What do you do when a client gets in touch and says, “Hey, I want to do some ads tomorrow for this new promotion”.  How do you respond to the client and avoid being pulled in every direction?

I’ll give you the steps to handle impulsive situations like this one in this episode of Online Confidential, where I take you behind the scenes to talk about “Secret Ad Manager” business.

You’ve got that email, message in slack or DM in Facebook from a client who’s all fired up to get ads up and running stat!

They say,

“Hey, I want to get a promotion started tomorrow and I want to get ads launched asap”. 

What do you do?

Do you drop everything and get those new ads underway?

Well, you could… but here’s what I recommend you do instead to save yourself from going into a tailspin of stress and overwhelm.

Get clear on the client’s objectives

First of all, stay calm and schedule a chat with the client to discover what their goals are for the promotion. Now, I want to say I completely get where clients are coming from because they’re business owners. Sometimes we need to hustle to catch up on sales goals or perhaps they’ve got an ingenious idea that seems sure to work and speed to market is needed.

As the ad manager, what is the best way to manage impulsive requests like this from clients?

Be proactive and have a conversation with the client first so you understand their goals and if it’s possible, you can tailor an appropriate strategy for them.

Maybe they just need some retargeting campaigns to compliment an email strategy. Maybe they’re going to do a webinar in a week’s time to pitch a new product or to get more sales of a new product and they need to get in front of cold audiences.

Once you understand what’s required you’re in a better position to make an informed decision and set realistic expectations for the deliverables. Don’t feel obliged to say you can get their campaigns up and running right away.

Set the client’s expectations

Instead, you’ll be in a position to say,

“Okay great, I can see what you want to achieve. Give me 24 hours. I need to prioritize some of my other clients and get some things in order to give me capacity to do this for you. I’ll think through the strategy and the assets that you’re going to need. I’ll get back to you in 24 hours.”

Give yourself that space of time so you don’t feel pressured. You don’t want to feel like you’re under the pump and make promises you won’t be able to deliver on. It’s okay to say,

“Great idea. Give me 24 hours. I’ll get back to you.” 

Those 24 hours will be time to let you think through the campaign strategy, plan it out and identify what needs to be done. You might have to consider if it’s actually in scope for you to do the work.  If it isn’t, you’ll be able to have a conversation about the out of scope parts or even reply with,

“I’ll get a proposal prepared for you because the work you need is out of the scope of our current agreement.”

If the work is in scope and you’ve got the outline and plan, now it’s time to think about the strategy. What top of funnel ads will you need? What middle of funnel ads will you need? What bottom of funnel ads will you need?

Once you’ve mapped out the strategy you can go back to the client the next day and say,

“I’ve got the strategy planned out for you.  I can put it into the schedule and I’ll be able to do X, Y, Z.  So that I can do this for you, I’ll need these assets from you…”

You give them the list of assets and anything else you will need.  For example, you might want some email copy that you can use in the ads. If your client provides the ad copy, then you can let them know you need ad copy sent over for the different type of ads you’ve planned out, TOF, MOF and BOF, and the number of versions for each.

If you outsource copy for your ads, then you’ll need to get information from the client such as their sales page, and quickly get that over and written up for you.

Once you have all the assets planned and you know exactly what you need, get that information back to the client and say,

“Okay, so that I can get these ads underway and launched by [the timeframe you want] I will need these things back within the next 24 hours, by close of business on [Wednesday], so that the ads can be launched on [Friday].”

Ideally, you’ll give yourself a day to load things up and iron out any issues with the ads.  If they’ve given you some copy that might not be compliant or you find other issues, you’ve still got Thursday when you can get back to them with whatever needs to be fixed.  They might be missing their privacy policy link on their landing page which is a flag for getting their ads rejected by Facebook.

Since you’ve set the expectations from the start, you have the time to go over things and finalize any issues that may arise and have a pretty good shot at getting their ads underway on Friday or maybe launch them for Saturday.

Be firm on maintaining healthy boundaries

Don’t feel pressured. Even though your client may be feeling a bit of pressure to say, “We need to get these ads launched now”, take a breath. You’ve still got to look after your other clients as well so you need to make sure you’ve got space to go through the right steps and do a great job.

Also, make sure your client’s demands don’t derail your personal life. You might have plans for the weekend and family commitments.

There’s a saying “Don’t let someone else’s poor planning be your responsibility.”

The reality is, things happen very quickly in this online space. I’ve done it myself when I’ve wanted to get a campaign up and running quickly because it’s meant not missing an opportunity.  I’ve had an amazing team that’s been able to jump into action and get it done.

That’s a bit different than being an ad manager who serves multiple clients and you’ve got to juggle all the responsibilities for managing different client campaigns.

You need to make sure that each client is looked after and not let one unprepared client railroad performance on the others.

So take the lead with the client and set healthy boundaries.

First, schedule time to talk to your client. Understand what they want and get clear on what needs to be done.

Secondly, set expectations so they know you’ll get back to them in 24 hours. Give yourself the time to plan out the strategy. Provide the detail of the assets required so you can deliver what’s being asked for and don’t let your client’s request send you into a tailspin of overwhelm and stress or take over your life to get it done.

If you can see it’s out of scope let the client know to expect a proposal and quote detailing the scope of the work. By doing these steps you’re respecting your boundaries even if it’s a tight turnaround.

You might love working with your clients and serving them by doing the absolute best for them but you need to respect your boundaries first.  I know a lot of us wear our heart on our sleeve and it’s probably your first instinct to say “Yes” and get it done but that can build up resentment for you. It can also cause mistakes as you load up the campaigns and load up other people’s accounts.

You need to make sure you look after yourself, set healthy boundaries and give yourself the space to do even the high pressure jobs really well.

Next time you have a client come to you with a brilliant idea that they’re fired up to launch straight away, just remember this article. Bookmark it so you can come back to it when it happens.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. If you’ve got any questions feel free to send us an email success@socialcharlie.com or come and check us out on Facebook at Ad Manager Adventures.

That’s where all the fun stuff goes down for ad managers.