Drive Operational Efficiency Up!
Margins is a buzz word. It is a quest. It is an altar at which many in the industry find themselves worshiping.
In this economic environment, the million dollar question is: can the margins be driven without impact on client satisfaction? One way to approach driving margins is to knock on the client’s door and ask them for more money. The other approach is to focus on your operational efficiency and control the cost of quality, thereby driving up margins.
In this post we will talk about a few areas that need more focus in the Ad Ops world.
The 50-50-90 rule
Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.
How often does it happen that Sales sells a product that’s overbooked? Or your operations team traffics key words that don’t exist?
Standardization is the key. It makes the process repeatable and prevents mistakes from recurring. Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Trafficking Guidelines, Process Documents, Workflow diagrams, etc. help initiate and encourage standardization. Updating these documents frequently and training your resources to effectively use them are equally as important as creating the documents.
Honk if you love peace and quiet
Case in point: in many shops, the situation often occurs that a web developer makes some technical change on the site that Sales or Operations folks have no clue about. Communication is name of the game. Define a clear process and path of communication that will ensure accountability in your organization. This will keep everyone up-to-speed on all developments and changes.
In many cases web masters/developers do not know the importance of proper site tagging – this results in incorrect inventory projections, delivery of campaigns and problems for troubleshooting. In this scenario, if there is a defined communication and approval process between the relevant stakeholders (i.e., Sales and Operations) it is likely to reduce potential business conflicts up to 40%.
A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning
Late creative, third party discrepancy, inventory management, campaign pacing, etc. are common issues for all publishers. Proactive planning and risk management are key. “We are in a rush and don’t have time to do all of this work!!” is a typical scenario. The approach should be to implement processes that force you to follow certain risk management and planning steps upfront. A simple example of this would be a process that requires an inventory check before selling a product.
In God we trust; all others must bring data!
It’s a dead horse that gets beaten all the time. Collect data around your operations, determine how you measure performance and use it as a feedback loop to improve your processes. Data collection is often difficult — either it’s insufficient or there’s just too much of it and no one is sure about how much of it to trust. Make data “simple” and “connectable” – it is key to ensuring you can effectively use it to make sound business decisions.
Final words:
Some companies have successfully deployed structured workflow management by implementing a unified technology platform (such as Operative Dashboard) to achieve efficiency throughout their operations. Partnering with an expert who can provide a bird’s eye view may bring new perspectives and clarity around ways in which to streamline processes and increase these efficiencies.
Being successful in today’s complex, competitive environment means effectively balancing customer experience with operational efficiency. We’ll look forward to taking further deep dives into this subject in future posts in response to your comments.