Interview with Antonio Calero from AdEspresso
On Saturday we will celebrate Applause second edition at W Barcelona. Today we are introducing you Antonio Calero, MarketPlace Services Director at AdEspresso, a platform that makes Facebook advertising easy for small business. He will tell us about Dynamic Facebook Ads, one of the best ways to deliver tailored messaging to people in specific stages of the sales funnel. So, if you want to know more about Dynamic Facebook Ads don’t miss Antonio’s keynote on Saturday!
Know more about Antonio in this interview!
Quick Quiz Antonio Calero – AdEspresso
1. What’s your story?
Remember that nerdy friend we all had back in the 90s that was obsessed with technology and used to fix our computer? That was me… although my career moved into Marketing instead of Computer Science or something that would have seem logical.
Fast Forward a few years to 2010, I started working in a Marketing agency. Some big clients needed to get assistance with Social Media advertising, and since this seemed to be a technology related thing (and nobody in the company had a good knowledge in the subject), who did they ask? The nerdy Spaniard. And that’s how I got involved in this industry.
In between I’ve done a lot of things – most of them involving technology and the Internet. I created two businesses in Spain back in 1999, and then I moved to Italy to start a new life with nothing more than the money I had won in a TV contest. Three years after that I moved to Australia where I spent 10 years before returning back to Spain in 2016.
2. How is your day-to-day?
Although born as a SaaS platform, AdEspresso started offering managed services in 2016 (campaign auditing, one-on-one coaching, campaign management…), so an important part of my everyday activities involves organising incoming service requests, that need to be analysed and qualified prior to be assigned to the right person from my team. Often times I also take on some of these service requests too, as this helps me keep my knowledge fresh and updated.
Additionally, we are constantly developing new features to improve our already powerful platform, so another important part of my job involves product management tasks, including design of new features or prioritising their implementation.
3. What was your biggest mistake and what did you learn from it?
Back in 1999 I created my first company and asked my best friend to become a business partner. We had been friends since we were kids, so I trusted him blindly in everything, but some months later he withdraw all the money from the bank and left the business. We ended up in court and I won the case, so I had my money back, but our friendship was ruined forever.
That day I learned an important lesson: keep business separate from personal life. Don’t get me wrong: it’s OK to build a business with a friend (as I did later when I created my second company), but treat it as a business with all the best processes and practices that this would involve.
4. If you didn’t work in social ads sector, where would you like to work?
I love public speaking and am passionate about helping people achieving their goals, so probably I’d try become a educator or coach. Either that or a zoo keeper 🙂
5. How many years have you been working in social ads industry? What has changed since you started to nowadays?
It was December 2010 when while working at the Marketing Agency I mentioned before I was told that from January “I was in charge of running Facebook ads for a client willing to spend shit loads of money per month”. Merry Christmas!
It was really a hard holiday trying to find information online, as back then there were not many blogs about this topic, and Facebook ads were just starting. So in the New Year I launched my first campaign trusting my technical skills, my prior experience with Google AdWords, and a lot of gut feeling. Imagine the stress of spending a client’s money without really knowing what you were doing. But eventually it turned out for good.
Now Facebook has evolved to become one of the best advertising online channels available: the amount of features and tools offered natively are terrific not only to run Facebook ads, but also for Market Research purposes.
6. Which are the hottest apps that have surprised you the most?
Shazam: it’s been around already for many years, but still amazes me the fact that you can scan an audio track and in a few seconds will identify who’s the band. Who remembers the good old days where people still argued at bars about who was the band playing and the name of the song?
7. What’s the main contribution of apps to our society?
Apps have become part of our daily lives, helping us with common tasks and bringing new levels of connectivity that just 10 years ago looked as science fiction. Most apps help freeing time and easing routines from users, thus providing an improved quality of living.
8. How do you think the app marketing ecosystem would be in 3-5 years?
My guess (and this is just a guess from a non-App person) is that augmented Reality and ubiquity will be a trend.
9. If you’d have to give any advice to an entrepreneur/business who’s ready to launch an app, what would it be regarding with social ads?
Social ads are not difficult, but are much more complex than what many believe and as such require practice and experience. Don’t give up if things don’t work: learn an lesson and apply those learnings in a new campaign.
10. Could you give us a hint about your keynote?
It will be about Dynamic Product Ads… without necessarily focusing on products 😉
If you want to learn about the future of Dynamic Facebook Ads, don’t miss Applause 2017 and buy your tickets now!
