1. Pretend You’re The Client

It’s a cliche, but understanding the customer is critical.
Surprisingly, many web service suppliers make the mistake of thinking in terms of what suits them.
For example, a web designer may reason “I like designing, it’s very satisfying to craft websites, therefore I’ll be a web designer. People will pay for my design skills”. This is fine, but note that in this example, there is no focus on the web design customer.
Now think about what you would want from a web designer.
You may want a good job at a good price (quality and budget consideration), you want the designer to clearly identify and understand your requirements (needs consideration), you want the design completed in a specific time frame (time consideration), and you want your customers to respond well to the design (risk consideration). Whether the web designer enjoys crafting web sites is pretty much irrelevant.
Obviously, the same goes for any other service, including PPC.  So what does a typical customer want from PPC?
Here’s a common profile of PPC customers. Keep in mind that service provision is about solving problems:

• They most likely have a traffic problem. They are short of traffic.
• They see their competitors using PPC channels, so they feel at a competitive disadvantage.
• They are probably short of time and/or resources, otherwise they would do it themselves, or hand the task to a suitable skilled person in house.
• They are under pressure to show an improvement in their traffic numbers, and/or an improvement in the bottom line.
• They may have experience of other marketing channels, and they are wondering if this channel is right for them.
• If they are a company of any size, they will be risk adverse, especially when dealing with new suppliers, and or suppliers who are one-man operations.
• If they are a small business, they are likely looking for someone who will work closely with them, on a personal level.
• They want to see the campaign is working.
• They don’t want to get locked into a contract that will come back to bite them, or embarrass them

Keeping the client profile in mind can help you position yourself, and create proposals that will land you work. You’ll certainly be ahead of the supplier who is doing PPC “because they’ve run a few ad campaigns and seen all Matt Cutts videos, and have mad skillz”