On episode 338 of PPC Live The Podcast, I speak to Nick Handley Paid Media Lead at Impression, about one of the most formative mistakes of his career — and why those early errors often shape the strongest marketers.
The podcast series focuses on PPC professionals’ biggest “F-ups,” but never without exploring how they recovered, who helped them, and what lasting lessons came out the other side. Nick’s story is a textbook example of how a single mistake can permanently change how you work — for the better.
The Black Friday mistake that took everything down
Nick takes listeners back nearly ten years, to the very start of his career at Tyres on the Drive (now owned by Halfords). With only around seven months of PPC experience, he was left managing campaigns during the Black Friday period while a senior colleague was on holiday.
The task sounded simple: update URLs across multiple campaigns using Google Ads Editor. The execution, however, went very wrong.
Nick mistyped part of the landing page URL — a small error with massive consequences. Once uploaded, ads across the account were disapproved, effectively taking paid search offline during one of the most important trading periods of the year. At the time, PPC accounted for around 70% of the company’s conversions.
“It was full panic,” Nick admits. “I genuinely thought I was going to lose my job.”
Panic makes problems worse
What made the situation harder wasn’t just the typo — it was what came next. In a stressed state, Nick tried to fix the issue without properly re-syncing Google Ads Editor with the live account. Changes didn’t apply, errors stacked up, and confusion grew.
The turning point came when Max Hopkinson, a senior colleague, stepped in. Instead of blaming or escalating, Max calmly walked Nick through the fix: re-sync the account, undo the changes properly, re-upload, and get campaigns live again.
The downtime was resolved in about an hour, and the team worked strategically to recover performance by increasing spend later in the day. The Black Friday period ultimately performed well — but the emotional impact of the mistake stuck.
The real lesson: de-escalate yourself first
One of the biggest takeaways from Nick’s experience isn’t technical — it’s psychological.
When things go wrong, panic actively makes solutions harder to see. Nick stresses the importance of stepping away, calming yourself down, and then methodically identifying the issue. Five minutes away from the screen can prevent five hours of damage.
This mindset now underpins how he works — and how he manages others.
From junior panic to leadership principles
As a leader today, Nick is intentional about building systems that reduce risk and pressure. At Impression, large changes go through a buddy-based QA system, where someone outside the immediate account team sense-checks…
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