When times are tough, it's essential to keep your ad operations budget in check. However, this doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice quality or performance. In fact, improving hiring and training of your ad operations team can help ensure both of these things. Here are some tips for finding and hiring the best candidates.
The importance of hiring great ad operations candidates
Look for remote talent. Not only does your talent pool widen, but the cost to hire a great candidate decreases outside of the US. Try to use a service like Upwork or HirewithGrit.com (head hunter that won’t charge you fees indefinitely) to find qualified candidates overseas. If you don’t have access to company recruiting databases or job boards, consider reaching out to industry associations or other business organizations for leads on qualified candidates (ie. Admonsters or Adexchanger).
When looking for the right hire(s), here are a few questions to ask yourself about the candidate:
1. Does this person have relevant experience in ad operations?
2. Is this person a quick learner? With all of the ad platforms out there, chances are they haven't used the same set of tools you use. They need to learn quickly.
3. Is this person detail-oriented?
4. Is this person technical and able to work independently?
5. Is this person a good communicator? Even more important if they're working remotely.
6. Is this person coachable and willing to take feedback?
7. Is this person a team player?
The importance of training ad operations teams
In an economic downturn, it is important to have a trained ad operations team in order to keep your business afloat. A well-trained team can save you time and money by ensuring that your ads are executed correctly and efficiently. Additionally, a trained team can help promote your brand more effectively, which can be crucial in times of economic difficulty when customers are more likely to churn. It's important to focus efforts on both the employee onboarding process and continued mentorship from more senior ad operations folks.
The importance of keeping ad operations teams happy and motivated
When it comes to running an ad ops team, keeping your team happy and motivated is key when they're having to perform lots of repetitive tasks. Here are four ways to do just that:
1. Hire the Right People and foster a culture of ownership: When looking to hire for your ad operations team, make sure you are hiring the right people for the job. Give folks ownership over specific projects like cookie IDs, finding a new DSP, or automating a task like ad screenshots (duh, use Ad Reform).
2. Encourage Creativity: One of the most important aspects of creating successful ad campaigns is creativity – encourage your team members to express themselves freely and experiment with new ideas! This will help ensure that your campaigns stand out from the crowd and perform better.
3. Build a team of experts: Everyone on the team should be an expert in something. This can be cultivated by creating a culture of ownership (see above). People in the organization should know what each ad ops team member is great at and people should come to them for knowledge on those topics.
4. Keep them Motivated: Keeping morale high during times of economic downturn isn’t easy – but it’s essential if you want your ad operations team to produce high-quality campaigns that will reach their target audience. Try implementing fun activities into their daily routine (like contests or game nights) or rewarding them when they meet specific goals (such as exceeding budget estimates). When there’s a tool that makes their life easier, buy it. Build a list of those tools with training links and share other free resources that can save them time (ie. PreviewAds.com) Automation indirectly makes teams more motivated because they're not stuck in the slog of tedious tasks.
Efficiency through automation
The benefits of automating your ad operations are increased accuracy, scalability, faster turnaround time, and a more motivated team. Look for solutions that have these key features: customizable, multiple output formats, and robust reporting capabilities.
Implementing an automated solution requires a bit of upfront effort but can save you time in the long run. Make sure you have the necessary training and management tools in place to keep your team on track. Look to automate ad screenshots for direct or programmatic campaigns, ad QA, ad tag creation, reporting, and anything else that's costing your team more than 2 hours per week.