Today, I will show you why specialising in paid media is the best way to get a high-paying digital marketing job. The fastest and easiest way. Without needing any previous experience, education, or skills related to the field.

Instead of:

• Trying to learn everything about digital marketing.
• Not knowing what would get you the best results.
• Not understanding what employers want.
• Not knowing what to focus on.
• Not knowing where to start.
• Doing endless learning.

You'll understand why you only need to focus on 1 skill to solve all of the above problems.

By learning paid media, you will:

• Have a high-income skill and career for the rest of your life. No matter what happens to you, you’ll be able to take your skill to an employer or business, offer it as a service, and get paid.
• Be able to find a job no matter where you go in the world. Australia? No problem. US? No problem. Europe? No problem. You can apply for any paid media roles whenever you decide to go, and a job will be waiting for you when you get there.
• Improve and widen your skill set, which you can use in your career or even future business. You should always be looking to learn and stack high-income skills. This increases your market value and future earning potential exponentially.
• Have the choice to work remotely from anywhere in the world. Or work in a cool agency office with awesome people, beer fridges, and monthly socials. Or a mixture of both.

How, you may ask? Marketing agencies are some of the most progressive businesses out there. They have forward-thinking, savvy people running them.

The focus is often on the team and their personal and professional growth. So they try to make the workplace the best place that they can.

It’s also another reason why working for an agency as opposed to in-house is so much better.

But that’s an argument for another issue.

Unfortunately, so many people don’t focus on 1 skill. Or they focus on the wrong skill when trying to break into the digital marketing industry.

They’re led by the false belief that they need to “become a digital marketer”. Which of course entails learning everything there is to know about digital marketing.

They get stuck on the endless hamster wheel of learning.

Never learning enough to become a specialist. And never applying their skills to a real-life scenario through something like a digital portfolio. Which is exactly what you need to do if you want to showcase your value and skills to employers.

Their applications then get ignored, and they think it’s a knowledge problem. So it’s back to YouTube videos, courses, and tutorials. And the cycle goes on.

They also ignore paid media because it looks complex. Instead, they choose something like social media management. Arguably a much more competitive field.

And yes, paid media is a bit more technical. But it's not as technical as you'd think. In fact, that's what gives those who learn it a competitive advantage. But more on that later.

Now, let's dive in.

1. Employers and businesses look for specialists. Not generalists.

This is the biggest reason why specialisation is so important. Good companies don’t go out looking for “digital marketers". They go looking for:

• Media buyers
• Copywriters
• Email marketers
• Content marketers
• Social media managers

And so on. Why? Because 90% of the time, “digital marketers” try to be jacks of all trades, but end up being masters of none. And yes, the quote says that jacks of all trades are better than masters of 1. But, to master 1, 2, or 3 skills, you must start with 1. Then expand out.

This is how people become marketing directors and lead big teams.

They start off as specialists. Master 1 skill.

Then they follow their interests and curiosities into 1-3 more skills. They stack those skills together. It's the combination—the synergy—of 2, 3, 4 skills that makes someone a full-stack marketer and gets them to the top ranks.

But like I said - this takes time. This is reserved for industry veterans who have mastered 2-4 skills over time.

Even then, not everyone actually wants to or decides to do this. Most people are experts in 1-2 skills and have successful careers.

The thing is, you can see this everywhere. Just look at some of the best marketers of our time. None of them were "marketers" or “digital marketers". They mastered one skill, became known for that skill, and then expanded out.

• David Ogilvy - Advertising
• Gary Halbert - Copywriting
• Gary Vee - Social media
• Russell Brunson - Funnels

I experienced this firsthand. No one replied to my applications or showed interest when I was a “digital marketer". But as soon as I tailored my CV and applications to paid media, and applied for paid media roles?

All of a sudden I started getting replies, interviews, and job offers.

And employers know this. When they see someone’s headline or job title on LinkedIn or on their CV as ‘digital marketer’, there’s instant questions.

“What does this person actually do?”

“What’s their best skill?”

“How experienced are they?”

“Do they specialise in anything in particular?"

It's difficult to see the value you provide when you’re not specific.

2. Focusing on 1 skill makes it easier and quicker to land a job.

By focusing on 1 skill, you save countless hours of endless learning. Meaning, you can learn the fundamentals and even the more advanced stuff quickly.

The faster you learn a skill like paid media, the sooner you can apply for paid media jobs. And the quicker you can land a media buyer role.

It’s a simple equation: if you split 100% of your energy into 10 different things, you’ll have 10% of energy to give to each one.

But if you give 100% of your energy to 1 thing? You’ll get to your desired result 10x quicker.

Digital marketing is also an ever-changing, ever-evolving field. What you learned 6 months ago may not be relevant today. So trying to learn all of digital marketing is pointless. You'll probably have to relearn it in a year anyway.

So it makes even more sense to focus on 1 skill—or 1 area of expertise—at least to start. And keep up to date with it.

When I first became interested in marketing, I was like a kid in a toy shop. I wanted a bit of everything:

• Branding
• Copywriting
• Content
• Funnels
• Paid advertising
• Email marketing

And that’s completely fine. I still very much take an interest in all those things. But when it came to my career, I only got traction with employers once I picked 1 skill to learn and specialise in. From there, it was quite easy to:

• Learn the fundamentals.
• Find vacancies and employers I wanted to work for.
• Tailor my job applications.

People who continue to try to learn all aspects of digital marketing don’t get very far. It becomes a constant cycle of learning without much progress.

This is why uni graduates with marketing degrees can’t find jobs after they graduate.

This is why career changers can’t get out of the job they hate and break into the world of digital marketing.

But should you specialise, you instantly outcompete all the generalist digital marketers. In fact, you eliminate most competition by playing a different game altogether.

3. You can learn the fundamentals of paid media with 30 days of focus.

This comes back to our time element. The quicker you can learn the basics of a skill, the better. And that's all you need to get an entry-level role and start your marketing career.

In my situation, I already knew the fundamentals of Facebook Ads. It was just a matter of tailoring my CV, job applications, and showcasing my knowledge.

After a few applications for paid media roles and some back and forth with a few agencies, I had 2 job offers. One of which I accepted. And this took around 4 weeks.

For you, this doesn’t have to be Facebook Ads. I actually recommend starting with Google Ads (I’ll show you how to do this in an upcoming issue).

30 days is more than enough to get up to speed and learn the basics, after which you can start applying for roles.

If you learn the basics of Google Ads and build some mock campaigns on the platform, you'd be ahead of ~80% of entry-level applicants. And be super desirable to employers.

4. Demand outweighs supply - employers are desperate for paid media specialists.

There is a shortage of paid media experts - both new and experienced.

All the senior media buyers are already at agencies or doing their own thing.

And there are not enough people in the more junior levels who actually want to enter the industry. Employers are willing to take people on with little or no experience and train them up just to fill this gap.

There was one employer I interviewed with who confirmed this. The ‘Paid Media Executive’ vacancy is always the one that is the most difficult to fill. There just aren’t enough people applying.

This creates a high demand for people with a great attitude and basic paid media knowledge.

Hell, with my minimal Facebook Ads experience, I was offered the top bracket of the salary range for a role - £24,000. Simply for bringing a small portfolio of work, showing my Facebook Ads account, and having a good conversation with the employer.

Compared to the measly £12,000 a year I was earning in my apprenticeship, that was some step up.

This goes to show the power of specialisation in a field which has a supply shortage.

5. Low competition due to a slightly higher barrier to entry.

So why is there a media buyer supply shortage? Well, it’s simple. And it’s something I’ve already touched on - from the outside looking in, PPC looks complex.

Ad platforms, CPC and ROAS, TOFU and MOFU - what the hell does all of that mean? This puts people off because it seems like it will be too difficult and take too long to learn.

But that could not be further from the truth. Like I said before, you can learn the fundamentals of any ad platform in 30 days or less. Just spend 30-60 minutes a day learning.

Yes, it is a bit more technical than posting on social media or writing email marketing campaigns. But that is what makes this field less competitive.

It's what gives you an edge over generalist digital marketers and job applicants for content and social media roles.

It’s what will allow you to land a well-paying role out of the gate with no prior experience, skills, or a degree.

If you had the great pleasure of studying business in school, you know that a high barrier to entry = less competition. But here? A lot of the barrier is perceived, not actual.

When I was applying for paid media roles with marketing agencies, I was only up against a handful of people every time. 3-4 at most.

6. Paid media is high-paying and in-demand due to its effectiveness.

You now understand why the supply is low. Well this is why the demand is so high.

Paid media (AKA paid advertising, AKA media buying, AKA PPC, etc.) is one of the very few marketing methods which:

• Delivers results fast. Campaigns can generate leads and sales within hours of launch.
• Can be scaled predictably. Once you know your numbers and hit your targets, it's just about increasing spend whilst maintaining efficiency.
• Is fully measurable and trackable. You can see which campaigns led to which sales, and when it all happened.

This makes paid advertising super desirable and attractive to businesses.

And businesses will pay top dollar for people who can set up strong, profitable campaigns. Meaning, there’s lots of money flowing around.

As businesses themselves, marketing agencies want to grow and earn more too. But they can only do that by raising prices, adding services, and getting more clients.

All of which need 1 thing - people.

If you manage 2-5 clients on retainers of £500-£2000/month each? Agencies will have no problem paying you £2000-£5000+/month to manage those clients and keep them happy.

And that’s, ladies and gents, why paid media is your golden ticket into the exciting field of digital marketing.

In summary:

• Employers want specialists with specific skills, not generalists. Master 1 skill to start with.
• Focusing all your energy on 1 skill will help you land a job much faster than splitting it across 5-10 skills.
• You can master the fundamentals of 1 skill like Google Ads by learning for 30-60 minutes a day for 30 days.
• There is a shortage of media buyers. Both new and experienced. So employers find anyone with media buying knowledge very desirable.
• The competition for paid media roles is low because it's a bit more technical than other marketing areas. But nowhere near as technical as people make it out to be. Take advantage of this.
• Paid advertising is very lucrative for businesses. Good media buyers are therefore well paid and in-demand.

I hope this has shown you the hidden opportunity in paid media. AKA paid advertising. AKA media buying. AKA...You get the point.

It's a great chance for anyone who wants to start a successful digital marketing career.

So go out and start learning today.