While every PPC account is different, all accounts have weekly fluctuations in the time required to keep the account on track. We have all experienced this. One week, you are working overtime to launch a major initiative and optimize campaigns, but the next week your account is running flawlessly with little effort leaving you with a ton of downtime. Making effective use of the times when your account needs less of your time will make you invaluable account manager.
Where should you focus when you have some unexpected downtime? Below I’ve listed a few opportunities that have helped improve my long-term effectiveness as an Account Manager.
Automate What You Can
Everyone knows there is a massive upside to automating mindless tasks, like reports. Despite the obvious time-saving benefits, many Account Managers have not adopted automation tools that will make their lives easier. A situation often arises where an Account Manager will put off automating a report because they don’t have time to set it up ‘this week.’
While this logic seems counterintuitive, it makes sense that an Account Manager doesn’t want to add more work or complexity to a week where time is a scarce resource. It is for this reason that you should tackle this type of project on a week where you have more downtime. If a report or task is successfully automated, more time will be available every week. You will have more time each week to focus on exceeding goals, brainstorming new strategies, and exploring expansion opportunities rather than doing repetitive tasks.
Reevaluate Goals
Sometimes we get so focused on what is happening on a day-to-day basis within an account that we forget to take a step back and question if the overall direction of our daily work makes sense. It’s nearly impossible to be creative when your account performance is struggling and requires all of your available time and attention. This reality makes it extremely important make effective use of downtime.
Account downtime provides a great opportunity to get a fresh perspective on the direction of your account. Taking a step back allows you to evaluate goals and determine if they make sense from a PPC and business perspective. Setting realistic and productive goals will allow you to make clear, incremental steps toward success, while clearly demonstrating the value of PPC efforts to all stakeholders.
Test New Initiatives
In an ideal world, digital marketers should continually be testing new initiatives to gain knowledge and find new opportunities. The insights we gain from testing provide direction for future strategy. Unfortunately, the PPC world is not ideal and testing occasionally gets pushed to the back burner when more immediate action needs to be taken.
Using downtime to set up a new test will provide more levers to pull when making future optimizations. Testing initiatives can range from new ad copy to new a new ad platform, or anywhere in between. Regardless of what you are testing, clients or managers will be happy that you are continually moving the account forward.
De-Stress and Enjoy Your Time
It’s fair to say that almost everyone in the industry has stressed over their accounts at some point. Whether its dealing with clients or the seemingly infinite number of small details, we have something that pushes our stress button.
Be sure to leverage downtime to break away from the ever-present stressors that live in the PPC realm. De-stressing will positively impact your communication, creativity, and focus. There are many ways to go about this process. Finding a de-stressing technique that compliments your work habits will help make de-stressing part of your regular routine.
Concluding Thoughts
Taking advantage of downtime to pursue productive initiatives keeps clients happy while putting the account manager in a position of strength when the account activity inevitably ramps up. This is not an exhaustive list, but it should provide some simple ideas to stay on task when your account give you downtime.
