EP336 Getting Fired, Getting Better: A PPC Redemption Story ft Anthony Higman

Anu Adegbola (00:10)
Hello and welcome to PPC Live the podcast. I'm your host Anu, the founder of PPC Live. And if you're used to hearing advice from PPC experts about how to ensure we are keeping up with the ever changing landscape, don't worry You are still in the right place. Every week I'm speaking to different PPC experts about their biggest f-up and how they've turned things around. quite a lovely departure from just talking about what PPC experts are saying on our PPC chat, our fantastic PPC chat

community. But yeah, this time we're sharing F ups, mistakes, disappointments, the people who came through for us, the people who were surprisingly helpful and also unhelpful. But yeah, this time we have the fantastic Anthony Higman, who is the CEO of AdSquire So yeah, a CEO who feels that his career has done a 360 of full circle

moment. He started off working in the mailroom of an office and now he's the CEO of this company and his office has some fantastic views looking over Philadelphia and the office where he actually started ⁓ in the mailroom, the law firm he has started in the mailroom is like you can see outside of his office window. So look at what you know hard work and not letting your mistakes holding you back can do and he's a very great example for this and he shares two stories.

about some of the mistakes that he's made early in his career, some recent ones that actually shows us that, you know, mistakes don't hold us back and we should always continue to focus on the bigger picture of our career. So yeah, let's go talk to Anthony.

Anu Adegbola (01:45)
Hello, Anthony. Welcome to PPC Live, the podcast. So, so delighted to have Anthony here with us. Anthony is one of those where I have recommended, you might not know this, Anthony, but every time someone is like, I need someone who knows how to do really good paid search for like the legal department or the legal industry. I'm like, Anthony, yeah, go to Anthony. He's the man. He knows that he has the team.

Anthony Higman (01:48)
Hey, honey.

I love that.

Anu Adegbola (02:11)
⁓ because yeah, you that's really great. I think even like early my career, my, my brain started to think, ⁓ which industry should I specialize in? Because I think that's where you can really then have your good stream of customers. Cause when you know who you service, who your customers should be. So I think you've done that really well. Was that on purpose or that just, just, just happened.

Anthony Higman (02:33)
No,

actually just all my experience. So I started this whole journey in the mailroom of a law firm. So like I working in a mailroom, delivering mail to all the lawyers. And then I like worked my way up little by little, like clawed my way out of the mailroom and did all of their paid search. And they spent like a ton of money every year.

Anu Adegbola (02:41)
Okay. Wow.

Right!

Sure, of course.

Yeah!

Anthony Higman (02:57)
And that's how I learned. Like I was in charge of like all this money all once. And I was like, my God, I got to learn this. And then I just loved it. I like had no idea about paid search. And then I was like, my God, this thing exists. Yeah. Yeah. It was so great. Right.

Anu Adegbola (03:08)
Yeah, yeah, can get business for people. Yeah, digitally. Okay.

And you were never, you're never like tempted to be a lawyer specifically. How come advertising is the direction?

Anthony Higman (03:18)
No, I,

I always wanted to be in advertising actually, but like, didn't even know about Google ads. And then I like, so it's like a weird kind of advertising. Like I always, I always thought I'd work like at an ad agency as like a creative kind of side. And then I just like weirdly found Google ads and it gave me the ability to like be creative and analytical. And it was just like, kind of the perfect thing for me. So I was like, I love this.

Anu Adegbola (03:25)
Right.

Mmm.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah. Amazing. Well, we've given a little bit of an introduction to Anthony there, where you know a little bit about him, but specifically, ⁓ Anthony is the CEO of the fantastic company Ad Squire, and he's an experienced digital marketer with a history of working with legal industry leaders. And yeah, he was at ⁓ the University of Pennsylvania, is that right? And... ⁓

Anthony Higman (03:47)
The rest is history.

Westchester

University of Pennsylvania.

Anu Adegbola (04:14)
Westchester

University of Pennsylvania. during the decline of print media, Anthony joined a major law firm in the mail room, as you say, you know, and yeah, quickly rising to lead its paid ⁓ advertising efforts. And he's going to talk to you about some of those efforts and especially the ones that didn't really go too well, because we're here to talk about F-ups, you know, so thank you very much, Anthony, for being comfortable enough to recount some of those stories.

Anthony Higman (04:38)
you

Yeah.

Anu Adegbola (04:41)
⁓

fun fact about Anthony, this is a really cool one. He used to be a former private pilot. So that means not just, not just even a commercial pilot for the people with a lot of money.

Anthony Higman (04:52)
Yeah. So, people confuse it to private pilot is just like, ⁓ somebody who, like, it wasn't for commercial airlines or anything. just like, ⁓ the small, like single engine planes, like single engine Cessna. So like I got my pilot's license flying those little tiny planes.

Anu Adegbola (05:00)
Yeah.

Okay, alright.

Okay, okay.

Those tiny pains seem scary though. Like, like, like why? Like, is that why you left? You are literally like, your anxiety cannot handle this.

Anthony Higman (05:16)
Yeah.

The one I learned was called a Grumman Tiger and it's literally like smaller than a car. It fits like two people. It's like really tiny and like it's like you're like flying a lawnmower basically. So it's like really small. It's like the smallest tiniest plane. But it was fun. But yeah, they're they are like a little bit scary. ⁓

Anu Adegbola (05:27)
Okay.

Wow. Wow.

⁓ my god.

Yeah, yeah, I don't think that's something my predisposition could

handle. I don't even like roller coasters. That's the kind of person I am. Like, oh, roller coasters, no. Tiny plane. I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. Many thanks is definitely owed you for coming on this show. Maybe like, we've had some 2025 when I pivoted into talking about

Anthony Higman (05:52)
Yeah, yeah, you would not like, you would not like, ⁓ flight school.

Anu Adegbola (06:13)
you know, I was like, let's talk about mistakes. And then, you know, I spoke to a few people and they're like, Anu, people don't like talking about mistakes. What you do? I was like, we'll see. So, yeah, I'm so grateful for the 30 plus people last year who have already shared their fantastic stories. So guys go and go and listen to that. But before you do, like you're about to listen to another fantastic story from Anthony, he's been a very gracious guest and our first guest of 2026. So I'm so excited to be back.

Anthony Higman (06:26)
Thanks

Anu Adegbola (06:42)
for to share more stories from experts in our field. That's the thing. These are the experts who show that mistakes do not mean the end of your career. It might mean the end of a particular job, which we might come to later, but it does not mean the end of your career. That's the biggest thing. This show is to help us look at the big picture, what's important in the long run. So yeah, enough of more, enough rambling from me, Anthony.

Anthony Higman (06:55)
Thank you.

Anu Adegbola (07:09)
What is the f-up you'd like to share with us today?

Anthony Higman (07:11)
Yeah, I mean, I have a ton, obviously, been been doing paid search for like 14 plus years. So lots of mistakes. And you're right. It's I don't like to talk about them. I don't think a lot of people do. But it is like good to put out there. So everybody knows because everybody makes mistakes. And it's kind of like how you grow. I would say kind of the first one that I want to talk about is basically

Anu Adegbola (07:26)
No.

Yep. Yep.

Anthony Higman (07:40)
⁓ something that's happened with a couple of clients at ads wire is, whenever we start working with somebody, like pretty quickly, we establish trust with that client because we do a good job and we start like getting them a ton of relevant leads and they're really happy. And it's weird, like in legal, a lot of them like have been, screwed over before by previous agencies who like promised the world and then like didn't deliver.

Anu Adegbola (08:03)
Yeah.

Anthony Higman (08:06)
So when they work with us, they're like super happy. They're like, okay, great. We found somebody who can like actually do this thing that we wanted. And pretty quickly then they'll like start forwarding me all of these emails that they get. And I'm sure you get them too. It's like, there, there are so many weird scams in digital marketing. So they'll like forward me these kind of like scam emails and be like, Hey, what do you think about this? Or like, what are you, know, like

Anu Adegbola (08:18)
Mm.

Yeah!

Anthony Higman (08:32)
Should we do this? And I have to like continuously be like, no, that's a scam. Don't do that. Right. So, so then they'll like, they'll keep doing it. And like, eventually like one of us kind of like gets tired of hearing it and I'll like let them go do the thing that they want to do. And that often like backfires, but I just get so tired of, of being like, Nope, it's another scam. It's another scam.

Anu Adegbola (08:39)
Yeah. Yeah.

truly.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (09:01)
So one specific instance of this, that happened. Um, you know, we established trust. He would send me all these emails, something I like tell people a lot. I don't know if you do this is like, they all get these emails from like just a weird Gmail. And I'm like, well, I'm like, look, if you're getting a weird Gmail email, 9.5 times out of 10, it's a scam. Like there's no company associated.

Anu Adegbola (09:04)
Mmm.

Yeah!

Look it!

Anthony Higman (09:30)
I'll give them like tips on like, Hey, these are some things to look out for. but again, then they still continue to send me like those Gmail emails. Anyway, this specific example is we have this client. We did amazing for him. He like bought a new office with like all the business we got him, like bought a building like in Los Angeles. And, ⁓ like we really just like slayed it for this law firm. he wanted to do.

Anu Adegbola (09:48)
Wow. Okay.

Anthony Higman (09:56)
SEO and we really don't like provide SEO. focus on paid search, right? But we can do SEO. like for a little bit, like we would do like some free SEO work for him. And like, and like that really slayed for him. Like he wanted to like be number one for this. Like weird, like obscure search term. And we did it like really quickly. ⁓ and so he like just kept asking for SEO stuff.

Anu Adegbola (10:09)
Okay.

Nice.

Anthony Higman (10:25)
We would do a little bit of it and then like, we would then like, eventually just got to be like too much. And I was like, Hey, we're not really doing SEO. we're, we're, we really have to focus on like, on PPC and you know, we're like not getting paid to do SEO, but he like, wouldn't let it go. and so like, then he started like looking at SEO agencies and pick this one and like, I,

Anu Adegbola (10:45)
Sure.

Anthony Higman (10:48)
It's not, again, it's not like this was a scam per se, but like, just knew that this agency like was not like didn't provide good results. Like I've heard lots of stories. knew previous clients at work there. Nobody had a good experience. ⁓ and so he signed up with them for SEO and then they were like, ⁓ and we also do PPC And then he left us and all of his results tanked and.

Anu Adegbola (10:58)
Sure.

Right. Right.

Okay.

Anthony Higman (11:17)
like everything went to crap and he fired them and like now is like back in the mix of doing just like round robins of awful agencies. So like, so again, like it backfired in that like I should have spoken up when I like when I knew like this eight like I knew the agency I should have been like, Hey, that's not a great agency. I've worked with these clients that have worked with that agency and nobody said, well,

Anu Adegbola (11:17)
Mmm.

⁓

Right.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (11:45)
But again, it was like, I, I sort of reached my breaking point to like being him sending me like all these scam emails and I just like let it go. And then we lost the client. So again, like this was one that kind of happens a lot is like all of our clients will send us these kinds of scam emails. eventually I get tired of sounding like a broken record and saying that they're all scams and I'll like let them do one of the things.

Anu Adegbola (11:50)
Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (12:13)
And it

often backfires. So now like we do just kind of keep telling them that it's a scam or, and again, like they're not all scams. Like some of them are just like in a strategic marketing standpoint, I wouldn't recommend you do this now kind of thing. Right. Because a lot of times like they'll try something that again, it's not a scam. Like yesterday, a client got like a sales call for like a paid podcast thing. Right.

Anu Adegbola (12:19)
Okay.

Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

Anthony Higman (12:42)
Like

that's not a scam per se, right? It's not like you can pay to be on podcasts and like that can help you get exposure in certain regards. But what ends up happening is like, they'll do it. And that sometimes will like, they'll get talked into more and more stuff from that sales guy. And then they'll take budget away from PPC, which is like the thing that's working to drive everything else. like,

Anu Adegbola (13:00)
Yeah, yeah. Sure. Working for them.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (13:09)
So again, we try to be that strategic partner where we're like, hey, like maybe think about doing this a little bit later, you know, like we're, and again, we try to walk that line where I don't want to say everything's a scam. It's not, it just might not be the right time for you to do this. And we just know too much about like how, how everything works here. And like, you know, everybody's like trying to get their slice of the pie, but again, like

Anu Adegbola (13:17)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Higman (13:38)
Sometimes that can mean it sacrifices the thing that's driving your business. And then that can really like mess up everything basically.

Anu Adegbola (13:44)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. It makes me think that maybe it's the kind of conversations, because I think a lot of the things that I've actually spoken to, you know, different experts about who have had clients working agencies is like, you know, it's not picking up the red flags at the beginning. you don't, you know, those intro calls, meeting those clients for the first time as you're onboarding a new client, you know, the communication of what is what you'll allow to happen or what.

The end, our industry is like, I don't necessarily think there's enough education that is given to a client when onboarding of like, these are the things you'd be prepared for. These are, know, PPC, let's say for example, is not, and you know, a place of instant results. Yes, you can see your ads quite quickly, but it doesn't mean your instant results. then some clients get annoyed with that and things and that's bad. And then that's why they're going to leave. And then they end up realizing agents, all agencies are the same.

Anthony Higman (14:39)
Yeah.

Anu Adegbola (14:41)
Do you feel

Anthony Higman (14:41)
Right.

Anu Adegbola (14:42)
that this could be avoided or at least doused a little bit by mentioning these kind of education kind of stuff and onboarding process going, hey.

Anthony Higman (14:55)
it's a great question. don't actually. I think that like, everybody is like guarded when they start an agency relationship, right? Like, again, because like, there is this kind of weird stigma about like,

Anu Adegbola (14:58)
Okay.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (15:10)
agencies and everything's a scam. And it's weird because a lot of them are which is awful about about digital marketing. So everybody's guarded in the beginning, like they don't want to really even listen to you like they're taking a shot, right? They're like, all right, I'm giving this another go. So again, like me mentioning that like right from jump, I don't think like they're even really listening to all of it, right? They're

Anu Adegbola (15:15)
Yeah, yeah

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, no.

Anthony Higman (15:38)
They're saying, okay, let me give this one more try and see if it works. And then again, like it's, it's pretty consistent. And how this happens is like after the first month, when they get these results and there's, you know, month one or month two, when they're starting to like see these results and like, they're talking to us and asking questions, then they start forwarding us the emails that are like, they're like, Hey, should we do this? So I think like that trust is established.

Anu Adegbola (15:45)
Yeah.

Mm.

You're right.

Anthony Higman (16:07)
through providing the results and through like communicating with them in the beginning. But like if I did it day one, I think it would go in one ear and out the other. Like I think you got, you have to show them and then like talk to them and show them that you know, like the industry, know, everything that's happening and like that you're an expert. And then they go, okay, let me throw these weird things at this guy that I'm curious about.

Anu Adegbola (16:09)
rights. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

right

Anthony Higman (16:34)
And

then I'll be like, scam, scam, scam, like. ⁓

Anu Adegbola (16:37)
Sure, sure, sure, absolutely. So

like, obviously you have built, you build those trusts with these clients and then they kind of now trust you to take over the whole like, okay, confirm to me that these are scam. They no longer like, like dissuade you. Are there some people who you feel like you have proven yourself, but they still are kind of like one foot out of the door in terms of like wanting to trust these scam emails.

Kind of

Anthony Higman (17:07)
⁓ yeah, yes. Yeah.

So again, and this is like always the challenge, ⁓ is like people want things, you know, I mean, to like, they want to try different stuff with their marketing and I'm never against that. Right. ⁓ it's just like how you roll it out. Right. And again, like we've struggled with this too, as an agency is like, people want SEO and they, they want

Anu Adegbola (17:18)
Yeah.

Sure, yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (17:33)
creative video production and then what all these things and it's like do you as an agency like start to develop those as Parts of your business or you focus on the one thing that you're really good at so I've had I've had mistakes there too Because I don't know like I feel like focus on the one thing you're really good at is the answer But at the same time it's it's a serious struggle because

Anu Adegbola (17:42)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Higman (18:00)
I'm in legal, right? Like it's super competitive industry and there's a ton of agencies that are, that are offering like the full thing. Like we do SEO, we do social, we do, we do PPC, right? And here's the thing, like we're always one kind of piece of this puzzle. Like we're the paid search side, but then we're working with like two other agencies most times, right?

Anu Adegbola (18:03)
alone.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anthony Higman (18:23)
I guess what those other agencies are trying to do for like the entirety of our relationship is they're trying to get the paid search side. it's like kind of exhausting in some regards because like you're always kind of like proving yourself and like fighting against these agencies that are like always trying to get the ad account and like saying they can do it better. And like, again, most times it's fine because

Anu Adegbola (18:31)
Pay search, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Mmm.

Anthony Higman (18:51)
we've established trust and we showed them that like we can provide the results, but it doesn't stop the other agencies from like still trying to get the ad account or from all of these other scams trying to come in and like, ⁓ get a piece of the pie. So it's, it's hard, protecting clients, I guess is what I would say.

Anu Adegbola (18:53)
Yeah.

I'm at the best.

Yeah.

Right, yeah. So you're protecting clients, but you're also trying to protect your business. And does that just make your job a bit harder in terms of like, need to be proving yourself to be better than this other agency that might have the PPC skillsets?

Anthony Higman (19:17)
Yeah.

It does. It does. It makes it much harder. And again, it like makes you question, Hey, should we do SEO and social so that like, we can have all pieces of pie, but it just gets too messy. Like there's so much involved in each one of these things. And like, it's hard to build out like pieces of a, of a business, you know, I mean, like, and, like, get those clients to like, when it's such a competitive industry.

Anu Adegbola (19:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I think we really underestimate how much there is to a paid search campaign. Like I write about it with search engine land every, every week. There's, there's, there's a new thing of like, you can do this, that you can do that. You can add this little bit. You can, you can, you can, this new button allows you to see something in YouTube now and P max. ⁓

Anthony Higman (20:17)
⁓ it's wild.

I you were always on those those crazy things. Map ads, by the way, right? ⁓

Anu Adegbola (20:24)
Right? My fans, that's another big one

that came at the end of last year, even. Or something like that, my fans. That was funny. That was fun. my God. Another one, another tangent to the story that I'd like us to take. And yeah, we talked a little bit about this, about how we want to look at the big picture, but sometimes some mistakes lead to the end of a job. that puts us in in a, in a very scary position. Cause yeah. Can you talk to that as to, yeah.

Anthony Higman (20:28)
Yeah.

Yes.

Anu Adegbola (20:53)
as your experience with that.

Anthony Higman (20:53)
Yeah, this

is a super interesting one. It was probably like 10 years ago. I got a job at a advertising agency that did car dealerships. And I was a PPC account manager. And the PPC department was like pretty big. had like a hundred.

Anu Adegbola (21:04)
Okay.

Anthony Higman (21:11)
PPC team members, but they had started as like an ad agency. like they started like traditional basically. Like, like TV commercials and then like added on the PPC department and SEO and like when digital came out. so I started, I was like really excited to start the job and I got in there and I quickly realized like nobody had any idea what they were doing at all. And again, it's like super big agency, like really, really big agency.

Anu Adegbola (21:13)
Yeah.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Higman (21:40)
⁓ the paid search director was like a paid social person and, you know, I got 20 accounts to manage and I audited them and I was just like, my God. Like I was like, my mind was blown at how incredibly awful they were. And basically what they were doing was like, every 20 accounts and like, I think there was like a high degree of turnover in like PPC managers. And then it would just be the next person came in and.

Anu Adegbola (21:47)
Wow.

Yeah.

Mm. Mm.

Anthony Higman (22:06)
Did a couple of bit adjustments and wrote some fluffy reports. And it was just kind of like business as usual. Anyway, I noticed all these things wrong, like fundamentally wise, like nobody knew the fundamentals of PPC. And so I wrote up like audit notes on, all 20 of my accounts. And I was like, Hey, look, like everything is wrong here with these accounts. Like this is what you have to do to fix them. And they were like, okay, great. But you can't.

fix them them because, ⁓ you know, these have been like accounts that have been with us for 10 years. And so like, you have to kind of just leave them and, like, maybe we can fix them over time. Right. And I couldn't, I couldn't, I just couldn't do it. So I fixed them all. ⁓ I fixed them all and, immediately like they started producing like gangbusters.

Anu Adegbola (22:48)
Yeah.

my God, cowboy move. Cowboy just like, we're doing this.

Anthony Higman (23:04)
So then all of the clients that like were my accounts started emailing me. there's one like enormous agency or this one, like enormous car dealer down here wanted to set up a meeting and come in and meet me. Right. And all the, all these people were sending me emails like, my God, like digital is digital is through the roof. And then, and then they were like, we're, so happy and excited, but like, why? Right. And so like,

Anu Adegbola (23:15)
Yeah, Brand, yeah.

What did you do?

Anthony Higman (23:30)
That was, that was the f-up was, then I quickly was let go because like they, they didn't, again, they didn't understand any fundamentals about PPC or how it worked. like when I started getting all those like positive emails and like the guy wanted to come in and meet, they were like trying to figure out what I was doing and they couldn't like, they didn't understand it. And then they were like, Hey, write up a thing for like the one, the guy that's coming in for that meeting.

Anu Adegbola (23:47)
Yeah? Yeah.

Anthony Higman (23:58)
And I tried, I did, wrote up like, you know, a four page document and I was like this, and they couldn't, they didn't understand like what I was talking about. And so right before I was supposed to meet with the guy, I was like, and, know, it, definitely stung. But again, like I learned a lesson, which is like, you do have to balance those things. Like if you're working for a company, I should have maybe listened, but I like,

Anu Adegbola (24:06)
It's a brush.

you

Yeah.

Mmm.

Anthony Higman (24:25)
me personally, like my morals and ethics, like let me, so I don't think it's like a bad thing necessarily. And again, it did lead to like the, at the next job I was at, ⁓ like in the interview there, I was like, Hey, look, I'm not a cog in the machine. You want somebody to write fluffy reports and sit back and not do anything. I'm not that guy. I'm always going to like, tell what's wrong and I'm going to fix it because it's just like who I am.

Anu Adegbola (24:28)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mmm.

No.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (24:54)
So again,

it led to good things, but like, ⁓ it definitely was an FOP and I maybe should have like balanced the business there versus getting results for my clients, but it's just kind of, it's not the way that I think about it. It's like, Hey, I was like, these are my clients. I'm going to get them amazing results.

Anu Adegbola (24:58)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Get them thinking. Yeah. And you know,

like the way I see this point of view, think it's very interesting that you're in position. It's almost like that whole, you know, everybody has an opinion as to how to raise a child until you become a parent. then, cause you know, cause I imagine you probably had loads of different views until, know, and then when you started AdSquire you're like, actually, yeah. Now look at back at that story. You would probably don't want one of your team members just going cowboy. Like I'm just going to

Anthony Higman (25:29)
Wait.

Anu Adegbola (25:42)
you know, push everything in this direction, you know, you'd rather there to be a little bit more communication so that it works. Everything works for both parties. What I'm curious about is that when they were like, cause they can't just send you an email going, ⁓ today's your last day. You know, you're fired. What, what did they give you as a reason? So why they were letting you go?

Anthony Higman (25:44)
True. Yeah.

Yup.

yeah, it was

so funny. ⁓ so like they called me in and, and they said it was like my reports, but it was, it wasn't like it was because of this thing. But, ⁓ it was funny cause like they contradicted themselves like several times, like a week before they were like, Hey, your, reports were really great. And like, then they were like, it was your reports. So like, could have done something I'd get in, like, I'm not like a, I like this person. So I kind of just let it go again. It did, it did teach me lessons. Like the one that you just said was like super important.

Anu Adegbola (26:26)
Mmm.

Anthony Higman (26:34)
is another thing that I learned there was like, it can't be that everybody does their own thing. And that's how it was run. Like you had your 20 accounts, but there wasn't like any consistency in how like accounts were managed, like across the organization. like every account manager did something different basically. Right. And then these accounts just kind of kept getting past everybody. So again, like then again, all these, all F-ups definitely lead to reflection and like,

Anu Adegbola (26:49)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (27:03)
for you to like do something better because you learn a lesson. So, so with adsquire, again, like there, if, you're running an agency, there's gotta be a way that you run accounts. Do you know what I mean? And so again, like when I built ad squire, that was something that was like important and I took into consideration, I trained the team on how I run accounts and that's how we accounts, everybody on the team. like,

Anu Adegbola (27:06)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (27:28)
We're all aligned, we're all managing them the exact same way. And I think that's like another like really important lesson that I took away from, from one of these FFs was like, there's gotta be a way that the agency does it. It can't just be kind of everybody wild, wild West doing what they want to the account.

Anu Adegbola (27:37)
Yeah.

Yeah. Um, and it would be great if you could also even like speak on why it's important not to just be desperate for a job. Because as you said, you know, in the next company, you never made it a lot clearer that by the way, I'm not just going to be someone who's just a cog in the wheel. I'm going to be someone who's trying to do the best for my client. Like we'll have targets. I'm going to try to meet those targets for my clients. Why is it very important? You know, it's not just

client agency relationship is also employee-employer relationship that we tell them what we're about, you know, in terms of before the relationship starts. ⁓ Yeah, what did that teach you about how to communicate that?

Anthony Higman (28:20)
Yes. Great.

Yeah, yeah, it's a great one. You know, a job has to work for both people, the employer and the employee, right? Like, if it doesn't, one of those parties is going to be upset, like, and just unhappy and not living their best life. So again, like that the car dealership agency I was at

I did really great with the accounts, but again, like I wasn't a fit for that organization. like, eventually, like I knew it too. like there was a misalignment and I was just like, not happy basically. And like going there and running through the motions. Cause I just like, wasn't the same as them. So I do think that's really important to like find somewhere where like you're valued, you can do what fits like with your beliefs and like morals.

Anu Adegbola (28:52)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (29:16)
And kind of balance those two things. But again, like you said, like I learned a lesson from that. And I took that to like my next interview to, to speak up to that, like off the bat, Hey, I'm not this guy that's just going to do fluffy reports and sit back. I'm the kind of guy that like points out problems and actively tries to solve them. And that was the right fit. And I had a great time at that organization and it really encouraged me.

Anu Adegbola (29:24)
Mm.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

Anthony Higman (29:44)
to do that and I kind of did similar things and like there was things that were wrong and I helped to improve them and that was great and then I built a team there and I got to kind of pass that down as like, hey, if there's something you see, speak up. And I think people like that, they do. They like to solve problems and like point out things that are wrong and I'm super open to that all the time. Like, hey, point out if something's wrong or like you see a friction point and I want to like.

Anu Adegbola (29:59)
Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Higman (30:12)
see if we can align those things and move forward basically.

Anu Adegbola (30:16)
Absolutely, that's fantastic. I mean, those are two fantastic stories that you've shared with us, Anthony, really grateful for that. And like, before we do another tangent of talking about mistakes that you've seen in our industry, which I'm sure you've come across a few, and especially more recently with our blue boom of AI, what's like one piece of takeaway, like from those last two stories that you just shared, that you'd like to leave people with? Even if it's like one that can cover both or two that you'd like to share, that's absolutely fine.

Anthony Higman (30:32)
Yeah.

okay. Is make sure that, you know, with your clients, you're protecting your clients, but you can't be a broken record and say everything's a scam. So again, you kind of have to approach it from like understanding that it's not ill intentioned, the client is sending you these things because they're interested in them, because they want to propel their business. So they want to try different things. So it's being that strategic partner.

Anu Adegbola (30:51)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (31:11)
giving them kind of your point of view on things, making sure kind of like, you know, you are protecting them, but giving them options to expand because they all want to, like a lot of them do want to expand and try things. ⁓ But again, like making sure that you speak up for the things that you strongly believe are scams. Because again, the ones where it backfired was like when I was like, yeah, go do it. When I knew that like there was something bad.

Anu Adegbola (31:15)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely.

It wasn't gonna work.

Anthony Higman (31:40)
in

the past. And then the other one that I would say is, you know, know who you are and know where you fit in. And if you don't, then leave. And I know that's really hard. It's a hard one because it's, it's hard to get a job sometimes, you know what I mean? But don't be somewhere where you're not happy and, things aren't aligning. But at the same time, like, if you are in a job, make sure you're kind of balancing things and like

Anu Adegbola (31:48)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (32:10)
don't be a rogue cowboy like I did. I'm not recommending it. Even though like I would, like again, it's like a moral thing. So it's like make sure you're somewhere that aligns with your morals.

Anu Adegbola (32:13)
What the?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. No, actually, those are some great pieces of advice. Honestly, when you first told me the story, we were doing our, you know, pre-recording like, you know, chat. I was like, actually, is that a fuck up? Like you did well, you did good by your client. You did the best that you did. And losing a job is not always the end of the world. Like you just find another job. So.

Anthony Higman (32:36)
Yeah, yeah I know.

It wasn't again, again, like I always

am effing up and they've all led me to here. So like, I'm going to keep effing up. And I think like, again, it's good to eff up. It, it propels you. It, it brings, it brings you to the next thing and everybody else up, keep effing up because the only reason I'm anywhere like any successful at all is cause I effed up and I keep effing up.

Anu Adegbola (32:49)
Yeah?

Yeah.

You know what, I'm going to do something different to what I thought I was going to do because you're talking about that whole, you know, you F up, F ups happen. F up is what led you to here. I also like also touching on, you know, how some teams feel, that they can't because maybe of the culture that is in that company or maybe because

And managers just don't believe in mistakes. They're like, no, yeah, we've got to get everything right. Why is it actually important for leaders to communicate in the way you've just done? That FFs are going to happen and so that they are prepared and know what the steps are to do.

Anthony Higman (33:43)
Yeah, so important. And I let our team members I thought I do. And like, I'll like, I'll let him f up a little bit. And something like one of one of my clients and like mentors says all the time is he's like, let him f up, right. And he's like, I always say like, there's nothing you can f up enough that I can't on f up. And so like, that's, that's what I like to do is again, like,

Anu Adegbola (34:07)
Sure. Okay.

Anthony Higman (34:11)
F-ups happen. It's always going to happen. So like let them F up, come in on F it up and, and like, make sure that they know the lesson, but like that's it. Because again, like our team members have messed up a lot too. It is important to like, let people know that they can and like, they're not going to lose their job over it. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, unless it's like, again, where I would say that that's not true is if it's like an alignment thing, like somebody's

Anu Adegbola (34:21)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Higman (34:40)
dishonest. If you're honest, and you own it, I'm never gonna I'm never gonna like, make that something like a fire-able offence. If you're hiding something and like, trying to scheme then yeah, you're gone. Because like, again, it's an alignment thing. But I think it is really important for leaders to let people f up because that's the only way you learn is like hard lessons like that you internalize like you feel bad about a thing like, again, like I think like

Anu Adegbola (34:41)
Sure. Yes.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (35:10)
The difference between like really great PPC people is they care about every account that they touch and like kind of treat it like their own. And so like when you do like mess something up in one of these accounts, it like hurts you a lot of time. You're be like, man, like I can't believe I did that. can't believe I got, I let that, that one ad group run like when I should have stopped it two months ago. Like then again, like these things happen. It's

Anu Adegbola (35:18)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (35:36)
There's a million pieces to BBC campaigns, but again, like those aren't the end of the world. As long as it's not a misalignment, I'm being dishonest thing then F up till the cows come home. ⁓

Anu Adegbola (35:39)
Yeah.

No.

Nice! F-Up till the cows come home, that might be the title of this episode!

I absolutely love it.

But another, literally leaving our audiences with like, you know, maybe interesting F-ups that you've seen out there as well, especially with the whole boom of AI and, know, I feel, I feel that's the thing. AI has opened up fresh new mistakes that we didn't even think were possible before. And people just don't think about it because they're just like, Oh, I'll just AI this problem. I'll, you know, all of it, all of it will, will just work out. What are the most like, you know,

Anthony Higman (36:13)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Anu Adegbola (36:23)
regular most recurrent like F-Hops that you see other advertisers making when it comes to paid search of today and that you're just like, we should still not be doing this.

Anthony Higman (36:33)
Sure. So like the biggest ones that I see consistently, like an audit and stuff, are you, the usual suspects and like, you know, you, know, it's like, ⁓ it's like search partners enabled display. Right. yeah, like I hate those ones, ⁓ like advanced location settings is always one that like a lot of people miss again. And they're like choices that are based on strategy and budget. So it's not always like.

Anu Adegbola (36:40)
Okay. Yep.

Honestly, ugh, your settings!

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (37:01)
wrong thing. If you're really big budget and you want to have like in or interested in that's fine, right? It's all budget dependent. But those are like kind of the biggest usual suspects that I see. In terms of AI, I would say those ones go like unnoticed a lot to be honest with you. ⁓ In my opinion, again, it's another settings thing with the AI stuff. It's like

Anu Adegbola (37:02)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah

Sure.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (37:26)
the automated assets and, ⁓ auto apply recommendations, things like these are the big ones that like are silent killers because they're changing a lot of stuff in your Google ads count. And, and these, they're so hidden, those two settings that nobody knows where they are. like, again, that's another big one with, with the AI error. ⁓ beyond that, I haven't really seen a ton like direct like AI related.

Anu Adegbola (37:35)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anthony Higman (37:55)
I've

seen, I've started to see like, I guess like misleading, images, but they're more like display ad stuff, which I feel away about, but I'm not sure that they're necessarily like mistakes yet. Like, I don't know. I don't know how you feel about that.

Anu Adegbola (38:04)
Sure.

Okay. Okay.

You know, my brain was even going to think

about, even asking like, what's something that people do that people are genuinely, you know, paid search experts that you respect are implementing? What are strategies that people are implementing that you feel is a mistake? Because yeah, you're right. There's some things that people are implementing that they just don't realize is not the right way to do things. Or maybe there's a reason that you've not seen that.

that makes them do the kind of things. there any like, or is it just basically what you've just said, but that people are just doing things that to you don't make sense.

Anthony Higman (38:47)
Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I,

I mean, like expert wise, you know, everybody's talking a lot about AI, but like, haven't seen anything like concrete or direct in terms of like what they're doing. Like, I know a lot of people are like asking ad copy suggestions and stuff like that. Right. Like, I don't, I don't necessarily think that's bad per se either. Like it's, it's what, what are the results say? Like, is that better than like,

Anu Adegbola (39:01)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's it.

rights.

Anthony Higman (39:16)
you thinking up an ad or like, so again, like it's, about performance to me, but I can't like notice or pinpoint anything besides like misleading images, which are being encouraged. And I don't like that, but I don't know how I feel about it. Cause like we're not doing it. And I don't know what like performance is on that side, but I feel like from like a

Anu Adegbola (39:26)
yeah yeah yeah no no

is for people.

Anthony Higman (39:39)
being a consumer, if I bought something based on a picture and I got it and didn't look anything like that, like I'd be a PO consumer, right? So I don't know. I think time will tell. It's, still like early days. So I, I can't pinpoint anything exactly like that's necessarily wrong. Everybody's talking a lot about AI, but I can't like, you know, I'm always looking at ads and like looking at the search. I haven't seen anything like in a text ad or an RSA where I've been like,

Anu Adegbola (39:46)
Be pissed off.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Higman (40:06)
That's AI. You know, mean, like there's something that's directly sticking out to me besides like Google saying, I would say the other one, like that I hate, um, is like, and again, like it's, can be considered a mistake is like what AI, in my opinion, what AI is being used for a lot on like the tech platform side is to like create inventory, like automated inventory. like, like the, like the video ads that are being generated, like

Anu Adegbola (40:08)
Yeah, yeah.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Anthony Higman (40:35)
from like static assets, right? Like put on YouTube. I don't I don't like that. So I would say like, maybe that's a mistake, like not turning that off if you can. can in type. Because it's funny, I even see them like for really big brands now like Amazon and stuff, right? I'll see like these generic like made up P max ads. I'm like, what are you guys doing?

Anu Adegbola (40:37)
Yeah.

Sure, yep.

Yeah. Yeah.

Dewey, oof.

You're like guys, you should know better. You should know better. Mm.

Anthony Higman (41:03)
Right, it just it's a it's another like misalignment. So like, I don't like

it. That's I guess it could be considered a mistake. But also questionable. I don't know. It's it's weird. So like, we we have a client where one of those was left on. He's a criminal lawyer. And he got a lead off of one of these weird generic YouTube ads. And I was like, but it's like it's not the norm. Like it was like a weird rare thing that happened.

Anu Adegbola (41:09)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Higman (41:30)
Most

of the time it's a waste, but again, like it's too early to tell, I think in a lot of these cases. Yeah.

Anu Adegbola (41:34)
too early to,

⁓ I was like, do we have time for this question? I'm gonna throw it in since it's our first episode of this year. What's your prediction as to how much AI is gonna be used this year?

Anthony Higman (41:46)
Oh, it's so hard. Do you mean like in Google Ads, just general?

Anu Adegbola (41:47)
Sorry. I was like, should I be cheeky? Whatever comes to mind. Like doesn't have to be well thought out. Yeah.

Google ads,

Google ads, let's stick to how Google ads, yeah.

Anthony Higman (42:02)
Yeah. So it's going to be a, it's going to be a banger year for AI and Google ads is my prediction. There's going to be a lot more stuff forced in. I think there's going to be a lot that's deprecated this year and more like forced automated AI things. they're, shoving the ads advisor thing into like everything now. And so, I don't know. I, I still hate it, but I think it's a trend that's going to continue for.

Anu Adegbola (42:05)
Okay. Okay.

Right.

Anthony Higman (42:29)
year until kind of that bubble pops and they're like okay not AI but they're so hard into it I can't see it going away in 2026.

Anu Adegbola (42:30)
Yes.

Right.

Okay, interesting. You've heard it here first. It's probably not gonna wait. Hey, it's not gonna go away. 2026. And yeah, who knows for 2027 when the ball will pop. Thank you so much, Anthony. This has been such a great time. I've enjoyed myself, but before we leave and love a fun end of end of interview question, if your PPC career were a movie, what would the title be?

Anthony Higman (42:43)
Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Sure.

the Shawshank Redemption.

Anu Adegbola (43:07)
interesting. Yeah, I love that movie. Some people say

that that's an overrated movie, but clearly.

Anthony Higman (43:12)
⁓

no, great movie, great movie.

Anu Adegbola (43:15)
Why the shoshang do redimension? I know the story but like what's the

Anthony Higman (43:17)
Again, just cause

like, you know, I I've messed up a lot throughout my career, but every mess up led to that next step. And I'm now literally living my dream. Like all I've wanted to do forever was own a business and I'm obsessed with PPC. And again, like I've little by little, like pretty much accomplished all of all of my wildest dreams.

Anu Adegbola (43:30)
Nice.

Anthony Higman (43:44)
I'm like a top PPC influencer guy. And again, like it's, it's just cool where, ⁓ your passions, like align and everything's like good. so again, like the F-ups led to redemptions and Shawshank redemption. Yeah.

Anu Adegbola (43:47)
100 %

Yeah.

Yeah,

fantastic. And can I say what a wonderful view. It's been very distracting behind you. It does look like your office is a dream office. Where are you specifically? I write that.

Anthony Higman (44:06)
I know. We're

right downtown in ⁓ Center City, Philadelphia. And it's funny, like the the wall firm I started working at, where kind of this all started, I can see from my window right here. Yeah, like, like 10 steps. Yeah, 10 steps from where it all began. Yeah.

Anu Adegbola (44:17)
Okay.

Wow, interesting, full circle.

⁓ amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much for that, Anthony. And you know, I know you have also an answer for this one because I see you sharing so many fantastic ideas and news and just things that you're seeing. Where can people find you on the different platforms? What are your platforms where you share?

Anthony Higman (44:33)
Thank you.

Absolutely. Yeah, so

anything on social media under Anthony Higman and then they can also find us on adsquire.com

Anu Adegbola (44:52)
Yeah, but what social media platform specifically that you'd like to? Nice.

Anthony Higman (44:55)
yeah, yeah. So I'm biggest on Twitter is like probably

my main platform. I'm on LinkedIn and on Facebook, but so it's not, it's like Twitter, LinkedIn, like minimal Facebook is what I would say. And that's it. don't do Tik TOK yet or Instagram, but maybe, I don't know. Yeah.

Anu Adegbola (45:07)
Amazing. No, but who knows? Maybe look out for that. We'll look out for you for that. This has

been an amazing chat. Thank you so much, for joining us today. Pleasure. Bye.

Anthony Higman (45:18)
Thank you for having me, Anu.

Anu Adegbola (45:22)
Thank you so much, Anthony, for sharing that very, like, visceral and transparent story. And sharing so honestly and transparently and, you know, about getting fired, being the kind of person who just, you know, breaks down and just decides, you know, to let their client go ahead and make the mistake, even the they know better. so, yeah, and these kinds of things happen and sometimes our frustrations.

get the better of us, but it does not stop us from being the CEO of a company. So yeah, guys, look out for that and just remember that, that you can always come back from your mistake. You can always learn from it. And, ⁓ and yeah, especially for managers, F ops is where the best learnings come from. and there's no F up that most managers wouldn't be able to turn around. So yeah, make sure that I hope that we are making sure that our teams are feeling like.

you know, even if they make a mistake, they can come back from it, they can grow from it. And you're not hiring the kind of people who are scheming behind you. Cause yeah, that's point where there's no return. So remember that for your future career. For all information and full transcript of that fantastic conversation, please go to podcast.ppc.live for the full details of that episode. Yes, another exciting time to tell you about what's going on for our PPC live events.

We've got another one coming up in just a few weeks now, just under a month on the 5th of February. We're going to be coming back to StrategiQ's office in Liverpool Street. They've got a fantastic, beautiful office where Dragon's Den was once filmed. So yeah, that's going to be quite a historical place to be. ⁓ Also got, of course, historical speakers, even Kat Sale is a co-founder.

of House of Performance, Dave Alexander, is part of the senior paid media strategist at award winning impression. we've got Nils Rooijmans who is Mr. Scripts himself. Mr. Adward Scripts has been creating them for years, has built a lifestyle where he literally works from everywhere in the world. We did a podcast with him. He was in the Caribbean, even though he has a boat.

in Amsterdam. ⁓ So yeah, he moves around a lot because he sets his scripts and he only works maybe a few hours a day because his scripts are doing the hard work for him. So come and join us on the 5th of February so that he can share with you how he implements those scripts, his favorite e-com scripts so that he doesn't have to do too much hands-on work.

Um, so yeah, we'd love to have you for that. Go to ppc.live to get your tickets. before I leave you I'm also delighted to share that I am taking on coaching clients, PPC mindset, coaching clients. So yeah, if you just feel like you've got a block and this is the year.

that you want to invest in yourself, that you want to see a dramatic change in your career and the direction and just feel that it is going in the right direction for you. Please get in touch with me. Go to themarketinganu.com to book a free discovery call with me so that we can discuss a plan that will work for you. So yeah, I hope you have enjoyed that show, our first show of 2026. we've kicked the things off. We're going to be bringing.

Many more fantastic guests for 51 more guests, I hope at least for the rest of the year, who will be sharing more of their F-ups and our next one will be next week. And we've already got our guests lined up. yeah, please join us next week for more PPC F-ups and triumphs. Thank you very much. Bye.