3 Habits Every Successful Ad Manager Needs

3 Habits Of A Successful Ad Manager
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[00:00:00] I want you to picture this, you're managing ad campaigns, your clients are raving about you, and your results are through the roof. You're finally able to quit your nine to five, be at home with your little ones, maybe pay off that house or other debt, student loans, go on that Disney vacation without putting it on the credit card.

[00:00:21] It sounds like a dream, right? It's not just luck or talent that gets you there. It's about cultivating the right daily habits. And that's what this episode is all about. So let's jump on in. 

[00:00:35] Welcome back to the Serve Scale Soar podcast, the go to place if you want to start. Grow or scale your ad management business as a freelancer. I'm Brandi and today I'm diving into the crucial topic of habits and what habits every single successful ad manager puts into their daily, weekly, [00:01:00] monthly routines.

[00:01:02] So if you're ready to really make 2024 your best year and scale your business or heck, even get started. This episode is for you. We're going to dive into the three success habits that every single ad manager I know has. And, but remember it's three. Kiss. Keep it simple, sweetie. We don't need to focus on everything.

[00:01:24] We just need to focus on those little things that move the needle. So many times we add. so much to our to do list and we have it a mile long and we never complete anything and we never fully feel like we're successful in our business and it's because we're worried about the to do list or the big wins instead of focusing on.

[00:01:45] The daily habits and activity that let us hit our goals. And that's what this episode is about. How can we develop daily, weekly, and monthly habits that you can incorporate into your business that are going to make big needle moving [00:02:00] success. James Clear and Atomic Habits. Big fan of that book. He says habits are the compound interest of self improvement.

[00:02:07] Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long run. . What if we have focused on just being 1 percent better than yesterday instead of a hundred percent better than last year, you'd see a big movement and how you show up in your business, how you show up in your daily life and the overwhelm disappears.

[00:02:29] Cause you're focused on three things that you're going to do every single day.

[00:02:32] I think we should talk about before we jump into this week's episode is it's 2024 y'all.

[00:02:37] We haven't had a podcast episode since. It's August. It is now January. I took a little sabbatical, because honestly, I just didn't know how much it was going to be having a baby and breastfeeding and trying to run this business. Because when I started my business before, Riley was five months old and I had just stopped breastfeeding and my business wasn't the same size as it is now.[00:03:00] 

[00:03:00] And we didn't have a podcast and we weren't focused on All these moving parts and now we are. So the podcast was the one thing that I had to put on hold in order for 2023 to still be successful for us and for me to be able to cut overwhelm. And so I'm so excited to be back and it's just going to be such a good year.

[00:03:21] We have so many episodes planned, so you better believe that every single Tuesday we will be hitting you in your.

[00:03:31] So if you love this episode, make sure to leave us a review, Spotify or Apple, we so appreciate those. I read them every single time and it just helps our podcast continue to grow. And that's what one of our focuses. Is in 2024 is for the podcast to grow. 'cause this is the best way for you to get free actionable content that you don't have to pay for.

[00:03:52] So if you wanna give back, the best way to give back is just by leaving a rating or a review. It's so, so appreciated. Okay, so let's [00:04:00] jump in and start talking about what are these three habits? That every successful ad manager has, and I want you to stay with me even if you're not an ad manager and you're doing another service, these three habits or are things that you can incorporate in your business as well and make you successful.

[00:04:18] So if you're like Preya, I'm not an ad manager. Don't worry, my friend, still stay with me and you incorporate these in your business. Okay. So the first one that every successful ad manager and honestly, freelancer, I know, makes part of their weekly daily habit is skill development. How are you developing and cultivating your skills?

[00:04:41] This is like continuing education. If you are a doctor, an attorney, a teacher, they all have to do continuing education every single year. And they have to have so many credits to stay, keep their license. So why are we not focused on this? And I'm not talking about [00:05:00] buying courses just to buy courses. I'm talking about how can we develop the skills that we need right now.

[00:05:05] Just in time learning. So, it's so, so, so important. Even me. I teach so many people. hundreds of people how to run ads. I'm in accounts. I still have to develop my skill development. Even at this point when I've been running ads now for four years, I don't let this stuff slide because it's one of those things that this is crucial.

[00:05:31] For our success and what I want us to look at is three areas of skill development that we can work on. It's not just the skill of whatever service you're running. It's also the skills that go along with that and your interpersonal skills. So the first skill set that we can work on is actually meta ads.

[00:05:52] So, as an ad manager, you know, it's an ever changing environment. There's always updates happening and we have to stay on top [00:06:00] of that. So one of my favorite places to do that is through Meta and you can go and look up their official updates where you can get their newsletters. Follow them on Instagram, on Facebook and get those updates on what's going on with Meta.

[00:06:17] You can also set up Google trend alerts where you get an email, you put in keywords. So it's Google keyword alert or something like that. And you go and I have like Meta, Facebook, Instagram. And so each day, any articles that are published on these platforms. About these platforms. I get a summary of and I can quickly skim through and see if there's any updates I need to be aware of.

[00:06:40] This is a really great way. Another one is subscribing to our email list We're gonna start sending out in our wins Wednesday newsletter. There will be a marketing minute section where we're going to talk about any updates or cool marketing tips. So if you're not already on our newsletter, go on and get subscribed to that.

[00:06:58] And then joining programs that [00:07:00] keep you updated. One of the biggest perks that I always tell our students inside of conversions for clients is like you pay and then you get all the updates. Like you're not having to sign up for all these. You're not having to do it. I'm posting constantly our updates in there.

[00:07:14] So joining programs that are going to help you stay updated and then listening to podcasts. That's another great way to stay up to date with what's happening. And so when we're thinking about how can we stay up to date, it's little habits. So how can we make these a habit? One of them would be doing the keyword trends where you get the email each day and then each day you just read through those and see that could be a habit.

[00:07:40] Maybe it's listening to a podcast and here's the deal, y'all. I am someone who I, since having Bodhi, there's very few times where I can listen to a podcast all at once. But even if I can get 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 10 minutes there, that may take me all week to get through a 30 minute podcast.

[00:07:58] But I still am [00:08:00] doing it. So how can we make this a habit where we're listening to podcasts, we're subscribing to email and this shouldn't take up all your time. This is like maybe 10, 30 minutes a day where we're putting this habit in, putting it in your calendar that this is what happens, creating a reoccurring task inside of your ClickUp or Asana or Trello or whatever you're using that we're working on developing our skills.

[00:08:27] Okay. The second place we can develop our skills is with our marketing skills or those skills that are not necessarily like running ads, but they go hand in hand with it. And so like for meta ad managers, this would be analytics, copywriting, graphic design, mini chat, funnels, sales psychology. The better you get at these other skills that aren't.

[00:08:54] Exactly meta ads, but they go into it, the better ad manager you will be. [00:09:00] And hopefully what we want to get and what we teach in conversions for clients, mentorship and certification is this whole next level of being a strategist. And having like these other skills and that's what we teach in there is these monthly power strategy sessions where we go deep on a funnel or maybe graphic design or copywriting or analytics and tracking.

[00:09:23] So where can we get these? Also books. Books are one of my favorite because when we're looking at these marketing skills, these aren't something that are ever changing. These are things that are like age old principles. And yes, we're going to have to have like, Updates as time goes, but there's still principles, and principles don't change.

[00:09:42] So, a habit that I'm committed to, in 2024 and when I started in December of 2023, so I could already be in that habit, is reading ten pages of nonfiction every single day. So adding that in and for me, it's right before bed or maybe when [00:10:00] I have a second between calls and that takes about 20 minutes. And so picking up these skills.

[00:10:06] Some of my favorite books is Influence. That's a really good one when it gets into sales psychology and how people think. Another one that's great is any of Russell's, um, so Traffic Secrets, Dot Com Secrets. Those are classics. They're so good. There's so many marketing books and so, or copywriting books, sales psychology, all of these things are gonna help you.

[00:10:29] So making the habit to read 10 minutes or 10 pages per day. Maybe for you it's five pages, but how can you be honing in on those marketing skills? THen the next one part of developing. Your, skill development is personal development. This goes hand in hand as a business, as an entrepreneur, you have to be dedicated to your personal development.

[00:10:55] And some of those areas for personal development could be money management, habits, [00:11:00] stress management. Growth mindset. , and I'll tell you about my five non negotiables for this year. But like for money management, if you're struggling with that, we've had Mel on the podcast and his podcast talk about how we can manage our money.

[00:11:14] So, and then you could check out his podcast. Also the book Illusion of Money is a really, really good one if you need help with money mindset. Habits. We have James Clear, Atomic Habits. The power of habits is another really good one. That was the first habits book I ever read. Then stress management. For that, it doesn't have to be like more books than consuming yoga, meditation, journaling.

[00:11:37] One of my favorite activities that I just got one for 2024, a new one is the five minute journal. So each morning when I wake up, here we go. And then each night before I go to bed. I journal and it gives you the prompts. So that's a really great one. Incorporating yoga or meditation into your day for stress management.

[00:11:57] That's another way. How can we add these little habits? [00:12:00] Maybe it's just the five minute journal. Maybe it's meditating. One to three times a week or something. We have to start small. Don't go in and go like I'm going all out into doing, I've never journaled before but I'm gonna do it seven days a week.

[00:12:14] That may not work. We have to start small, start incorporating these. And so for me this year my five non negotiables that I have that kind of like go hand in hand with all of these is one, I'm gonna read ten pages of nonfiction every single day. Two, I'm going to work out for 45 minutes every single day.

[00:12:34] Maybe it's a 45 minute walk some days, maybe it's weightlifting, maybe it's the Peloton, but I'm, that's one thing that I really want to get into is making my personal health a priority this year. And then the other ones, one is five daily connections. So I teach this and we're going to talk more about this, so I'm not going to spoil it yet.

[00:12:53] But five. Five daily connections every single Monday through Friday. Then my other one is

[00:12:59] [00:13:00] I'm going to post on social media. So I want to show up and I know for a long time you've heard me say that social media isn't like should be a priority. It's part of, , passive marketing. And that's true. But where we are in our business now is I can start doing a little bit more passive marketing.

[00:13:18] And so posting on social media, showing up, but only on Instagram. So I'm not tackling all the platforms. I'm showing up on one platform consistently. And then my last non negotiable that I will be doing every single day is

[00:13:33] Reviewing my goals. Three to five times per day. And so with that, I'm going to keep my goals in front of me and I, I don't know if I've set it here yet, but we have a big goal this year. It's 2 million in revenue with 50% profit, which means we're gonna help 722 people become ad managers.

[00:13:53] And that's freaking exciting. But in order to keep that in front of me, I have to be reviewing it. and reviewing [00:14:00] it daily. So those are my five non negotiables this year. That will be my habits reading 10 pages. Um, I'm going to be doing a series of nonfiction posting on social once a day, making five new connections a day, reviewing my goals and 45 minutes of exercise.

[00:14:18] And so those fall into meta updates because I will, I get those automatically sent to me. My marketing skills will come from the 10 pages I'm reading. The personal development comes from the working out and then we're going to get into the , the third one, which will be part of my marketing, which is the five connections.

[00:14:39] So we'll talk more about that when we get into that one. Okay. So the first one that we have to make a habit is skill development. And there's three areas of skill development, meta ad updates, marketing skills, and personal development. Now don't try to incorporate all of these at once. Pick one that you want to go in.

[00:14:56] Make a small habit around that and then you can [00:15:00] always add as that one becomes a habit. 

[00:15:02] Okay, so now that we've talked about the first habit that we need to develop, which is skill development, we have to talk about the second one, which is effective client communication. The number one complaint I hear from consultant clients is that the reason that their ad manager didn't work out or they're not happy with them or actually any freelancer in this case is because of poor communication.

[00:15:29] It's very rarely that I hear that it's like, it was just, they did a bad job. I mean, of course that comes up sometimes. They didn't get the results they wanted. They didn't set expectations, but a lot of times it's poor communication skills. So we need to become masters of communication and there's a lot of ways to do this.

[00:15:48] It's part of the skill development as well. And one thing that I think everyone should focus on is how can we learn to be better communicators? And a lot of that is [00:16:00] listening, but then it also comes down to setting expectations. And so one of the best tips that I can give you about better communication is when you start working with a client is we need to set expectations in the beginning and not just set expectations, but stick to what we told them.

[00:16:23] So if we say that we don't communicate on the weekends, then we don't communicate on the weekends. If they slack you and you're like, but brainy, I'm just sitting on the couch. It doesn't matter because soon as you break that expectation, then their expectation just change. They think now they can slack you on the weekends and you're going to communicate.

[00:16:42] So in the very beginning, we need to set. I'm going to show you how to set expectations, but not only set them, stick to them, and that's really, really important. If you could do this one habit of just sticking to the expectations that you set for clients around communication, you would see a lot better results for your [00:17:00] clients and they would refer you more.

[00:17:01] It's crazy how it works, but you have to be firm on the expectations you set. Also as an ad manager, we have to set realistic result expectations. If a client says that they want to get 10, 000 a month, but they only want to spend 2, 000. That may not be a great thing to be like, yeah, we'll totally do it.

[00:17:24] And I'm always about like, we don't guarantee results. And so I always think about it when I'm watching Selling Sunset or Million Dollar Listing and they go and they are gonna give a quote for a house. Like, how much would you put it on the market? And you can tell that the homeowner is interviewing multiple different people because they want to see Probably who's going to tell them the most money and that's not always the best.

[00:17:49] And so the real estate agents that are really young and green and they're just starting out and they want a listing. If the client says they want the house for 50 [00:18:00] million, they'll say, yeah, I think we can get 50 million. And then you have one of the more established real estate agents that they don't have to have this business.

[00:18:09] They already have other business. They're well established and they know it's more about getting the client. Selling the house fast than selling it for the most and with that they'll tell them like I don't think you can get the house For 50 million. I would listed it 39, 900 and You can see that the client isn't happy but they respect that and do they always get the client?

[00:18:33] No But the funny thing is a lot of times that person comes back around and then hires them again because They didn't get the results with the real estate agent that over promised So here's what I want you to do

[00:18:50] Be firm on your expectations. Make sure that they are realistic because the best thing you can do is under promise and over deliver. It's [00:19:00] really hard to do that when you're already over promising. So in the beginning. , we want to set how we're going to communicate, how often we're going to communicate, what platform are we going to communicate on, but we also need to set realistic results and expectations for clients.

[00:19:19] And then we want to stick with how often we're going to communicate and what tools. So some of the tools that you can use to communicate. Or Slack, email, and Voxer. There's a ton of other ones. Go with whatever you want, but stick with one. Don't let communication happen all over the place. It needs to be streamlined.

[00:19:39] Are you going to use Slack? Are you going to use email? Are you going to use Voxer? Whatever you decide is fine, but stick to that one platform. Don't let communication happen on all platforms. Also, part of communicating is the results and the tracking. So how often are you reporting? Is it weekly? Is it bi weekly?

[00:19:58] Is it monthly? [00:20:00] And we'll have a whole other episode on reporting, but that's important to tell them from the beginning, like, this is how often we'll be reporting. This is how I do your reports. That way they know what the communication looks like. Are you holding calls with them? , there's a lot of opinions around how often you should hold, Hold calls with clients and we'll have another episode coming up on that.

[00:20:21] But in this sense, we just need to be communicating like this is how often we communicate. This is for how long each call is. This is what we discuss on those calls. Once again, it's really about setting expectations. And then the final thing I want you to know about this is Is it outlined in your contract?

[00:20:40] This needs to be in your contract, how you communicate, how fast you get back to people, how many calls you'll be having with them, what method you'll be using to communicate. This is something really, really important that not enough people have in their contract that I would highly suggest you putting in there.

[00:20:57] Because once again, it's about setting [00:21:00] expectations from the beginning. Okay, so that is our second habit that we need to develop is setting expectations with clients and communicating. Be effective communicators and find books, resources, podcasts that teach you how to be better communicators. This will serve you.

[00:21:21] So much. In college , we had to have a presentation that was a verbal presentation every single class, even for bad men and y'all. We had to present and it had to be verbal in front of the whole class. And what that did is it was teaching us communication skills.

[00:21:39] skills , not backing down, setting expectations, finding our voice, we will, our clients will be happier. you will be happier and we will run better businesses. Okay, so, so far we [00:22:00] have talked about our first two habits that we need to develop, which is skill development, communication development, our communication, and then our third one, this is like the most important one, is our Active Marketing Minutes.

[00:22:16] So I have a whole podcast on active and passive marketing. It's episode 25. So if you go to brandimowles. com slash 25, it will take you to the Active Marketing Minutes podcast. Or you can just go here, scroll down to episode 25 and find that episode.

[00:22:33] If you want to know how effective your marketing currently is, I want you to open up your calendar, whether that's physical, digital, and I want to see how many discovery calls you have on your books right now. Like really, look it up. How many discovery calls do you have on your books right now? And my guess is the majority of you.

[00:22:56] And so we need to have our books full of discovery calls. [00:23:00] And now, of course, if you're already at capacity, you're going to have less, but you should still, even if you're at capacity, you should still have two to three discovery calls on your books every single month. You can put these people on wait lists.

[00:23:11] We want our pipelines to be full. And so even if you're completely full, you should still be having discovery calls. And so if right now your calendar is looking a little blank, that's okay. That's okay. We can change that with habits. But what I want you to know is 80 percent of your marketing time.

[00:23:29] Should be spend in active marketing. What is active marketing? This is where we're reaching out to people to potentially become clients. Or we're reaching out to past clients asking for referrals. Or we're on a discovery call. Or we are going to a live event and meeting people and introducing ourselves, us reaching out to potential clients.

[00:23:52] That is active marketing. Passive marketing is posting on Instagram. Now you see that and it's other things. [00:24:00] Make sure to check out that. , podcast episode, but you see that I said, 80 percent of your marketing time should be spent in active marketing. So that doesn't mean that if you love posting on Instagram, 20 percent of the time, that's what you could be doing, but 80 percent should be active marketing.

[00:24:19] And that's why I was telling you one of my, , daily habits, my non negotiables for this year is five new connections per day. That's part of active marketing. And with that will come clients, will come collaborations, will come referrals. That's the magic of creating little habits and in, , conversions for clients, mentorship.

[00:24:39] We call this 15 and 30 and it's a number we track. It's a number we celebrate and it's all about making connections and doing it in 30 minutes per day. If you made five new connections per day for five days a week, that's 25. New connections a week. That's a [00:25:00] hundred connections per month. If you were making a hundred connections per month, how many new clients do you think you'd have?

[00:25:09] Think about that. The marketing problem that a lot of freelancers, ad managers, service providers have, is they're just not making enough connections. And these connections can come from LinkedIn. Facebook, Instagram, cold calling, cold emailing, DMing, , going to a live event and meeting five new people, getting their information. It can look like a lot of things. And inside of conversions for clients, we have the 10 ways to lay in clients. And this is where we really teach you how to do this and how to make these daily connections.

[00:25:44] But the important thing that it's just part of your habits that you create. I've always said that relationships over revenue. I think that building connections is the most Important part of a small business and not enough people are [00:26:00] doing it.

[00:26:00] You're not making enough connections and then you're thinking that your marketing's not working. And it's not that it's not working, it's just you're not making enough connections and we have to track this. So it's not as much as making the five connections, but we also have to track it so we know like, okay, I did this Monday through Friday, made 25 new connections.

[00:26:18] Awesome. Now I can follow up with anyone that I didn't hear back from and we create systems for this and we have all this outlined in conversions for clients mentorship. And so are you making five new connections a day and out of all these habits that I'm giving you, this is the habit that if you were like, I have to create one habit this year, this is the habit that I would say, this is your one.

[00:26:42] This is your one habit that can take your business from maybe one or zero clients to having a full roster of clients and hitting all your goals. Because one thing that people don't do is they're not consistent. And if you are consistent with making five new connections a day, you will [00:27:00] have a thriving business, a thriving business.

[00:27:03] So why in the world wouldn't you do this? If this is the one habit that you focus on in 2024. Why the heck wouldn't you do this? So that is your third habit that successful ad managers have. The three habits that we want to go into our business having. Is how are we going to develop our skills? How are we going to communicate with clients and our active marketing minutes?

[00:27:30] If you focus on those three things this year, I guarantee you will have your best year ever guarantee you. If you make active marketing, five new connections a day, your habit, you will have your best year ever. It's incredible. What little tiny things can do five new connections a day. What that would do for your business, having effective client communication.

[00:27:52] I was just talking to someone the other day and they told me that they had an issue with communication and they lost five clients [00:28:00] because of it. They've since fixed that and now their clients are staying with them. So that one thing could make them a lot of extra money, skill development, getting better at your craft that will only make people want to stay with you.

[00:28:14] Because people are paying for results. That's why you get to charge more as an ad manager because you get people results. And so in order to continue to get people results, you have to be on top of your skill development. These three habits, if you make them part of your daily, weekly, and monthly routine, 2024 will be.

[00:28:33] A freaking amazing year. So what I would love for you to do, because I love for this podcast to be actionable, is right now, I want you to pick one of these three areas that you're going to focus on in 2024. Like I said, don't do it all at once. Maybe you take my five non negotiables. If you want them, take them, make them yours.

[00:28:52] Tag me, let me know that those are your five. I want to see them or tag me and what your non negotiables are. What are your habits [00:29:00] that you're developing in 2024 on Instagram? At Brandi Mowles, I would love to know what are your habits that you're focused on in 2024 and which area can you improve on the most?

[00:29:12] So if you're ready to go deeper in these topics, head to brandimowles. com slash ad training, all one word, A D T R A I N I N G ad training and register for our next live training 

[00:29:26] I'm going to need to go deeper on any of these topics, head down to brandimowles com slash ad training and register for my next free training. And I cannot wait to see you in there. So my friends go out, serve your clients, scale your business, and soar into the success you deserve. I'll see you next week.