Interview: Ian Lopuch

Something a little different for today's Friday Affiliate Interview.

This week I interviewed Ian Lopuch who is a corporate pay per click search engine marketing guru. Many of the people you have read about on this blog have only managed their own campaigns. Ian however has over 5.5 years of managing multi-million dollar PPC campaigns. Now he is the Director of Search Marketing at a large publicly traded company.

It seems like in this industry, 5 years of experience in anything is a lifetime.

So recently Ian decided to launch a blog, PPC Ian, to give back to the community and help as many people as possible grow within the world of corporate pay per click.

Not interested in the corporate route? Just being able to glean some knowledge from his PPC experience should help you greatly increase your knowledge for making your own marketing campaigns.

I have gone ahead and subscribed to his blog... I only wish he would install feedburner so I could get it via email. (hint hint hehe)

Without further ado... here is the interview!

Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? How long have you been working in this industry?
I spent the first 18 years of my life in Los Angeles. Upon getting accepted to Stanford University, I moved to Northern California to attend school. After falling in love with my beautiful wife (who was a freshman at UC Santa Cruz at the time) and uncovering amazing opportunities in the world of online marketing up here, my decision to stay was quite simple. I’m now 28, a homeowner along with my wife on the San Francisco peninsula, and have been working in corporate pay per click for 5.5 years.

What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
Personally, I’m most proud of marrying my beautiful wife and becoming a homeowner at a young age. Professionally, I’m proud of achieving my long-standing goal of becoming a Marketing Director at a large publicly traded company. Some other accomplishments that stand out: Graduating Stanford University with a BS in Computer Science and graduating one of the most competitive high schools in Los Angeles as Valedictorian. As someone who truly values giving back, I’m proud to have trained some of the real leaders in the corporate PPC industry. Some of my old reports are now Senior Managers and even Directors on their own!

How did you come to learn about this industry? Why did you choose this career? When did you first realize the full potential in internet marketing? When did you first “hit the big time?”
Upon graduating Stanford, I knew that I never wanted to program again, at least for a while! Don’t get me wrong, the Computer Science track was incredibly valuable and rewarding. Moreover, I’m starting to get back into programming these days and love it. At the same time, I needed a well-rounded job that involved both analytical and business skills. I started interviewing and learned of a multidisciplinary opportunity called pay per click search engine marketing. The rest really is history!

In terms of first hitting the big time, it really comes down to promotion. Over the last 5.5 years, I’ve been consistently promoted and rewarded with raises and additional stock option grants across a variety of companies. When I first started out, I had no idea that would happen. My first few promotions really drove the point home that I made it into the big leagues. After one of my companies had a major liquidity event (and I was able to participate as a shareholder), I realized without a doubt that I had made it.

What do you think it takes to be successful as an affiliate?
Whether you’re in the corporate world or the affiliate world, it all comes down to passion and dedication. One of my greatest tips for corporate (and affiliate) success is longevity. When I first started out in SEM, I was one person on a team of ten. That entire team burnt out and left, but I stuck it out and ended up managing the entire PPC program. My passion and drive towards success enabled me to make it through some really challenging times and I enjoyed the benefits in the long run.

As someone who’s an SEO affiliate at night and a PPC Director during the day, I have seen the game from both sides and would also like to highlight focus as a very important characteristic of successful affiliates. Large corporations and internal teams will always have more PPC strength (budget, team, and technology). However, affiliates have a key benefit on their side: size. Leverage your size to laser focus on an extreme niche, a niche that simply wouldn’t make any sense for a large company to go after. Replicate your equation enough times and focus (combined with passion) will create a really exciting income stream.

What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
While it may sound cliché, I really do embrace my failures as the most valuable lessons in life. As an over-achiever from day one, I’ll definitely tell you that failure can really hit my ego hard. At the same time, I’ve learned to harness that energy and turn it into positive action.

Without getting into too many specifics, my biggest failures have been in the arena of corporate politics and “the game.” I started out at a company that had zero corporate politics. Sure, the work was challenging and the hours were crazy, but there were no politics and the rewards were plentiful. Later in my career, I experienced a culture that was completely different, one that I was completely unprepared for. Looking back, it was an amazing blessing in disguise. That company not only taught me how to play the game, it taught me how to own the game! These days, I’m quite proud that I’ve grown into a leader who can navigate complex business/political situations all while managing multi-million dollar campaigns.

What is the single toughest problem you've had to face, and how did you get through it?
PPC can be an absolute rollercoaster. The highs are very high and the lows can be very low. Over the years, many problems have arisen. One major problem that I faced back in late 2008 was the collapse of the mortgage vertical. Three things got me through it: (1) My dedication and passion, (2) diversifying into other financial services verticals, and (3) teamwork. I really enjoy corporate PPC because I’m always learning new strategies and ideas from my co-workers and team. As an SEO affiliate at night, I face problems completely by myself. Both routes have their pros and cons, but I’ll definitely say there’s nothing like the power of a strong team when facing major challenges.

Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
I’m extremely focused on revenue generating activities. Of course, all the supporting stuff is important and relevant. However, if it’s not driving numbers, I’m definitely less interested in working on it.

What is the future of marketing?
I’m extremely excited about the future of marketing. In my opinion, we’re just at the beginning of an exciting new media channel, online. You hear stories from time to time that “SEO is dead” and “PPC is dead.” In my opinion, none of it is going to be dead for a very, very long time. We’re just getting started! Now is the time to build your career in online marketing (and/or your affiliate business). As time goes on, I foresee marketing professionals getting treated and compensated more and more like enterprise sales professionals (a really good thing). Those that have the foresight to develop sustainable careers in online marketing while building solid web properties in their spare time are setting themselves up for great success in life!

If it’s possible for you to share, are there any particular niches that you currently favor? Or that you aren’t necessarily in right now but that you would recommend?
Rather than niches, I’d like to talk about the selection process, both on the corporate and affiliate side. Please pick an industry that you love, one that you’re passionate about. If you’re not in a vertical that you love, switch to another vertical right away. Professionally, I’m currently in the financial industry. As someone who’s been trading stocks his whole life and who was co-president of the investment club in college, it’s always been my dream to work at a financial powerhouse. I’m now living the dream in that I’m not only doing what I love (PPC) but I’m also in the industry that I love (finance).

On the affiliate side, I recommend the same. As an SEO affiliate, I have written hundreds of articles. I feel like my enthusiasm really comes across in the articles because I’m writing about topics I love. I write about products that I personally use and my readers can’t help but follow my recommendations because I’m sincere and honest. If you pick a vertical that you love, everything is in your favor.

Do you think anything particular in your past prepared you for this industry? Your education? Jobs you’ve held before?
I’d definitely say my Computer Science degree from Stanford prepared me for PPC. Corporate PPC is very process heavy. When you’re dealing with millions and millions of keywords, you need to build processes, whether they’re manual or automated. Over the years, I have also functioned as product manager of complex internal SEM tools. CS prepared me for this algorithmic and process oriented school of thought.

I’m also a big stock investor in my spare time and served as co-president of the investment club at Stanford. Many of the brightest search engine marketers I have met are fellow investing enthusiasts. I personally view my SEO web properties as income generating investments, a close parallel to my investment style in high yielding companies. All those years of investing are now definitely carrying over into my affiliate marketing style.

What are your greatest strengths?
My core strategy in online marketing leverages my multidisciplinary talents in programming, business, people management, sales, writing, and more. More than anything, I take pride in being very well rounded. When you’re really good at a lot of things, you’re able to get a ton of powerful work done quickly and independently. It’s often the case that someone is really good at either the technical side of things or the creative side of things. I have truly experienced strong yields by leveraging my strengths on both sides of the fence.

What are your greatest weaknesses?
I’m a nice guy. Oftentimes, I’m way too nice. My niceness affects all of my relationships: Business partners, direct reports, search engine reps, basically anyone. Because I’m nice, I have a lot of friends and positive recommendations (49 on LinkedIn now). Sometimes, however, you can’t influence change and drive results by being nice. You need to be a bit harsh. This is something I have been working on and feel like I’ve made a lot of progress in the last two years.

What motivates you?
I love this question. On top of being in an industry that’s incredibly addictive (I look forward to work every single day), there are two driving motivations in my life. First, I’m obsessed with financial independence. I want to build out an incredibly robust investment portfolio, one that throws off enough passive income such that my wife and I can live luxuriously off of dividends. Second, I’m truly in this game for people. The tactical PPC stuff is really great, but my favorite part of the day is coaching and mentoring my team. I truly enjoy helping others grow their careers in PPC. I truly enjoy helping others drive numbers. In fact, this is one of the main reasons I launched PPC Ian, I want to influence more careers than ever before.

What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
A long time ago, my parents gave me the advice that I should follow my passion in life. I was incredibly fortunate to have absolutely zero bias from my family in terms of choosing my major at Stanford and my subsequent career. By following my passion, I arrived in the perfect industry and enjoy every single day. Moreover, my passion has driven tremendous results, results that would not be possible if I had ended up in another industry that I didn’t enjoy.

Who has impacted you most in your career, and how?
This is a question I feel very strongly about. My first manager during my first SEM job, Richard, taught me most of what I know about people management. He truly believed in me from day one and gave me the opportunity to start managing people pretty much immediately when I started working as a Marketing Associate fresh out of college (a rather rare responsibility that early in one’s career). I owe a lot of my success to the great advice and coaching I received. In turn, this is one of the main reasons I’m driven to grow careers in PPC every single day: It’s my obligation and duty to give back!

What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
As mentioned earlier, I’m a really nice guy. For this reason, I have flourished in the corporate route because I get along with just about anyone. Fortunately for my career, I don’t have any great stories in this arena.

What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
Great question. This ties into my motivation discussed earlier: Pure financial freedom (cash flow from dividends to cover a luxurious lifestyle for my wife and I) in addition to impacting as many PPC careers as possible. Beyond these, I’d definitely like to own homes in Las Vegas and Hawaii in addition to a few more cars. I absolutely love online marketing and wouldn’t want to change too much, even if money were no object. However, I would definitely spend a bit more time vacationing, exercising, and sleeping.

Where do you want to be ten years from now?
As an ambitious guy, I’d like to achieve all of my goals under the “motivation” and “long term goals” questions. Additionally, I’m aiming to establish myself first as a VP and second as a C-level executive in the coming 10 years. Last, I’m also hoping to have enough financial capital to contribute to charity in a major way.

How do you like to spend your free time? What does work-life balance mean to you?
I spend the majority of my free time outside of work on my SEO affiliate marketing projects in addition to PPC Ian. Pretty much, my entire life revolves around the online marketing world. However, I do feel very strongly about balance. During my real off time, I enjoy spending as much time as possible with my beautiful wife. Lately, we have been enjoying traveling in addition to working out with our personal trainer.

If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
I wouldn’t change a thing! I am truly thrilled with my career. If anything, I wish I got started earlier. During my Stanford days, I was in the perfect position to start building SEO websites that could have accumulated some truly massive history by now. My advice to anyone in high school or college: It’s never too early to start out in affiliate marketing. The skills you will develop are directly relevant to the corporate side and can really give you a head start.

What is your greatest achievement outside of work? What are some of your unfulfilled dreams?
Without a doubt, I’m extremely proud to be married to my smart, beautiful, and amazing wife! I feel like the luckiest guy in the world and married life has been incredibly rewarding. In terms of unfulfilled dreams, it really all goes back to my goals discussed earlier. I’m a very hungry guy and am looking forward to greatness ahead. Jonathan, I truly thank you for this opportunity. Your blog is awesome. It’s an inspiration in my personal career. Everyone reading, I truly thank you for listening and hope that I’m able to assist in your quest to become an online marketing leader, on the corporate side or the affiliate side!

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Great interview!

If you want to be considered for the Friday Affiliate Interviews, please contact me.