Within the Ad Ops community, the turnover of people coming in and leaving can be nonstop. It might seem like you are always training the newbie. Training new traffickers can be a daunting task if you approach your employees with an overload of information. The 5 steps below are guidelines we follow at Operative, that have proved to be incredibly beneficial to traffickers, as well as our customers.
Set the stage for what lies ahead
Learning to traffic is like learning a new language. And with that learning, there can be a fair amount of initial frustration. To combat this, communicate with your new trafficker throughout the entire training. Provide clear direction. Take things one step at a time and don’t overwhelm them. Always encourage questions! If they don’t feel like they can ask you questions continuously, then they will develop bad habits that could negatively affect your campaigns.
Reinforce the need for multitasking
Without the ability to manage several projects at the same time, your new trafficker will feel the weight of the pressure. At first, start them off with simple projects like QA’ing creative or setting up a single Ad in the Ad Server. After they grow comfortable with those tasks, and you are comfortable with their progress, add levels to their trafficking and so on. Soon enough they will be trafficking a small campaign without even realizing how much they accomplished in a short amount of time.
Attention to detail
A main component of our day-to-day work as traffickers is spent on the details of a request. Whether the details are simply the naming convention of a creative or the specific targeting that an entire campaign needs to achieve, the attention to detail is what sets apart traffickers. When starting out with a new trafficker, reinforce the importance of details. Slight pressure helps the traffickers learn faster because they are more sensitive to the task at hand.
Errors
Hmmm…errors. While this is a touchy subject with all traffickers, errors are inevitable and unavoidable because our job function is very hands-on and extremely manual. The challenge is making sure to move on afterward an error is made and learn from your mistakes. Much like a quarterback in football, throwing an interception is a momentary mistake but you have to get right back up, finish the game, and not dwell on it.
Last in line
Lastly, it is critical to alert your trafficker that he or she is the last person on the assembly line of implementing an ad and ensuring it delivers on the web site properly. What we do is considered the ‘finished product’ and with that, comes the need for increased visibility and accountability. As traffickers, we need to communicate, juggle tasks, receive instruction, give feedback, and finish the project at hand on time and without error.
Once you complete these tasks, take a step back, see how your new trafficker is doing and then get ready for that next training because there is always someone else is waiting in the wings.
Originally posted on the Operative Blog.