How to Become a Google Ads Specialist
The process of becoming a Google Ads expert is not as difficult as you might imagine. In fact, we’re going to give you a basic summary of the process right now. All you have to do is to follow the following steps:
- Learn Google Ads: you cannot become a specialist in something you have no idea about! That’s easy enough to see. So, you’re going to need to learn how to use Google Ads. In our opinion, taking a course is the best way to do this and we have spoken in the past about the best Google Ads courses, so you can check our blog post to see which course is best for you.
- Become a Certified Ad Specialist: while it’s not entirely necessary, getting a certification from Google themselves could boost your credibility and even connect you with potential clients or employers. Therefore, it’s a good idea to pick a Google Ads certification. After all, it costs nothing!
- Apply Your Newfound Skills: just because you’ve completed a Google Ads course and gotten your certification, doesn’t mean that you’re competent enough to be able to compete in the highly competitive field of Google advertising. What you need to do is to gain experience. You can do this by applying for an entry-level job in the field, creating campaigns for your own properties, or helping out voluntary organizations. If you would like some assistance with creating an amazing Google Ads specialist resume to apply for an entry-level job, we have a post that covers the topic in depth.
- Collect Testimonials: if you’re really serious about being a Google Ads specialist, then you’re end goal is to become your own boss. If that’s the case, then you’re going to need to create a project portfolio and collect testimonials from previous clients. That way, you can be way more attractive to prospective clients, making it one of the most effective ways of how to get clients for Google Ads.
We have gone into how to become a Google Ads specialist in far, far more detail in our dedicated guide, so we would suggest reading that in order to become fully acquainted with the process. But that was, in a nutshell, how to become a Google PPC specialist. And if you somehow were wondering if being a Google Ads specialist is legit, I think we’ve put those doubts to rest now!
Advantages of Being a Google Ads Specialist
We don’t know about you, but we usually like to start off with the good news. It helps us brace for the bad news a little bit better. Thankfully, there are many advantages to working Google Ads jobs, and we’re more than happy to explain them to you here below:
Lucrative Career
If you play your cards right and you really invest in yourself to become the best Google marketing specialist you can be, you can potentially earn a hefty sum. In fact, the average hourly rate for freelance Google Ads specialists is between $15 – $40 an hour. This depends on the level of experience of the marketer, of course.
In other words, the better you are at your job, the more you can charge clients. However, if you’re unsure how much you ought to charge for managing Google Ads campaigns, then our article on the subject should help. But the logic of more experience = more money still holds.
The same also applies to Google AdWord specialists that are employed with a company, whether that’s an agency or as part of an in-house marketing team. According to Glassdoor, the median salary is just below $60K.
And of course, this is not taking into consideration any bonuses, pay raises, potential promotions, etc. In other words, if you manage to succeed in this career, you would very easily be sitting pretty with a very comfortable Google Ads specialist salary.
High Demand
Arguably, one of the best benefits to becoming a Google Ads expert is that you won’t ever be out of work. Thanks to the popularity of online paid advertising, it’s next to impossible to not be able to find a client. You really have to try hard not to look in order not to find a client.
This is especially useful when you’re freelancing or simply working a Google Ads side hustle. Having the ability to easily find clients means that you don’t have to worry too much about not making end’s meet, or not being able to gain an income boost from your side gig.
So, thanks to the fact that there is a continuous demand for digital marketing professionals, paid ad specialists are always in demand, and thus there is always a way of getting paid as a Google Ads specialist.
Varied Job Opportunities
On a related note, being a Google Ads specialist doesn’t mean you only know how to use the Google advertising platform. No, you should also be as versatile as possible, and so you should also have general marketing skills and be able to use other paid advertising platforms like Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads.
These additional skills mean that you always have the opportunity to work in pay-per-click marketing no matter what.
Remote Working Opportunities
To some people, becoming a digital nomad is a dream come true. To these people there is nothing better than travelling the world with nothing but a laptop and a couple of changes of clothes. We can easily understand the appeal: after all, you’ll be constantly on the move and getting paid for it at the same time (sort of).
If this is your dream, then becoming a Google Ads specialist might the right career choice for you. This is because many positions offer the opportunity to work remotely. And of course, when you become a Google Ads freelancer, or even if you decide to start your own Google marketing agency, you’re your own boss and you can work wherever you want!
Certification Credibility
We have mentioned before that there is the existance of something known as a Google Ads certification, which we recommend you get one. The beauty of these certifications is that there are plenty of organizations that give one out at the end of their Google Ads courses. Moreover, the official Google certifications themselves are completely free!
We know what you might be thinking: but are Google Ads certifications worth it? Well, becoming certified in Google Ads can boost your credibility and make you more attractive to potential employers and clients.
The fact that there are so many opportunities to become a certified Google Ads specialist and that they can contribute so much to your credibility as a marketer makes this a major benefit of the field.
Constant Learning
Digital marketing is a vast and ever-evolving field, and paid advertising in itself is massive. Not only are there multiple platforms that you can learn to use, but each one of these platforms take a lifetime to master in themselves. Moreover, that’s not mentioning industry trends and updates to the platforms themselves.
As such, you have plenty of reasons to constantly learn on the job. In fact, if you don’t, you’re at risk of not being able to compete in the highly competitive world of PPC marketing.
Disadvantages of Being a Google Ads Specialist
Of course, being a Google Ad specialist isn’t all rainbows and butterflies: there are various downsides that you need to take into account before taking the plunge and deciding to do this full-time. So, here are some of the disadvantages of being a Google AdWords specialist:
Highly Competitive
The first and probably biggest disadvantage to becoming a Google Ads specialist is that the field itself is extremely competitive. Not only are there many marketers who aspire to become Google Ads specialists, so you’ll essentially be jostling in an overflowing industry, but there are also many great marketers.
So, the issue ends being how to stand out among other specialists, which is a challenge in itself. This is why collecting testimonials is so important. However, you also ought be as competitive as possible in as many aspects as you can, such as offering discounts or delivering nothing but top-notch results.
Pressure to Deliver Results
Just like any kind of profession where someone else’s success depends on your efforts and expertise, there’s often a lot of pressure to deliver successful ad campaigns. This can understandably become very stressful, especially when a client’s demands are unrealistic or your client is continuously putting pressure on you to deliver.
You need some serious amount of grit in order to cope with this kind of constant pressure, otherwise you’ll start cracking at the seams.
Constant Learning
This is the double-edged sword of the profession: learning is beautiful, but not when you always have to keep yourself up-to-date with constant changes and updates to the tools of your trade. It’s like a carpenter has to get accustomed to a new saw every week. It’s enough to drive anyone mad.
So, while learning about our beautiful profession is definitely something that we ought to appreciate and hold dear to our hearts, the fact that you always have to keep up with changes, updates, industry trends, as well as new concepts might prove disheartening at times.
Client Expectations
The issue with most clients is that they usually won’t know anything about paid advertising, or else they don’t particularly understand PPC marketing in as much depth as you would as Google paid ads specialist. So, a client’s expectations and demands might not actually be realistic in terms of paid marketing.
Therefore, you ought to be prepared to deal with high expectations and sometimes unrealistic demands. This in itself can prove challenging, but make sure to always be polite and let your client know that what they are demanding is not possible within the realm of paid marketing.
Long Hours
Due to the sheer amount of work that needs to be done, it can often be the case that you would need to work long hours in order to simply keep up with the massive workload. This is especially true during campaign launches or when troubleshooting issues.
It can be a challenge to maintain a healthy work-life balance if you get sucked into the “vortex” of work, so to speak. So do yourself a favour and try to be as healthy as possible in your lifestyle!
Uncertain Performance
As with anything in digital marketing, you can’t be 100% sure that what you’re doing is actually working. While you’re expected to monitor the performance of your campaigns, you’re often doing optimizations a bit blindly as you can’t be entirely sure that what you’re doing will have the success you desire.
Moreover, factors such as market changes, competition, and consumer behavior can impact the results of your ad campaigns, making it doubly frustrating. Of course, the constant challenge is something that fuels us marketers, but it can get tiring at times!
Conclusion: Is Being a Google Ads Specialist Worth It?
After all’s been said and done, is becoming a Google Ads specialist even worth the time and effort? As always, it largely depends on what you want out of your life and whether you’re passionate at all about Google Ads. Every occupation has their pros and cons, and being a Google Ads professional is no different.
However, if paid ad marketing is your passion and you’re up for the challenge, then we would say that being a Google Ad specialist is definitely worth it. What’s better than pursuing your passion, getting paid for it, as well as having a number of perks thrown in, like being able to work remotely?
Of course, there are challenges that you need to surmount, but we don’t think that these should hold you back from pursuing the career of your dreams.