Last Updated on 2020-10-12 by ppcguybklyn
In my previous article we discussed the common interview questions and in this article I will be focusing on how to prepare for the professional questions in an interview. Considering not every reader of this blog is looking for paid search marketing related position, I will split this article into two parts: the first part will introduce some general principle of answering professional questions in an interview and the second part will be the professional questions I had encountered while interviewing a PPC job, and my thoughts on the best approach of responding to these questions.
Principles of answering professional questions
Concentrate on your contributions and achievements
Regardless of the positions you are interviewing for, a very important aspect of answering the interviewers’ questions is letting them know the reason they should hire you. What differentiates you from other candidates and makes you stand out among competition is the key of making a great impression during an interview. The most direct way of doing this is focusing on your contributions and achievement at your current position. For example, we could say something like : my experiences in this field are XXXX and because of my contribution of YYYY, my department / company has grown ZZZZ. If you could quantify your achievement and success, interviewers are more likely to recognize your capability at your respective fields.
Memorize all of the professional words
Now that you make your way to the interview phase, you will have to be extremely familiar with the professional words in the field you are interviewing for unless it’s an entry level position. Even not being asked, you could also find some window during the interview to mention some of these words that only “pros” will use in the field to showcase your knowledge. Another thing is that as a non-natvie English speaker, you must practice the pronunciations of the professional words in English at least to the level of not being misunderstood by the interviewers. Failing to do so might make people question your reliability as an expert in your field.
Make commentaries within your capability
When being asked professional questions of the position, if you are very confident about your answers you could consider further expressing your thoughts and making commentaries regarding the topics. You must hold on to any opportunity that allows the interviewers to learn more about yourself because they only learn your professionalism from your resume. But be careful to not expand the topics of the conversation out of your capability, otherwise this approach could backfire when the interviewers follow up with a question that you could not answer.
Don’t exaggerate
This principle can also be applied to resume writing. I have seen a lot of people fill their resumes with all kinds of programming languages or related certifications and love to mention how professional they are during the interview, only to turn out to be extremely mediocre when being asked specific and difficult questions. I think modesty is also a very important part of an interview. Over-exaggerating your achievements, if being caught on the spot, would leave a horrible first impression. Not to mention if you do get the job and get assigned tasks that are beyond your abilities, you won’t be able to keep the job for too long.
Common Professional Questions for PPC Positions
Q1: Do you have experience in A/B testing and keyword research?
A/B testing and keyword research are definitely the most important skills for a paid search specialist. This is a question that will be asked even for entry level positions. If you have related experience then you could pick the most successful one for your answer. If you don’t have any experience, don’t bluff. Explain in detail about your knowledge for these skills and how would you execute them if offered the position.
Q2: What is your go-to keyword research tool and why?
The purpose of this question is to understand how familiar the applicant is with keyword research. There’s no wrong answer for this question as long as you can explain your reasoning behind your favorite keyword research tool. For example, if your answer is Google Ads’s keyword planner, then you can mention it’s because this is the most convenient tool that allows us to add the keywords directly into the campaigns after keyword research. If your answer is other tools, then you can mention their advantages compared to Google Ads keyword planner.
Q3: Tell me about your experience in managing bidding prices for search and shopping campaigns
Back when all bidding prices had to be manually calculated and adjusted, this question was the key to differentiate the abilities of PPC specialists. Everyone had their own ways of managing bidding prices: some will use automation tools and some with JavaScript background would use coding to make things much easier. But since Google published their ownautomatic bidding strategies, the importance of manual bidding has significantly decreased. So the best answer for this question at the moment would be briefly explaining your timing of switching to auto bidding or manual bidding and how to pick the best auto bidding strategy.
Q4: How would you manage and optimize the spends of clients with different budgets?
If you are applying to a position at an agency, they would definitely want to know the way you make sure your clients are spending their money in the right place. From my experiences, many clients don’t want to hear the details of campaign management as they are only interested in how much money they can make out of their ad spends. Therefore, the interviewer would want to learn how you allocate the budget based on client demands and how you adjust your ad spend according to your campaign performances.
Q5: Briefly explain your process of setting up campaign structure for your client
This is an extremely straightforward question. Its purpose is to learn how you help your clients design their PPC ad accounts after taking over new clients. Be sure to mention how you research the products and services of the clients and the most efficient campaign structure in your opinion. The key is to point out your capability of categorizing and creating different ad campaigns based on different products and services.
Q6: When facing an industry you have never dealt with, how do you draft your ad copies ?
Carefully esearch the website of the client and the ad copies from competitors or similar products would be a good answer. For more details please see myfirst articleregarding this topic.
Q7: Do you have experience in managing shopping product feed?
Not every client or every position has the need of creating shopping campaigns. So it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if you don’t have any experience in shopping ads. However, because of this, it would be a big plus if you would be able to explain your process of editing and managing shopping product feed and making sure the shopping ads can be displayed properly. So even if you don’t use shopping ads that often, I highly recommend reading through related articles and do your best to answer this question when interviewing for an ecommerce or agency position.
Q8: Do you have experience in managing multiple ad accounts? If you do, how do you prioritize the accounts and your time?
This should be an agency-exclusive question as it is very common for one person to be in charge of 5 - 10 accounts or even more. Therefore, the interviewer would want to know your organizing and time management skills. I usually respond to this question with how I plan my tasks for my next day and how I organize my workflow. Be sure to give an example of similar experience from the past to fortify the narrative of you being a detail-oriented person who is able to multitask.
