Marketing & Creative ✦ Dedicated & full-time

SEM
Specialist

Google Ads build, optimisation and reporting that lower cost per lead — from $14/hr + GST.

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$14/hrFrom, + GST · full-time
70%Average saving vs a local hire
14 daysBrief → first day
Fully managedWe hire, you lead

What a SEM Specialist does

Paid search rewards constant attention. An SEM specialist builds, optimises and reports on your Google Ads so budget goes to what converts.

Every StaffingSolutions.io sem specialist is recruited, hired and managed by us — reference-checked for your tools, working your business hours, and backed by our zero-risk promise: no placement fee, money-back first week, and a free replacement if the fit isn't right.

What they handle

  • Account build — structure and keywords.
  • Ad copy — written and tested.
  • Bid & budget — optimised.
  • Negative keywords — waste trimmed.
  • Conversion tracking — set up right.
  • Reporting — spend to results.
The actual work

A week in the role

This role lives inside one account. Search terms every week, negatives added before waste compounds, responsive search assets rotated, Performance Max asset groups fed with new copy and images, and a bid strategy left alone long enough to learn. Shopping accounts add Merchant Center feed work.

The taskWhat that actually involves
Weekly search terms sweep

Pulls the search terms report, sorts by cost with zero conversions, and adds negatives at campaign or shared-list level — separating genuinely irrelevant queries from close variants worth promoting to their own exact-match keyword.

Shared negative list audit

Audits the shared negative keyword lists monthly so a blanket negative added for one campaign is not blocking traffic another campaign wants, and checks the match types applied to the negatives themselves.

Responsive search ad assets

Rotates headlines and descriptions in responsive search ads, pins only what genuinely has to be pinned, reads the asset ratings and combination report, and replaces the assets that never get served.

Performance Max asset groups

Maintains Performance Max asset groups: refreshes images and video to spec, splits groups by product theme or service line, sets audience signals, and works the campaign search terms report for new negatives.

Conversion action hygiene

Checks which conversion actions are set to primary, that a phone call and a form fill are not both counting the same enquiry, and that the values passed to Google Ads reflect what the business actually earns.

Bid strategy adjustments

Moves campaigns between maximise conversions, target CPA and target ROAS only when there is enough conversion history, then leaves the learning period alone and records the change date so results can be read against it.

Merchant Center feed fixes

Works product feed disapprovals in Merchant Center: missing GTINs, price and availability mismatches against the site, GST-inclusive pricing, and shipping settings by Australian postcode, so Shopping campaigns keep serving.

Geographic and schedule tuning

Reviews performance by location and hour of day, tightens radius targeting or excludes suburbs that spend without converting, and sets the ad schedule to the hours the client's phone is actually answered.

Landing page and ad match

Checks each ad group points at a page carrying the same offer and terminology as the ad, and reports pages loading slowly on mobile or missing the form the campaign depends on.

Competitor and auction insights

Reads Auction Insights for impression share lost to rank and to budget, notes which competitors have started bidding on the client's brand terms, and prepares the case for a budget change the client decides on.

Offline conversion import

Sets up and maintains offline conversion imports so closed-won deals from the CRM feed back into Google Ads, letting bidding optimise on qualified enquiries instead of raw form fills from the website.

Microsoft Ads mirror

Imports the Google Ads structure into Microsoft Advertising, adjusts for the smaller search volume, and manages it as a separate account rather than letting the import overwrite tested changes each time it runs.

Monthly account report

Reports spend, conversions, cost per conversion and impression share by campaign against the prior month, lists every change made with its date, and puts next month's test plan in writing.

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Questions

Frequently asked

How much does a sem specialist cost?
From $14/hr + GST for a full-time, dedicated team member — roughly $29K a year against $95K–$115K all-in for the local equivalent once you add super, leave, payroll tax, software and a desk. No placement fee, no setup fee, no recruitment retainer: you pay from the day they start, for hours worked, and interviewing candidates costs nothing. Specialist roles sit a little higher. Run your numbers →
How fast can they start?
Typically 14 days from your discovery call to day one. In the first week we source and screen against your brief; you get three matched profiles and interview whoever you like. Once you choose, we handle the offer, the contract, equipment and connectivity checks, and induct them on our side before they reach you. Specialist roles — developers, NDIS claims, anything needing niche software — can take a week longer, because we won't pad a shortlist just to hit a date.
What if the fit isn't right?
You're covered twice over. If it's clearly wrong by day five, your first week is refunded in full. After that, a free replacement any time — new shortlist, new interviews, no second fee, because there was never a first one. Before it gets that far, talk to us: our HR manager will work through it with you and the team member, since most problems turn out to be an unclear process rather than the wrong person, and a fortnight of coaching usually fixes it. Replacing someone is the last resort, not the first move.
Is there a minimum term?
Three months, then month to month. It's the same runway you'd give a new local hire to learn your systems, your clients and your standards — and the team members who get a fair run are the ones who stay for years. There are no exit penalties at any point, and if the issue is the person rather than the role, the first-week refund and free replacement cover that separately.
How do you handle confidentiality?
The same way you'd treat any remote team member. Every placement signs an NDA and a confidentiality clause before day one, and they work inside your systems — your email, your CRM, your file storage — so you control what they can see and can revoke access instantly. No client data is stored on our side.
What stays with you, and what goes to them?
They take the recurring, process-driven part of the SEM Specialist role — the work that happens the same way every week and eats your day. Judgement calls, client relationships, anything requiring your licence, sign-off or authority stay with you. The clients who get the most out of a SEM Specialist hand over a defined process and keep the decisions, rather than handing over the whole function and hoping. On the discovery call we'll map which tasks fall on which side of that line before you commit to anything.
How do I hand the work over without losing weeks to training?
Record yourself doing the task once and talk through it as you go — a fifteen-minute screen recording beats a written manual every time, and your SEM Specialist will turn it into a documented process you both work from. Expect the first fortnight to be shadowing and checking, then steadily less. If you have nothing documented, that's normal and it's not a blocker: we'll help you decide what to record first, and your account manager checks in through the whole ramp-up.