Michael here. The Badger is sitting this one out as I wanted to personally list our 2018 New Year’s Resolutions.
First off, I want to say Happy New Years on behalf of Ad Badger! 2017 has been a tremendous year for us as we have made great strides in creating our Amazon PPC tool. We established a user base that we will cherish forever, found out what’s important to us as a company, and advanced PPC technology. However, 2018 is now upon us. A common New Years saying is “new year, new me,” but at Ad Badger, we promise to stay the same–for the most part. We do have some resolutions in mind.
Amazon sellers are entrepreneurs at heart and as a CEO, I can relate to that 100 percent. My mission is to help sellers reach their full potential and cut out the parts of the selling process, that with today’s technology, are obsolete. Knowing that some Amazon sellers still use Excel sheets, calculators, and live by Amazon Seller Central to create ads drives me crazy when they have something like Ad Badger right in front of them. But then I think about how hard it is to get a product in front of potential customers. That’s why I created Ad Badger, to help entrepreneurs do just that. I wanted to automate the process, cut out unnecessary steps, and to help others.
As this new year progresses, so will Ad Badger in creating better experiences for our customers, while sticking to the basics.
Here are our 2018 resolutions:
Delegate and Automate
The new year reminds us how fast time can fly. We don’t need to waste time on things that can be delegated.
I talk to a lot of Amazon Business Owners, FBA’rs, or CMOs at large companies who are still spending time manually sifting through their search terms reports in Excel looking for new negative keywords. I have to be a good entrepreneur friend and challenge them: Are you sure it’s the best use of your time? You know this could be automated right?
As an entrepreneur, I can often find myself wanting to be Superman. I often want to fly in wearing a cape, and swoop into action when something–anything–needs to get done. That being said, there are a lot higher leverage areas of attention. In fact, by spending time on things that could be delegated, I’m procrastinating on the things that can’t be delegated. For Amazon Stores, there are new marketplaces, getting on AMS, Optimizing Listings for SEO and conversion rate, and launching new products. Every minute you spend in Excel is a step away from something important that can’t be delegated.
It’s vital for sellers to know what can be delegated and automated. At Ad Badger, automation is the name of the game. We will constantly ask ourselves how we can simplify things for our customers to cut out the parts that they don’t need so they can focus on the essentials.
It’s a lesson I often revisit in my own business.
Relentlessly Educate
The learning curve for advertising on Amazon is pretty steep. There are many things that factor into getting ad placement and if you don’t know a single thing about Amazon PPC, you might not have the best time. That’s why we are committed to providing education the Ad Badger community. In 2017, we launched The Badger Burrow and wrote great posts on PPC topics ranging from photo sizes you need for optimum product pages to Black Friday PPC stats. We also created a Facebook group for our users to interact with us and others within the community to answer questions, discuss trending topics, and make connections. Providing these educational resources is what we’re emphasizing a little more in 2018.
Unleash our Techie Side
We are a tech company, first and foremost. We wouldn’t be here if our team didn’t have a passion for technology. Ad Badger has excelled PPC technology by automating the advertising process with machine learning and providing tools like our Performance Grader.
Our developers are top class and genuinely care about our platform’s functionality. They are currently working on creating functionality for multi-user and multi-store accounts while making Ad Badger available in multiple countries. One of the things I am most excited about is we will be moving towards multi-ad support as well. Additionally, we will have improved reporting and interface.
Every day our platform is improving, our team is getting smarter, and we innovate further to push the limits on how technology is used in PPC advertising.
Build Relationships
For me, one of the best parts of business is the people you meet. Some of my best friends are people I’ve met in a business context. When it comes to Ad Badger, my relationships with my friends that sell on Amazon was a big part of my decision to launch this tool.
We couldn’t do everything on our own and that’s why Ad Badger will continue to focus on building meaningful relationships this year to create a network of PPC professionals to provide our customers with better knowledge, resources, and forums that aren’t just The Badger yelling PPC facts at you. We are interested in collaboration and diversifying with others who may have a different view on things and can add value to our customers.
I’ve spent my entire career in the world of PPC, so making sure I do right by PPC professionals is high on my list. I want to build a tool that does great work in less time, making the challenging task of PPC Optimization a bit easier.
Do All the Above the Right Way
Ad Badger is inclusive. Ad Badger is benevolent. Ad Badger is empathetic. There are a lot of problems in the world today and Ad Badger has no interest in creating any more. Instead, we are interested in solving problems, promoting equality, taking care of others, and expanding on the role of a company in today’s world. 2018 will be a year to explore ourselves a little more and inaugurate some great values we deeply care about.
Have a Great Year!
Even though it’s a dreary January day in Austin, the future is very bright and the excitement brings a warm feeling. That’s it for now, The Badger keeps texting me asking for which Badger sweaters he should buy on Amazon.
