A Day In The Life of A WSI Paid Search CM

“So, what do you do?” is one of the most popular ice breakers. Or it’s a question your parents and grandparents ask when they want to brag about you to their friends but can’t quite figure out the impressive and concise description to use.

Being a Campaign Manager at WSI Paid Search requires a bit more than a one-line description though. It’s a position that is demanding, rewarding, and most importantly, presents a new opportunity for problem-solving every day. Allow me to describe the closest thing to my typical day.

First I need to make sure that all my client’s PPC campaign budgets are pacing correctly. I want to make sure that they have enough money to last until the end of the month. This may seem like an obvious thing, but much like everything that goes into being a CM, budget pacing requires great attention to detail. I don’t just want to make sure they have enough budget. I want to pay attention to ensure we’re spending money without any conversions. If so, what keywords seem to be eating up the budget with profitable return? What search terms are wasting ad budget? Are the ads setting proper expectations for the landing page experience? These are all questions that can be answered to improve my client’s account performance while checking budget pacing. Fun fact: we actually have software that handles budget pacing for all of our clients, but I still like to check in on it.

Next, I check my email and look into the ticketing system to address any requests that may have come through. Sometimes I feel a bit anxious as the page reloads and I wonder how many tickets are for me, however, these requests usually lead to learning a new skill. You’d be surprised how often a client asks a question you’ve never had before which leads to team collaboration. If I’m stumped I can reach out to other CMs and learn from their experiences or work with an Account Manager to solve a new issue.

If I haven’t had any yet in between budget pacing and attending to ticket requests, there will be meetings! This could be an internal meeting with an account manager and a member of the operations team to plan a new campaign build. I could also join an account manager on a client-facing call to help provide updates on account performance and potential optimizations to implement.

Even on a rare day where I don’t have meetings, I stay in touch with my team through skype group chats. What do we talk about? Anything from helpful tips for work to book, music, film and tv recommendations. We share our success at work and outside of work and make sure no one has too big of ego with light roasting. As you can see, I don’t just write the ads you see on Google.