Jillian ZacchiaWe recently announced that Acquisio was starting a new volunteer program to help non-profits access free PPC advertising – called Acquisio Cares. We spoke to President, Marc Poirier, responsible for the program, about why “Acquisio Cares” and what the main goals of the initiative are.
Acquisio: What gave you the idea to start Acquisio Cares?
Marc: I’ve been doing PPC, search and digital marketing for a very long time, but not everyone in Acquisio has as much experience in paid search, even if our technology is in that field.
In the past, we’ve given employees AdWords training, but without managing any AdWords accounts themselves that didn’t change anything; it was too theoretical. I was looking for a way to get people involved but not in a professional way that would make the team feel too much pressure. I wanted them to have the opportunity to play with accounts and see what it’s like to optimize, write good copy, generate keywords, and most importantly use Acquisio software.
I also wanted our employees to understand the value we bring, our strongest points and the areas we can improve by seeing for themselves. With our employees using our technology every day, the way clients do, the staff can learn the value our technology brings to the market to find areas for improvement and fix them.
And of course, this is a way for Acquisio to do something good for the community and non-profit organizations that need help.
So the reason was two-fold: we want to educate our team and the team wants to do something to help charities.
Acquisio: What response have you seen so far from the Acquisio Cares participants?
Marc: The overwhelming majority of the staff is excited about this; it creates excitement inside the company. People have wanted to learn more about PPC, in a practical way, for a long time, so I’m hearing only positive things.
Acquisio: What are the primary goals with this initiative?
Marc: I want our employees to know what it’s like to use our product and I want to raise their expertise in search.
The minute you have the responsibility to generate results for someone, you are forced to learn. As a company that sells software to agencies, this program allows employees to play the role of an agency and gives the staff the ability to put themselves in our customers’ shoes.
The Acquisio Cares teams essentially become an agency by helping these organizations with PPC marketing. Acquisio team members may not have experience with PPC, but this program gives everyone a chance to learn.
And with an idea like Acquisio Cares, everybody wins.
Google wins because helping charities is part of their mission.
The charities win because, through advertising, they get more donations and more volunteers – for free.
Our employees win because, not only does it make them feel better by volunteering their time and expertise, this program will help the staff step up their game, learn about the industry and establish the tools necessary to move up in this industry and in their careers.
Lastly, Acquisio wins, because we have employees with a higher level of competence and that means better service for our customers.
