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iClick Advertising
7 roles covered

Which PPC seat do you actually need?

Agency versus freelancer versus in-house — with the salary math, the day-to-day, and the tipping points that decide which one wins.

Amazon Ads Specialist

Hire an Amazon Ads Specialist: agency, freelancer, or in-house?

An Amazon Ads specialist owns Sponsored Products, Brands, and Display, but the job is really the loop between ads and retail: listings, reviews, price, and stock all move performance. They steer to TACoS, not just ACoS. No public salary series tracks this title; Indeed's nearest paid media averages run $67,819 to $80,280 base (September 2026), about $85,000 to $112,000 loaded.

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Conversion Tracking Specialist

Hire a conversion tracking specialist: agency, freelancer, or in-house?

A conversion tracking specialist makes sure the numbers every campaign optimizes toward are true. The job is the plumbing: Consent Mode, Enhanced Conversions, server-side tagging, the Conversions API, and offline imports, reconciled against a source of truth. Public benchmarks put base pay at $78,760 to $83,238 (BLS, Indeed), about $98,000 to $117,000 loaded.

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eCommerce PPC Manager

Hire an eCommerce PPC Manager: agency, freelancer, or in-house?

An eCommerce PPC manager lives in the product feed, Shopping and Performance Max structure, and margin-tier bidding, because in feed-driven advertising the feed is the targeting. Indeed's average base for a paid search manager is $80,280 (September 2026), about $100,000 to $112,000 loaded. Catalog complexity and spend decide between agency, freelancer and in-house.

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Google Ads Strategist

Hire a Google Ads Strategist: agency, freelancer, or in-house?

A Google Ads strategist owns campaign architecture, bid strategy, conversion tracking, and the monthly report that ties spend to revenue. Indeed puts the average base for a paid search manager at $80,280 (September 2026), or about $100,000 to $112,000 loaded. Agencies price by share of spend, retainer, or a hybrid. Spend, complexity and bench depth decide the model.

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LinkedIn Ads Specialist

Hire a LinkedIn Ads specialist: agency, freelancer, or in-house?

A LinkedIn Ads specialist runs the most expensive per-click channel in B2B, where the discipline is spending impressions only on the right accounts and measuring pipeline, not form fills. No public salary series tracks this title; Indeed's nearest paid media averages run $67,819 to $80,280 base (September 2026), about $85,000 to $112,000 loaded.

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Meta Ads Strategist

Hire a Meta Ads Strategist: agency, freelancer, or in-house?

A Meta Ads strategist owns creative strategy, Advantage+ structure, the Conversions API signal, and audience seeds, the inputs that decide performance now that targeting is automated. No public salary series tracks this title; Indeed's nearest paid media averages run $67,819 to $80,280 base (September 2026). Creative volume, spend and channel mix decide the hiring model.

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PPC Director

Hire a PPC director: fractional or in-house?

A PPC director owns strategy across channels: budget allocation, the measurement framework, channel mix, and the commercial story told to leadership. In-house, BLS puts the median base for advertising and promotions managers at $133,660 (May 2025). A fractional director delivers the same judgment part-time, which suits businesses that need the seniority before they can fill a full-time seat.

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advertising strategy
for your business.

Every agency is not the same. At iClick Advertising, we don't offer ‘free audits’, we provide actionable insights that improve real growth.

  • Ad Performance Analysis - Learn what is working, what is not, and where hidden opportunities exist.
  • Audience Targeting & Precision - Use advanced and data-driven insights to refine your ideal customer profiles.
  • Strategic Campaign Optimization - We'll guide you on structuring pay-per-click campaigns for better ROI and lower CPA.
  • Competitive Analysis - See how your ad strategy compares to industry leaders.
  • This isn't a common audit. It's a high-value strategy session for businesses committed to growth. Submit your details & let's get started.
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