Search Engine Marketing is one of the most important and highly demanding skills in the field of Digital Marketing. Last week I got an opportunity to have one on one session with Amanda Lee from The Amber Group, Toronto. Amanda is the account director there and has more than 8 years of experience in marketing, especially in Paid Media. She started as an SEM intern and later got promoted to Account Director.
Paid media or search engine marketing plays an important role for a business to grow and step ahead of competitors. Let’s put some light on the job position and its roles. The career in Search Engine Marketing starts as an SEM intern. A couple of years ago, when Amanda started working as an SEM intern, her job duties are to manage day-to-day search campaigns, find analysis and bid on the best suitable keywords to get better ROI from the champion, and later upload it on platforms like Google ads and Bing. When Amanda started there were very limited platforms but later with time the job role of SEM intern also changed. In 2022, SEM intern has to focus on display ads, Instagram ads, YouTube, Spotify, and other new and effective platforms. Moreover, now they also have to prepare strategic optimization across the platforms under the supervision of an account coordinator and account strategist. After SEM intern comes to the Account Coordinator position, then Account Strategist, and finally Account Director.
In this one-and-a-half session, Amanda gave us some of her best advice to keep up with trends and changes in the industry. The number one piece of advice she gave us is to join all the latest social media platforms to get a better understanding, as every social media platform is unique and different from others. Secondly, she suggested reading newsletters like Smartbrief, IAB, Marketing Land, follow news sources on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep you updated with social media trends. Moreover, she suggested attending webinars, conferences, and classes as well. I read new letters and journals but from now I will do to focus on creating an account on different social media platforms to expand my reach and to understand how it works to upgrade my knowledge.
She is one of the experienced experts in the Industry and has gone through many resumes and seen many individuals rising in digital marketing. From her valuable experience, she gave us some tips which any of us can use when applying for a job position. Some of them I am sharing below.
- ProofRead Your Application: Make sure to update the company name for which you are applying on your cover letter. Also always check the spelling and grammar errors to make your application look more professional.
- Research About Company: Research company history, what services they deal in, what their address is, and also who is the hiring manager so that you can address them with their name to make your application more attractive.
- Timely Response to Employ: Always try to respond to the employer within 24 hours to show you are interested and also this shows how responsible you are to your profession.
- Networking: Reach out to the hiring manager on LinkedIn. This will not only catch the eye of the hiring manager but also help you to network and know when they are going to post about job vacancies in the future.
- Courses & Certification: At last she also suggested doing Google Ads certification as it is free of cost and this can add huge value to your application.
I would like to thank my professor Wendy Greenwood who gave us this chance to get in touch with Amanda as my goal is to build a leading digital marketing agency and Search engine marketing is one of the major parts of digital marketing. This session gave me a clear idea of the steps that I have to take to fulfill my future goal.
