Charles
Bannister
Albany Park, Chicago, IL
After working freelance for a total of ~11 years my projects have been all over the shop. It keeps me on my toes. I sit somewhere between marketing and software, and most of my best work happens where the two meet. Here are the major threads:
I started out as a PPC Executive, and I've never really left. Google Ads is home turf, and I've run Display, Affiliates, Retargeting and paid social on Meta alongside it.
I've managed Google Ads accounts (amongst other things) consistently since ~2011. You can't beat the buzz of watching those numbers improve!
If the numbers are wrong, everything built on them is wrong too. I've set up a lot of conversion tracking (server side, or otherwise) with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, and I'm happy digging into why two reports disagree.
Then there's the reporting itself: Looker Studio dashboards, Google Sheets with Apps Script doing the heavy lifting, and plenty of analysis besides.
As an E-commerce Manager I got to see the other side of it all: margins, stock, staffing, ROI, scaling, the lot. I ran A/B tests (CRO) and learnt that a good campaign is only as good as the page and the product behind it.
HubSpot, email and the plumbing between them. Getting leads from the ad, to the CRM, to someone's inbox without anything falling through the cracks.
Google Ads
Microsoft Ads (Bing)
Amazon Ads
Meta
Google Merchant Center
Shopify
Squarespace
HubSpot
Google Analytics
Google Tag Manager
Search Console
Looker Studio
Google Sheets
Apps Script
AdEvolver
ShabbaThis is where it all began, and it continues to this day. My degree is in "Interactive Digital Media" which was essentially a Web & Graphic design degree. On the backend I've worked with Laravel & Wordpress (PHP), Express (Node.js), FastAPI, Django & Flask (Python). For the shop window, I've written a lot of vanilla JavaScript/TypeScript, but also worked extensively with libraries like Vue & React.
I'm ok with CSS, but if you're looking for a slick, well designed UI/UX I am not your man.
I have a decent amount of Google Cloud experience (APIs, BigQuery) however, I've used AWS far more. Within AWS, I rely on a lot of the classics: EC2, S3, Lambda, ECS/Fargate, SQS, SNS, WAF, CloudFormation, and more acronyms besides!
I've also worked with AWS's Step Functions as a workflow orchestration tool, as well as Prefect and Airflow.
Whilst I don't claim to be a DevOps expert, CI/CD via GitHub actions, Pre-commit checks, linting, automated testing, strong observability, etc. are a large part of every project I work on.
I got a job in PPC and immediately had access to all of this data! It needed processing, turning into reports, analysis, etc. and I reached immediately for Python. I've worked with Python (including Pandas, NumPy, Polars, etc.) every since - going on ten years.
As well as workflow orchestration, I've worked with Data Lakes and Data Warehouses, AWS Athena & RedShift, BigQuery, as well as DuckDB/Parquet workflows.
PHP
Laravel
WordPress
JavaScript
TypeScript
Node.js
Express
Vue
React
Python
FastAPI
Django
Flask
pandas
NumPy
Polars
MySQL
PostgreSQL
DuckDB
Parquet
BigQuery
Google Cloud
AWS
Docker
GitHub Actions
Prefect
AirflowThis falls in with my freelancer work, but it's worth its own section after three years of almost full time
It's my job to build tools and automations for their Paid Media team. It has spanned Google Ads Scripts, AI Systems & MCPs, Web Apps and Python tools - anything to make the ads more profitable, and the team more productive.
I've probably learnt more here than anywhere else, including university!
I've been working freelance since 2017, offering my services to businesses large and small.
See available for hire for what I get up to!
I started as a PPC Executive, then had a stint as a Commercial Analyst before settling as E-commerce Manager. I really enjoyed this job. It helped me understand the other side of it all - margins, stock, staffing, ROI, scaling, the lot.
It gave me experience with Google Ads, Affiliates, Display Ads, Tracking, Retargeting, A/B Testing (CRO), not to mention all of the reporting and analysis involved.
I made sure I had access to everything and automated as much as possible. Probably a little too much, in fact!
Charles went above and beyond as always!
Upwork client
These are genuine reviews, copied word for word, typos and all. They're a mixture of UpWork clients and people who've found me through my website.
Charles did a great job adhering to our timeline and getting the job done quicker than expected. He is great with Wordpress and google analytics. I trust him with all our web developer and optimizing needs!
Charles was fantastic to work with! He went above and beyond what I ask of him. He anticipated my needs and was able to solve problems before they arose.
He not only fixed our problems, but he gave us the tools to fix them ourselves in the future.
I feel like he cared how about me and my business getting our problem solved. Way more than what I asked for!
Thank you Charles! I look forward to working with you again in the future!
Charles' scripts are of excellent quality and save me a lot of time. The work is delivered beautifully. Charles is also very friendly. He offers an excellent service. I highly recommend Charles.
Charles helped me convert a single account script to an MCC script in no time! He also ensured that I could successfully implement the script in my accounts and was around to help me troubleshoot any issues that arose. I recommend his service!
Corrected all of our website issues and updated all of our information. Thank you Charles for always being there when we need technical help!
Charles went above and beyond as always! He helped restore our website and set us up with tracking for our website. He also finished the job in less than 24 hour which was fantastic so we did not lose any future customers while our website was down.
I really appreciate all the hard work and time you put into our website.
Charles is an honest web developer and I highly suggest working with him!
Amazing script... it's a game changer for our franchisee clients who are getting a ton of irrelevant search impressions/clicks with phrase match.
Thank you, Charles, for helping with all of our website needs! He goes above and beyond and always gives great suggestions on what will be the most efficient option to solve all of our web issues.
Our website transitions went smoothly thanks to Charles!
Quick and effective! Thank you Charles for helping us set us everything for our new business! I really appreciate all the help! He made the whole process simple and set our business up for success
I highly suggest all of Charles services!
Charles created a beautiful webpage for our business. It is modern and very professional; he really went above and beyond! He took extra time to add features and links to make the page stand out from our competitors
I highly recommend Charles services!
Awesome work with the Auto Negative Keywords Script!
Charles always goes above and beyond the call of duty! Thank you for all your assistance with our homepage edits and making sure our website is mobile friendly!
Charles handled the project quickly and efficiently. I feel very lucky that I found him ono upwork! He was able to make a change on our website in just a couple minutes.
I look forward to working with him on bigger projects in the future!
Charles was easy to work with! He communicated with me through the entire project updating me on progress or additional steps.
I highly recommend working with Charles! I look forward to working with him in the near future for all our web designer needs!
Your scripts have saved me so much time - huge thanks!
Charles was extremely helpful and got the job done in a timely manner!
Excellent developer. Looking forward to work with Charles in the future.
Your Negative Keyword script is awesome!
I spoke alongside Mike Rhodes, Nils Rooijmans, Martin Röttgerding, Mike Ryan and Frederick Vallaeys at The Script Day, a webinar series on managing Google Ads smarter, not harder. My session covered automating negative keywords with scripts.
My work was mentioned on Marketing O'Clock, the weekly digital marketing news podcast.
I'm a Community Hero in God Tier Ads, a community of Google Ads professionals, where I share scripts and tools.
I'm available for freelance projects, from web development and web apps to the systems behind them, especially where a business has an operational problem that needs a dependable system built around it.
What can I help with?
Pretty Pictures & Design: Anything heavily graphic design or art oriented, whether it's a beautiful website or graphics for print. This includes UX/UI design, logos, branding, anything like that. This stuff is a real craft, and it's worth hiring a professional.
Small business Brochure-type websites: there are people who have this down to a fine art. Use them, or maybe try AI or Squarespace.
I'm better at backends, services, tooling, connecting things together.
It might be:
If you've got a problem, we can work together to come up with a solution.
Then, I can build it in a reliable, maintainable manner.
Got a project, a problem or just a question?
It's tempting to just talk about music here.
If I had to take five artists to a desert island I'd probably take The Smiths, The Beatles, Sam Cooke, The Kinks...then probably something operatic or classical - it would be a nice change.
The second half of this album, in particular, is a masterclass
Sam Cooke's live version of Try a Little Tenderness is superb
Probably my favourite Smiths album, but it's all good.
I often attempt songs from these artists on my guitar to the dismay of my neighbours, dog and wife.
Frankie, the dog in question. Absolutely bonkers.
I'm also learning Spanish at a snail's pace. Yo se un pocito palabras (no idea if that's right), but I can't understand anything people say back to me, unfortunately.
I'm also into baking and growing herbs, though the twain seldom meet.
The herb thing is new. I currently have some Basil and Scallions peeking their heads above the soil and it's very exciting.
Plus just, ya know, watching Telly! Maybe it's boring, but a Tuesday eve with my wife, a glass of red (Garnacha) and an episode of Gogglebox is a real treat.
But enough about me!
Up the Pool!