Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Advertising Account Coordinator
💰 $ - $
AdvertisingAccount ManagementMarketingMedia BuyingDigital Media
🎯 Role Definition
The Advertising Account Coordinator supports day-to-day campaign execution, client communication, reporting and campaign optimization across digital and traditional media channels. This role is a client-facing, operations-oriented position that bridges account management, ad operations, and media buying teams to ensure campaigns launch on time, track accurately, and meet performance and billing expectations. Ideal candidates are detail-oriented, comfortable with ad platforms and analytics tools, and able to translate client goals into correct tactical execution.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Marketing Assistant or Marketing Coordinator transitioning into digital advertising
- Media Coordinator or Ad Operations Assistant with basic trafficking experience
- Junior Account Executive or Client Services Assistant supporting campaign teams
Advancement To:
- Advertising Account Manager / Senior Account Coordinator
- Media Planner / Media Buyer
- Ad Operations Specialist / Campaign Manager
- Client Services Manager or Digital Marketing Manager
Lateral Moves:
- Programmatic Buyer / DSP Specialist
- Social Media Ads Specialist (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn)
- Analytics or Reporting Specialist (Data Studio, Looker, Tableau)
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Act as the primary day-to-day point of contact for assigned client campaigns, responding to client inquiries, clarifying creative and trafficking requirements, and proactively communicating status updates and campaign performance.
- Coordinate end-to-end campaign trafficking: set up campaigns in ad servers and DSPs (e.g., Google Ad Manager, DV360, The Trade Desk), implement creative assets, configure targeting and frequency caps, and deploy impression and click trackers.
- Perform rigorous QA on creative assets, ad tags, third-party pixels, and landing pages prior to launch to ensure tracking accuracy, proper rendering across devices, and compliance with ad specifications and brand safety guidelines.
- Prepare, maintain, and distribute weekly and monthly performance reports that include KPIs, pacing vs. budgets, conversion metrics, and actionable optimization recommendations to clients and internal stakeholders.
- Monitor live campaigns daily for pacing, delivery, viewability, click-through rates, conversions and anomalies; implement pacing adjustments, creative rotations, and bid strategy changes to maximize ROI.
- Execute insertion orders (IOs) and trafficking tickets, confirm all campaign details with internal teams and media partners, and maintain accurate campaign documentation in CRM or project-management systems.
- Manage campaign budgets and pacing: track spend, forecast consumption for the remaining flight, flag overspend/underspend risks, and recommend reallocations or budget adjustments.
- Collaborate with creative teams to obtain, validate, and tag creative assets (display, video, HTML5), ensuring specifications and naming conventions are met and assets are uploaded to the correct ad servers.
- Support media planning and buy execution by pulling historical performance data, audience insights, and competitive benchmarks to inform targeting, placements, and bidding strategies.
- Troubleshoot and escalate technical issues with ad servers, DSPs, trackers, or publisher tags; work with engineering or vendor support to resolve pixel and reporting discrepancies.
- Ensure campaign compliance with platform policies (Google, Meta, programmatic exchanges), legal and brand restrictions, and industry standards for privacy, consent (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), and viewability.
- Reconcile campaign delivery against IOs and client invoices, coordinate with billing or finance to resolve discrepancies, and maintain accurate records for audit and billing purposes.
- Coordinate with publishers, networks, and third-party vendors to schedule tags, confirm flight dates, and secure proof-of-plays and delivery reporting.
- Implement A/B testing and multivariate creative tests, track test performance, and provide clear recommendations to scale winning variants or iterate on creative and messaging.
- Maintain and update campaign trackers, asset libraries, creative inventories, and internal SOPs to ensure consistent execution across accounts.
- Support pitch and proposal development by compiling performance case studies, past campaign analytics, audience insights, and media cost estimates.
- Train and mentor interns or junior coordinators on trafficking best practices, reporting standards, and platform workflows to build operational consistency.
- Maintain close alignment with account leads, programmatic traders, social media specialists, and analytics teams to translate client goals into actionable tactics and ensure cross-functional execution.
- Conduct regular post-campaign analyses (post-mortems) to document learnings, identify optimizations for future flights, and prepare succinct executive summaries for clients.
- Manage ad verification and brand-safety tools (e.g., DoubleVerify, IAS), implement whitelists/blacklists, and monitor invalid traffic and fraud metrics to protect campaign quality and spend effectiveness.
- Build and maintain campaign audience segments, custom audiences and lookalikes; coordinate with data teams to apply first- and third-party data segments in programmatic buys.
- Maintain stationing and log of all campaign changes, tag deployments, and client approvals to provide a clear audit trail and expedite future troubleshooting.
Secondary Functions
- Support ad-hoc reporting requests, data pulls, and exploratory analysis to answer client or internal questions about audience performance, creative effectiveness, or channel mix.
- Assist account leads with RFP responses, media rate cards, and vendor onboarding by compiling required technical specs, past performance data, and platform credentials.
- Maintain CRM records and project management tools (e.g., Salesforce, Asana, Monday.com) to track tasks, approvals, and campaign timelines.
- Help prepare and review creative briefs, coordinate production timelines with external agencies, and confirm creative revisions are completed on schedule.
- Support billing and reconciliation processes by gathering delivery proofs, tracking IO fulfillment, and liaising with finance teams to resolve invoicing questions.
- Participate in cross-functional projects such as measurement framework upgrades, GA4 migrations, or new ad-tech vendor evaluations by contributing operational requirements and test cases.
- Manage and organize the digital asset library, naming conventions, and creative version control to ensure teams and clients can quickly locate approved assets.
- Assist with media vendor performance reviews by compiling delivery KPIs, pacing summaries, and quality metrics to inform future negotiation and selection.
- Help implement audience privacy and consent requirements across campaigns, ensuring tags and data collection align with current privacy regulations.
- Contribute to continuous process improvement: draft or revise SOPs, create training materials, and recommend automation opportunities to increase efficiency.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- Campaign management and trafficking across ad servers and DSPs (Google Ad Manager, Campaign Manager/CM360, DV360, The Trade Desk, Adform).
- Social advertising platforms: Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, TikTok Ads, and YouTube/Google Ads.
- Ad verification and brand safety tools: DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science (IAS) or similar.
- Web analytics and measurement: Google Analytics / GA4, conversion tracking, UTM tagging, event tracking.
- Reporting and visualization: Google Data Studio / Looker Studio, Tableau, Excel pivot tables, and Google Sheets (advanced formulas, VLOOKUP/INDEX-MATCH).
- Basic SQL or familiarity with querying analytics databases for ad performance pulls (preferred).
- Pixel and tag QA: working knowledge of tracking pixels, server-side tagging, GTM, and troubleshooting measurement discrepancies.
- Budget management and pacing tools, IO processing and reconciliation experience.
- Familiarity with programmatic concepts: real-time bidding (RTB), PMP, audience targeting, cookies vs. ID-based targeting.
- Experience using CRM or project management systems (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Asana, Jira) to manage campaigns and client workflows.
- Basic understanding of privacy and compliance frameworks (GDPR, CCPA) as they relate to ad targeting and measurement.
- Experience with A/B and multivariate testing frameworks for creative and landing page experiments.
Soft Skills
- Clear client-facing communication: concise email and presentation skills to explain performance, recommendations, and technical issues.
- Strong attention to detail and a methodical approach to QA and troubleshooting.
- Time management and prioritization: ability to juggle multiple campaigns and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
- Problem-solving mindset and ability to escalate appropriately when technical issues arise.
- Team collaboration and cross-functional coordination skills.
- Adaptability to changing campaign requirements, platform updates, and shifting client priorities.
- Analytical thinking with the ability to convert data into actionable insights and recommendations.
- Proactive ownership: anticipates problems and offers solutions before they impact delivery.
- Professional presentation and stakeholder management for client calls and internal reviews.
- Continuous learning orientation to keep pace with platform feature releases, ad-tech innovations, and industry best practices.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
- Bachelor's degree OR equivalent professional experience in marketing, advertising, communications, business, or related field.
Preferred Education:
- Bachelor's degree in Advertising, Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
- Certifications such as Google Ads, DV360 fundamentals, The Trade Desk Edge Academy, Meta Blueprint, or IAB credentials are a plus.
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Marketing / Advertising
- Communications / Media Studies
- Business Administration / Management
- Data Analytics / Economics
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range:
- 0–3 years in digital advertising, media operations, account coordination, or related roles.
Preferred:
- 1–3+ years of hands-on experience in campaign trafficking, client servicing, or ad operations within an agency, publisher, or in-house media team. Experience with programmatic platforms, ad servers, and client reporting tools preferred.