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#they want someone who can teach workshops/seminars about the new programming language too
wickedhawtwexler · 6 months
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guys i legitimately think i have found my ideal job
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baxarts · 5 years
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Education and Opportunity: Interns share their stories
April 2019 Maya Gonzalez
Throughout the year, BAX hires two interns to work in the Education Department: a Community Outreach/YouthWorks Intern, hired to help facilitate our YouthWorks Festival & Teen Arts Conference and assist with our public school partners/teachers in residence as part of our Arts in Education programming, and an Education Intern, chosen to work closely within our walls and with our teachers and students on a day-to-day, internal basis, assisting with classes, student concerts and the like.
BAX strives to bring people who are transparently moving through the world in socially equitable ways into the community. This mirrors BAX’s work with organizations like the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB) and Race Forward. Our staff members attend meetings, seminars, and workshops dedicated to developing and improving upon racial and social equity within organizations, especially through the lens of serving the arts community.
Two of our interns for the 2018-19 Education season are Brooke Rucker (Education Intern) and Charlie Fischetti (Community Outreach/YouthWorks Intern). At this point in our season, Brooke has left after being here from August through January, and Charlie has just extended his stay with us to continue working with BAX until this summer. The two had a slight overlap, however did not work side-by-side on a lot of the same projects, as they have had different timelines here.
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Above: Charlie Fischetti, Community Outreach/YouthWorks Intern. 
Below (L to R): Roxy Gordon, Education Assistant/Birthday Party Coordinator, and Brooke Rucker, former Education Intern.
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Charlie, Brooke and I recently sat down for a quick sip at a café nearby BAX. On a sunny day, we had a joyful little reunion (as neither Charlie or I had seen much of Brooke since January).  We settled in for a moment, grabbed some coffees, and got into it.
What was your general experience throughout the season working at BAX?
BR: BAX’s principles of racial equity and gender equality were already aligned with what I was interested in. [And] then being with the Education Department, I was really able to start practicing these things, especially with children, because they’re already so young, and still so impressionable…I began to really start to notice the language I was using with children through that lens. When I entered [this position] at BAX those were the conversations we just kept having: how are we engaging with these kids, and how are we engaging with these parents?
CF: Yeah, I had the same sort of experience. All of my admin work became informed by those values and I kept kind of going back to them, in things that are beyond, like, strict data entry.
We got into discussing the differences between having these kinds of conversations with kids and adults. Something we’ve all started to notice when working with or around children is that they are often much more intuitive about these things than we might have expected them to be. And yet along with that, we’ve all witnessed or heard about moments where their learned social conventions are challenged and we see a glimpse of curiosity, or are met with questions rather than confirmations. It’s quite eye-opening to think about this comparatively between conversations we’ve had with adults and with children.
BR: I feel like it’s so engrained in us…like we don’t even realize how deeply our gender roles live in us…I remember reading [a teacher]’s post, and they were talking about how they were trying to introduce themselves to their students: you can call me, you know, Ms., Mr., Mx., it’s like those little things you don’t even think about, like when introducing yourself; what do the kids, you know, call you?
CF: And the teachers have really good insight into those things… gender is something that affects everybody, and race also affects everybody, but people often only think about those things affecting people who are marginalized by gender and by race. But it really is a part of everybody’s experiences, and I think [it’s important] if you have privileges or disadvantages, to bring those up; that [privilege] doesn’t mean you can’t talk about it and that it doesn’t affect you.
I find these conversations easier to have with kids [than adults].
We began recalling moments we’ve encountered where kids say things or respond to prompts in a conventionally gendered manner. For example, asking kids to assume a character and noticing that all the girls chose feminine archetypes, like princesses or fairies, and all the boys chose more masculine archetypes, like superheroes. How do we approach and respond to these moments?
CF: It’s not like you can’t be princesses, but think about the other options!
BR: I feel like it’s more like, opening their awareness; like its ok if you wanna be this, but you can also be this too, it is acceptable.
CF: I think especially in creative things, especially with kids, it really reveals a lot about things that kids are learning and are exposed to at early ages. And it’s never too early to talk about those issues, because they’re already being exposed to it… Yeah I mentioned something, about having a boyfriend once; this kid was like “my hair is purple,” and I was like, “oh yeah that’s my boyfriend’s hair color,” and a lot of the kids were like, alright that’s fun, but then there were a few who kind of challenged me on it, or would say, “that’s weird,” and I said, “why is it weird?”
What as individual people did you bring to the table in your position?
BR: For me, it’s definitely being a black woman. I feel like anywhere I go, when I’m entering a space, bringing that, is like bringing everything. I think it was great for kids to get to see that in the space; black kids and white kids, because I feel like we are always “oh the black people, you know cater to the black kids and they’re their role models, but it’s also important for the white kids to be able to see that black people are in these positions [and spaces].
CF: I’ve brought more video and photo knowledge, and I think that has extended beyond education, which has been really fun. I’m working towards making changes in how…especially in education, like opening up documentation conversations with young kids, like there’s no correct answer but I think having sort of base line, ethical rules is a good place to start, ‘cause it can get, complicated and voyeuristic and seem like taking advantage when that’s obviously the opposite of what we’re trying to do.
And also as a trans person, I’ve been enjoying navigating that, especially since this is my first work experience where I don’t have to—people will gender me correctly if I don’t say anything, so it’s interesting, now I have the option to bring it up. I’ve not always been in spaces like that. And I think there’s also a balance between wanting to be a representation for kids but then also knowing that my experience is still a slim representation of the trans experience, so I think having other trans and gender non-conforming people in the space has been great, because I’ve always been like, the trans person in the space.
What were some challenges/questions you came up against?          
BR: I think for me, my only challenge, per se, was that I didn’t know how to advocate or ask for more, ‘cause there were some times where I felt like I wanted to take on more or I wanted to learn more in the admin world. Everyone is super busy, and you don’t always have time to just sit down and teach someone things, but looking back at it now, I wish that I would have. Because that’s what the internship is for, like for you to learn from this organization. I don’t know if it’s necessarily categorized as a challenge, but just looking back it’s something that I wish that I would have done more of.
CF: Yeah, I think the fact that my internship has been extended now, going in I wanted to be more involved with marketing, and that is happening now, which is really great. Cross-departmental collaboration and things like this [are some things] I think a lot of organizations struggle with.
I didn’t really have any experience with kids before, so I think that was one of my biggest—I don’t know if challenge is even the right word, it was just new for me. There’s no like, if this situation happens, here’s what to do, you just, gotta roll with it…sometimes kids come up with things and I’m [not sure] how to respond.
Highlights, favorite part of your job, any moments that stood out?
BR: I do have this one moment. For [two of our After School Pick Up students, we’ll call them Ella and Jake for these purposes], their parent personally spoke to me when I first started picking them up and requested that I hold their hands, when we cross the street. So [Ella] like, always would hold my hand, like she loved holding hands but you know, [Jake] wasn’t really about it. [Laughs] So anyway one day we were walking back and I had Ella’s hand and all of a sudden, I felt this hand, reaching for mine, while we were crossing the street, and it was [Jake]; he had just put his hand in mine and I was like, my heart right now! [Chuckles] I was like, “don’t say anything Brooke, just keep walking.” [Laughs]
CF: In YouthWorks, there were these two kids waiting for their dress rehearsal, it was maybe a day before the show, and this one girl was really panicking like, “oh no I don’t know my lines, I don’t know the positions…” and I just leaned down and sat with her and was just said like, “Well, what can I do to make you more comfortable?” I really didn’t try to impose; I just said, “Communicate to me your needs,” which I think is an important practice for kids. We kind of talked through what her actual worries were; because sometimes kids will say something but they actually mean something else, but they don’t know that they mean something else. We worked through communicating her actual needs.
Pieces of advice for the next person stepping into your position?
BR: I told Aviya [our current Education Intern] to take agency in the position, to make it her own. Go in there to help, but also to take. Take everything that you can, and don’t feel bad about really showing that you’re hungry and you’re really doing this to feed yourself.
CF: I think both of our positions, there are definitely tasks that you have to do throughout, but don’t be afraid to go beyond those, and bring your experiences, your passions…everything is valuable, and being honest about what you need is important, whether that is being underwhelmed or overwhelmed. I’ve always felt like if there is too much on my plate, [at BAX] I feel comfortable going to somebody and asking for that, asking for prioritizing certain things which has always been an issue for me, I’m usually just like, “well I’m just gonna handle it on my own and try to do all of it. But that’s unhealthy…it’s a point of growth.
BR: it was a really great internship. And it came exactly when I needed it. I had just moved to New York, and I was just looking for something to grab a hold of, and it popped up; and I met so many people through it who have now become my community.
CF: BAX really is the intersection of a lot of organizations.
Brooke is currently working as Visioning Partner Assistant for Urban Bush Women, and writes for her blog, (Brooke)lynn. Check out her work on her website: brookerucker.com.
Charlie will be joining us as a Lead Counselor for our Summer Arts Program. This year, he was an Assistant Cameraperson for "Overstigmatized 2: The Stigma Stops Here," a feature-length thriller produced by Global Action Project about the role of criminalization and police violence towards trans womxn of color. (see the trailer HERE). This summer he will also be resuming production as a cinematographer for a film directed by his friend Ashley Turzio. It's the story of a single immigrant mother who leaves her child behind and moves to New York to give her child a chance at a better life.
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Brooke and Charlie are pictured here on the right, along with BAX’s Education Director, Lucia Scheckner, Education Manager, Ashley Renee Thaxton-Stevenson, and current Education Intern, Aviya Hernstadt. 
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proftraining-blog · 4 years
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Professional Development Training
More often than not, when we hear the words, "Professional Development Training," what comes to mind? Possibly, a professional development school or even a physical fitness center? And while these can be appropriate places for learning about and training for new skills, they are not the place for true empowerment.
This is where body language comes in. With training, body language can be used in several different ways. And what's more, this nonverbal communication has been shown to influence the way people think, the way they feel, and how they behave in many other ways as well.
In fact, research has shown that the way we view ourselves and others plays a significant role in the way we communicate through body language. There is a correlation between the way we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us. And the way we interpret body language can help us determine whether we will connect with a person or not.
Just as people have two sets of eyes, which allows for each one to process certain information at a different rate, so too do people have two sets of body language. The left side of the body sends signals in more detail and speed, while the right side provides more of a grasp of the subject matter. When a person is looking at a number of numbers on a piece of paper, or even during a conversation, they will consciously or unconsciously watch for the other person's left hand to move in a specific manner, including movement in any areas of the face, such as the eyebrows, or in any part of the body, including the shoulders, neck, and even the ears.
But while this type of body language may seem simple, it is actually a complex type of communication that is quite beyond the abilities of most people. It's like tuning in to a conversation. You will recognize the words, but you need to tune into the tone of the voice, and all the information that comes along with it. So how does one begin to learn about body language? The best place to start is with Body Language 101, a training course designed to teach people how to learn about how they are interpreting body language. It is an easy program that can be completed in a day.
The program itself consists of videos, exercises, and journaling that help people understand how body language is used. As part of the course, one learns about the connection between body language and emotions, while also learning the right hand method of reading other people's bodies. In addition, there are special lessons that cover new methods of teaching on a very basic level.
Understanding how your body works is the key to interpreting the meanings of your body language. By understanding how others are reading your body language, you can then learn to read their body language, and vice versa. The bottom line is this: If you don't learn how your body is interpreting the messages, you will not be able to control it.
Being able to interpret someone else's body language gives you the ability to keep up with them and understand them better, especially if you are learning about communication skills, like how to use good body language in communication. In the "Body Language 101" program, you will learn how to read the nonverbal cues of others and how to control the effects they will have on you. And of course, you will also learn to "read" the nonverbal cues in yourself.
When you are in a conversation with another person, you will unconsciously look to the left side of your body to see what they are doing. When you are communicating with another person, you will look to the right to see if they are going to follow you or if they are going to turn around. In both cases, if the person turns, it means that he or she is "looking at you" and maybe even questioning you about the message that you are attempting to communicate.
Many people learn the wrong things when it comes to communication, and many of them develop bad habits when it comes to body language. So when you learn about body language through Body Language 101, you will find that you will also learn the right ways to read other people's messages. such as the right hand method.
Sources
  20 Types of Management Training (simplicable.com) - The common types of management training.
Management Training Programs: 5 Things to Know (scienceofpeople.com) - Management training is one of the most important     skills you can offer your team to improve your business. Learn to choose     the right management training.
Online Business & Corporate Training Seminars,     Classes, and Courses (amanet.org) - Management training courses & seminars led by     expert AMA faculty. Join the millions of professionals who choose AMA for     their training and consulting needs.
What is Management Training? (hrzone.com) - Management Training definitionManagement training     is training activity that focuses on improving an individual's skills as a     lea
Management - Online Courses, Classes, Training,     Tutorials on Lynda (lynda.com) - Learn management skills like project management, HR     fundamentals and decision-making. lynda.com's management training courses     will help you take it to the next level.
First Time, New Manager Training (kenblanchard.com) - Our First Time, New Manager Training Program     teaches the 8 essential skills of a strong leader. Set them up for success     today!
2020 Leadership and Management Courses and Workshops (businesstrainingworks.com) - Leadership and management training courses and     workshops: schedule an instructor-led onsite program or online skills     development course for your team.
Online Management Training Courses (amanet.org) - Develop and refine your management skills with     AMA's online management training courses. Become a better manager or     supervisor with the skills learned in a seminar.
Mind Tools: Online Management, Leadership and Career     Training:(mindtools.com)     - Use MindTools.com resources to learn more than 3,200 management,     leadership and personal effectiveness skills, helping you to be happy and     successful at work.
Management, Leadership & Supervisor Training (pryor.com) - Check out our management training courses today to     hone your leadership and supervisor skills and advance your career.
Management Training Courses & Development     Programmes (management-training-development.com) - We offer management training courses and management     development programmes for all levels of managers and leaders
Management Training Seminars & Classes (managementtraininginstitute.com) - The management training program offered by the     Management Training Institute are classes and seminars to improve leadership,     communication and more.
Case Management Training, Online Case Management     Training (excite.com) - You will find information you need on Case     Management Training here. Our list of Case Management Training can help     you look through the best available options.
10 Free Online Classes to Help You Become a Manager (themuse.com) - If you want to prove you're ready to become a     manager, you may want to brush up on your soft skills. These 10 (free!)     online classes should do the trick.
Management Training & Leadership Courses UK (mtdtraining.com)     - MTD are management training specialists with award winning leadership     courses & management training programmes. Book your management     training course today!
Emergency Management Institute (training.fema.gov)     -
Management Training, Managers, Manager Courses and     Seminars (trainup.com) - TrainUp.com is your one-stop source for the best     management training courses nationwide. Start your search now and browse     more than 44 live instructor-led management training classes near you,     from the industry's best management training companies such as SkillSoft,     American Management Association International, and BizLibrary. TrainUp.com     also lists more than 245 self-paced online manager training courses,     micro-learning videos, and eLearning bundles. If you are in need of group     management training solutions for your team, visit our on-site management     training page to request a training quote today. We will bring the best     instructor to you!
PMI Online Courses (pmi.org) - PMI Online Courses
Topics
These topics were mentioned multiple times across various sources:
management training
Management training courses
management skills
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communication skills
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Time Management
leadership skills
online management
leadership training
training options
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effective leaders
management development
training and development
team building
case studies
course content
Online programs
Online Management Training Courses
online learning
open courses
better manager
Business Management
team members
conflict management
exact requirements
important factor
Questions
These are some relevant questions found across sources:
What is Management Training?
How to pick the best management training program for     you
Why is training important for managers?
Why Should You Train New Managers?
How Managers Become Great Leaders
What is the difference between management training and     leadership training?
Is management a skill?
What Are Online Management Training Courses?
What is a Visionary Leadership Style?
Statistics
These are some factual sentences found across sources:
The total loss to a business from ineffective training     is estimated to be around $13.5 million per year per 1,000 employees . (scienceofpeople.com)
Studies suggest that about 58 percent of managers don't     receive any management training. (scienceofpeople.com)
Continuous Improvement 5 Ways You Can Make Your     Meetings More Valuable If there's one thing that likely unites employees     around the world, it is their love to hate on meetings. (management-training-development.com)
A:According to the U.S Bureau of Labor statistics, the     employment rate in this occupation is expected to show a growth rate of     25%. (excite.com)
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maxslogic25 · 7 years
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Coffee Talk: Catching Up With Hanapin’s PPC Experts
It is Friday morning. Secret Jake and I walk to a little coffee shop just a block away from our office. We order Guatemalan pour-overs (we are fancy like that). We find a table and sit down only to discover it is wobbly. But we don’t move. For some reason, I feel like sitting and drinking coffee at a wobbly table is just what we need to properly talk PPC. A woman makes her way to the counter, Chihuahua in tow. The shelves of the shop are lined with vintage sci-fi novels and succulents. The shop is abuzz with chatter and the sound of steam being released from the espresso machine.
  SJ and I have been working together for 4 years but I’ve never just sat down to chat about our industry. I want to pick his brain for a while. And he is kind enough to indulge me. I told my coworkers I thought about calling these little chats “Expert-teas”. But then realized that it only works if we have tea. And while I love a good cup of Earl Gray, PPC and coffee go together like chocolate and peanut butter, so I abandoned my pun.
  Jacob Fairclough. Secret Jake. SJ. He is a data analyst force to be reckoned with. As one of Hanapin’s Sr. Account Analysts, he is charged with tackling some pretty hefty problems in accounts. While he is a red account problem solver extraordinaire, today I am more interested in exploring the nifty tools he’s developed to push us to the forefront of innovation and creativity as an agency. So we start talking about our personal journeys from undergrad to PPC, starting with no knowledge of this industry.
  Since you have started, what is the biggest change you have seen at Hanapin that has had the most impact?
  Internally probably more structure on the roles and the work expected. I started fresh as an Account Manager with no experience and back then it was kind of “here’s an account, figure it out”. We know a lot more internally, from the PA training program and things like that, our [Associate Directors] are involved, or a Sr. AM sits on the calls and coaches you through things.
  Do you see colleges starting to offer digital marketing degrees specifically?
  Maybe. It almost has to go that way. But who would want a textbook on AdWords? It is a hurdle for some people, even in digital it’s like, so I kinda get the technical part. How does a website work? How does this tracking work? But even if you don’t do [technical website work] specifically, you need to be able to discuss it with the people who do. Or at least know, “this is where I should be looking if things aren’t working”.
  So what is your favorite part of your role?
  Finding a way to use my skills to make our work more effective. [One of our accounts is] basically paying two agencies and we are slowly transferring accounts from one to another. They spend $300,000 a month right now, whereas of a few weeks ago when I started the project we had $3,000 of that spend […]. So we built some scripts and stuff to take the information from their old ad groups and things, like all the location names, […], URLs, and everything like that and built an [AdWords] Editor-ready file from it to just drop it in the account.
  What they had been doing before, was they had a basic campaign and [they were] copying and pasting it and finding and replacing in the Editor for every single thing. What we did was, with the one [campaign] I’m thinking had like 300 locations, was take a single input file with all the location information and pump it through a script that would then put it in an editor-ready file, and then you upload that, make the changes you need to ad copy or whatever and move on with your life.
  So I like finding those. That is one of the more interesting side, how do we take some skills or take something more automated and make our work more effective.
  Was this script built from the ground up?
  So we built this one from the ground up. The biggest challenge was [as] with a lot of things, how do I take the information that is here and make it into something useable.
  How did you learn scripts?
   I did some seminars in school for it when I was doing my undergrad. I did an intro to computer science.
  Do you think this is a skill account managers should teach themselves? If they are either at an agency where they don’t have someone to do that or if they are working solo?
  Oh I waffle on this because there is the division between the more technical side and the people who say “oh well maybe we should focus on being better marketers” and the tech stuff is, whatever you want to call, it icing on the cake.
  There is a weird upfront challenge of thinking in that way.
  What do you mean?
  It’s understanding the small details when moving to a coding language or something like that, it can be kind of weird in trying to understand what data types to use. Writing code isn’t super hard, it is how to map the technical side of what I need to do. How do I choose the right data types? It is a really valuable skill. It can make automating things much easier. It opens up a lot of new opportunities but it is a skill. My hesitation [is], if you aren’t interested in it, or you aren’t working on some of those problems, then learning the code isn’t going to make you a better account manager. So you could have some of the technical abilities but if you don’t understand the system or the client communication or the business side of the problem then you aren’t going to get anywhere. You are just going to do crappy things differently.
  Best script you’ve created?
  I think the one that I’m probably most proud of and I learned the most because I hadn’t done anything like that, was [one for our client that uses] AppsFlyer. So [AppsFlyer] records all of [the users] in-app activity, then we have the AdWords data, and we had the AdStage reporting platform. The issue is that AppsFlyer is measuring in-app activity, like open rates, that isn’t available on the AdWords side, but we want to tie it back to our campaigns and things like that so we created a script that downloads all of the information from AppsFlyer, formats it, then pushes it into AdStage so you can link those datasets together. Some of them you don’t have conversion tracking at the campaign level on maybe AdWords, or Bing, or on the Apple side. And the other side would be okay we don’t actually care about people just downloading the app we actually want to start counting when people open the app or use the app over 7 days or whatever. So by importing those custom conversions, we can start figuring that into automated rules or even just reporting.
  Forecasting. That seems to be something a lot of people especially as they start to plan their budgets toward the end of the year struggle with, dealing with attribution and seasonality. What is your recommendation?
   Holt-winters forecasting model. But I went to a workshop on statistics and programming a few months ago and someone had asked the question and the response was “there is a lot of stuff that goes into forecasting and maybe that is your solution at this point that it is good enough for what you do.” There are some cool methods out there like Facebook’s Profit and things like that which take a little programming experience, but it has a kind of built-in tool to build its own model around like time series and things like that. I think the biggest change, and I think it is hard in a PPC realm because we are so focused on having very specific data points, is just loosening up on the forecasting because sometimes it is driven by our own need for perfection and sometimes it is driven by the client who thinks “Oh, I need to know down to the dollar how much we need to spend”. But when I start looking into more forecasting there is always a probability associated with it and it is going to fall within a certain range. And we can’t tell the future. Oh, well maybe your sales side picks up. Maybe you start doing TV buys. And you start looking at forecasting in other areas like forecasting for TV or radio. There is a lot of guesswork involved and [saying] “I think this is going to happen”. So on the PPC side we need to be okay with that. I think people are starting to come around to that.
  But I think it is because PPC by nature is transparent, so…
  Well it is the same thing when we have CPA goals. There is a lot that goes into [maintaining those goals].
  One, you need to be able to think more probabilistically. [To look at data and say “these are the probable outcomes of something”. And the other side is one that, the data isn’t sacred. It isn’t a perfect entity. It is a resource you can use. So it is how do I use it as a resource to make better decisions?
  What is your PPCHero Superpower?
  It depends on who you ask. According to some feedback, I am good at being an office weirdo. The other side would be finding ways to manipulate the data or find a way to put it together. Sometimes it is really mundane and sometimes it is really interesting. So it goes back to that scripting API example. How do I take one data source and format it and take all the required information we need and send it to another service. I like to dabble in a lot of things. So figuring out how to connect those different pieces. I am a serial dabbler.
  So [my advice is], If you aren’t interested in the technical side, who can handle that side? Who is your resource? You don’t have to do everything but you should be able to be aware of all the areas you need to focus on and then if you can’t do something, have a resource. And that is the great thing about Hanapin.
  Discover more tools and tricks from PPC Hero:
How To Work Smarter and Faster With AdWords Scripts
Improving Your Account Through AdWords Scripts
5 Easy Ways To Customize AdWords Scripts
Are You Too Focused On Your Data?
How to Find Seasonality in your PPC Accounts
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 http://www.ppchero.com/interview-with-a-hanapin-ppc-expert/
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racheltgibsau · 7 years
Text
Coffee Talk: Catching Up With Hanapin’s PPC Experts
It is Friday morning. Secret Jake and I walk to a little coffee shop just a block away from our office. We order Guatemalan pour-overs (we are fancy like that). We find a table and sit down only to discover it is wobbly. But we don’t move. For some reason, I feel like sitting and drinking coffee at a wobbly table is just what we need to properly talk PPC. A woman makes her way to the counter, Chihuahua in tow. The shelves of the shop are lined with vintage sci-fi novels and succulents. The shop is abuzz with chatter and the sound of steam being released from the espresso machine.
  SJ and I have been working together for 4 years but I’ve never just sat down to chat about our industry. I want to pick his brain for a while. And he is kind enough to indulge me. I told my coworkers I thought about calling these little chats “Expert-teas”. But then realized that it only works if we have tea. And while I love a good cup of Earl Gray, PPC and coffee go together like chocolate and peanut butter, so I abandoned my pun.
  Jacob Fairclough. Secret Jake. SJ. He is a data analyst force to be reckoned with. As one of Hanapin’s Sr. Account Analysts, he is charged with tackling some pretty hefty problems in accounts. While he is a red account problem solver extraordinaire, today I am more interested in exploring the nifty tools he’s developed to push us to the forefront of innovation and creativity as an agency. So we start talking about our personal journeys from undergrad to PPC, starting with no knowledge of this industry.
  Since you have started, what is the biggest change you have seen at Hanapin that has had the most impact?
  Internally probably more structure on the roles and the work expected. I started fresh as an Account Manager with no experience and back then it was kind of “here’s an account, figure it out”. We know a lot more internally, from the PA training program and things like that, our [Associate Directors] are involved, or a Sr. AM sits on the calls and coaches you through things.
  Do you see colleges starting to offer digital marketing degrees specifically?
  Maybe. It almost has to go that way. But who would want a textbook on AdWords? It is a hurdle for some people, even in digital it’s like, so I kinda get the technical part. How does a website work? How does this tracking work? But even if you don’t do [technical website work] specifically, you need to be able to discuss it with the people who do. Or at least know, “this is where I should be looking if things aren’t working”.
  So what is your favorite part of your role?
  Finding a way to use my skills to make our work more effective. [One of our accounts is] basically paying two agencies and we are slowly transferring accounts from one to another. They spend $300,000 a month right now, whereas of a few weeks ago when I started the project we had $3,000 of that spend […]. So we built some scripts and stuff to take the information from their old ad groups and things, like all the location names, […], URLs, and everything like that and built an [AdWords] Editor-ready file from it to just drop it in the account.
  What they had been doing before, was they had a basic campaign and [they were] copying and pasting it and finding and replacing in the Editor for every single thing. What we did was, with the one [campaign] I’m thinking had like 300 locations, was take a single input file with all the location information and pump it through a script that would then put it in an editor-ready file, and then you upload that, make the changes you need to ad copy or whatever and move on with your life.
  So I like finding those. That is one of the more interesting side, how do we take some skills or take something more automated and make our work more effective.
  Was this script built from the ground up?
  So we built this one from the ground up. The biggest challenge was [as] with a lot of things, how do I take the information that is here and make it into something useable.
  How did you learn scripts?
   I did some seminars in school for it when I was doing my undergrad. I did an intro to computer science.
  Do you think this is a skill account managers should teach themselves? If they are either at an agency where they don’t have someone to do that or if they are working solo?
  Oh I waffle on this because there is the division between the more technical side and the people who say “oh well maybe we should focus on being better marketers” and the tech stuff is, whatever you want to call, it icing on the cake.
  There is a weird upfront challenge of thinking in that way.
  What do you mean?
  It’s understanding the small details when moving to a coding language or something like that, it can be kind of weird in trying to understand what data types to use. Writing code isn’t super hard, it is how to map the technical side of what I need to do. How do I choose the right data types? It is a really valuable skill. It can make automating things much easier. It opens up a lot of new opportunities but it is a skill. My hesitation [is], if you aren’t interested in it, or you aren’t working on some of those problems, then learning the code isn’t going to make you a better account manager. So you could have some of the technical abilities but if you don’t understand the system or the client communication or the business side of the problem then you aren’t going to get anywhere. You are just going to do crappy things differently.
  Best script you’ve created?
  I think the one that I’m probably most proud of and I learned the most because I hadn’t done anything like that, was [one for our client that uses] AppsFlyer. So [AppsFlyer] records all of [the users] in-app activity, then we have the AdWords data, and we had the AdStage reporting platform. The issue is that AppsFlyer is measuring in-app activity, like open rates, that isn’t available on the AdWords side, but we want to tie it back to our campaigns and things like that so we created a script that downloads all of the information from AppsFlyer, formats it, then pushes it into AdStage so you can link those datasets together. Some of them you don’t have conversion tracking at the campaign level on maybe AdWords, or Bing, or on the Apple side. And the other side would be okay we don’t actually care about people just downloading the app we actually want to start counting when people open the app or use the app over 7 days or whatever. So by importing those custom conversions, we can start figuring that into automated rules or even just reporting.
  Forecasting. That seems to be something a lot of people especially as they start to plan their budgets toward the end of the year struggle with, dealing with attribution and seasonality. What is your recommendation?
   Holt-winters forecasting model. But I went to a workshop on statistics and programming a few months ago and someone had asked the question and the response was “there is a lot of stuff that goes into forecasting and maybe that is your solution at this point that it is good enough for what you do.” There are some cool methods out there like Facebook’s Profit and things like that which take a little programming experience, but it has a kind of built-in tool to build its own model around like time series and things like that. I think the biggest change, and I think it is hard in a PPC realm because we are so focused on having very specific data points, is just loosening up on the forecasting because sometimes it is driven by our own need for perfection and sometimes it is driven by the client who thinks “Oh, I need to know down to the dollar how much we need to spend”. But when I start looking into more forecasting there is always a probability associated with it and it is going to fall within a certain range. And we can’t tell the future. Oh, well maybe your sales side picks up. Maybe you start doing TV buys. And you start looking at forecasting in other areas like forecasting for TV or radio. There is a lot of guesswork involved and [saying] “I think this is going to happen”. So on the PPC side we need to be okay with that. I think people are starting to come around to that.
  But I think it is because PPC by nature is transparent, so…
  Well it is the same thing when we have CPA goals. There is a lot that goes into [maintaining those goals].
  One, you need to be able to think more probabilistically. [To look at data and say “these are the probable outcomes of something”. And the other side is one that, the data isn’t sacred. It isn’t a perfect entity. It is a resource you can use. So it is how do I use it as a resource to make better decisions?
  What is your PPCHero Superpower?
  It depends on who you ask. According to some feedback, I am good at being an office weirdo. The other side would be finding ways to manipulate the data or find a way to put it together. Sometimes it is really mundane and sometimes it is really interesting. So it goes back to that scripting API example. How do I take one data source and format it and take all the required information we need and send it to another service. I like to dabble in a lot of things. So figuring out how to connect those different pieces. I am a serial dabbler.
  So [my advice is], If you aren’t interested in the technical side, who can handle that side? Who is your resource? You don’t have to do everything but you should be able to be aware of all the areas you need to focus on and then if you can’t do something, have a resource. And that is the great thing about Hanapin.
  Discover more tools and tricks from PPC Hero:
How To Work Smarter and Faster With AdWords Scripts
Improving Your Account Through AdWords Scripts
5 Easy Ways To Customize AdWords Scripts
Are You Too Focused On Your Data?
How to Find Seasonality in your PPC Accounts
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 http://www.ppchero.com/interview-with-a-hanapin-ppc-expert/
0 notes
zacdhaenkeau · 7 years
Text
Coffee Talk: Catching Up With Hanapin’s PPC Experts
It is Friday morning. Secret Jake and I walk to a little coffee shop just a block away from our office. We order Guatemalan pour-overs (we are fancy like that). We find a table and sit down only to discover it is wobbly. But we don’t move. For some reason, I feel like sitting and drinking coffee at a wobbly table is just what we need to properly talk PPC. A woman makes her way to the counter, Chihuahua in tow. The shelves of the shop are lined with vintage sci-fi novels and succulents. The shop is abuzz with chatter and the sound of steam being released from the espresso machine.
  SJ and I have been working together for 4 years but I’ve never just sat down to chat about our industry. I want to pick his brain for a while. And he is kind enough to indulge me. I told my coworkers I thought about calling these little chats “Expert-teas”. But then realized that it only works if we have tea. And while I love a good cup of Earl Gray, PPC and coffee go together like chocolate and peanut butter, so I abandoned my pun.
  Jacob Fairclough. Secret Jake. SJ. He is a data analyst force to be reckoned with. As one of Hanapin’s Sr. Account Analysts, he is charged with tackling some pretty hefty problems in accounts. While he is a red account problem solver extraordinaire, today I am more interested in exploring the nifty tools he’s developed to push us to the forefront of innovation and creativity as an agency. So we start talking about our personal journeys from undergrad to PPC, starting with no knowledge of this industry.
  Since you have started, what is the biggest change you have seen at Hanapin that has had the most impact?
  Internally probably more structure on the roles and the work expected. I started fresh as an Account Manager with no experience and back then it was kind of “here’s an account, figure it out”. We know a lot more internally, from the PA training program and things like that, our [Associate Directors] are involved, or a Sr. AM sits on the calls and coaches you through things.
  Do you see colleges starting to offer digital marketing degrees specifically?
  Maybe. It almost has to go that way. But who would want a textbook on AdWords? It is a hurdle for some people, even in digital it’s like, so I kinda get the technical part. How does a website work? How does this tracking work? But even if you don’t do [technical website work] specifically, you need to be able to discuss it with the people who do. Or at least know, “this is where I should be looking if things aren’t working”.
  So what is your favorite part of your role?
  Finding a way to use my skills to make our work more effective. [One of our accounts is] basically paying two agencies and we are slowly transferring accounts from one to another. They spend $300,000 a month right now, whereas of a few weeks ago when I started the project we had $3,000 of that spend […]. So we built some scripts and stuff to take the information from their old ad groups and things, like all the location names, […], URLs, and everything like that and built an [AdWords] Editor-ready file from it to just drop it in the account.
  What they had been doing before, was they had a basic campaign and [they were] copying and pasting it and finding and replacing in the Editor for every single thing. What we did was, with the one [campaign] I’m thinking had like 300 locations, was take a single input file with all the location information and pump it through a script that would then put it in an editor-ready file, and then you upload that, make the changes you need to ad copy or whatever and move on with your life.
  So I like finding those. That is one of the more interesting side, how do we take some skills or take something more automated and make our work more effective.
  Was this script built from the ground up?
  So we built this one from the ground up. The biggest challenge was [as] with a lot of things, how do I take the information that is here and make it into something useable.
  How did you learn scripts?
   I did some seminars in school for it when I was doing my undergrad. I did an intro to computer science.
  Do you think this is a skill account managers should teach themselves? If they are either at an agency where they don’t have someone to do that or if they are working solo?
  Oh I waffle on this because there is the division between the more technical side and the people who say “oh well maybe we should focus on being better marketers” and the tech stuff is, whatever you want to call, it icing on the cake.
  There is a weird upfront challenge of thinking in that way.
  What do you mean?
  It’s understanding the small details when moving to a coding language or something like that, it can be kind of weird in trying to understand what data types to use. Writing code isn’t super hard, it is how to map the technical side of what I need to do. How do I choose the right data types? It is a really valuable skill. It can make automating things much easier. It opens up a lot of new opportunities but it is a skill. My hesitation [is], if you aren’t interested in it, or you aren’t working on some of those problems, then learning the code isn’t going to make you a better account manager. So you could have some of the technical abilities but if you don’t understand the system or the client communication or the business side of the problem then you aren’t going to get anywhere. You are just going to do crappy things differently.
  Best script you’ve created?
  I think the one that I’m probably most proud of and I learned the most because I hadn’t done anything like that, was [one for our client that uses] AppsFlyer. So [AppsFlyer] records all of [the users] in-app activity, then we have the AdWords data, and we had the AdStage reporting platform. The issue is that AppsFlyer is measuring in-app activity, like open rates, that isn’t available on the AdWords side, but we want to tie it back to our campaigns and things like that so we created a script that downloads all of the information from AppsFlyer, formats it, then pushes it into AdStage so you can link those datasets together. Some of them you don’t have conversion tracking at the campaign level on maybe AdWords, or Bing, or on the Apple side. And the other side would be okay we don’t actually care about people just downloading the app we actually want to start counting when people open the app or use the app over 7 days or whatever. So by importing those custom conversions, we can start figuring that into automated rules or even just reporting.
  Forecasting. That seems to be something a lot of people especially as they start to plan their budgets toward the end of the year struggle with, dealing with attribution and seasonality. What is your recommendation?
   Holt-winters forecasting model. But I went to a workshop on statistics and programming a few months ago and someone had asked the question and the response was “there is a lot of stuff that goes into forecasting and maybe that is your solution at this point that it is good enough for what you do.” There are some cool methods out there like Facebook’s Profit and things like that which take a little programming experience, but it has a kind of built-in tool to build its own model around like time series and things like that. I think the biggest change, and I think it is hard in a PPC realm because we are so focused on having very specific data points, is just loosening up on the forecasting because sometimes it is driven by our own need for perfection and sometimes it is driven by the client who thinks “Oh, I need to know down to the dollar how much we need to spend”. But when I start looking into more forecasting there is always a probability associated with it and it is going to fall within a certain range. And we can’t tell the future. Oh, well maybe your sales side picks up. Maybe you start doing TV buys. And you start looking at forecasting in other areas like forecasting for TV or radio. There is a lot of guesswork involved and [saying] “I think this is going to happen”. So on the PPC side we need to be okay with that. I think people are starting to come around to that.
  But I think it is because PPC by nature is transparent, so…
  Well it is the same thing when we have CPA goals. There is a lot that goes into [maintaining those goals].
  One, you need to be able to think more probabilistically. [To look at data and say “these are the probable outcomes of something”. And the other side is one that, the data isn’t sacred. It isn’t a perfect entity. It is a resource you can use. So it is how do I use it as a resource to make better decisions?
  What is your PPCHero Superpower?
  It depends on who you ask. According to some feedback, I am good at being an office weirdo. The other side would be finding ways to manipulate the data or find a way to put it together. Sometimes it is really mundane and sometimes it is really interesting. So it goes back to that scripting API example. How do I take one data source and format it and take all the required information we need and send it to another service. I like to dabble in a lot of things. So figuring out how to connect those different pieces. I am a serial dabbler.
  So [my advice is], If you aren’t interested in the technical side, who can handle that side? Who is your resource? You don’t have to do everything but you should be able to be aware of all the areas you need to focus on and then if you can’t do something, have a resource. And that is the great thing about Hanapin.
  Discover more tools and tricks from PPC Hero:
How To Work Smarter and Faster With AdWords Scripts
Improving Your Account Through AdWords Scripts
5 Easy Ways To Customize AdWords Scripts
Are You Too Focused On Your Data?
How to Find Seasonality in your PPC Accounts
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 http://www.ppchero.com/interview-with-a-hanapin-ppc-expert/
0 notes
archiebwoollard · 7 years
Text
Coffee Talk: Catching Up With Hanapin’s PPC Experts
It is Friday morning. Secret Jake and I walk to a little coffee shop just a block away from our office. We order Guatemalan pour-overs (we are fancy like that). We find a table and sit down only to discover it is wobbly. But we don’t move. For some reason, I feel like sitting and drinking coffee at a wobbly table is just what we need to properly talk PPC. A woman makes her way to the counter, Chihuahua in tow. The shelves of the shop are lined with vintage sci-fi novels and succulents. The shop is abuzz with chatter and the sound of steam being released from the espresso machine.
  SJ and I have been working together for 4 years but I’ve never just sat down to chat about our industry. I want to pick his brain for a while. And he is kind enough to indulge me. I told my coworkers I thought about calling these little chats “Expert-teas”. But then realized that it only works if we have tea. And while I love a good cup of Earl Gray, PPC and coffee go together like chocolate and peanut butter, so I abandoned my pun.
  Jacob Fairclough. Secret Jake. SJ. He is a data analyst force to be reckoned with. As one of Hanapin’s Sr. Account Analysts, he is charged with tackling some pretty hefty problems in accounts. While he is a red account problem solver extraordinaire, today I am more interested in exploring the nifty tools he’s developed to push us to the forefront of innovation and creativity as an agency. So we start talking about our personal journeys from undergrad to PPC, starting with no knowledge of this industry.
  Since you have started, what is the biggest change you have seen at Hanapin that has had the most impact?
  Internally probably more structure on the roles and the work expected. I started fresh as an Account Manager with no experience and back then it was kind of “here’s an account, figure it out”. We know a lot more internally, from the PA training program and things like that, our [Associate Directors] are involved, or a Sr. AM sits on the calls and coaches you through things.
  Do you see colleges starting to offer digital marketing degrees specifically?
  Maybe. It almost has to go that way. But who would want a textbook on AdWords? It is a hurdle for some people, even in digital it’s like, so I kinda get the technical part. How does a website work? How does this tracking work? But even if you don’t do [technical website work] specifically, you need to be able to discuss it with the people who do. Or at least know, “this is where I should be looking if things aren’t working”.
  So what is your favorite part of your role?
  Finding a way to use my skills to make our work more effective. [One of our accounts is] basically paying two agencies and we are slowly transferring accounts from one to another. They spend $300,000 a month right now, whereas of a few weeks ago when I started the project we had $3,000 of that spend […]. So we built some scripts and stuff to take the information from their old ad groups and things, like all the location names, […], URLs, and everything like that and built an [AdWords] Editor-ready file from it to just drop it in the account.
  What they had been doing before, was they had a basic campaign and [they were] copying and pasting it and finding and replacing in the Editor for every single thing. What we did was, with the one [campaign] I’m thinking had like 300 locations, was take a single input file with all the location information and pump it through a script that would then put it in an editor-ready file, and then you upload that, make the changes you need to ad copy or whatever and move on with your life.
  So I like finding those. That is one of the more interesting side, how do we take some skills or take something more automated and make our work more effective.
  Was this script built from the ground up?
  So we built this one from the ground up. The biggest challenge was [as] with a lot of things, how do I take the information that is here and make it into something useable.
  How did you learn scripts?
   I did some seminars in school for it when I was doing my undergrad. I did an intro to computer science.
  Do you think this is a skill account managers should teach themselves? If they are either at an agency where they don’t have someone to do that or if they are working solo?
  Oh I waffle on this because there is the division between the more technical side and the people who say “oh well maybe we should focus on being better marketers” and the tech stuff is, whatever you want to call, it icing on the cake.
  There is a weird upfront challenge of thinking in that way.
  What do you mean?
  It’s understanding the small details when moving to a coding language or something like that, it can be kind of weird in trying to understand what data types to use. Writing code isn’t super hard, it is how to map the technical side of what I need to do. How do I choose the right data types? It is a really valuable skill. It can make automating things much easier. It opens up a lot of new opportunities but it is a skill. My hesitation [is], if you aren’t interested in it, or you aren’t working on some of those problems, then learning the code isn’t going to make you a better account manager. So you could have some of the technical abilities but if you don’t understand the system or the client communication or the business side of the problem then you aren’t going to get anywhere. You are just going to do crappy things differently.
  Best script you’ve created?
  I think the one that I’m probably most proud of and I learned the most because I hadn’t done anything like that, was [one for our client that uses] AppsFlyer. So [AppsFlyer] records all of [the users] in-app activity, then we have the AdWords data, and we had the AdStage reporting platform. The issue is that AppsFlyer is measuring in-app activity, like open rates, that isn’t available on the AdWords side, but we want to tie it back to our campaigns and things like that so we created a script that downloads all of the information from AppsFlyer, formats it, then pushes it into AdStage so you can link those datasets together. Some of them you don’t have conversion tracking at the campaign level on maybe AdWords, or Bing, or on the Apple side. And the other side would be okay we don’t actually care about people just downloading the app we actually want to start counting when people open the app or use the app over 7 days or whatever. So by importing those custom conversions, we can start figuring that into automated rules or even just reporting.
  Forecasting. That seems to be something a lot of people especially as they start to plan their budgets toward the end of the year struggle with, dealing with attribution and seasonality. What is your recommendation?
   Holt-winters forecasting model. But I went to a workshop on statistics and programming a few months ago and someone had asked the question and the response was “there is a lot of stuff that goes into forecasting and maybe that is your solution at this point that it is good enough for what you do.” There are some cool methods out there like Facebook’s Profit and things like that which take a little programming experience, but it has a kind of built-in tool to build its own model around like time series and things like that. I think the biggest change, and I think it is hard in a PPC realm because we are so focused on having very specific data points, is just loosening up on the forecasting because sometimes it is driven by our own need for perfection and sometimes it is driven by the client who thinks “Oh, I need to know down to the dollar how much we need to spend”. But when I start looking into more forecasting there is always a probability associated with it and it is going to fall within a certain range. And we can’t tell the future. Oh, well maybe your sales side picks up. Maybe you start doing TV buys. And you start looking at forecasting in other areas like forecasting for TV or radio. There is a lot of guesswork involved and [saying] “I think this is going to happen”. So on the PPC side we need to be okay with that. I think people are starting to come around to that.
  But I think it is because PPC by nature is transparent, so…
  Well it is the same thing when we have CPA goals. There is a lot that goes into [maintaining those goals].
  One, you need to be able to think more probabilistically. [To look at data and say “these are the probable outcomes of something”. And the other side is one that, the data isn’t sacred. It isn’t a perfect entity. It is a resource you can use. So it is how do I use it as a resource to make better decisions?
  What is your PPCHero Superpower?
  It depends on who you ask. According to some feedback, I am good at being an office weirdo. The other side would be finding ways to manipulate the data or find a way to put it together. Sometimes it is really mundane and sometimes it is really interesting. So it goes back to that scripting API example. How do I take one data source and format it and take all the required information we need and send it to another service. I like to dabble in a lot of things. So figuring out how to connect those different pieces. I am a serial dabbler.
  So [my advice is], If you aren’t interested in the technical side, who can handle that side? Who is your resource? You don’t have to do everything but you should be able to be aware of all the areas you need to focus on and then if you can’t do something, have a resource. And that is the great thing about Hanapin.
  Discover more tools and tricks from PPC Hero:
How To Work Smarter and Faster With AdWords Scripts
Improving Your Account Through AdWords Scripts
5 Easy Ways To Customize AdWords Scripts
Are You Too Focused On Your Data?
How to Find Seasonality in your PPC Accounts
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 http://www.ppchero.com/interview-with-a-hanapin-ppc-expert/
0 notes