Digital Ad Ops 101 For Sales Support Success # 1 - What is Ad Ops, Why is it Important, How to Set Early Expectations
If you are new to sales support then this is a great primer that will help you develop a positive relationship with your Traffickers, something that often isn't addressed in initial Sales Support Training.
If you are an experienced Campaign Manager or Coordinator, this guide may help repair issues you are currently experiencing, or provide insight from the Ad Operations perspective.
If you work in Digital Advertising as Sales Support, you may be confused or frustrated in trying to understand your Ad Ops team and how to successfully work with them to get sold campaigns launched, optimized or otherwise updated.
When you're Sales Support and you have to work with Ad Ops just remember that much of the frustration or anxiety you may experience is also being felt by your Traffic team.
So What is Ad Ops?
Ad Ops is the team responsible for actually launching digital advertising campaigns that have been sold by the Sales teams. The guiding principle for Ad Ops is to protect revenue that Sales has brought in-house, and to prevent degradation of the organizations advertising reputation. For example, Ad Ops configures the campaigns so shady, malware packed ads can't harm the Publishers audience and damage that relationship.
Ad Ops is able to:
- Execute Sold Campaigns across platforms, audiences, or experiences.
- Initiate optimizations based on the recommendations of the Sales and Inventory teams.
- Update orders to change out creative assets.
- Provide strategic guidance on RFP's to provide Sales with a clear understanding of what is and isn't possible.
This isn't by any means the complete list of what Ad Ops can do but only a consolidation of what it often is responsible for, this list can expand or contract based on the organizations their needs.
As Sales Support staff you may work in pre or post sales and will often be responsible for building the "insertion order," or the line items that Ad Ops will configure with settings and assets to launch onto the site or "set live". This is the part of the campaign life cycle where Sales Support and Ad Ops interact and communicate very frequently, and this is also where many misunderstandings and frustrations arise.
Ad Ops is a unique department that is critical to the success of their organization, yet ironically is often undervalued by Sales. However, with the continued advancement of Ad Technology like Programmatic RTB (real-time buying) and HB (Header Bidding), it's starting to become much more apparent just how necessary Ad Operations can be.
Why is Ad Ops Important?
The simple fact is that your organization can go out and sell 10 Million Federal Reserve Notes (FRN) worth of Campaigns and yet not see one single FRN realized if Ad Ops does not approve and execute on the agreement.
Again, with the guiding principle that Ad Ops exist to protect revenue, no one in that department is going to be interested in not executing these campaigns. However, technical issues do arise that could prevent execution, and there is always the worry that the Sales teams will go out and sell ad products or custom executions that cannot actually be done.
In these circumstances Ad Ops acts as the "Ad Police" for the Sales Support staff and can single-handedly delay your campaign from launching until the discrepancies are resolved. Think of Ad Ops like the light switch that turns on the ad money faucet and starts the sales commission rolling in.
If that light switch isn't flicked because you didn't speak to Ad Ops and tried to bully them into executing something they cannot do, you will quickly learn just how critical Ad Ops is to a healthy advertising ROI bottom line.
Now this is extreme stuff that doesn't happen often with the bigger publishers, but it does outline why you need to understand Ad Ops and how that understanding can translate to greater success for you and your Sales Support staff.
How to Set Early Expectations
So now you know what Ad Operations really is and why it's existence is important to you, and if you don't get it yet, show this article to someone on your Ad Ops team. They will surely be able to give your more information that will be specific to your organization.
So how can we set early expectations in order to best leverage the Sales Support/Ad Operations relationship in helping our organization succeed?
As crazy as it sounds, there really are a few simple steps you can take at the beginning of your time working with Ad Ops to ensure that you have a smooth experience for as along as your assigned to those accounts and Ad Ops Personnel.
When you start a new position that will require you to work closely with Ad Ops, have the company set up a lunch.
One of the first, and easiest, things you can do to develop a good relationship with Ad Ops is just to talk to them over a lunch. Find out where they worked previously and share with them your own professional history. This one tactic helps establish both you and your Ad Ops point of contact as human people, not just email names in a high volume list of emails. If you ever get an Ad Ops person to like you, you will be golden!
Learn the basics of the Ad Ops workflow
You won't need to know how Ad Ops does everything, but you should understand how Ad Ops can help you with your needs. Showing a desire to understand this process is important to most Ad Ops personnel, who are constantly training new Sales Support Staff on the fly. If you show an interest to have a better understanding of the procedures that directly impact on your workload, Ad Ops will appreciate the time you take. It means they won't have to constantly repeat themselves!
Ad Ops often employs Google Docs or individually designed tracking documents in order to maintain positive control over their campaigns. By learning how your Ad Ops department does it, you'll be able to better understand how you can help make that process more seamless. A more seamless campaign execution means less errors and more revenue protected, leading to higher commissions for Sales.
On a side note: those who understand the nature of the Ad Ops workflow are better able to align with their trafficker and get faster turnaround. Ad Ops wants to execute, so any sales staff that is able to integrate into a traffickers way of doing things is bound to have a much easier experience.
Internal Vs. External Clients
Consider this - you are actually an internal client to Ad Ops like the advertiser is an external client to you. The difference here is that your external client is "never wrong." This isn't true for the internal client, sales. But that's okay, because we're here to protect Sales by being the Ad Police.
The trick here is to not take anything personally when it comes to Ad Ops. Everything is very technical in an Ad Operations set up, so there is never a "maybe," it's either possible or not. Don't believe that you are the client that can never be wrong, believe that even if you are wrong, Ad Ops is there to prevent any major damage. Appreciate that safety net, maybe by dropping off muffins or donuts for their team, unexpectedly. Alcohol works even better, and giftcards at holiday time are the best.
Understanding Motivations
Of course it's important that your campaign is executed and set live immediately, there's money at stake! But you shouldn't expect Ad Ops to feel that same urgency. It isn't because we don't care, it's because we have a different set of incentives and motivations.
What motivates Ad Ops is the protection of revenue and the successful execution of campaigns. That could mean so much that! But what it doesn't mean is that Ad Ops is keenly aware or interested in the commission of Sales people. It doesn't even cross the mind of the average Ad Ops professional. It isn't that they don't care, it's just that they aren't incentivized by commission and so aren't liable to execute anything just to assure commission is generated.
Similarly, sales is not really incentivized to understand Ad Ops any further than necessary to sell ad products to advertisers. This is okay, but it does necessitate mutual understanding in order to avoid conflict.
Conclusion
So now that you know what Ad Ops is, why it's important and how to set early expectations with your Ad Ops team to generate success, you're ready to really engage with the Ad Operations department.
Ad Operations isn't a dark place where you can dispose of rings of power, it's a team of people who are just as interested in success as you are. Because of the differing motivations and incentives it can be easy to lose sight of that fact, but it's true.
Ad Ops isn't out to get you, though it can feel like that sometimes!
By understanding this, you can start to understand how your work is translated into action and how you can refine your pipeline so that you're never overwhelmed.
But there's still a lot to learn about how you can make your Ad Ops relationship the cornerstone of your success in your role.
In an upcoming post, I will speak more granularly about Kickoff and Launch emails, and how those simple documents can reduce a company's Ad Ops error rating to near nothing. We'll also learn how terms on one side of the house can mean something very different to Ad Ops, and how to mitigate any confusion that might create.
If you are sales, or you know anyone who works with an Ad Ops team, you may want to send them this link. Every resource helps!
I have been working as an Ad Operations professional for over 4 years. Wtih Viacom, A+E Networks, NBC and Conde Nast, I have executed campaigns across every available platform, built an in-house Ad Ops team from the ground up, and performed Quality Assurance checks and training. I am currently a Senior Video Specialist and hold an IAB certification.
I am writing this series because I have not seen enough content covering this topic, despite the fact that every organization that participates in digital advertising has both Sales and Ad Ops teams.
Please leave any comments or questions you may have, and remember to forward this link to your sales friends who may be having a hard time with their Ad Ops department. They'll thank you later.
And make sure to follow for more on this and other subjects!