Following on from his awesome Black Friday Google Shopping tips post recently, we thought it was about time to introduce our newest PPC Executive, Ross McLawrence, via his own Meet the Team feature!
Hampshire-based Ross joined Climb & Conquer in August and is already making huge strides on a range of PPC accounts, including Cast Iron Radiators, Doll House Cosmetics and Emitwise.
Give us a whistlestop tour of your career journey to date:
Following some time spent in the fitness industry as a Personal Trainer, I decided to go to Leeds Beckett University to study Business Management with Marketing. I chose Business as it was a broad subject with a lot of potential career avenues, but Marketing has always been an interest of mine and the field I wanted to pursue in the long run.
I fell into sales and recruitment following graduation and did that for a couple of years before landing a marketing role. During my move from Leeds to Hampshire, I connected with Shane on LinkedIn by chance and saw the different trainee roles in SEO and PPC being advertised and found the way the agency is doing things really interesting, and something I wanted to be part of. I thankfully managed to land the role I have now in the PPC team.
Describe briefly a typical day in the life of your role:
A typical day as a PPC Executive at Climb and Conquer starts with reviewing the performance of active campaigns. I analyse key metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and ROAS to identify areas for optimisation. This helps me make data-driven adjustments, such as tweaking bids, refining audience targeting, or adjusting ad copy.
Collaboration is a big part of my day with being a fully remote business, so I often speak and meet with my manager and team members to discuss campaigns, share insights, and seek advice on ongoing projects. I also spend time creating new campaigns, updating ad copy, and testing creative assets to keep things engaging.
Throughout the day, I stay updated on PPC trends, tools, and best practices to ensure we’re maximising campaign potential. The supportive team environment makes it easy to reach out whenever I need help or to exchange ideas. We also have informal catch-ups like coffee breaks and quizzes etc. to give us time together in and around work.
Overall, it’s a mix of analysis, creativity, and collaboration, which keeps things exciting and dynamic.
What made you decide to join Climb & Conquer?
I decided to join Climb & Conquer because of the agency’s strong focus on growth, innovation, and its supportive culture. The opportunity to come in as a Trainee and build my knowledge and skill set from those who started in the same position really showed the potential growth I could achieve. Working in a fast-paced environment where I could quickly expand my skills in PPC was also very appealing.
Additionally, the remote setup and the chance to collaborate with experienced professionals who are always open to sharing their knowledge were major factors in my decision. The combination of professional growth opportunities, mentorship, and a collaborative culture made Climb & Conquer the perfect place for me and I’m so glad I’m now a member of the team.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
What I enjoy most about my role as a PPC Executive is the blend of creativity and data-driven decision-making.
On one hand, I get to experiment with ad copy, creative assets, and innovative campaign strategies, which really sparks my creativity while working with a variety of clients. On the other hand, I love diving into analytics, interpreting metrics, tracking performance, and making informed optimisations based on real-time data.
The fast-paced nature of PPC keeps things exciting, as there’s always something new to learn and new trends to try. I also appreciate the open and collaborative culture at Climb & Conquer, as being a remote business can be seen by some as lonely. I’ve found there’s more than enough communication throughout the week to make it feel like we are in an office and not spread across the UK and Ireland.
And what’s the most challenging part?
I’d say the challenging part of my role, especially being under 3 months at the company, has been the learning curve in the various PPC tasks across different platforms. While I’ve gained a solid foundation with Google Ads and feel comfortable with this now, it’s making sure certain changes are working and keeping track of this, as we don’t want our client’s budgets to be wasted when they can be utilised elsewhere to increase performance and conversions.
Additionally, while Google Ads is the primary tool we use, Meta, Linkedin and Microsoft Bing are also platforms we use frequently. So when the time comes to learn more and use these regularly for my clients, that will be another challenge to overcome.
What’s your hot take on SEO/PPC/Digital Marketing for 2024?
My hot take on SEO, PPC, and digital marketing in general for 2024 is that AI will become even more of a feature within the industry, but we’ve got to be careful.
AI tools and platforms like Google’s Performance Max will be pushed even more by Google when building up a new campaign for clients; so we’ll see more advanced automation in ad creation, audience targeting, and campaign optimisation. I’m all for AI and how it can help in a lot of what we do in Marketing, but it may eventually become too heavily relied upon and marketers will hardly be adding their own creativity into campaigns. This could lead to agencies being fully AI-based, which isn’t ideal, and will no doubt impact the way brands choose agencies.
I think it’s vital to have the experience, knowledge and skill-set to create and manage these campaigns, using AI intelligently to make processes more efficient such as handling repetitive tasks – but it’s not the answer to everything and never should be.
If you could give one piece of advice to anyone looking to get into your field, what would it be?
My advice for anyone looking to get into PPC would be to embrace both the data and creative sides of the channel. PPC is a field where you need to be comfortable diving into analytics, interpreting performance metrics, and making data-driven decisions, but you also need to be creative in crafting compelling ads and campaign strategies that resonate with your target audience.
Looking to join us? Keep an eye on our Remote PPC jobs and Remote SEO jobs pages. We’re always keen to hear from talented and motivated people who want to join Climb & Conquer as we head for even bigger things in 2025, so feel free to reach out if that’s you.
