We received a fantastic response from my first post, “Now Hiring: Entire Companies.” It generated lots of activity, comments, and most importantly: we’re currently in three active and promising discussions.
Since there was so much attention, I figured that a follow-up post was in order- to thank everyone for their interest, and also to answer some FAQ’s. We received a lot of good questions, and a few points deserve further clarification.
What kind of agency and/or person are you looking for?
First, we’re looking for people or agencies who are specialized, particularly those who are 75-100% focused in one of the areas below:
- Social advertising
- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
- E-commerce/PLAs
- Specific verticals (Including but not limited to: EDU, Hospitality, Lifestyle, Auto, etc)
- Analytics (Consultants, not software)
If you don’t have a specialty in one of these areas but still focus on paid search (that is, you do paid search but for all types of clients and across many verticals/industries), we want to talk to you! Though this was our intention with the first post, it wasn’t well-articulated in the first post and may have gotten lost because I listed the areas of focus.
Agencies: We’re interested in acquiring agencies that consider themselves small- to mid-sized. Hanapin itself is 40-ish employees, and we’re looking for agencies that are under 20-ish employees. Relatively speaking, this size allows us to more easily capitalize a deal and integrate that company into Hanapin’s own culture.
Freelancers: We’re also interested in acquiring freelancers. Freelancers would become a full-time Hanapin employee, and we would give you a one-time bonus for your book of business. For us, a freelancer could mean that you’re a full-time employee and have your own freelance business on the side, or that you’re currently 100% focused on freelance work as a sole proprietor.
Individuals: Finally, we’re always seeking experienced PPC professionals to join our team, not just agencies and freelancers. If you have PPC experience, are working full-time on the client- or agency-side, and are looking for an opportunity to grow your career and skill set, we’d love to talk! Open positions are here:
https://www.hanapinmarketing.com/careers/open-positions/
Are you willing to work with international companies?
PPC Hero’s reach is global- more than half of our traffic is outside of the United States. So, it really shouldn’t have surprised us how many folks contacted us from outside of the United States. Learning M&A and international business law simultaneously, however, wouldn’t be fun for either party, and it’s simply too much to take on at a single time. For now, we’re not pursuing those opportunities, though I’ve left the door open for future talks.
Are you interested in buying products from an agency, such as apps or one-off software tools?
The short answer is: Yes! The long answer is that we’re interested in any web-based apps, scripts, macros, iOS/Android apps, etc.- anything that helps automate the process of analyzing and managing PPC. We’ll add them to our suite of tools in Hero Pro. One note: Since it’s software and could be easily folded into our existing team, a deal of this nature would not require you to come on board full-time.
What should I expect once I have contacted Hanapin?
Once you’ve contacted my assistant at rebecca.button@hanapinmarketing.com, we’ll be in touch to set up an initial conversation via phone. I promise complete confidentiality.
At this point, I don’t need to see your financials. She’ll simply schedule a phone call to see how well your vision and values align with Hanapin’s. Once we have had our conversation, if both parties are interested, we will continue our correspondence until we reach the stage for an in-person meeting/interview.
Is there a chance to meet you and your team in person?
Yes! In just two weeks, we’re hosting our PPC-only conference, Hero Conf, in Austin, Texas. We’re expecting 400 PPC professionals and about a quarter of our team will be in attendance. Hero Conf is the industry’s largest PPC-only conference, sponsored and attended by industry superstars like Bing, Adobe, and Wordstream. If you’re interested in attending, you can find more information and register at https://register.heroconf.com/.
