Our interview today is with Robert Brady, Director of PPC & Conversion at Trafficado, and author of the blog Righteous Marketing.
PPC Hero: How did you become interested in PPC?
Robert: Growing up on a small farm in Idaho I didn’t even know about PPC until I took an internet marketing course in college. This was the first time the university offered the class and I signed up simply because it filled an elective in my major. However, one of our group projects was to work with local companies on a small AdWords campaign. These companies ponied up $500 prepaid AMEX cards and we spent their money (looking back I can see we made a lot of mistakes). This was where I first caught the PPC bug and from there I did an internship managing all the paid search campaigns for a small software company which turned into a full-time offer after graduation. I worked for an agency for a couple years and then have been doing my own thing for the last couple years.
PPC Hero: Why did you decide to start the blog, Righteous Marketing?
Robert: I started Righteous Marketing while working at an agency which didn’t have a blogging presence. I was learning a lot and wanted a place to share with the PPC community. Over time the site has become my personal web presence (I was a little late to the game on RobertBrady.com) and I still enjoy sharing what I’ve learned.
PPC Hero: What do you enjoy the most about working in PPC? Do you have a favorite PPC topic?
Robert: By nature I’m a competitive guy and I love winning. PPC provides the perfect field of competition. The metrics are the scoreboard so you always know if you’re winning or losing on a particular ad, keyword, ad group or campaign. You’ve got to lose fast (pause/delete and move on) and win big (leverage wins into more, bigger wins). You have competition pushing you to be better. New features are constantly adding complexity that you have to master. I love it.
As for a favorite topic, I enjoy any topic that allows me to leverage my knowledge of farming and agriculture. To date this has been limited to a couple personal projects and helping my dad sell his grass fed beef, but I would love to work with more agricultural clients.
PPC Hero: What is your opinion on mobile PPC and the direction it is heading?
Robert: It’s big, it’s getting bigger, and it’s getting bigger fast. Smartphone penetration in the US is at 44% and globally it’s at 10%. That’s millions of people who can perform a search anytime, anywhere. Need to figure out where to eat? Do a search on your phone. Want to know the answer to that trivia question? Do a search on your phone. Mobile PPC is a growing opportunity, but you’ve can’t treat it the same as your other PPC advertising. Mobile users have smaller screens and, even on 4G, load time is a big concern. You need landing pages that address these issues and keep conversion front and center. Like most PPC, those who do it well will reap the rewards.
PPC Hero: We are excited to have you join us as a speaker at Hero Conf. Is there anyone you are especially excited to meet or hear at Hero Conf? What are you looking forward to the most at the conference?
Robert: I’ve interacted with so many of the speakers online and look forward to meeting Joe Kerschbaum, Melissa Mackey, John Lee, Matt Umbro, Andrew Goodman & Crystal Anderson face-to-face. The lineup of speakers is fantastic and I want to meet all of them. I’m also looking forward to speaking with attendees to hear what they’re doing and see if I can provide any inspiration or assistance. And I’ve never been to Indianapolis, so it’s a chance to see somewhere new!
Robert will be presenting on mobile PPC at Hero Conf on April 16-17, 2012, in Indianapolis, IN. You can register here to listen to Robert and over 20 other great speakers!
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Robert is a Google AdWords Certified Partner, Microsoft adExcellence member and is certified with Marketing Experiments for Online Testing and Landing Page Optimization. He has worked with a variety of different companies ranging from a small grass-fed beef grower in Idaho to a large B2B data storage provider. He currently resides in Provo, Utah and can often be found skiing the greatest snow on earth, mountain biking through the Wasatch mountains or playing ultimate Frisbee at the park on a Saturday morning. The best way to say hello is through Twitter, where you can find him @robert_brady.
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