Search and social campaigns can make a significant impact, especially with brands looking to gain exposure and connect directly to consumers as well as other businesses . In order to make these campaigns run effectively, however, a talented team working behind the scenes is absolutely necessary. What does an average day look like and how does the team continue to grow? In this aX profile, we’re looking into a day in the life of Chris Clark, Director of Paid Search & Social at AUDIENCEX.
A Day in the Life
As the head of our Paid Search & Social team, Chris has a large mix of responsibilities that range from launching to optimizing mid-campaign and constantly searching for new opportunities. No matter the stage of the campaign, there’s a lot of important steps to achieve to ensure success. This is what Chris had to say about a typical day in his role:
“A typical day will include regularly fluctuating mix of launching and/or QA’ing new campaigns, checking accounts for pacing and performance, optimizing to improve performance, analyzing accounts for potential opportunities, working with the accounts team to develop new strategies/proposal for new and existing clients, reporting on existing campaigns, meetings, and training sessions..”
Life Before AUDIENCEX
How does he manage all of these functions? Chris has previous experience working in the digital advertising landscape:
“I worked on paid search in the SME space for DexOne prior to and during its merger with Supermedia, both of which were legacy yellowpage publishers trying to move their vast customer base from print to digital marketing.”
That’s not all. Chris also has experience working at Transamerica in an internal startup. Here, he was part of a “new digital marketing team distinct from the conservative culture you would expect from a large and long-established financial enterprise.”
He even has experience in the entertainment industry. At Disney, he was “part of a very strong team serving their Parks and Resorts unit.”
Why AUDIENCEX
What made Chris choose AUDIENCEX? As he stated, “the people here are unpretentious and enjoy the work we do. I am impressed with the work ethic and motivation my colleagues demonstrate.”
Continually Growing
Our motto of continuous improvement is something that Chris stands by. Even with his busy schedule, Chris is always looking for ways he can do better:
“I do my best to consume as much relevant industry news as possible, which I feel is necessary just to remain abreast with industry developments. Beyond that we really benefit from having such a large variety of clients. While each client’s situation is unique, they all help us to better understand how to deliver campaigns effectively in the future.”
Helping His Team
In addition to achieving his professional goals, Chris also continually strives to help those around him:
“I am our subject matter expert for search & social and regularly provide a POV regarding specific tactics and use cases across a variety of platforms.
Part of the need for me to focus on learning about new product features or tactics is the need to keep up with the questions we generate internally or receive from clients.”
Outside the Office
At times when he isn’t participating in a fantasy football league, Chris loves watching shows like The Wire. “For a while there I was watching 2-3 episodes a night. The show is like a novel, where every element of the story matters and there are very few if any meaningless characters or scenes. Contrast that with other shows where certain characters add next to nothing to the plot and in fact scenes in which they appear can be entirely skipped without taking away from the primary narrative.”
Chris is also a huge podcast fan, having listened to The Thomahawk Show, By the Book, and Business Wars. His current obsession is the podcast Coke vs. Pepsi.
Fun Facts
Who doesn’t love a good fun fact? Chris revealed that he’s held some pretty fascinating jobs “including industrial bake-on painting for a company that produced tire racks, the kind you’d find at a gas station, general tasks at a funeral home, and being a broker on the now defunct American Stock Exchange.”
Hypothetically Speaking
When we asked Chris about the type of ad he thinks he’ll be targeted with next, he confidently answered “product ads on Instagram” because “they work.”
Speaking to his own experience, Chris stated “While I didn’t purchase the brand shown in the ad, I did recently purchase a chef’s knife, a windshield snow cover, and a faucet LED light as Christmas gifts after seeing ads on IG.”
The Future
The advertising industry is constantly evolving. According to Chris, these are the 3 things that will change in the next 3 years:
- More companies will advertise on Amazon given their loyal and growing user-base, especially B2B vendors.
- More DTC brands will emerge successful, relying on clever marketing to reach customers than dealing with big box gatekeepers. As ecommerce pathways continue to reduce friction from product awareness to checkout, shoppers find less resistance to their impulse purchases. Look at all the gifts I just bought!
- While it might be limited to advertisers with larger budgets at least initially, due to the amount of creative production required, I expect to see dynamic video and audio ads at some point.
In terms of what Chris is personally looking forward to in the next 5 years, it’s multiple Superbowl rings for the Cleveland Browns.
About aX Profiles
aX Profiles provide a glimpse into the bright & fun personalities that shape our culture. Stay tuned each month for additional stories, and thanks to all who have shared their story!