. What is the ideal role of PPC in B2B marketing operations?
Among B2B marketers, pay-per-click tactics have a mixed bag reputation. When PPC works for inbound marketing, it really works, and its impact is felt throughout the entire organization. But success can be elusive and, even when it’s achieved, the situation can create warped expectations that will need to be managed.
A capable, mid-level freelance PPC consultant should be able to address this question, and do so cautiously. Experienced pay-per-click specialists know that the paid media can play a central role in B2B marketing ops, but also that becoming overly reliant on PPC could become problematic. Indeed, in many B2B sectors – like digital mailroom – paid media isn’t a differentiator but a table stake. To drive inbound leads in that sector, PPC is a tactic that’s working together with content, SEO and UX to attract hand-raisers and fill the pipeline. Removing any one of these inputs will negatively affect performance and inbound lead volume and quality.
Pro Tip: Wily PPC professionals will take care to emphasize their ability to deliver a combination of strategic, tactical, and technical support to B2B clients, but also not veer into corporate strategy topics like ideal customer profile (ICP) or geographic targeting that’s best decided by the executive suite.
3. What is the appropriate mix of new versus legacy PPC campaigns in a B2B paid media portfolio?
There is no one correct answer to this question but answers will be revealing. PPC campaign mix depends on a variety of factors including organizational maturity (startup vs multibillion dollar corporation), the state of marketing operations, and prioritized strategic initiatives (new product promotions versus legacy best sellers). In general, B2Bs allocate about one-third of budgets to branded term campaigns; one-third to low-funnel, close-to-purchase campaigns; and one-third to higher funnel and brand awareness activities like retargeting.
In soft markets like 2025, B2B companies tend to shift focus to filling the top- and middle-funnel because new contract closings are less frequent, so striking low-funnel, ripe opportunities are less likely. Weak economies are also a good time, budget permitting, to turn up testing activity by way of relatively short, 4-6 week efforts. With more eyeballs on the platforms, it can be an opportune time for offer and message testing.
Pro Tip: The hardest part about getting campaigns to perform is…getting campaigns to perform. So it’s common for B2B advertisers to have evergreen campaigns running for years, deferring to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” maxim. These require ongoing maintenance, like a garden, but don’t need to be overhauled frequently. New campaigns take the most time to launch while legacy campaigns deliver the most output.
4. How would you rate your skills across Google, LinkedIn and Microsoft/Bing – beginner / intermediate / expert?
These three platforms make up the overwhelming majority of paid media activities at most B2B companies and each has enterprise-grade media buying functionality that PPC consultants use to launch and optimize campaigns. The platforms are robust and constantly evolving, both in terms of how PPC professionals use the systems and also by way of their features, automations, and default settings.
I’m immediately skeptical of anyone who claims to be an expert on all three of these platforms. It’s not impossible, just unusual. Google and Bing are used frequently for low-funnel, target-rich B2B lead generation, and their goals often differ from brand-building and other upper funnel objectives that are more common on LinkedIn.
Since most organizations gravitate to low-funnel campaigns until they have exhausted inventory and then move on to mid- and upper-funnel initiatives, that means it’s common for PPC consultants to have expert skills in Google and Bing and intermediate experience in LinkedIn, or vice versa. With all of the platforms making regular and aggressive investments in features, it’s a big challenge to stay current on everything one platform has to offer, nevermind all three.
Pro Tip: Being competent across Google, LinkedIn and Bing is a reasonable requirement for freelance PPC consultants but there aren’t many individuals who are genuinely expert in all three platforms.
5. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made as a PPC consultant?
If you’ve been doing PPC for a few years — or anything, for that matter — you’re going to have made some mistakes along the way. Errors made in PPC management are especially painful because the dollars associated with any misstep are front-and-center for everyone on the team to see.
Common mistakes include everything from mistaken budget allocation to incorrect geo-targeting and automation settings. The errors are often high profile, financially relevant, and require detailed explanation — in other words, painful.
Pro Tip: A PPC consultant who is unable to readily cite a campaign that went sideways for any one of a dozen different reasons either hasn’t been doing PPC for very long or isn’t being forthcoming. It happens and we learn from those experiences.
RESOURCES & FURTHER READING
- B2B Digital Marketing Case Studies
- Does PPC Work For B2B?
- B2B Lead Generation Ideas
- AI & PPC Management
############################################
Tim Bourgeois is a freelance PPC consultant at East Coast Catalyst and manages the PPC management services practice. Contact him at tbourgeois(a)eastcoastcatalyst.com to discuss how his team can help with B2B digital marketing strategy and lead generation initiatives.