At Babbel, our endgame is getting people to have conversations with other people, in a new language. There are fantastic folks here making that possible. In our “Behind The Scenes” series, we sit down with them to provide a glimpse into who makes it all work, what they do, and where their heads are at.
This round we’re talking to Gizem Kaya, Babbel’s newest Performance Marketing Manager.
What’s your role at Babbel? What do you do on a typical day?
I joined Babbel 3 weeks ago as a Performance Marketing Manager, specifically for Paid Social. The Paid Social team focuses on managing, planning, developing, implementing and optimizing a variety of our paid campaigns across social media channels with a primary focus on Facebook and Instagram. As a new joiner, I’ve been spending my days getting to know the company, the teams around paid social, and learning the data-flow behind the product. My typical day right now would be asking too many questions 🙂
Where are you from and which languages do you speak?
I’m originally from Turkey and I speak English and Turkish fluently. I moved to Berlin only 4 weeks ago, but my relocation was quite easy since I was living in Düsseldorf, Germany for 1.5 years beforehand. I was already in love with Berlin before I even moved here, but now I love the city even more. It is so multicultural and liberal where anyone can feel accepted. Also, as someone from Istanbul, I missed living in a big city and so far Berlin is meeting my big city needs.
What were you doing before Babbel?
I was working as a Marketing Analyst in a travel company in Düsseldorf with the main focus being on Paid Social. It is interesting to see different industries, and how different dynamics and best practices vary depending on them. At my previous job, I had clients from Europe and APAC region and I was managing their paid social activities on Facebook and with Facebook’s feature for hoteliers called Facebook Dynamic ads. I was both responsible for setting up the campaigns & managing & optimizing and reporting weekly on the performance to my clients.
What drew you to Babbel?
The open-minded company culture and diversity are the main reasons that drew me to Babbel. There are people from all around the world and everyone is welcome here without being judged. This is such a great thing that so many companies are unfortunately missing. I do not feel like I’m working in an e.g. German or French company, but rather an “all nations” company.
What is most exciting for you at the moment?
At the moment, there are so many infrastructural changes happening within our department and many people are involved with the new technologies. Performance Marketing is adopting tools & technologies that will increase productivity and maximize efficiency. The team is also testing new attributions & a multi-touch attribution that shows a clearer picture of which channels are the main channels pushing sales so that we can make more accurate optimizations. I can’t wait to see how these changes are going to impact our team’s work.
What has surprised you most so far?
So far, the most surprising thing has been that there are Babbel employees who want to learn to speak Turkish. There are volunteer Turkish lessons here at Babbel where foreigners can learn from Turkish native speakers. For the first time in my life, I’m seeing Europeans trying to learn and speak Turkish. This was the most surprising thing I’ve seen so far and I’m very flattered!
What do you want to do/accomplish/pursue at Babbel?
My goal is to automate and deliver customized tailored messaging content to users by leveraging the technologies & innovations Facebook offers to its partners and getting the most use of the advertising platforms. In general, I’m a very curious person therefore my other aim is to get to know as many people as I can and learn from their expertise!
Are you interested in joining Babbel? Check out our current openings here!