4 Mistakes All New Account Managers Make
Whether you work for an agency, or yourself, below are 4 mistakes all account managers will make, but can be easily avoided.
1. Over Promise: Under Deliver
When starting out with a new client, it is imperative to set the proper expectations. We all want to get off on the right foot with a new client, and sometimes that means guaranteeing better results that we know are capable for their niche focus. Often, when the sales rep is involved it is even easier to over promise and under deliver on results.Manage expectations:
You should always have a “kick off call” to get a better grasp of what is most important, results wise, to the client and this is the perfect opportunity to manage expectations. The Kick off Call is when you should gather information, for example: how many leads they typically get in a month, what their budget will be, WHO they want to target, and what sets them apart from their competition. Always communicate that starting an AdWords campaign will not be the “silver bullet” that will turn their business around. Like with any advertising, there will be a ramp up period, and it is important the client is prepared for that. Remember, no two campaigns run the same, so don’t set expectations for a new campaign based on past experience with a similar campaign.
2. Starting too Broad / Too Narrow
One of the challenges of starting a new campaign from scratch is finding a balance between too broad, and too narrow of a focus.
Beginning broad can be useful in a “catch all” approach to help gain more ways to target your audience and build a better keyword list. On the same token, it can also be a costly experiment. If you let your campaigns run too long without narrowing focus to find a happy balance you could blow through daily, and even monthly budgets much faster than intended.
Starting narrow, then building from the base is a good strategy if you’re in a hurry to launch your campaign. Keyword being START – if you leave a campaign too narrow you risk not spending at all. It is important to monitor traffic, or lack thereof, to see if you need to broaden your GEO, or keywords match types. Another reason to start narrow, then build is if budget is an issue. If you’re concerned with keywords being too expensive to run, or gain unwanted traffic easily, then starting narrow is a smart approach, but of course always will need tweaking along the way.
Whether starting narrow, or broad, it is important to find a balance once you have enough data.
3. Setting and Forgetting
Setting and forgetting a new campaign can be a costly mistake, particularly for a new client. If you do not set reminders to check your newly launched campaign the next day after review and approvals have been done by Google, you can miss easy to correct issues, such as: disapproved ads, conflicting negatives, bids set too high, or too low.
Set Reminders
Once you set your new campaign live, set reminders for the next day, a week after, and a month after. It is important to set reminders to check on settings such as, spend, bids, and search terms.
Setting and forgetting Is never a good idea in an AdWords campaign. Google is constantly adding new features and changing their policies. Additionally, ongoing optimizations such as, refreshing ad copy, and adding and removing keywords is essential to the success of the campaign.
4. Too Much, Too Soon
A common mistake with green account managers is making too many changes at once, or making changes too early after a campaign has launched.
What Worked? What didn’t?
A lot of optimizations are based on experimenting to see what works best, if too many changes are done at once it is impossible to know which change helped, or hurt the campaign. Some clients are pushy and struggle with letting go of control and will insist on doing things “their way.” It is important to remind them you are the expert and it is best practices to not make too many big changes all at once.
Give It Time
Some early maintenance is expected when launching a new campaign. Small changes such as: bid changes and adding negatives are expected optimizations to make within the first weeks of a launch. Larger changes such as: GEO changes, Landing Page changes, and adding or removing campaigns, are examples of changes that require more data to make an informed decision on. Allow your campaign to go through a ramp up period before deciding if something is or is not working. Also keep in mind there may be some seasonality with your campaign that requires more time than you’re allowing.
All account managers make mistakes, not just the new ones, but some are easy to avoid. Remember to be patient and let your account run before doing anything rash. Also, be patient with your client, they are trusting you with their business and need to feel confident you’re looking out for their best interest. Still have questions?
