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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Advertising Account Manager

💰 $ - $

AdvertisingAccount ManagementDigital MarketingPerformance Marketing

🎯 Role Definition

The Advertising Account Manager is a client-facing marketing professional who plans, executes, and optimizes paid media strategies across search, social, display, video, and programmatic channels. This role blends campaign strategy, technical ad operations, performance analysis, and stakeholder communication to meet client KPIs (CPA, ROAS, CPL, CTR, conversion volume) while stewarding budgets, timelines and creative requirements. The ideal candidate demonstrates expertise with Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, DV360 or another DSP, analytics tools, and campaign reporting—combined with strong project management and consultative communication.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Marketing Coordinator / Marketing Assistant with paid media exposure
  • Junior Account Executive or Junior Media Planner
  • Performance Marketing Specialist or PPC Specialist

Advancement To:

  • Senior Advertising Account Manager / Senior Client Manager
  • Account Director / Group Account Director (Overseeing multiple accounts)
  • Head of Paid Media / Performance Director

Lateral Moves:

  • Performance Marketing Manager / Paid Social Lead
  • Programmatic Specialist / Media Buyer
  • Analytics & Attribution Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop, present and own multi-channel media plans that align to client business objectives, defining target audiences, channel mix (search, social, display, video, programmatic), budgets and expected KPI outcomes.
  • Manage day-to-day campaign operations across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads Manager and programmatic DSPs (DV360, The Trade Desk), including campaign setup, targeting, bidding strategies and ad copy/creative implementation.
  • Optimize live campaigns through ongoing bid adjustments, audience refinement, creative A/B tests, negative keyword management and budget re-allocation to maximize ROAS, reduce CPA and improve efficiency.
  • Build and maintain campaign forecasting models and budget pacing plans to ensure spend is on track relative to monthly and quarterly KPIs and seasonality.
  • Lead weekly and monthly performance review meetings with clients; translate data into actionable insights, clear recommendations and prioritized optimization roadmaps.
  • Create comprehensive, branded campaign reports using Google Data Studio/Looker, Tableau or Excel that summarize performance, trends, test results and next steps—presenting results in a narrative that ties to client goals.
  • Execute conversion tracking audits and implement tagging strategies using Google Tag Manager, pixel troubleshooting and server-side alternatives to ensure reliable measurement and attribution.
  • Collaborate with creative teams to develop on-brand assets that meet platform specifications, provide creative briefs, iterate on ad copy and run creative testing to improve CTR and conversion rates.
  • Implement and monitor audience strategies including CRM/first-party data activation, lookalike modeling, retargeting funnels and lifecycle segmentation to boost relevance and efficiency.
  • Manage relationships with platform representatives and vendor partners to leverage beta features, negotiate promotional credits and troubleshoot delivery or policy issues.
  • Ensure campaign compliance with platform policies (ad content, targeting restrictions) and legal/regulatory requirements (privacy, COPPA, HIPAA when applicable).
  • Set up and manage advanced bidding strategies including Target CPA, Target ROAS, maximize conversions, enhanced CPC, and programmatic floor price/optimization rules to meet performance targets.
  • Conduct regular competitive and market analysis to identify opportunities for bidding, targeting, creative messaging and channel expansion.
  • Drive experimentation program: design, implement and document A/B and multivariate tests for landing pages, ad creatives, audience segments and bidding rules, measuring impact and scaling winners.
  • Own client onboarding for new accounts: gather business requirements, map conversion events, configure tracking, and establish initial campaign structure and KPIs.
  • Coordinate cross-functional workstreams across sales, analytics, SEO, content and product teams to ensure campaign alignment and cohesive customer journey optimization.
  • Monitor campaign health alerts, troubleshoot delivery or creative disapprovals, and rapidly resolve performance issues while communicating impact and next steps to stakeholders.
  • Develop and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs), playbooks and campaign templates to increase efficiency and ensure consistent execution across accounts.
  • Manage monthly invoicing, budget reconciliations and provide transparency on media spend, agency fees and pacing to clients and internal finance teams.
  • Mentor junior account staff and media buyers: delegate tasks, review work products, provide performance feedback, and support professional development.
  • Proactively identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities based on performance insights—proposing strategic tests, new channels or expanded budgets to grow client relationships.
  • Track and interpret privacy and measurement changes (e.g., iOS ATT, browser deprecation) and recommend mitigation strategies such as first-party data integration and server-side tracking.
  • Maintain documentation of account settings, historical tests, creative assets and performance benchmarks to support continuity and knowledge sharing across the team.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory analysis to answer client business questions and validate campaign hypotheses.
  • Contribute to the organization's advertising strategy and roadmap by surfacing scalable optimization tactics and new vendor evaluations.
  • Collaborate with data & analytics teams to translate measurement needs into tracking requirements,-defined events, and ETL priorities.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies when working with product or engineering teams to implement measurement or creative tooling.
  • Assist with RFP responses, scope development and pitch decks to win new business and expand existing engagements.
  • Conduct regular internal training sessions to raise cross-team proficiency on platform changes, bidding best practices and reporting standards.
  • Perform QA on campaign builds and trafficking to ensure accuracy in targeting, bids, creative links and UTM parameters before launch.
  • Maintain a library of case studies and performance benchmarks to inform future strategy and improve client conversion narratives.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Campaign management across Google Ads (Search, Display, YouTube), Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads Manager (Facebook/Instagram), and programmatic DSPs (DV360, The Trade Desk).
  • Proficiency in analytics and reporting tools: Google Analytics 4, Google Data Studio / Looker, Tableau, Excel/Google Sheets (advanced formulas, pivot tables).
  • Conversion tracking and tag management using Google Tag Manager and pixel implementations; familiarity with server-side tagging and CRM integrations.
  • Experience with bidding strategies (Target CPA/ROAS, maximize conversions, bid caps) and performance optimization best practices.
  • Audience strategy skills: data onboarding, CRM activation, lookalike modeling, retargeting and segmentation techniques.
  • Hands-on experience with creative testing workflows, ad format specifications and rich media / video ad requirements.
  • Familiarity with attribution models, multi-touch attribution solutions and incremental lift testing to validate channel contribution.
  • Basic SQL or comfort working with raw data extracts to validate performance and support ad-hoc analysis.
  • Working knowledge of ad fraud mitigation, domain verification, brand safety tools and verification vendors (IAS, DoubleVerify).
  • Experience with tag‑based and server-side conversion matching for privacy-forward measurement and consent management.
  • Competence in campaign tracking hygiene: UTM taxonomy, naming conventions, and campaign documentation.

Soft Skills

  • Client-facing communication: ability to explain complex performance data and technical topics in clear, business-focused language.
  • Strategic thinking with a results-driven mindset—proposing measurable, testable hypotheses to drive performance improvements.
  • Project and time management: juggling multiple accounts, deadlines and cross-functional dependencies while maintaining high quality.
  • Problem-solving and troubleshooting aptitude under time-sensitive situations.
  • Strong attention to detail for campaign trafficking, QA, and reporting accuracy.
  • Persuasive presentation skills for client calls, executive summaries and internal stakeholder alignment.
  • Collaborative team player comfortable working with creative, analytics, sales and engineering partners.
  • Adaptability to fast-changing platform updates, market shifts and client priorities.
  • Coaching and mentorship capabilities to develop junior staff and improve team processes.
  • Negotiation and stakeholder management when working with clients, vendors and platform reps.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Marketing/Business combined with certifications such as Google Ads Certification, Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ), Meta Blueprint Certification or programmatic certifications (IAB, The Trade Desk).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Marketing
  • Advertising
  • Communications
  • Business Administration
  • Data Analytics / Information Systems

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 2–5 years for mid-level Advertising Account Manager roles; 5+ years preferred for senior roles managing larger budgets and strategic client relationships.

Preferred:

  • Proven track record managing paid media budgets (monthly spend ranging from mid-five figures to seven figures), delivering measurable ROI improvements and scaling campaigns across search, social and programmatic channels.
  • Demonstrated experience in cross-channel measurement, A/B testing frameworks, and creating executive-level reporting and recommendations.
  • Prior agency experience or in-house client management with strong client service orientation and stakeholder management skills.
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