We caught up with our Paid Social Account Director, Saira Smith, on how she got into the industry and what keeps her inspired

Saira Smith grew up in rural Victoria, living on farms until she was 16, when she moved to Melbourne. Saira began her marketing career after graduating from LaTrobe University with Honours, when she travelled to Kenya for an apprenticeship. From there Saira returned to Australia to do a Master’s in Project Management and began working in PPC in 2017. After working on a variety of verticals, including Sports & Entertainment, Vehicles, Ecomm and Finance, in 2020 Saira made the decision to move to the UK where her social career really took off.

Working with a number of retail clients as a Biddable manager, Saira began to understand the relationship between Search and Social, and focused on Digital strategy. This led to working on strategies for large international companies such as Steve Madden, Virgin Experience Days, Crew Clothing and others, where she really honed her knowledge of growth strategies for Ecomm brands.

How did you get into Paid Social?

I did a business degree and there was a module on Paid Social - and then a friend of my dad owned a tour company covering East Africa. They flew me out to Kenya and I was on safari for three months, taking pictures and posting, and building their social media profile. Not a bad start!

When I got back from that I realised that this is what I wanted to do - but I ended up getting my first job in PPC. I was a paid search analyst for three and a half years then I started working on Meta. From there I became what we call “biddable” and then I made the switch into social only.

So, I’ve been doing digital for eight years in total - started in Australia, and then in the UK since 2020.

If marketing didn’t exist, what would you be doing?

If money were no object then I would be running a book shop and cafe. I love books and reading. In the younger generation, the attention span is definitely going. The concentration you need to read a book isn’t there and they are missing out.

My favourite genre is Fantasy / Romance. I love Rebecca Yarros. Why the coffee shop in the book shop? Well, I love coffee.

If I did still need the money. Well, then it would be law - that was my passion in high school.

What’s something you wish you’d known when you first started in digital?

Definitely how to write a good insight for a client. When I started I thought it was just regurgitating data - because that’s what a lot of people present as insight.

Then I realised it’s about understanding what’s happened, really explaining it, and then providing practical recommendations about what to action.

What advice do you give to people just starting out in the team?

You have to remember that clients are people too. It doesn’t matter if they are the most junior person or the CEO. They all have lives, and someone they report into. You have to try to get to know them and work out what they want.

Another piece of advice is always turn up to meetings well-prepared. This always makes a difference to your stress level and you will do better. Anticipate questions and remember they are paying us for our expertise - remember you are the expert in your field!

What’s over-hyped / under-hyped right now in digital?

Overhyped: Google Analytics! People still rely on it far too much. This is particularly true for social, rather than PPC, because it has always been less straightforward to prove value. But the attribution methods we rely on are decaying. There’s a series of cliff edges, as technology changes and behaviour changes.

“There’s so much overlap between channels now as the world moves more online and the old methods for measuring the value of a single channel are obsolete.”

Yes, Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is the future! What about what’s under-hyped?

Underhyped - I’d have to say AI. I’m pretty sure we’re heading for Terminator Day, but right now it’s a useful tool for organising, writing copy and other tasks. When it gets to the point that it can come up with actionable insights then that’s the time to worry. One day!

What keeps you interested in all this stuff and inspired?

The ever-evolving nature of it all. There’s always something new. For example, with the emergence of AI and VR there are new ways to advertise. A few years ago, influencer marketing wasn’t even a thing and now it’s a top-performing channel. It’s always changing and it’s exciting to be part of it… although I would never be an influencer myself!

What’s changed since you first started?

Well, there’s a lot more automation and the AI we’ve been talking about is obviously part of that. When I started in search there was no Performance Max. In Facebook there was no Advantage+.

There is less control than when I first started. We picked audiences, we optimised manually, we did our own budget allocation - but now a lot of that is out of our hands.

We have lost a lot of visibility, yes … but I do think that does leave more time for strategy. And clients are happy, as long as they are getting the performance.

Yeah true, but I think some clients feel less trust in digital because they’ve lost visibility with the “black box”. We have to guide them through it.

What value does an agency bring then, in these days of automation?

I think it’s the strategic experience and the knowledge. With automation it’s a lot easier for the average person to create and post ads. But that’s not the same as working out what objectives you should be using for goals, or how to effectively allocate budget.

“There’s also determining what mix of platforms you are going to use for a client, how to tailor the creative to each platform. That experience comes from working with a range of clients. For a client, with a mixture of in-housing and automation, they are not going to have that knowledge.”

And that’s before you even get to working out how Paid Social should fit into a multi-channel strategy. Previously I think clients could maybe get away with managing their channels in silos but now I think with the decay of attribution, for example, you have to have an understanding of cross-channel strategy. That’s the way of the future.

Finally, what’s the best thing about working at Kinase?

I like the people. Everyone I work with is great. There is a drive to understand the clients’ businesses and their objectives. I like the freedom I have to pursue what I want to do.