How Honza Bartos' Facebook agency organizes its work

Karel Dytrych asks for Freelo
Honza Bartos answers for honzabartos.cz

How would you introduce the Facebook agency Honza Bartos?

When I say agency, I think of shirts, polished offices and 30-page reports. If I take this ”definition”, we're more like the opposite of an agency. I still see myself as a freelancer, I just found partners who share the same idea, and we help each other out.

Honza Bartos.

What is special and unique about you?

We specialize in performance Facebook advertising. This allows us to gain experience quickly and keep up with our education. Our domain is e-shops and recently we have been making SaaS applications.

The experience from our own business has changed the way we look at work. We are not interested in likes, but in sales and client's profit, who is then happy to pay us (and well). We don't bother with unnecessary communication and reports. If something sucks, we say it straight up. You don't hire us as ad clickers, you hire us as business partners.

The way we work is that we handle internal matters via Freelo and the person in charge of the client always communicates with him via email. But that will change over time if we continue to grow.

Why did you choose Facebook, how did you get into it?

It just came my way. I was a security guard for a long time. This job gave me and also took a lot, and I knew it wouldn't last for the rest of my life. So I tried (unsuccessfully) to run a business at the same time.

About 10 years ago, I got into Facebook. Back in the days when you could only get fans and more than 10 people out of 1000 saw the page posts. I met people like Honza Kvasnicka, Vetrovka or David Lörincz who helped me a lot.

I sat at the PC for 16 hours a day for the first 3 months, learning. There were no courses, everything had to be tried and tested. The first client - fitness4u.cz allowed me to learn on it, for which I am grateful and we work together to this day.

It was pretty hard, but it was worth it.

The worst were tasks in Messenger. It made my colleague Tomas's beard, which he doesn't have, turn grey. We're opposites, I remember most things, he writes everything down. We were looking for a mid-way solution, and thanks to Freelo, we have found one.

How many people are in your team currently and how do you divide the work?

We recently added Honza, so that makes 6 of us. Honza Buchal, Michal Svihalek, Vit Schaffarczik, Tomas Karasek, me and my beloved wife Zuzanka, who writes our commercials.

What are you proud of the most?

To our partners. We work with extremely skilled guys and I'm glad we can pay them well.

My rule is that I surround myself with the best people and it is not enough to give experience and work to such people. I also want and need to pay them well. I am against the classic model of agencies where one person has 20 clients and gets 30 or 40 thousand a month. We pay people on a project basis, so the more they work, the more they earn. And it's a multiple against the agency.

We are also proud of our clients. It's a win-win cooperation. We make them money and they are happy to pay us for it.

KD: What are the benefits of using Freelo for you? HB: Saving time and less stress.

Do you keep a close eye on the productivity or efficiency of your team? How do you know if everything is going well?

We don't track, we don't care if someone works 10 hours a day or an hour. We don't care if he's working in the morning, in the evening or on the other side of the world. We care about results. So do our clients.

Read also Performance and content agency Suzzie uses Freelo to track deadlines and budgets

You recently started using Freelo. What were the most common problems you encountered before the introduction of Freelo?

The worst were tasks in Messenger. It made my colleague Tomas's beard, which he doesn't have, turn grey. We're opposites, I remember most things, he writes everything down. We were looking for a mid-way solution, which we have found. We write the important stuff (weekly reports, client KPIs, etc.) in Freelo and let the rest flow. There are a few of us, so it works for us for now.

What are the benefits of using it for you?

Saving time and less stress.

Honza Bartos and Tomas Karasek.

What was the main driving reason for the introduction of Freelo?

We manage dozens of advertising accounts in the company. Tomas and I needed to check on them regularly. It took us hours a week and we were getting a little sick of it. That's why we got Freelo and first introduced weekly reports. That alone is worth every penny to us.

How was implementing Freelo? Did anyone or anything inspire you?

We do Facebook ads for Freelo, so Karel inspired us :-) The implementing was not difficult, because there are a few of us.

How is your work organized? How do you divide customers or projects? Do you use templates? How do you plan your work?

We mainly use repeated tasks for weekly and then monthly reports. We also have a template for a new client with what they need to find out before they start working with us. We don't work client = project style because there isn't that much communication with the client. The way we work is that we handle internal stuff through Freelo and the person in charge of the client always communicates with the client via email. But that will change over time if we keep growing.

Sample of an internal/directorial project in Honza Bartos' digital agency.

Which Freelo features help you the most? Templates, deadlines, public sharing for clients, repeated tasks for reports, ...

The biggest relief are the repeated reports. Templates make it easier for us to create posts on social media and write articles.

Do you have any instructions or best practices for using Freelo?

When you have a colleague who is crazy about organization and productivity, don't click off notifications. Then when you accidentally open Freelo when you share your desktop and he sees, let's say, 223 unread notifications, it's funny :-D

Sample of an internal project to manage social networks for internal agency needs.

What techniques do you use in teamwork on projects? Do you have regular meetings, brainstorm, create mind maps, provide feedback? What works for you and what have you instead abandoned?

We do regular training sessions because things change quickly on Facebook. At the same time, we do client-specific consultations when needed. Based on the client's report, we see that there is a problem and we solve it.

What tools are necessary to run your business?

Well, for us the main ones are Business Manager and Ads Manager :-D, then definitely iDoklad, Whereby, Google Calendar and of course Freelo.

I'd say you've done something great with Freelo. I know what it's like to develop an app myself, so I'm happy that there is something like this in the Czech Republic.

Is there anything that bothers you or is missing in Freelo?

Personally, it bothers me that only the person who entered the task can edit the task description. We write client KPIs in Freelo, which are constantly changing. I enter the task, but the person in charge of the client adds it. Unfortunately, he can't edit my comment, but he has to add new.

Tomas finds it too complicated as a tool for individuals. He uses Todoist, which he says is much simpler, on the other hand it doesn't have as advanced features and is not as complex as Freelo. I guess it's a matter of habit.

Read also How PPC specialists from PLACEMENT.cz steer million-dollar campaigns through Freelo

When you say ”Freelo”, what comes to your mind?

Sailing boat and Karel in captain's hat :-) Seriously, I think you have done something awesome in Freelo. I know myself what it's like to develop an app, so I'm happy that there is something like this in the Czech Republic.

Finally - what sources do you follow for FB advertising (web, blog, podcast, books, etc.) to stay in the loop?

For Newsfeed.cz and Jon Loomer. For strategy it's great to see Savannah Sanchez, Nick Shackelford and Tim Burd. But our main source is still our own data.

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