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Wise Marketing Secrets Interview Series with Pashmina Lalchandani

Pashmina Lalchandani is the founder of Flow Simple, a Google Adwords Certified Partner and paid search services company. She is a pioneer in the online marketing space with over 10 years of experience.

Passionate, strategic and straightforward, Pashmina has grown dozens of companies from small startups to mature companies through paid advertising.

Flow Simple has worked with 80+ companies including startups such as Tuckernuck (a 500 startups graduate), Wanderable, and Voxy to grow their revenue through paid search.

How would you explain specifically what you do as a PPC Specialist?

As a PPC specialist my primary goal is to deliver positive results from the paid ad campaigns we manage. I plan, setup, and oversee Google Adwords, Bing, Facebook and Twitter ad campaigns to help our clients grow.

I stay on top of all the features, and opportunities on each advertising platform to maximize our performance.

I also research and get to know each business, their brand and offering, so that I can build targeted and relevant campaigns.

I also spend a lot of time analyzing the campaign metrics and keyword data that then inform my bidding strategy and optimizations of the campaigns.

What is your primary marketing goal when it comes to delivering results?

My primary marketing goal is almost always increased leads or sales at the lowest possible cost per acquisition (CPA). Month to month and year over year, I strive to deliver better results for our clients.

Which new skills are most important for PPC Specialist’s to learn in the next six months?

I think the most important skills that any PPC specialists need to master are evergreen.

A PPC Specialist must be good with data analysis, must be able to communicate and explain paid search effectively to their clients, know how to use the native platform tools (such as Adwords Editor), have an intimate understanding of all the available features of any ad platform, and become adept and proactive to ever-changing opportunities such as promotions, holidays, etc.

What do you find most rewarding about PPC?

I find it most rewarding when we turn a skeptical and wary client into a believer of paid search as a channel for growth.

How do you stay updated with the latest PPC industry news?

I mainly use Twitter and follow a bunch of PPC bloggers and experts, and also rely on various Google blogs for the latest on changes to search, Adwords, and Analytics features.

As a PPC Specialist, what is your favorite PPC hack?

My favorite hack is advertising our local clients on Yelp.com through a Google display campaign. You’re getting exposure on Yelp.com for way less money than those sponsored listings on Yelp.

Are there any particular PPC trends on the horizon that really excite you?

I think we are going to see even more innovations in display advertising campaigns, and a lot more precise ways to target new audiences on the partner networks.

I also think new accurate data in cross device campaign tracking is very exciting.

What are some of the top tools and apps in your PPC stack?

Adwords Editor, Excel, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Analytics.

How is your typical work day structured?

A typical work day consists of going through a round robin of optimization tasks on various client campaigns. In general, I will scan the campaign data over various short term and long term dates, and make some assessments on what to adjust.

I may make bid changes, add new negative keywords, add new keyword opportunities, try new ad copy – any optimization that I think will have a positive impact on the campaign performance.

Which one book/blog post would you recommend every PPC Specialist should read?

“In the Plex” by Steve Levy is the book I most often recommend.

This might be surprising considering it’s not actually about pay per click, but I think understanding the history of how PPC marketing technology evolved and came to be, makes a PPC specialist better at what they do. Know the history.

What advice would you share with other PPC Specialist’s who want to become more productive?

Learn shortcuts! Using your keyboard makes you more efficient. Don’t work off your laptop. That’s grossly inefficient.

I laugh at claims of “iPads will replace PCs”. Nothing beats having 2 large screens, and an external mouse/keyboard. More screen real estate help you look at more data at once and be more productive.

Among the Google algorithm updates what is the most challenging one that you’ve encountered?

None. One of the nice things about focusing on paid search is that our work is not affected by Google search algorithm changes. We are however, affected by new ad innovations.