Become a Digital Marketing Freelancer the Right Way

If your dream is to become a profitable digital marketing freelancer, you're in the right place. In this blog post, I’m sharing the step-by-step process that will help you get started the right way. 

Step 1: Gain Experience in Digital Marketing

This is the hardest step, but it’s the foundation of everything else. Before you start worrying about getting clients, you need to gain confidence in your digital marketing skills—especially in Google Ads or whichever skillset you’re focusing on.

When I started in 2010, I realized two things quickly: I didn’t have the budget to hire a decent digital marketing agency, and I loved digital marketing. So, I spent day and night learning everything I could about it, particularly Google Ads.

If you’re just starting out, consider getting an internship or an entry-level position at a digital agency. Focus on building your skills for the first 2-3 years before diving into freelancing. And to help you get started, here’s my Google Ads optimization checklist that you can download for free.

👉 Starting a Digital Marketing Agency? Do This First...

Step 2: Identify Your Ideal Clients

Many people think of this as finding the most profitable niche, but it’s more about aligning with your strengths and experience. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is your current experience?
• What are your biggest wins?
• What strategies have you worked out?

For me, my first freelance clients were in the hotel and eCommerce industries. I was able to secure these clients because I had clear answers to the questions above. My experience in running a boutique hotel gave me two core strengths: making Google Ads work with small budgets and understanding the importance of seeing success right away for a new business.

By knowing this, I focused on outreach to hotel brands that weren’t market leaders and new startup businesses, because I knew my experience and story could resonate with them.

Step 3: Reach Out to New Clients

With your ideal clients in mind, it’s time to start outreach. My first clients came from three main areas:

Cold Outreach: I personally visited businesses, focusing on those where I could showcase my most relevant results. For example, I was living and working in Bali at the time, so I approached independent and smaller hotels, demonstrating that my hotel was getting 50% direct bookings compared to the island average of 15%.

Freelancer Sites Like Upwork: I targeted specific skills and industries on these platforms, refining my searches to companies looking for Google Ads help in the tourism or eCommerce niches. It’s a numbers game, so be prepared for rejection. I sent 5 proposals a day and made cold calls one day a week. This persistence led to 1-2 new clients per month.

Referrals: These came later, about 5 years into my digital marketing journey. By then, I had built a reputation and referrals started to come in.

Step 4: Test and Refine Your Messaging

One of the biggest mistakes freelancers make is having weak messaging in their proposals and profiles. Don’t just list your experience or the clients you’ve worked with—focus on the results you’ve achieved.

For example, instead of saying, “I’ve worked with eCommerce brand A,” say, “In the first 90 days of working with eCommerce brand A, we improved their Cost/Conversions from $35 to $19.” Show potential clients how you can achieve results that matter to their business.

Step 5: Price Yourself Correctly

Pricing is a common question, and it will change as you gain more experience. The key is to structure your pricing with a 90-day review period. This gives you the opportunity to review the success of your campaign with the client and negotiate a higher management fee if warranted.

For smaller companies, I started with a base rate of $500-$750 per month with a 10-15% of media spend clause. As the business grew, so did my fee. For instance, one client started at $500 a month and eventually paid over $4,000 a month as we saw amazing results.