PPC Experts Worth Following in 2027

A note on this list: This list is Marketing Signals' own view, and it includes members of the Marketing Signals team. Use it as one view alongside independent sources and your own research.

Pay per click advertising is changing faster than at any point in its history. Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising lean more on automation every year, ads are appearing in and around AI-generated answers, and advertisers have less direct control over keywords, placements and bids. The people who explain those changes clearly, and who show how to keep campaigns tied to real business results, are worth following in 2027.

This list picks people rather than agencies. Each expert was chosen for four things: current, hands-on work on paid media accounts or in reporting on the industry, a public record of sharing what they learn through talks, articles, podcasts or books, practical advice a reader can apply to a live account, and a focus on profit, leads and sales rather than platform metrics. Every expert outside Marketing Signals was checked against their own company website, LinkedIn or a conference speaker page.

PPC Experts Worth Following in 2027: At a Glance

1. Laura Salini, Marketing Signals

Based: UK (Marketing Signals, fully remote team)

Laura Salini is Head of Customer Success at Marketing Signals, where she has worked for two and a half years, and she has ten years of client services experience in total. Before joining, she worked across a range of agencies with clients from small and medium-sized businesses to global tech brands. She chose Marketing Signals because it offers the full spectrum of services, from SEO, link building and digital PR to paid media.

Her day starts with clearing her inbox so no client is left waiting, then reviewing performance across each account and preparing reporting for weekly or monthly client calls. The rest is about keeping projects on schedule and making sure strategy stays aligned with results. Her work involves a wide range of SEO, AI and Google Ads tools, with Semrush at the heart of it. Her advice is that the best results come from combining SEO, paid media, content, PR and data, which is the thinking behind Marketing Signals' integrated search service.

Where to follow: her Marketing Signals author page

Follow for: the client side of paid media, from account performance reviews to reporting that keeps strategy tied to results.

2. Gareth Hoyle, Marketing Signals

Based: UK (Marketing Signals, registered office in Halifax) | Profile

Gareth Hoyle is Managing Director and founder of Marketing Signals, which he has run since 2007. The agency is a Google Partner and Microsoft Advertising Partner, runs pay per click across Google Ads, Shopping and Microsoft Ads on a fixed fee rather than a percentage of ad spend, and offers integrated search, where SEO and PPC run as one strategy with reporting tied to revenue and leads.

He speaks internationally on agentic AI, and he has founded Am I Visible?, which tracks visibility in AI assistants, and Authority.md. His advice to newcomers is to test and learn constantly, double down on what works and adapt the processes that fail. He calls the agentic workflow tool of the moment the one resource he could not work without, and expects it to change how people work.

Where to follow: LinkedIn

Follow for: agentic AI in agency work and running paid and organic search as one strategy.

3. Anu Adegbola, Search Engine Land and PPC Live UK

Based: UK (PPC Live events are held in London) | Profile

Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024, covering paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more. Her author bio says her career began in 2008 delivering digital marketing campaigns, mostly paid search, and that she has led work across agency, client and marketing technology roles.

She is also the founder of PPC Live UK, which runs paid media events in London, and she hosts the #PPCChat Roundup podcast and writes the PPCChat Roundup newsletter. Between her news coverage and the community she runs, following her is one of the quickest ways to hear about Google Ads and Microsoft Ads changes and what practitioners think of them.

Where to follow: Search Engine Land, the #PPCChat Roundup podcast and newsletter

Follow for: paid media news, platform changes and the UK PPC community.

4. Samantha Noble, Biddable Moments

Based: UK (Biddable Moments, Havant) | Profile

Samantha Noble is the founder of Biddable Moments, which describes itself as an independent paid media consultancy based in the UK. She has worked in digital marketing since 2007 in both in-house and agency roles, and her BrightonSEO profile says she helps brands, agencies and individuals improve paid advertising performance through strategy, auditing, implementation, automated reporting and training.

Biddable Moments says she has spoken at more than 40 conferences, including Learn Inbound, SearchLove and Turing Fest, and PPC Hero named her among its Top 50 Most Influential PPC Experts in 2019. Her more recent BrightonSEO talk covered getting the most from Meta's Advantage+ shopping campaigns, which reflects her work across paid search and paid social.

Where to follow: LinkedIn, X (@SamJaneNoble), the Biddable Moments blog

Follow for: practical paid search and paid social advice, auditing and training.

5. Kat Sale, House of Performance

Based: London, UK (House of Performance) | Profile

Kat Sale is co-founder of House of Performance, a London agency designed to help businesses succeed in paid media. Her PPC Hero speaker profile says she has more than 15 years of experience specialising in PPC, paid social and display, and that she has worked with clients such as Jamie Oliver, Universal Music and Fullers Pubs.

At Hero Conf UK and BrightonSEO in April 2026 she spoke on how to media plan in 2026, and she is listed among past Hero Conf speakers. The House of Performance blog covers platform changes such as Google's AI Max for Search campaigns and ads coming to ChatGPT, written for marketers who need to act on them.

Where to follow: LinkedIn, the House of Performance blog

Follow for: paid media planning and what new ad formats mean for budgets.

6. Meriem Nacer, 4M Digital

Based: Not published (4M Digital Consulting) | Profile

Meriem Nacer is a paid media consultant, coach and trainer with more than 15 years of experience in digital advertising. She founded 4M Digital, a consultancy launched in 2019, and works with brands and agencies of all sizes across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and paid social. 4M Digital lists itself as a Google Ads and Microsoft Ads partner.

Her April 2026 talk at Hero Conf UK, a hitchhiker's guide to merchant feeds, reflects a specialism in Shopping and feed optimisation, and her site says she is building a dedicated Merchant Feed Optimisation Course and runs a community. The 4M Digital blog covers topics such as Google Ads match types and automation changes in plain, no-fluff terms.

Where to follow: LinkedIn, Bluesky, the 4M Digital blog

Follow for: Shopping and merchant feed optimisation and level-headed takes on Google Ads automation.

7. Chris Ridley, Evoluted

Based: Sheffield, UK (Evoluted offices in Sheffield and London) | Profile

Chris Ridley is Head of Paid Media at Evoluted, an agency with offices in Sheffield and London. Evoluted says he works across paid search and paid social, managing accounts from early-stage e-commerce start-ups to large advertising budgets, and that he was named in Marketing O'Clock's Top 50 Most Influential PPC Experts for 2022.

He has spoken at PPC Live UK and Sheffield DM, and in April 2026 he gave a talk at BrightonSEO and Hero Conf UK on the death of the PPC purist. It argues that automation, cross-channel attribution and changing client expectations mean paid media specialists need to connect campaigns to real business objectives.

Where to follow: LinkedIn

Follow for: e-commerce paid media and moving from running ads to shaping business decisions.

8. Kirk Williams, ZATO

Based: Billings, Montana, US (ZATO) | Profile

Kirk Williams owns ZATO, a PPC agency, and is based in Billings, Montana. He has written three books on PPC marketing and agency ownership, including PPC Ponderings and Stop the Scale, and gave a TEDx Billings talk on redefining business success. PPC Hero named him among its Top 50 Most Influential PPC Experts in 2019.

He is included here because UK audiences hear him often. His speaker page lists SMX London in 2025, Hero Conf London in 2015 and 2017 and BrightonSEO in 2019, along with many podcast appearances on paid search, e-commerce and agency life.

Where to follow: LinkedIn, X (@PPCKirk)

Follow for: e-commerce PPC, agency ownership and long-form thinking on paid search.

What Makes an Expert Worth Following

Work on live accounts. Platforms change their automation, bidding and reporting every few months. Follow people who still run or oversee accounts, because their advice is tested against current results rather than last year's interface.

Focus on business results. Favour experts who talk about profit, leads, sales and incrementality rather than clicks, impressions or ROAS alone. Platform metrics can look healthy while a business loses money.

Honest takes on automation. Good practitioners explain when to trust Performance Max, AI Max and smart bidding and when to take back control. Be wary of anyone who always praises or always dismisses automation.

Clean measurement. Automated bidding only works when conversion data is accurate. Experts who cover tracking, feeds and data quality give you advice that improves every campaign in an account.

A view across search. Paid and organic search now share the same results pages and AI answers. The most useful voices explain how PPC works alongside SEO and AI visibility rather than in isolation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a PPC expert do? A PPC expert plans, builds and manages paid advertising campaigns on platforms such as Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and paid social. The work covers keyword and audience strategy, ad copy, bidding, budgets, product feeds, landing pages and conversion tracking. Good experts also explain results to clients or stakeholders in terms of leads, sales and profit, and decide when to rely on automation and when to step in.

How is PPC changing in 2027? Platforms are relying more on automation and AI. Campaign types such as Performance Max and AI Max decide more of the targeting, ads are appearing around AI-generated answers, and advertisers see less detail about individual searches. That makes clean conversion data, strong creative and good product feeds more important, and it puts more weight on people who can connect paid media to business results rather than platform metrics.

How can I learn PPC from practitioners? Follow a handful of practitioners on LinkedIn, read paid media news on Search Engine Land and join community events such as PPC Live UK or Hero Conf UK. Listen to podcasts where practitioners discuss real accounts. Then test one idea at a time in an account you manage and measure the effect on leads or sales. Compare advice from consultants, agency leads and in-house marketers, because each sees different problems.

Do I need a PPC specialist or an integrated search agency? A specialist suits a business whose main channel is paid search or Shopping and needs deep account work. An integrated approach suits businesses where paid and organic search compete for the same results and budgets, because one team can decide where each pound works hardest. Marketing Signals offers integrated search, where SEO and PPC run as one strategy, alongside standalone pay per click management.

How are PPC agencies paid? Common models are a percentage of ad spend, a fixed monthly fee, or a fee linked to performance. A percentage of spend can reward higher budgets rather than better results, which is why some agencies prefer fixed fees. Marketing Signals manages PPC on a fixed fee rather than a percentage of ad spend. Cost is mainly driven by the number of platforms and campaigns, product feed complexity, reporting needs and how much testing is planned.

What skills does a PPC specialist need in 2027? The core skills are analysis, commercial thinking, copywriting and a solid grasp of tracking and conversion data. Specialists also need to understand how automated campaign types use signals, how product feeds affect Shopping performance, and how paid search works alongside SEO and AI answers. Clear reporting matters too. As Laura Salini puts it, the more you understand how each discipline works, the more versatile and valuable you become.