If you’re an agency like us you’re probably managing many clients and a fluctuating workload. I’m going to explain how we use Basecamp 2 project management software to run a large part of our agency and streamline a bunch of stuff that would otherwise become incredibly messy and disjointed.
If you’re unfamiliar with Basecamp this quick 90 second video will give you a nice little overview.
How We Structure Basecamp Projects For Our PPC Agency
Firstly each client gets their own project. Maybe it’s my obsession with organisation but having all your client data and comms housed in one centralised location is pretty awesome.
Without some kind of system everything is spread across multiple email threads, Google drive folders and god knows where else. It gets messy really fast.
A great feature of Basecamp is the ability to keep certain data off limits from clients within the same pro. We use these walled off areas to keep a log of all the changes we make (more on this later), set tasks and store files. I also love how Basecamp adds “The client cant see this” in big red letters, which gives me peace of mind when uploading something sensitive.
Project Templates
When we onboard a new client we add them to a predefined template. The current template includes 3 public “discussions”. As the name implies these are simple threads where you can silo conversations to keep things clean. Nobody enjoys scanning through multiple email threads to find the answer to a question. Focused discussions around tracking for example ensure all your Google Analytics comms can be found easily. If new members join the team and want to get up to speed on a certain topic, all the discussions are nicely categorised.
Our project templates include a number of hidden and client facing discussions. When a new client first logs in they see the 3 public discussions,
- Upraw Media Kickoff – A friendly welcome, how to use Basecamp overview and a next steps guide.
- Client Questionnaire – Link to a Google form requesting any additional information that hasn’t already been covered. The responses are pinged to a slack channel using a Zap (more on this below)
- Monthly Reports – Discussions in this context are like stories. If someone wants a complete update on performance historically, why decisions were made and a whole bunch of data they can find it here.
Our templates also include a number of hidden “to do lists”. These are incredibly useful and guide the team internally throughout the onboarding process. As you can see below we include simple checks like client access and agreements. The account manager is responsible for ensuring these are completed and can ticks them off accordingly.
Internal Change Logs
I’ve always pushed our account managers to keep an internal log of all the major changes we make (much to their annoyance). It’s not about micromanaging or monitoring but keeping an internal story.
Even relatively small PPC accounts can be somewhat puzzling when looking backwards. That’s magnified significantly when you’re dealing with large complex accounts. Trying to understand the root cause of a swing in performance can often lead you down a serious rabbit hole. Of course you have the change history but it’s not ideal for quick answers.
A perfect example might be – Your client asks why we saw a spike in conversions in May 2017 (2 years ago!). Without an internal log you’re down the change history rabbit hole or relying on memory. I can barely remember what I ate for dinner yesterday so keeping an internal log means I can quickly scan through the notes and look for any key changes. Even basic notes really help to point you in the right direction.
The logs should be short and sweet for basic changes but more in-depth for strategic decisions and major initiatives.
Google Ads recently launched annotations like Google Analytics, which can further supplement your change logs.
Assigning & Prioritising Tasks
As explained earlier we have private “to do lists” as well as client facing lists. We mostly use these lists for internal workflow but this depends on the client.
Within each project we have a master to-do list, again this is hidden from the client. Each task can be assigned to an account manager with a deadline date. Critically when a deadline date is set you can visualise these dates in the Basecamp calendar view.
Basecamp 2 offers two types of calendars: project and stand-alone. Project calendars contain all the events and dated to-dos in your projects. Stand-alone calendars are a great place to put events that don’t belong in a project like birthdays, holidays and days off.
I love how you can colour code each project in the calendar view providing an overview of what’s due and when. You can simply drag a task in both list and calendar form and it will automatically reset the deadline date. This is particularly useful for recurring tasks like search query reports that might happen each week.
Activity Monitoring
Basecamp records the activity of everyone in your account. You can also see completed and outstanding tasks, so you always know who’s been working on what.
Simply hit the “everybody” tab and select the relevant person. Here you can see their completed and outstanding tasks, discussions they’re contributing to and more.
If you’re running a PPC team and you’re diligent with internal logs, to do lists and client comms, you have a nice helicopter view of what’s going down in all your projects.
Integration with other Tools
As you would expect you can integrate Basecamp with all your favourite tools like Slack, Google Drive, Gmail and more. Check out all the Zapier integrations here.
For example you could ping every discussion from Basecamp to the relevant client slack channel. You can even create to do’s right from slack. These are just a couple of ideas but the better you can automate and sync your took kit the more time you can spend on the things that really matter.
Easy To Use
The founder of Basecamp Jason Fried said this, “In the end, “You need to get the fundamentals right. Fun wears off; cool wears off. Useful never wears off.”
Basecamp may not be as feature packed as some of its competitors but that’s why we love it so much. The end result is a highly functional easy to use tool that clients will actually adopt.
Email notifications are another great feature that makes life simple for clients. If we post in a discussion you can select who receives an email notification. These are received and can be responded to just like any other email which gets automatically added to the thread. No need to shoot over to your browser, just respond to the email as normal and everything is kept in a nice clean discussion.
It Won’t Break The Bank
If you’re a serious agency, cost will not be the determining factor but let’s be honest – it helps. Unfortunately, the older versions of Basecamp are no longer available. We’re still using Basecamp2. Current pricing for Basecamp3 is $99 per month and you get an all access unlimited pass.
For us the advantages far outweigh the cost. Basecamp is a great investment for any service business.
Conclusion
To get the best out of Basecamp and any project management tool for that matter you must be diligent. Most clients will inevitably slip back into email but you must push back and reiterate the benefits of using the tool. Same goes for account managers. Ensuring everybody is using the tool in a unified way and keeping regular logs will ultimately boost efficiency internally and client side.
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