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A Day in the Life of an Account Coordinator

Published: June 1, 2018

Author: Erica Settlecowski

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Our “in-house vs. agency” series concludes with a look at the day of a 3Q Account Coordinator.

9-10am: Head into the office!

Start times vary day to day! Generally, I like to be in the office by 9:30am, but I’m often at the mercy of the NYC subways. If I have plans with friends after work, I generally try to start a bit earlier so that I can turn off earlier as well. Regardless of the time I make it into the office, my first stop is the kitchen for my iced coffee or tea (I’m one of those people who loves iced coffee even when it’s snowing outside!) In the NYC office, we celebrate Monday mornings with bagels… 3Q likes to keep us well-fed with a kitchen full of snacks and drinks.

10am: Checking in on account spending

The very first thing I do when I get settled in is to take a look at my inbox. If there is anything that is pressing, I address that immediately. If not, I move onto updating our pacing docs. The pacing docs help us to understand how our accounts are spending across various platforms. As an account associate or account coordinator, you’re often the first person to check on the previous day’s spending, and you get to communicate this with the rest of your team. Depending on pacing, we may have to pull back or push spend for a given channel.

11am-4pm: Meetings and account optimization

While I don’t have meetings from 11-4pm everyday, this is generally the time during which most of them are scheduled. Most meetings are weekly calls with clients, while other meetings include internal syncs, office meetings, one-on-ones, or training. One of the best aspects of working for 3Q is the training team and coworkers who volunteer to train in specific subjects. Whenever I feel like I need help in a certain subject, I can easily pencil in a training. When I’m not in any of the above meetings, I’m generally working on optimizing my accounts.

The work included in optimizing accounts comes in many forms, and every account will require something different depending on what that specific client is focusing on. Every digital strategy is customized to fit the business goals and needs of the client – and if those goals shift, so does our marketing strategy. A day in the life of an account coordinator requires flexibility as the tasks you may have laid out for yourself on Monday have completely changed by Wednesday. Regardless of the ever-changing landscape of account optimization, there are several general tasks that are done weekly or bi-weekly to ensure campaigns are in tip-top shape. Some examples of 3Q’s production work include: negative scrubs, alpha promotions, GDN/YouTube placement scrubs, and alpha low-volume pauses.

12-1pm: Lunch

Somewhere in between the meetings, emails, and daily tasks, I like to sneak out for a bite to eat. Days seem to fly by at 3Q, and it’s always nice to take a little break. During the warmer months, I like to take my lunch to Madison Square Park, which is just half a block from the NYC office. During the winter, I generally find any excuse to NOT leave the office. Moving from San Diego to start this job in NYC, I’ve had a hard time adjusting to the chillier months.

On Thursdays, the entire office gets together for an office lunch. We all gather in the kitchen and take an hour to catch up and talk about what’s going on with our accounts, or in our personal life. It’s a great time to talk with coworkers from other teams you may not interact with on a daily basis.

4pm – 6pm: Work! (Or Happy Hour…or more snacks)

This is often the time I can get the bulk of my work done as most meetings are done for the day. Every other Friday, we have an in-office happy hour and board game session. Not much work gets done after 4:30 on these days…
While account production tasks and meetings take up a majority of my time, you never know what time-sensitive tasks for a client need to be completed that day or week. Overall, every day seems to be a little different at 3Q as an account coordinator, which keeps things fun and interesting!