A Day in the Life of Dave Bird – MD of CPA Affiliate Network Monetise: Part Two

Dave Bird is the Managing Director of the leading UK cost per action network Monetise which rebranded earlier this year, as well as marketing agency Webtistic. In the second half of our feature, Dave explains what a typical afternoon is like in the Monetise offices, and how he switches off once he gets home.

Read part one of the feature here.

14.10: After treating my staff to lunch, I sit down with affiliate manager Ricky and we run through the Monetise stats from the past 24 hours. We use this time to look at how our affiliates are performing as well as checking individual campaigns. We make sure that conversion rates are consistent and that there are no tracking issues or any other ‘red-flags’.

We also do a traffic quality check to look for any suspicious behaviour. Over the years, we have seen some very elaborate attempts at fraud so we have to ensure that the network, and our advertisers, are protected.

15.25: It’s time for our daily presentation. Each day, one member of the team gives a five minute whiteboard presentation covering any new things that have happened in their sector within the last week. It’s SEO staff member Nisha’s turn who tells us about Google’s ridiculous decision to start using https referring links so that search keyword referral data doesn’t appear in Google Analytics accounts, making things a little more difficult for everybody.

As usual, a five minute ‘head-turn’ presentation turns into 20+ minutes…

15.50: After surviving tea round duties, I sit down with a cup of coffee and spend some time with Alex going through the notes he has prepared for a new pay-per-click client who we are due to meet tomorrow. We make a list of traffic sources that we will run through with the client which we know very few other digital marketing agencies will have even heard of.

16.25: I get a call from the head of an affiliate management agency I met at the A4U Expo in London. I’ve been looking to work with them for a while and am keen to help. They ask us to run a lead-generation campaign on Monetise for their leading dating brand.

17.15: Operation Inbox Zero. Every day is the same… I try to leave the office with an empty inbox and rarely get there, but today’s thankfully a good day.

17.50: I head off home knowing that I will probably make heavy use of my iPhone later to stay connected ‘out of hours’ and to respond to some emails I’m expecting from the US.

18.05: Time to have enjoy some family time. We have dinner (Chicken en Croute – a Mrs Bird special), I wash up, and then spend an hour wrestling with my son Alfie, playing ‘catch’ (badly), playing with numerous toys with wheels on, and trying to draw mummy.

Then comes bath time, more milk, and then story time. It started months ago with one story, and now we are up to four a night so I have to cunningly skip pages knowing that one day soon he will realise that his old dad is a story fraud!

19.50: Do a few chores and then settle down with a Lithuanian beer called ‘Utenos’ that our programmer Ignas gave me to try a week or so ago. It’s not too bad and hits the spot nicely!

This is Mrs. Bird’s soaps time so I flop on the sofa, grab my iPad, and read through Affbuzz, a cool syndication of mostly US affiliate bloggers.

After answering a few emails we watch a movie and settle on ‘Limitless’ which stars Bradley Cooper from ‘the Hangover’. It’s a bit disappointing, but I like the concept of ‘smart drugs’, especially for the team on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.

23.20: Time for bed where, as usual, I am unconscious within approximately three seconds.

We hope you enjoyed this insight into Dave’s daily life at Monetise! Enjoy more fascinating content below.