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Transitioning away from PPC
Posted by on February 9, 2026 at 9:28 pmI've been working in Google and Microsoft Ads for over 10 years and I honestly feel completely burnt out on the job in general. I'm sure you've all felt every stress I could possibly mention, but 10 years in agency has completely killed any desire I have to do this job anymore. Does anyone have advice on transitioning away from working in Paid Search or thoughts on what kind of positions my experience overlaps with or how exactly to go about finding a job where my skills carry over? Anything would be appreciated.
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1 Reply
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Get an in-house job. I was 10+ years agency side and then moved in-house in 2023. It is the same job, so I don’t want to oversell that aspect of it but the stress levels are night and day from agency work and all the experience you’ve gained from being agency-side will serve you very well in-house.
And if you truly don’t want to manage paid/performance channels anymore, the in-house route can be a good way to make minor pivots into other marketing roles.
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Think of the client that made the most money from your campaigns, and figure out how to do that for yourself. It’s probably easier for you to replicate their business model than for them to get to your PPC level.
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[deleted]
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I went back to doing the thing I did before any of this was a thing.
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Data analytics. Chances are if you were a good PPC professional, you knew data analytics. You’ll have a one up in the marketing field with data analysis expertise behind you.
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Agree with the other poster that in-house is the way to go if you’re okay with the work itself, but hate unnecessary agency stress.
I spent 10+ years at agencies and barely broke $100k. For in-house roles, $100k was the low end of the salary range. Five years in and I’m making $190k base and have way less stress.
Honestly, agency life is so inhumane that it distorts your perspective completely.
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I switched to general business consulting/analytics.
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Iv done in-house and iv done agencies, as an in-house avoid start up, and avoid companies that decided to bring talent in-house. Only work for established companies that already have an marketing team.
If ur burned out go on 3 week vacation. Do something different with clients and etc
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Most SMBs I know still use agencies.
The in-house role might have another title. Marketing Manager, Director etc.
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You might consider becoming a fractional CMO. You can apply your existing marketing skills to help businesses manage 3rd party services. Take on as many clients as you’re comfortable with.
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Been running PPC accounts for 17+ years. All in house, and my own consulting. There are times where I feel absolutely burnt out and want to shut it all down and move to a cabin in the woods.
Moving to analytics roles is a pretty close overlap in skillset and once you really build out your data skills especially with databases, reporting and dashboards. You can move into much broader roles that aren’t just marketing related.
You may also just be burnt out on Google/Bing. Try out marketplace ads like Amazon & Walmart. Very similar methodology and you can manage some big accounts.
There’s also Social ads, or programmatic.
One thing i’ve been doing more so the past 5’ish years, is taking on more of the actual operations and business growth strategies. Figuring out COGS, full funnel, retention email/sms, and even some offline marketing like direct mailers, events, radio, etc… It’s actually been really fun to dive into, and I’ve become much more well rounded from it.
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I’ve been freelance for nearly 10 years now after working in an agency for 7. Best decision ever even if I had to take a pay cut initially
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AEO Content is seeing some nice lift — esp with new tools like profound, peec, airops
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What did you not like about the job?
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Most PPC people are technically and numerically literate.
You’d be amazed how rare that is once you throw the basic soft skills in.
Lots of opportunities, I would imagine.
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