CHANNELS & SERVICES
what skill I bring to the table (and some I don’t)
Paid Search (PPC)
Performance marketing should be driven by profits.
With over 10 years of paid search experience (both strategic and practical) I’ve controlled budgets in the tens of millions for household brands. I’ve delivered ROAS of upto 20:1 and seen brands I’ve worked with grow significantly. I now use AI as a facilitator to help achieve scale on a tight budget.
Paid search is very much about staying in the know and getting your fingers wet. I do both. Additionally, I run my own ads. That might sound like a small thing, but can you really trust an agency professing to brilliance at marketing, while conveniently not doing it themselves? Get in an expert who practices what they preach.
Display
Because the most resonant ads are visual.
Display is a great method to build brand awareness and loyalty. The returns you see will need to be measured in a different way than paid search in order to demonstrate success, but with the right display strategy, you can see your brand grow exponentially.
Especially significant is combining targeted audiences with sequential remarketing, which, regardless of recency, still delivers incredible results over time.
Data Analysis
Whether is GA4 or Looker Studio, data visualisation is key.
Executives tend to be informed visually, so it’s incredibly important not just to understand your figures, but to visualise them in creative and appropriate ways. GA4 is not great, certainly in comparison with Universal Analytics, but there are incredibly useful tools such as Looker Studios that can help visualise just about any data set.
Data shouldn’t simply be used for providing metrics though, it needs a keen eye to get insights from data, and to use those insights creatively to improve campaigns, or spot new opportunities. Where opportunity lies, data should be used, this includes proper tag management and data feeds, like product info for Google Shopping, or conversion data that helps Google’s algorithm optimise towards conversion, cost per acquisition or return on ad spend..
Leadership Strategy
Understanding the why’s, where’s and what’s.
Often it’s not what you do, it’s how you prepare for what you do. How does the old saying go? Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. There’s often times when strategic experience is necessary, say a restructure where a small mistake can have much wider implications.
Creating, managing and improving a team also requires strategy, certainly a different set of skills than campaign strategy, and it’s usually based on influence. If you were to read my management style from a book, that book would be How To Win Friends And Influence People. My management style is based on influence via reciprocity.
Comms
You’ve simply got to ask the right questions to get the right answers.
Anybody who’s had a try of ChatGPT (or Copilot) will know that it’s not what you ask, it’s the way you ask it, different styles will give wildly different results. Great communication with clients is paramount. It may well be that you’re not yet able to hit the targets they’ve given you, great communication will often be the difference between a good and bad relationship[ with them. Transparency is key, it fosters trust. Own (and learn from) your mistakes.
Comms strategies are as useful internally as they are externally, especially if the team is working from home, or on a different continent. .
Non-Executive Director
A more practical voice of governance.
Having more than 20 years experience, and having ran my own (admittedly small) agency, I feel I could be a great addition as an NED. Understanding marketing dynamics and agency frameworks are like breathing to me, second nature.
I can’t back up my suitability with relevant experience, but I do have the skills and attributes necessary, as well as a very favourable dayrate.
Things I know, but don’t consider myself an expert
Here’s 5 channels I use as part of what I do, but am no means an expert.
I’ve done a lot of the past few decades. Some of it suffers from a lack of recency, some of it is almost too recent for me to consider myself an expert. Either way, I have a good working knowledge of these 5 concepts, enough to lead a team, but I leave the doing to the experts.
SEO – SEO it far too wide-reaching to become an expert in. Most (good) SEOs will specialise in one aspect of it, on-site, off-site, or technical. Seeing some of these technical SEOs at work is a sight to behold. I know enough to do the basics and manage an SEO team, but there are far better options than me if the assignment is SEO only. I know some stuff, but it takes me 4-times longer to build a website than it would a seasoned developer.
Paid social – This one’s more of a preference thing. I’ve actually got a lot of experience here, but the simple (brutal) truth is that I just don’t align my person values with social media. I wouldn’t consider an assignment with more than 10% paid social campaign management.
Web development – Unfortunately, I’m nowhere near as creative enough to spend much time here. I have a good understanding of HTML and a range of CMSs like WordPress, but that’s mainly out of necessity for SEO reasons. I know enough to troubleshoot issues, and that extent is all I’ve ever needed.
Programming – I have a basic understanding of Python, but again, it’s something I’ve only really learned enough of to troubleshoot issues. There are much better programmers out there, although probably not quite as experienced as me. I was programming basic on my ZX81 at 10 years old. Counter Attack anyone?
AI – I’m an avid consumer of AI options, having built my own GPTs. The technology is so new though that I’m going through a massive learning curve, and the thing is, new options launch daily, so it’s not like you can sit back and think you’ve completed AI now.
Let’s not talk about what I won’t do, let’s talk about what I can offer you instead! You can use the contact page for ways to contact me, or you can look at my dayrates here.
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