Time is your most valuable commodity as a media buyer, so you shouldn’t be wasting it. Instead you should be managing your time wisely. Because there are 24 hours in the day for everyone, time is an amazing equalizer to take into account.
If you’re a media buyer, you likely already know that time is your most valuable commodity and you shouldn’t squander it. Whether you’re self-employed or working for a traffic or affiliate network, time management will be key to your success in advertising. How well you manage your time in order to achieve goals as efficiently as possible is what sets great media buyers apart from mediocre ones.
Time is the greatest equalizer, as every person on the planet is given the same amount each day: Only 24 hours
Whether you’re extremely rich or atrociously poor, you still have the same amount of time at your disposal as the next person. Time-wasters pay dearly in the end, because success is most often directly correlated to how well you’re able to manage time.
In this article, we will outline six great time management tips that you can use starting today in order to improve how well you use each of the 24 hours of your busy day. Let’s count them down. #1 will definitely take your media buying to the next level!
6. Prioritize what’s important.
When you begin to look into how wisely you manage your time, it’s very important to assess which daily tasks should have the most priority. Additionally, it’s also critical to pinpoint the things on your schedule that may not be urgent or meaningful at all.
You may have heard of the Pareto principle, which states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In advertising, this could mean that you should find the 20% of offers that can bring you 80% of your profits, when optimized and scaled appropriately.
For the most successful advertisers we’ve spoken to (including our in-house media buyers), their most effective strategy for this has been to place their top priority tasks at the beginning of the day. This ensures they get done each day for sure.
There may also be some time-wasting items on your to do list that you should not even consider doing in the first place. Analyze your schedule carefully when setting priorities, and take into consideration that things like checking e-mails multiple times daily or getting social media alerts throughout the day may be hindering an effective time management plan.
Try to designate specific time slots to essential activities and do your best to limit (or even fully eliminate) ones that are low priority. Learn to say no to things that should have no priority for you.
5. Take breaks frequently and meditate.
If you have the luxury to do so, try to get to a point where you spend 50 minutes dedicated to working (napping at your desk doesn’t count) and then take a 20 minute break. This has been shown to keep mental acuity at peak levels, which is imperative when you have big goals to accomplish.
Not all office settings will allow for this sort of work-to-break ratio, but frequent breaks should be taken whenever possible. Use your breaks to restore yourself mentally, physically and emotionally. Take a walk, do some stretching or yoga, or simply meditate for 20 minutes. You’ll be ready to tackle work effectively again for 50 minutes straight after your break!
4. Set goals, but not just any goals…
In media buying just like in life as a whole, goals should be very specific and have a due date. They should be realistic, attainable goals you know can be achieved within X amount of time.
A poorly chosen goal would be: Make more money today!
While the idea is nice and it’s surely something everyone would love to achieve today, it’s not specific enough and it also isn’t something you can quantify in a meaningful way later on.
A well-chosen media buying goal would be: Achieve a positive return on investment (ROI) within 10 days on a given offer, while investing no more than $150 total.
That’s a fine goal to have. It’s specific enough to give you working parameters to stay within and it creates urgency by being time-based and setting a maximum amount of time allowed to accomplish the goal.
Bonus points: 10 days is also a more realistic time frame than giving yourself less than 24 hours to achieve a goal. Data gathered while achieving a goal like this can also be valuable for future media buying efforts.
3. Eliminate bad habits from your life.
Maybe you have a habit of binge-watching shows on Netflix regularly, you stay out late several nights per week partying, or you spend many hours each week playing video games.
Most people tend to have some bad habits they could change in an effort to be less wasteful with their time. The more bad habits you can get rid of in your life, the better your chances will be at becoming more effective with your time management and thus achieving big goals you’ve set.
2. Take care of yourself.
If you’re not healthy, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to perform at your best and make the most out of your time spent working. Make sure to put forth your best effort to exercise regularly (set goals for this too), eat primarily healthy foods, and try to walk places more. It will make a big difference for your energy levels and how alert you can be while working, which will result in better time management capabilities overall.
1. Use PlugRush Automated Rules!
Bet you didn’t see this one coming. Earlier this week, we launched our new Automated Rules optimization tool. If you’re a media buyer, optimizing is probably at the top of your list of priorities each day. It’s one of those things you do each morning because it’s most important… and then again several times per day, if you’re on top of your game and know the value of a properly optimized campaign to reach your goals in a timely manner.
Automation is completely killing it when it comes to time management, so it’s no surprise that PlugRush Automated Rules are #1 on this list. Learn more about how to automatically optimize your campaigns here. Find out how you can save roughly 90% of the time you currently spend on optimizing ad campaigns by simply setting up some Rules, which will do this top priority job for you.
