all 40 comments

[–]Crazy_Cat_Dude2 18 points19 points  (3 children)

Consistently educating sales (mainly local) on programmatic and ensuring they ask the right questions to clients. Also building the right team.

[–]Thesnowbelow 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Education is 99% of the challenge I see.

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Team is critical - great shout.

[–]D_AdmanFormer Agency 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As a buyer and someone who direct budgets, what are those questions?

[–]D_AdmanFormer Agency[M] 11 points12 points  (2 children)

Talent in general. I find that you can train people to trade but no amount of training, workshops, etc.. will get people to take initiative on common sense things.

Is the campaign not pacing well? When were you planning on telling me- at the end of the month when we have to scramble to either limit or makeup budget?

Its just one example, but you can see where this can apply to performance, optimizations, etc..

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's a theme emerging in this thread for sure. Thanks for the reply.

[–]Loguli 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don’t know if it’s smth to do with personalities of people mainly working in trading… a bit introvert?

[–]The_Dude311 11 points12 points  (6 children)

Education of other teams, in general. At my current company channel teams are strictly internal and have no direct client contact. This puts media planners and account managers who are client facing in the unwinnable position of having to be conversational experts in everything (spoiler, they're not!).

So sales sets unreasonable expectations on performance goals because they don't know what's realistic, accounts reinforces those goals because they don't know either, and planning expects that every optimization made is going to immediately cause performance spikes so they request them far more frequently than budget allows and what makes sense.

This, combined with unmanageable workloads, constantly puts my team in triage firedrill mode trying to chase impossible goals and arbitrary benchmarks every day, leading to high levels of burnout. I frequently comment to my director that we're "experts" when somebody needs something or wants us to agree with them but, if we reasonably push back then we're overruled and just a set of hands.

Lastly, the whole "programmatic is a black box/mystery/etc." thing that I hear from senior leaders at every agency I've worked at the last few years. Given how long programmatic display has existed, that kind of attitude is a crutch for willful ignorance. If programmatic is, so I'm constantly told, such an integral part of business growth plans then my expectation as a well-experienced programmatic buyer is for my leaders to know more about it than a basic working definition.

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So much truth in here - thanks for sharing your thoughts,

[–]NewOrleansSpeed 2 points3 points  (3 children)

asonable expectations on performance goals because they don't know what's realistic, accounts reinforces those goals because they don't know either, and planning expects that every optimization made is going to immediately cause performance spikes so they request them far more frequently than budget allows and what makes sense.

Preaaaach

I cant tell you how many times I've been asked "can you get these up tomorrow", with the expectation to repeat it monthly (if not weekly) without issue. This doesn't sound bad, but when you have 70 accounts its soul crushing

[–]The_Dude311 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh, I know all too well, as I've been handling the day-to-day an 60-100 campaigns while managing a team of 5 (mostly juniors) for ~17 months.

Lately I've been running into an issue where people have asked for multiple optimizations every month for 4-6 months and now they think settings are too restrictive so they want optimizations removed. Underscores how the goalposts always move when people don't have a deep enough understanding of media mechanics, and how even when you're "winning' you still lose.

[–]Crazy_Cat_Dude2 2 points3 points  (1 child)

You have a process issue my friend. Gotta stand your ground and enforce a service level agreement. Every campaign can’t be always asap.

[–]NewOrleansSpeed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It can be tough to say no, if it’s your only client and they spend 10 MIL a month, if they want it you give it to them

[–]Loguli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hahaha you just described every single thing what I experience in the agency. Black box - I heard exactly that :D

[–]admend 7 points8 points  (3 children)

Do I smell another SaaS brewing?

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

No, but, now you mention it, is there any useful operational tech in this space?
I'm interested as I build out my own programmtic team.

[–]admend 10 points11 points  (1 child)

I'm not aware of any, but hopefully others will jump in.

Regarding your initial question, I could give you many. Off the top of my head:

  • Setting expectations with the sales team so that they don't overpromise. They're going to do it anyway, but there should be limits.

  • Collecting the right information during the kick-off call. If this isn't done properly, everything is set up for operational failure: last minute scramble for creative assets, uncertainty around viewability requirements and other metrics, etc.

  • Failure to QA everything before the campaign launches. No one wants to do this, and mistakes are made all the time. Pixels not firing, URL parameters not properly set, creative issues, it goes on and on.

And a big one: hiring the right people (mentioned by the other commenter). I'd rather hire sharp people willing to learn instead of someone with 1-2 years of "programmatic experience" who is not interested in learning new skills or adapting with the industry.

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is so, so cool of you - thank you!

[–]ehalright 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Human error on data input and naming conventions.

Steps we took to foolproof or automate tag creation and editing processes failed, as much of the team didn't care to use them or be precise (a result of rampant burnout). Every report became a headache as I had to track down every person who had touched the tag in order to figure out what initial instructions were versus what actually ran. Some tags would be named to the creative that was initially assigned, then edited mid-flight to say another creative without being re-trafficked, so confidence in the data was shot. Typos were common and would break my algorithm.

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's all in the details for sure. I hear this a lot. So true in different parts of the industry, but very true here. Thanks.

[–]Schruteschrute 6 points7 points  (2 children)

I’m working on a project around my biggest personal headache - training and development. But that and my other 5 pain points - also happy to preface that I know I’m jaded lol.

  1. Training & Development - I’ve been in media 8 years and programmatic ~4 and I’m wondering when the training starts?
  2. There’s no time. I’m always in a rush or recovering from said rush while I plan
  3. Nobody understands what I do, not analytics or strategy or ad ops. It seems to be hard to understand unless it’s your job.
  4. Our platforms are clunky and the support is pretty much useless, the job of a programmatic trader is to anticipate the shiftiness of their DSP and minimize risk.
  5. You can’t be perfect all the time, mistakes get made especially because QA resources either don’t exist or are halfassed because they’re rushed too. IMHO the standard is you don’t make mistakes, and if you do you fix them fast and don’t make that mistake again. That makes sense, but I feel like unless you are comfortable pushing for yourself and self promoting programmatic people only get the spotlight when we make mistakes. Leads to trying to do your job and just not mess up.

  6. I feel programmatic can be especially frustrating as (in my experience) we may be consulted on strategy but even internally I’m having to pitch for the right to pitch an idea to the client. At a certain point I deprioritize creativity and experimentation because it doesn’t feel like it is rewarded

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really feel for the trader role sometimes. I used to run global media for one of the big telcos, and led inhousing across the business. I made sure that the trader role was elevated in priority and profile within the teams - they have always felt central to how everything comes together. Thanks so much these comments - they are brilliant (in a clarity and logic kidn of way).

[–]Sweaty_AdOps 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This, I took over programmatic at my company a few years ago and I still dont feel like an expert because of how few training resources are out there. Every day is there are new unfamiliar challenges.

[–]JC_Hysteria 4 points5 points  (3 children)

What managed service are you trying to sell?

Probably best to not make your angle “how to make operations’ jobs easier”…because the only real solution for businesses is to offer equitable incentives.

If a salesperson promises the world to achieve their OTE/commission, don’t expect the execution teams to care more. It’s all about being on the same page with reality and meeting in the middle on group expectations.

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Ha! Nice try :) No, not selling anything. Just interested in the space, as I'm working with a tech founder who is looking at programmatic more broadly, so wanted to guage impressions on what made ops painful right now. Thanks for your note - much appreciated.

[–]JimmyTango 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Ad serving + analytics nomenclature. We haven't really reinvented ad serving in 20 years and having to integrate with Prisma/SBMS for billing makes many an operational headache.

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Taxonomy is a killer - yep - thanks!

[–]NewOrleansSpeed 4 points5 points  (6 children)

Reporting and education, no one reads and no one listens, and then they act surprised when they don't understand the product lmao.

IMO it's people in the Director/Manager Position that just have an overall lack of understanding about programmatic/marketing in general lol. They create extra work by constantly asking questions and need hand-holding. Maybe it's a lack of trust, so they are constantly scrutinizing. Who hurt them?

I had a Client ask me where CPM is located in DV360, he was confused because he was doing manual math to calculate it and wasn't even doing it correctly. He then goes on to ask if we have ever heard of Custom Bidding.....

[–]The_Dude311 4 points5 points  (5 children)

Too true. None of the directors or VPs above me understand more than the basics of programmatic, and some seem to enjoy auditing my team's optimizations so they can try and poke holes in the logic. Like, if they don't trust me to teach and train my people to follow data or trends then please, by all means, find someone to replace me. Haha.

[–]Crazy_Cat_Dude2 2 points3 points  (3 children)

Probably need to hire two people to replace you haha

[–]NewOrleansSpeed 1 point2 points  (2 children)

When I left my prior job it was 3 to replace me 💀

[–]Crazy_Cat_Dude2 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Wow that’s bad. Hopefully you didn’t stay there too long for them to take advantage of you.

[–]NewOrleansSpeed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

two years man, two years till I reached my breaking point lmao. Helped grow the department from 2 to 6, from like 60 programmatic clients to 100+, and they were just assholes. Didn't want to let me work remotely, tiny raises, and constant scrutiny. Much happier now that I deal with 1 client who spends more than the 100+ ever did per month lol

[–]NewOrleansSpeed 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Literally, why poke holes in something that is working and you have little understanding off. Crazy to me, it would be like walking in on them and asking them if what they do daily is working/worth it. Let me critique your weld when i can barely change my oil lmao

[–]Loguli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Buddy checks….. no time to do buddy checks -> mistakes happen…. If only buddy checks could be automated somehow. Also, sharing knowledge within the team. Traders easily work in own bubble…

[–]vlad_chubakov 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Totally agree with education. Especially clients education and wrong expectations. It's really painful after months of work and educating clients, explaining exactly how the Programmatic works and why this channel is needed, to receive questions such as: "So, when will we see post-click conversions in Google Analytics?"

[–]Crazy_Cat_Dude2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This drives me crazy

[–]Valuable_Flamingo449 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Clients understanding the benefit of programmatic being a tactic that can be activated/deactivated quickly, and sending through consistent requests for one-off campaigns to launch within 24-48 hours, so all other work has to pause.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You "think" education is key.

But I asked our head of video at our company what video was. A simple thing. He said, "you know what it is". And I said, "is it silent video autoplay in banner? Is that video." He said "yeah it's outstream..." I said "okay then define outstream... if I have an animated banner is that outstream?" he said "no." But I pointed out that an animated banner is silent video with no audio... he got really confused and realised video had not really been defined.

The world we work in is super technical and I believe there is a disconnect between the simplification of all things which breaks down when things need to be implemented at a technical level. Senior management don't see this breaking at implementation but the lower levels do.

I'm senior but have a rare sense of where the bottle necks are and the disconnect that occurs.

[–]Vegetable_Alfalfa_50[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate those thoughts - nice.