Traffic managers help bring customers to websites.
The term traffic manager can refer to a variety of different positions. The term traffic can refer to the general movement of individuals and projects, or it can refer to the traffic of visitors to and from a website. Traffic is crucial for websites because many for-profit websites depend on traffic to buy goods and services. The traffic of projects must be managed by traffic managers working for engineering firms and industrial plants.
Online
Traffic ad managers are responsible for bringing traffic to a particular website to get visitors to do whatever the website wants them to do, such as buy products and services. This kind of traffic is drawn through banners, ads, pop-ups and other forms of online advertising. According to Expedia.com, they also have to engage in traffic analysis to determine which ads are drawing the most traffic and which ads should probably be replaced. Weekly, monthly and quarterly forecasts of traffic must be provided to shareholders. Whenever there is variance in traffic, the traffic manager must try to explain why this variance occurred.
Project
Traffic manager is also used to refer to supervisors of departments that handle incoming projects. This is done for the company to manage workloads, assign hours and delegate tasks as needed. These managers are responsible for analyzing information related to upcoming projects and then communicating this information effectively to the human resources and any other related department. Whenever needed, the project traffic manager will need to work closely with other departments to develop new work processes. Production reports must be regularly written and maintained, according to Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.
Education
For online advertising traffic managers, a degree is usually needed in marketing, sales, advertising or a computer-related discipline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, some online traffic managers can find work with no educational experience at all, often working their way up from entry-level positions. Those traffic managers working in industrial production have no standard educational requirements. Traffic managers working for engineering companies usually have a bachelor's degree in engineering, mathematics or computer science.
Outlook
The need for advertising agents is expected to grow by 7 percent between 2008 and 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS emphasized that much of the growth in advertising will be concentrated in online sales. While industrial production is expected to decline by 8 percent due to an increasingly outsourced manufacturing industry, the need for engineers is expected to grow by 8 percent. Both industrial production and engineering firms need traffic managers when a single company is handling multiple projects.
Earnings
According to Payscale.com, traffic managers earn between $29,492 and $70,337. Those who have been working for one to four years sometimes earn as much as $43,588, while those who have been working for 20 years or more sometimes only earn $42,253. No information is available for the salaries of online advertising traffic managers.
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