Building Businesses in UK Digital Marketing & Search for 2 decades: Jim Brigden Exec Director Brain Labs: Inspiring Leadership interview with Jonathan Bowman-Perks

Jim Brigden – Executive Director Brainlabs – building Businesses in the UK Digital Marketing Industry for two decades Jim has worked in the search engine advertising industry in the UK since 2000 – the very birth of the industry and has led a variety of successful businesses in that industry including stints working for the search engines and on the agency, technology provider and client side. He has led four businesses to successful exit and spends most of his time as Exec Director at Brainlabs.

His previous successes include outstanding technology lead agencies The Search Works and I Spy Marketing. Jim loves to define a vision and a plan and to surround himself with smart, hardworking people who deliver brilliant outcomes for the clients he works with.

Jim’s top tip – work hard, be nice to people and to learn from your experiences both good and bad.

Experienced digital marketer and internet entrepreneur. Extensive experience of working for clients, leading agency businesses (both specialist and network), founding and scaling tech businesses. I have led 4 businesses to successful exit.

Introducing two men at opposite ends of the experience spectrum. The executive chair of PPC agency Brainlabs and self-styled Godfather of Search, Jim Brigden has been in search marketing longer than anyone outside the US. The company’s CEO, Dan Gilbert, is the self-proclaimed Superhero of PPC, with some justification: he was ranked PPC Hero’s Most Influential PPC Expert in the World in 2018.

Can you remember your first experiences of Search?

Jim: I built a website selling online stock photography in 1998. It struck me that we should be trying to get e-commerce traffic, so I got us listed in search engines and starting buying clicks. It was like getting hooked on drugs. Every click mattered.

Dan: I think my first ever search was “what is the internet?”. I’d gone on a search engine because one of my friends told me that it was cool, but I didn’t really know what it was about.

What kind of thing would you look for back then?

Dan: I was a teenage boy, so you probably don’t want to know.

Jim: I looked for anything I was interested in, which hasn’t really changed that much.