Without a buyer in the team, it is difficult to distribute the advertising budget competently, to find the coolest sites for placing adverts and bundles for promotion. It is even more difficult to find a really good, top buyer.
On popular job aggregators there are too few CVs from specialists, and most of them make you weep already from the first line. Even if you post a job opening, you're bound to fail. Reading the responses, you go from a fleeting chuckle to hysterical laughter and complete bewilderment. And, if you do manage to find a diamond among such responses, at the interview it turns out that the media buyer can hardly distinguish between Facebook and Google Trends, and knows only in theory about pouring into the plus side.
Let us tell you how to find a top buyer and how not to make a mistake when choosing a candidate. Find out what skills to look at first and whether it is so important to hire a senor-level buyer?
Who's a top buyer
A top buyer is a specialist who does not just run adverts according to a given scheme.
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Media Buyer professional fulfills a wide pool of tasks:
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brings his own consumables and works with them as well: accounts (autoregisters, brutes) account in anti-detect-browser, proxies, trackers;
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selects favorable sites for advertising, negotiates placement as necessary;
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monitors accounts, controls metrics, pumps pixels, monitors KPIs, stats in general;
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maintains a stable ROI;
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minimizes campaign costs;
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chooses strategies and types of flooding according to the situation: large-scale, test, spot;
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maximally understands the nuances of the work of each (or one of them, if a narrowly specialized specialist) advertising office;
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analyses and applies market trends;
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optimizes and scales advertising campaigns;
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monitors competitors and searches for relevant offers and profitable bundles;
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bypasses bans, adjusts cloaca;
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embeds macros and subaccounts to avoid mixing traffic;
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restarts advertising campaigns.
That is, a top buyer must know the whole technique of running in traffic. If you ask him why the RC is minus, he will certainly give a detailed answer and show why it is not possible to get to the plus side.
Dream applicant for the position of media buyer not only fulfils his direct duties, but can easily replace other specialists on simple tasks. A top buyer knows and knows how to farm ackeys, can easily create or tweak creos. A pro works in a team: shakes over the product as much as the others, tries to increase profits, not sitting around from call to call.
What to look at first when hiring a top buyer
The first thing to look at is CVs and references. If the applicant clearly describes all his duties and results, can provide evidence of the running traffic, then he should be considered as a candidate in the first place. But if the specialist does not stay long in the team, jumps from one team to another, it is better to leave him for an interview for later.
If we are choosing a top buyer, we need to evaluate his hard and soft skills.
"Hard" professional skills of a top buyer:
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Ability to serve ads on a specific or different platforms. Some people are looking for a media buyer specifically for Facebook, others want a generalist. A top media buyer can easily tell you how he found a bundle or what approaches he used, and quickly find consumables and tools.
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Knowledge of marketing basics: research, evaluation and KPI budget comparison.
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Ability to reduce advertising costs, quickly edit, optimise the RC in case of negative indicators.
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Working with large amounts of information, constant monitoring of news and trends, analyses in Google Analytics, Google Trends or Hype Auditor.
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Reporting and document management in various programmes to provide results of work.
It's easy to expose a liar at a job interview. If during the conversation the buyer can't tell you how he searched for bundles, where he got his approaches from, how many leads he had - he drew the cases on his knee or borrowed stat screens from someone else.
Soft-skills are not the least important for a top buyer:
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Communication skills and the ability to talk in general. It is important not to keep silent, but to report any faults at once, to tell how the product can be improved. A specialist needs to find a common language with clients.
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Creativity. A non-standard approach is always valuable.
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Stress resistance and perseverance. If something doesn't work out, you can't give up: 145 tests didn't work out, the 146th one will. Hysterics and scandals in the team are definitely not good for you.
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Proactivity. Some people find it annoying, but it is good for the team. The more ideas, the better.
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The desire to develop, to grow. Bad is the buyer who does not want to become a team leader.
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Time management. It's simple: if a buyer fulfils his tasks on time or can help at any moment, it means that he knows how to build a workflow.
At an interview, an insecure buyer causes bewilderment: if you have been running successfully, you know what to do and how to do it, why don't you want to give detailed answers? If the applicant has not prepared, has not brought google docs with specific figures, then something is not clean here.
It's good if the job seeker asks questions on their own. For example, he asks how quickly a new procla can be created, how fast a copywriter works, or whether there is a pharma department. It becomes clear that the person is still in the know.
Why it's better to take a middler and teach than to hunt a senior
Imagine a super-media buyer with 15 years of experience comes to you, who has been interacting in a team according to certain algorithms for a long time. Even if he starts his duties right away, as long as he gets into the specifics of your team's processes, you'll lose some money at the gulfs. And this senior will have to pay much more than a middler. Moreover, the senor will soon (faster than middle) go on promotion, and you will be left again without a buyer.
A middle, on the other hand, is a strengthened, lean specialist, who is confident, knows what and how to flood traffic, and is ready for further training. His duties will be a little less while he is learning. But the salary will be corresponding. Buyer will strive to earn more, learn and get involved in all the work processes.
It is difficult to find a top buyer on standard job aggregators in Ukraine and abroad. Most CVs have not been updated for two years, and interaction with candidates on such sites is inconvenient. It is much more effective to use Grey Hunter services: the platform specializes in traffic arbitrage. Here you'll find dozens of CVs from buyers of different levels.
A top buyer is the dream of any team. If you choose a specialist wisely, you can forget about frequent pours in a huge disadvantage. The specialist will constantly test approaches and bundles, monitor the leads on the adverts. And if the test comes in, he will immediately scale the advertising campaign to make even more money. And Grey Hunter will help you find a top buyer for your team.
