“So what do you actually do all day?”
If I had a naira for every time someone asked me that when I tell them my job title, I’d probably have enough to run a solid Google Ads campaign. (Which, coincidentally, is one of the things The Ad Guys does extremely well — but we’ll get to that.)
Lead Follow-Up Assistant. It sounds simple. It sounds like I just send a few messages and then scroll my phone. It is absolutely, one hundred percent, not that.
Let me pull back the curtain on what a real day in the life of a lead follow-up assistant looks like at The Ad Guys. And spoiler: it’s more creative, more strategic, and honestly more fun than most people expect.
Morning Routine and Mental Prep
The work starts before the laptop opens. I spend about 20-30 minutes checking marketing trends, anything relevant to the niches of the leads and media partners I’m currently working with.
Why? Because my job requires me to walk into every conversation as if I’ve been following the lead’s world as closely as they have. That means knowing if there’s been a new development in their industry, a trend that affects their audience, or a viral moment that I can tie into my outreach.
Being informed isn’t optional in this role. It’s the foundation.
Dashboard Review: Who’s Hot and Who’s Cooling Off
Once I’m at my desk, the first thing I do is review my leads. At The Ad Guys, we keep detailed notes on every lead in our pipeline — where they are in the journey, when we last spoke, what we discussed, and what the next action should be.
I sort my leads by urgency:
- Hot leads: People who’ve recently engaged, shown strong interest, or are close to making a decision
- Warm leads: People who are interested but need more nurturing
- Re-engagement targets: Leads that have gone cold and need a fresh, thoughtful approach
Today’s board has 4 hot leads, 9 warm leads, and 3 re-engagement targets. Let’s go.
Hot Lead Outreach
Hot leads get my best energy early. These are the conversations that have momentum, and momentum is fragile — if you let it cool, you often have to start from scratch.
Example; “For one hot lead today, I’m preparing a final proposal summary based on a call we had earlier in the week. They’re a mid-sized e-commerce brand interested in Google Ads and Social Media Management. I craft a clear, concise summary of what we discussed, the recommended approach, the expected outcomes, and a transparent breakdown of what they’d be investing.”
The goal: make it so easy to say yes that the only reason not to is if they genuinely don’t want it.
I sent the message. I will make a note to follow up in 3 days if I haven’t heard back.
Warm Lead Nurture Sequence
For warm leads, the job isn’t to push, it’s to add value and stay relevant. Today I’m sending out a batch of personalised check-ins to 5 warm leads, each with something different:
- Lead A (a restaurant chain) needing social media advertising
- Lead B (a fashion brand) interested in visual branding
- Lead C (a tech startup) worried about customer acquisition. Reaching out to best suggest a quick 10-minute call to explore approaches we will offer.
None of these follow-ups will have a copy-paste. Every single one is crafted for that person, based on what I know about their business, our previous conversation and their goals. It takes longer. It works significantly better.
Calls Block
Some of the most important work in this role doesn’t happen over email/messaging, it happens on a call. This time slot is for discovery calls, follow-up calls, and check-ins with leads at different stages of the pipeline.
I have different calls lined up daily:
The first is a discovery call with new leads. The call itself is mostly me asking questions and taking notes. By the end, I know exactly what they need and what their hesitations are.
The second is follow-up calls with warm lead we’ve been nurturing for about a week. They reviewed the proposal and had a few questions. I answer each one clearly, address a pricing concern without apologising for our rates, and by the end of the call they say, “Let me talk to my partner and I’ll get back to you by Friday.” Progress but no definite response, so a call discusses at length and offers quicker conclusion rather than messaging with possibility of delayed responses.
The third is a quick check-in call with a lead who went quiet after showing strong interest. No agenda, no pressure — just a friendly “circling back” moment. Those calls do something messaging can’t: they remind the person that there’s a real human on the other side who genuinely cares. Nine times out of ten, the energy shifts immediately.
Calls are where relationships are actually built. Messaging moves things forward, calls move people.
Lunch and a Scroll (Yes, This Counts as Work)
Okay, fine — lunch is lunch. But the scroll? Genuinely work. I spend part of my break on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter as a timeout from work while checking what’s trending, and if there’s anything new that gives me a hook for my next follow-up conversations. This gives me space to breathe and regroup.
Finding a pain point in words online in a tweet, a LinkedIn post, a comment is gold. It gives you a follow-up angle that feels uncannily personal.
The internet is research. Behave accordingly.
Strategy and Team Sync
The Ad Guys are a remote team, but we stay connected. I update a department on the team on ad performances and lead requests that might need specific service pitches or collaborative input.
This part of the job is crucial as I’m the bridge between the lead and the team. If a lead is interested in SEO, I loop in the right people. If they want a full Website Design project, I make sure the proposal reflects what our design team can actually deliver. My job is only as good as my knowledge of our team’s capabilities and at The Ad Guys, those capabilities are genuinely impressive.
Follow-Up Review and Scheduling
Late afternoon is for review. I go back through the messages I sent today, note any responses, update lead statuses, and note the next round of follow-ups.
A lead replied positively this morning but went quiet? — I immediately drop a gentle reminder.
A warm lead opened my message three times but didn’t reply — interesting. I note this and plan a slightly different angle for my next follow-up.
One of my re-engagement targets replied, finally, after 3 weeks of silence: “Hey! So sorry for the delayed response, things have been crazy. Can we hop on a call this week?”
I do a small internal celebration. This is literally why we don’t give up.
Wind Down
For most people, this is clocking-out territory. But the day of a lead follow-up assistant doesn’t always end at 5 PM.
Not every lead operates on a 9-to-5 schedule and neither do we. Some of the best conversations happen later in the evening, with business owners who spent the whole day heads-down and can finally breathe at 6 PM. When a lead requests a later call time, I honour it. Because losing a genuine opportunity over a scheduling preference would be a shame.
Nothing falls through the cracks here. It’s just about meeting people where they are.
What This Job Actually Requires
In case the above didn’t make it obvious, being a Lead Follow-Up Assistant at The Ad Guys is not a passive role. It demands:
- Strong written communication — Every message needs to land
- Emotional intelligence — Reading people and situations accurately is everything
- Organised systems thinking — Tracking 20+ leads simultaneously without dropping a ball
- Creative problem-solving — When the standard approach isn’t working, you adapt
- Deep knowledge of the agency’s services — You can only pitch what you understand
- Genuine curiosity about people and businesses — You have to actually care about helping the lead
It’s part sales, part relationship management, part copywriting, and part strategy. And honestly? It’s one of the most dynamic roles in the building.
The Part Nobody Tells You
The best thing about this role, the thing that keeps it exciting is that every single lead is a different story. A different industry, a different set of challenges, a different decision-making style, a different moment in their business journey.
You never stop learning. You never stop adapting. And on the days when a lead finally converts after weeks of nurturing, when they go from “maybe someday” to “let’s start on Monday” — the satisfaction is genuinely unmatched.
That’s the job. And at The Ad Guys, I wouldn’t trade it.
Curious about what The Ad Guys can do for your brand? Start the conversation — I promise the follow-up experience is top tier.
