We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Justin Golden. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Justin below.

Hi Justin , thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I started my business after working in marketing at the corporate level and for an agency. I wanted to bring a personalized approach to the business. With large organizations its easy to hide behind roles, SOPs, and titles. I wanted to be front and center for my clients, offering direct access to the person actually running ads. This meant no having a salesman and a client rep who would do all the client facing meetings.

The name “That PPC Guy” evokes authority while hinting that the business is run by the technician. I’ve grown my business over the years hearing business owners tell me they appreciate the one-on-one relationship and how different it is from previous agency interactions.

That PPC Guy is also designed to be a niche business. I only run pay-per-click ads. I am not a one-size-fits all marketing agency offering a menu of services. I specialize in just one thing and try to do operate in my space at the highest level.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started running Google Ads for an automotive detail shop I started in my late twenties. I had tried other marketing channels and liked Google Ads the most because I could control my cost and see an actual ROI. When things were busy I could turn ads off, and when I needed the phones to ring I turned them on again.

I eventually sold the business and took a job as the digital marketing manager for a automotive group in Houston, TX. After three years there I went to manage all paid media for a marketing agency. I took lessons from both experiences, combined them with my ideas and energy, and built That PPC Guy.

That PPC Guy is a Google Partner managing over $8MM in annual ad spend for clients across the United States. I utilize Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Display and YouTube for my clients.

My favorite part of my business is the relationships i’ve built with business owners across the country. I’ve had several clients for years now and i’ve had the opportunity to watch, and maybe even help, their businesses grow.I have a few things i’ve learned along the way that I like to share with business owners:

– Your website creates conversions, not traffic channels (Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc) So focus on your messaging and the user experience before spending money on ads.
– Make sure you have Google Analytics set up and firing properly. You’ll learn so much about user behavior and end up making better decision when t comes to your ads because of it.
– When you run paid ads be hyper focused on one thing. When you start, a single product or service will do, and start in a small geographical area. Basically don’t throw a bunch of money at all of your products/services in a huge area and expect to find success. Start small and then scale that success by adding products/services and expanding the geo.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

While working my corporate job I had the idea of earning some extra money by freelancing my services. I actually bought the domain for That PPC Guys years before it was ever a business. My first website was horrible, and it took me years to get my own messaging dialed in. I stuck with it as a side project for four years before it became a legitimate business.

I started small, just telling friends about what I was doing. I tried to run some ads and eventually found some projects using UpWork. My first month “all-in”, after quitting my job, I earned a whopping $500. I thought, “this s going to be hard!”. The business earns mid-six figures annually now, which still surprises me sometimes.

Getting off UpWork and moving to retainers was a huge milestone for me. I was off UpWork about 18 months into starting That PPC Guy full time. I had to run ads for myself to keep growing and had a very small marketing budget for myself, hundreds every month, not thousands.

Another huge milestone came three years in, when I started to receive referrals. These businesses were warm leads and eager to work with me. It really took what I was doing to a new level. I was getting a few leads from my marketing, then a few more from referrals. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for those clients who mentioned my name other businesses.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

This might be triggering for some! Coming from corporate and agency life I had heard a lot about processes, standing operating procedures, and using every SaaS product available. ClickUp, Slack, Monday, Cometly, SalesForce…i’ve used them all. What I learned with running my own agency is that being organized is absolutely important, but you don’t need the expense of software to make it happen. In fact, it can be even more challenging because then you have to manage the software, as well as the tasks their attempting to help with.

Stay organized and do really good work. No SaaS product will do the actual hard work for you, you have to do it yourself. I’m sure at a certain level there are tools that can help an organization. Unfortunately I see too many small businesses and entrepeneurs dole out hundred, sometimes thousands, for products they really don’t need.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thatppcguy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carcrazyj/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jgolden82
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justingolden82/