TPE #114: How to thrive in PPC in 2025 when others will struggle (part 2/2)

Read time: 4 minutes

GM, Miles here with The PPC Edge (I'm excited, it's one of my favorite issues!).

Today, I’m sharing part 2 of 2 in our mini-series: “How to thrive in PPC in 2025 when others will struggle”.

I created this because 80% of PPCers think driving results with Google Ads has become harder:

With that in mind, I created a twofold solution to make sure you can confidently drive results in 2025 (when others will struggle):

1. Deeply master the fundamentals of Google Ads (preventing overwhelm by using a repeatable process that works).
2. Look beyond Google Ads: become a business partner for your clients (by evolving into a T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist).

Last week, I showed you part 1 [Read it back here if you missed it].

Today, I’ll show you the second part of the solution (you’ll love it).

Let’s dive right in!

How to thrive in 2025 part 2: look beyond Google Ads and become a business partner for your clients (by evolving into a T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist).

In part 1 of this mini-series, you learned why deeply mastering the fundamentals is the key to success with Google Ads.

But simply being a ‘Google Ads Button Pusher’ is no longer enough.

If you want to thrive (especially in the current landscape that’s driven by AI and automation), it’s essential to become a business partner for your clients.

And you do that by developing essential business skills that stack on top of your existing Google Ads skillset.

We call this ‘T-Shaped Google Ads Specialists’:

• You will have 1 core expertise: Google Ads (with deep knowledge).
• On top of that, you possess broad knowledge of wider business topics.

This makes you extremely powerful and relevant, as you’ll be able to help your clients grow their business (further than just Google Ads).

By becoming a T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist, you can serve your clients better by:

• Spotting new opportunities or bottlenecks they may not see themselves.
• Increasing AOV/CVR/LTV.
• Optimizing their offers, pricing, funnels, and positioning.
• Optimizing their sales processes (to increase lead-to-sale ratios).
• Challenging them on the inefficiencies in their business.

This does not mean you have to do everything yourself (it’s quite the opposite).

Let other specialists do the heavy lifting and implementation of things outside of your core expertise (Google Ads).

Your job is to develop a broad understanding of multiple topics so you know how to spot opportunities and identify growth bottlenecks.

In the end, the best Google Ads Specialists can look beyond Google Ads and help clients grow their businesses holistically.

But how do you do that?

How to become a T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist (without getting overwhelmed).

It’s easy to look at our framework and get overwhelmed because you ask yourself: “how the heck am I gonna learn all those extra skills?”

Well… You must understand that true mastery takes time.

Here’s my approach to getting better (without getting overwhelmed):

I treat myself as a video game character I’m trying to level up.

Sounds weird? Let me explain.

When I was young, I played a game called “Runescape”.

You create a character that needs to complete quests, slay dragons, and fight other people for gold & glory.

Image credit: Gamingbible.com

But you can only do that by developing certain skills (from level 1-99), like:

• Woodcutting.
• Firemaking.
• Cooking.
• Strength.
• Defense.
• Magic.
• Etc.

Everyone starts in the same starting area, but ends up in a different place because you can decide for yourself which skills you want to develop:

• Some players choose to focus on getting 1 skill (e.g. Magic) to the max level of 99.
• Others choose to build a more balanced character with multiple skills in the 30-60 level range.

And as time progresses, your character levels up and becomes stronger — allowing you to complete more quests, slay dragons, and get further ahead than other players.

I treat my career as a Google Ads Specialist the same: throughout the year, I work on "leveling up my character" by developing my business skills.

My core expertise is Google Ads, so I’m constantly keeping that axe sharp (by figuratively leveling it up to 99).

But on top of that, I challenge myself to get a broad understanding of other things that make me a better business partner for my clients (by figuratively leveling up certain skills to the 30-60 range).

Except in PPC, it’s not Woodcutting, Strength, or Magic… But:

• Unit Economics (+ AOV & LTV Boosters).
• Business Strategy (Leads & Sales).
• Conversion Rate Optimization.
• Offer Creation & Optimization.
• Advanced Data & Analytics.
• Channel Expertise.
• Etc.

And as a result, I become a well-rounded T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist with 1 core expertise (at level 99) + lots of other skills that I broadly understand (in the 30-60 range).

Not all skills have to be level 99 — I don’t have to know the nitty-gritty details of everything to spot opportunities and bottlenecks.

It’s quite the opposite: I only need a decent baseline to do so, and often a low- to mid-level is enough!

Over to you — treat yourself as a video game character: decide which skills you want to dive into first, and start “leveling up”.

Need some examples?

If you’re doing Ecom, you could dive into:

• Unit Economics (focusing on profit margins).
• CRO (focusing on better funnels & product pages).
• Advanced Data & Analytics (with full-funnel attribution).

If you’re doing Lead Gen, you could dive into:

• Lead Nurture & Scoring (to improve lead quality).
• CRM Automation to improve the lead-to-sale process.
• Channel Expertise (e.g. understanding how Email Marketing improves close rates).

But these are just examples.

The key principle is this: the more skills with “broad knowledge” (level 30-60) you can stack on top of your deep understanding and core expertise of Google Ads (level 99), the better you can serve your clients.

As a result, you’ll thrive when others will struggle, because you become a business partner — and not just a Google Ads button pusher.

Life is a never-ending journey of progress — you’re never done learning and improving.

And if you’re smart about it, your progress compounds over time and you’ll be able to:

• Feel confident in your abilities to help clients grow.
• Become an authority in the industry.
• Experience less overwhelm, stress, and frustration.

And that’s how you thrive in 2025 (when others will struggle).

To summarize: 2025 is the year when lots of Google Ads Specialists will struggle to drive results.

But that’s not the case for you if you follow this simple 2-step process:

1. Deeply master the fundamentals of Google Ads (preventing overwhelm by using a repeatable process that works). [Read it back here in part 1 if you missed it].
2. Look beyond Google Ads: become a business partner for your clients (by evolving into a T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist).

Hopefully, this 2-part series was valuable.

I sincerely hope it’s gonna help you stay ahead in our fast-changing industry, and make 2025 the best year of your career.

A final note.

Great news: in January ‘25, we’re launching a new program in The PPC Hub in January called ‘The Google Ads Success Path’.

In this program, we’ll help you:

• Deeply master the fundamentals with Google Ads so you can drive outstanding results over and over.
• Become a business partner for your clients by evolving into a T-Shaped Google Ads Specialist.

That way, we’ll work together to make 2025 the best year of your career.

We haven’t started promoting the new program yet (it’s due to launch in January) — but if that sounds interesting to you, feel free to join The PPC Hub!

And that’s all for today.

See you again next week!

Have a lovely day :).

Cheers,

Miles (& Bob)