This is part of the say something nice about an SEO/SEM series - feel free to nominate someone over here.
Kirk Williams is 33 years old, lives in Montana with his family. He has been married for 12 years, and we have 4 children 7 and under and jokes that he wants to be done with the diaper stage already. He also jokes that Montana does have internet connectivity, in case you were wondering.
Kirk owns ZATO, a PPC agency and in addition to that, he is super active in supporting the SEM industry. He speaks around the world, contributes his knowledge to many industry blogs and is super active on social media sharing his tidbits with the industry.
He has been in the PPC space for about 8 years and is one of the more influential and respected people in that space. The person who nominated Krik is also respected but wanted to be anonymous, he/she wrote:
Kirk's really positive vibe and rational approach to digital marketing really add to the industry. He may not write as much as some folks, but he's very active on Twitter and will entertain discussion from the community no matter how much or little experience an individual has.
Kirk Williams Bio: Kirk is the owner of ZATO, his PPC Marketing agency and has been working in Paid Search since 2010, with a specific focus in Google/Bing Shopping Ads. In 2017, he was named the #4 Most Influential PPCer by PPC Hero. Kirk has published articles on Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, Moz, PPC Hero, Wordstream, and the Bing Ads blog. He is no stranger to the PPC speaking circuit, and has presented on digital marketing at SMX, Hero Conference, SLC Digital Marketing Conference, and State of Search as well as other industry conferences. When not diving into campaigns, Kirk can be found playing with his 4 kids, dating his wife, hiking in the Montana mountains, leading music at his church, and just trying to generally stay awake.
Favorite thing about the SEM community? I interact a bit with other PPC professionals online, and I am always struck by the willingness to share insights and offer help. In some industries, help offered is in an arrogant "you're not as good as us, fool" tone, but overall in the PPC community I see a genuine kindness and willingness to help another human being out with a question. I love that!
One piece of advice to the SEMs out there? Embrace the human side of what you have to offer in the coming onslaught of machine learning. While machines are great at learning, they're pretty terrible at customer service, reporting analysis, and big picture strategy. Become skilled in those and use machine learning to make you even more valuable as a PPCer, rather than obsolete.
Favorite things in general? French fries are God's gift to the culinary world. Nachos (any genre) are a close second. Breakfast is not dinner, it's breakfast.
What you want to be known for in the SEM space? I strive to be a person who has a bit of knowledge around key parts of PPC, yet who is also willing to share and help others on their journey.
To learn more about Kirk, check out his company site, follow him on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.
