This past week AMA was visited by Claire, Maddie, Kate, and Saman from Amazon! It is safe to say that every student in the room was curious about what it is like to work at Amazon, what the Amazon culture is like, what goes into Amazon’s advertising techniques and advertising strategies, and what opportunities are available. Thankfully, our guests did a great job of answering all these questions. So, let’s get into what they told us!
Associate Account Executive
Being an Associate Account Executive (AAE) at Amazon is a client-facing role. What makes it client-facing? Well, in this position AAEs partner with clients to educate them on advertising for business. This may seem overwhelming for an entry-level position, but Amazon makes sure to prepare employees before getting involved with clients.
The AAE Program is a special onboarding program that prepares employees in every way that is necessary. Have experience in advertising, but not sales? No worries, most of your time in the program will then be spent catching you up to speed on the sales process. Think of the program as an extension of your college education, completing program requirements such as:
•Practicing Client Pitches
•Giving Mock Presentations
•Completing Homework Assignments
•Learning Leadership Principles
•Getting an Assigned Cohort
I realize the role may seem a little vague. It may even seem all-encompassing. So let us discuss what it is that an AAE does day-to-day.
Assistant Account Executives are focused on product categories. For example, Saman mostly has golf clients dealing with golf balls, bags, and other accessories. Saman’s role is not only to consult these clients but also to bring traffic and awareness. AAEs decipher what type of ad would most serve the client and propose advertising strategies to the client to help them grow their business. Sometimes, Saman must work with a new business that just launched its product on Amazon. This process of advertising often looks different from that of an older product. However, advertising for business takes more than one person, this is where Associate Account Managers and Associate Creative Campaign Managers come in.
Associate Account Manager
As with the AAE Program, the Associate Account Manager (AAM) Program leads directly into the Account Manager position. After graduating the program, the “associate” label is no longer used. Moreover, this program is structured in the same way the AAE Program is, the only difference is the result and goal! But what is unique about being an Associate Account Manager? Well, this role is for all my analytical people out there! This role deals specifically with:
- Analytics
- Data Trends
- Campaign Performance
- Improving Performance
This role is a great way to get a foundational understanding of working in advertising and marketing. While the AAE pitches products, the AAM finds the data to support the pitch. Although this role is data-oriented, it is still considered client-facing. AAEs just present the data to the client to provide evidence for strategic reasoning. After the advertising campaign has launched, AAMs then report the results and performance data.
Associate Creative Campaign Manager
And an exciting new addition to the Amazon Associate Programs is…the Associate Creative Campaign Manager (ACCM) Program! Although new, this program is structured similarly to the other two. However, as you can infer by the name, this program is very creativity-focused. Some of the main attributes are:
- A/B testing of creatives
- Locating primary user engagement
- Click rates
- In-class creative strategies
Determining what creatives and advertising mediums work best for a product is an important advertising technique. That is the job of the ACCM. For example, the use of video vs. display for the marketing of the product. Creatives optimize performance and roles, sometimes this may mean changing the products ‘call to action,’ or it can simply mean changing the color of an advertising campaign.
In addition, ACCMs must cross-reference Amazon policies to ensure they align with rules. All while answering the most important questions: Which product is driving better clicks or engagement? What do people want to see of the product? This may seem like a lot of responsibility, but that is why the ACCM Program was put in place! To help employees learn all that they need to know for the job.
What Are the Key Differentiators?
Just to give everyone a quick summary of how the roles differ, here are the key differentiators.
-Account Executives are the relationship builder & presenter
-Account Executives are oftentimes the leader
-Account Managers are analytical
-Account Managers seek to understand the “why?”
-Creative Campaign Managers focus on the details
-Creative Campaign Managers focus on what drives engagement
All these roles work together to make the client happy!
Program Expectations
A big part of the Amazon onboarding programs is gaining product knowledge. This is often accomplished through shadowing. That’s right! Program participants are given the opportunity to shadow a real AAE, AAM, or ACCM. This makes mock presentations and pitches all the easier.
A great part of the program that helps employees integrate into the culture is the assigned cohorts. During the program, employees are given a cohort, within which they specialize in something. This means you become the designated expert on the subject you are given!
It is important to note that this is a 6-month program, and nothing is set in stone. Amazon allows for a lot of flexibility regarding employee interests. Employees may have an option to switch out of the AAE Program and join the AAM program halfway through if they believe their interests align better in the AAM program. Even employees who have graduated from certain programs have switched their roles entirely. It really depends on where your area of interest resides. Click here if you are interested in Amazon’s programs!
About Amazon
Amazon put in place the 6-month training program largely so that employees could determine whether the role was the right fit for them. Claire, Maddie, Kate, and Saman all mentioned the flexibility given by their managers and supervisors within their various positions at the company.
Even after the training programs are over, there is always something employees can learn. Therefore, Amazon has ongoing assignments, even after employees graduate from the training programs. Saman joked as he spoke to us that he even had an assignment due that night!
One of our guests’ favorite aspects of the Amazon culture is the access employees have to other departments. These interactions are facilitated through what they call Coffee Chats. This allows employees to talk to people about possible roles they are interested in. That is how Saman decided on his current role! Additionally, employees often have various social events and happy hours that help build comradery amongst colleagues. Saman described the main culture of Amazon like this: “Learn as much as you can, and then try something new.”
“Learn as much as you can, and then try something new.”
Saman Elhelbawy, Account Executive at Amazon Advertising
Amazon Website and Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/amazon/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amazon/
WRITTEN BY LAUREN MADRIGAL
TEXAS AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION 