The Making of Matthew Soakell – The Future of Paid Search

A punt was taken on Matthew in May 2016 by Lee Mableson, Managing Director and Rob Jackson, Operations Director of Mabo after they decided it was time for Mabo to grow, recruit and train up the next generation of digital marketers.

Previously working as a Marketing Assistant for a Newcastle based music production company, Matthew had no prior PPC (pay per click) experience. This turned out to work in his favour as from day one, Matthew was able to learn the award-winning Mabo way of managing accounts.

Within two years, Matthew’s work spoke for itself, with amazing results through PPC for a large range of online advertisers far and wide, the start of the award shortlists began.

2018 saw Matthew’s first award shortlist for his campaign work with outdoor clothing giant Montane. Shortlisted for Best PPC Campaign: Reaching The Summit Of Paid Search With Montane at the Northern Digital Awards 2018; unfortunately, Matthew didn’t come away with a win but the award entries didn’t stop there.

When 2019’s award season rolled around, Matthew’s job role at Mabo had changed, with more responsibility came more power… to influence.

Now a Senior PPC Trainer, Matthew’s role is focused on training the 20+ strong PPC team; whether that’s the initial training of new staff members or training the wider group who manage Mabos client’s accounts. He structures weekly training sessions to keep everyone up to date with product knowledge and introducing new ways of approaching tasks and strategy; alongside this Matthew speaks at various events around the county talking all things PPC related on behalf of Mabo.

When asked what Matthew enjoys most about his role, “…it’s great to be at the forefront of the development of a constantly growing team.”

With Matthew’s industry development growing from strength to strength 4 further award shortlists came into play all based around his personal development, the impact and the influence he has had on the PPC industry.

“This industry is ever-evolving. If you’re not willing to adapt and change, you’re going to get left behind. The most important thing for Account Managers in our industry is to have commercial awareness, to be creative, yet analytical, and to always ask questions.” says Matthew.

Two out of the next four shortlists turned into wins, taking home, Rising Star of the Year at the UK Biddable Media Awards 2019 and Matthews’ biggest one yet, Young Search Professional Of The Year at the European Search Awards 2019. Matthew comments, “To be

named the best in Europe is something we at Mabo know all about, being named Best Small PPC Agency in Europe last year, and so to follow on this year with a win at this prestigious industry awards ceremony is nothing but an absolute honour and something I’ll never forget.”

A huge part of Matthew’s role at Mabo involves public speaking at industry events alongside the likes of Google and Bing. Matthew has been public speaking from the age of 17 and has spoken up and down the country helping his parents charity. “I gave my first public talk around 17 or 18 and was a bag of nerves, but you get used to it. You have to learn to enjoy it, and learn to love the nerves. The more I get to do public speaking, the more events that I talk at, the more confident I become, and the more I enjoy the occasion” He adds, “I believe this experience has helped me develop greatly in my role at Mabo.”

Having spoken up and down the UK, Matthew’s passion and focus to influence the next generation of digital marketers always starts on Teesside. As well as talks at industry events Matthew frequently speaks at local student events; Secondary Schools, Colleges and Universities. From this, Matthew recently featured on the BBC Bitesize World Of Work series in which he talks about his job role, how he’s got to where he is today and offers out advice to the younger generation who might be thinking of following in his footsteps.

Matthew’s aim to influence as many people as possible continues through writing online. Keeping everyone in the online digital market up-to-date with new PPC facts and features great and small. You will find his blogs featured on industry PPC blogger sites such as PPC Hubbub and PPC Protect.

His presence on social media doesn’t go a miss these days either; regularly involved in PPC chats via Twitter, his thoughts have been picked up by well known sites including searchengineland, seounity and clixmarketing to name a few.

Looking to the future Matthew aims to continue his love of public speaking about all things PPC, “One thing I’m aiming for is to speak at digital marketing events and conferences that are even bigger than the ones I’ve spoken at previously; seminars and sessions that can really go on to help make a difference to how the attendees do business and achieve what they set out to do within their marketing creatives.”

With hopes of becoming an even more well known face within the PPC industry, Matthew hopes that one day he will take home the crown of UK Search Personality of the Year, to really prove his knowledge and passion for the industry. “The sort of people you look up to in this industry are those who win the likes of UK Search Professional of the Year or European Search Personality of the Year, so that’s certainly something to aim at achieving.”

Matthew’s final nod to the future, “In terms of the future; who knows? In the words of Steve Jobs, “stay hungry, stay foolish”.

For more information on Mabo and Matthew, please visit www.mabo.co.uk