It’s a common scenario for any digital marketer. You’ve just stepped into a new role or have won a new freelance client and after logging in you’re greeted with your first look at an account that you’ll be responsible for managing.
As we all know, every account is unique in its own way. Budget levels can vary dramatically, each industry has a different set of metrics to work towards and many accounts have specific rules and processes that need to be followed to ensure everyone is on the same page about performance. While every account is different, the question marketers ask themselves on the first day is always the same; where do I start?
Luckily, there are a few actions to take which can help speed up the process of understanding a new account and identifying areas of opportunity to get the ball rolling as quickly as possible.
1) Look At The Big Picture
Whenever I’m faced with a new account my first action is always to look at top level performance over as long as a time period as possible. Zooming out and viewing trends over a long timeframe gives a good basic understanding of what to expect in terms of total spend & traffic, peak & quiet periods along with any anomalous data to dive deeper into. Understanding what to expect and when means you can quickly identify the most relevant areas for optimisation based on what’s likely to happen next.
2) Identify Your Main Goal
As spend increases, account complexity also tends to increase. A high budget account is likely to have several conversion goals depending on the business and the industry they operate in. However, more often than not, there’s one key conversion action that’s prioritised above the rest. Understanding the core goal of the account early on allows you to focus your efforts in one place and ensure that any initial optimisation is moving the account in the correct direction. Once this is taken care of, come back to the smaller goals which will support account performance.
3) Talk To The Experts
Just because you’re an expert marketer doesn’t mean you’re an expert in your client’s specific industry. Successful marketing is a team effort and who better to be part of that team than someone who works in that industry day in & day out? Asking your client for industry knowledge and context can seem daunting, but these conversations invariably lead to useful insights and open the door for optimisation opportunities that might have otherwise been missed. The marketer’s role is to translate business context into actionable strategy & tactics so the more context you have, the better your early optimisations will be.
4) Learn From Other’s Mistakes
Digital marketing is getting more competitive by the day. This presents a challenge for marketers, but it also provides a wealth of data to mine for optimisation. Every platform has specific tools you can use to view competitor keywords and ad copy or understand budget & bid strategies. Effective use of these tools allows you to quickly identify strategies that are working for competitors which you can then adapt and modify to suit your own activity. After all, why waste your own budget learning from mistakes when you can let your competitors do that instead?
The first day on a new account is always daunting but having a clear path towards understanding an account makes life much easier. Optimisation becomes more granular over time but the early priority should always be gathering context and understanding the general direction to move towards. With an understanding of overall trends, goals, business context and the competitive landscape, your first day should do a great job of setting you up for success.
To learn more about Scope Digital’s process for understanding new accounts, get in touch.