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Need career advice in the agency world
I had a meeting last week with the CEO of the digital marketing agency I work at here in London. I currently work part time in the company in a hybrid role with Google Ads and SEO. I wanted to ask for the possibility to get hired fulltime. The answer though was pretty dissapointing, I was told my skills in the Google Ads department are still not at the level they want, they want me to be on a more strategic consultancy level (I have worked with Google Ads for around 1 year) and if I went fulltime, they dont have enough clients to fill out my calendar.
I feel a little but stuck, I want to improve my skills, but only working part time, surely improves my skills, but not at the same pace, as a full time gig could do. I have been thinking of searching for a full time position in other agencies in the London area.
I wanted to ask if you have any advice, I know there is a lot of very experienced people in here, who know the agency world in and out.
Any advice is much appreciated.
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1 Reply
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Sounds like you should look for a good full-time role at another agency. Make sure you choose one where you think you will learn a lot and be trained well.
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Learn Data Analytics and thats one of the best skills to have as Ads Account Manager.
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The problem with many freelancers is they want a full time agency gig- mid level or start their own SMMA. Little thought is given to being an expert in PPC. You need to be absolutely be better at Google ads than most of your co-works, friend or LinkedIn friend. Your skill need to be better than solid. Invest in classes/udemy/training. Be the expert you need to be and clients will come.
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tbh mate it doesn’t sound like a great place to work.
you should have some sort of professional development plan that supports you to gain the skills you need.From their point of view that saves them having to hire a more experienced and therefore more expensive Google Ads specialists further down the line. Recruitment is expensive and a bit risky for them, and there is an onboarding period.
So, the fact that they aren’t very responsive to someone who has come to them and says they wants to develop skills that they need means they are not a good place to stay for your own career development.
Sometimes you need to move about a bit to find the right fit, and it doesn’t sound like the place you at right now is going to provide what you need. -
Honestly, look for other full-time gigs. I’m afraid I have to disagree with others saying this is a major red flag/sounds like a bad place to work – honestly if they don’t have enough clients to fill your calendar that’s pretty understandable. A lot of clients/companies are reducing ad spend at this pretty difficult financial time, it’s something happening in our economy and affecting our agency right now – we simply aren’t busy enough. Gaining or losing clients can further change this either way. Yes, training you up would be better for their business long-term but sometimes short-term decisions have to be made based on cashflows – margins can be razor thin for agencies.
As others have said, focus on building skills in the areas you find interesting (GTM/ECOM/Lead Gen) while looking for other roles. 1 year of experience is quite low. I’m 2 years in after a career change and still feel like a complete rookie despite managing around $2M/month ad spend. I do considerable training and upskilling in my personal time and it’s slowly helping me improve at a rate faster than my colleagues.
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freelance! build up your ‘book’ on the side
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Apply to full time positions in your area or even remote. You can filter to look for specifically remote jobs on any job board really.
Just keep your current position until you have accepted an offer elsewhere and then boom, you have self promoted yourself!
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If they aren’t offering full-time work why not find one or two other agencies to freelance for? I’m assuming you don’t have a non-compete in your contract… if you do you need to fix that.
This would put more money in your pocket and accelerate your learning. One of the other agencies might also hire you full-time eventually if that’s what you ultimate want.
And in the meantime, the current agency might land more clients. Any way you add it up it solves your immediate issue.
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