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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Advertising Associate

💰 $45,000 - $65,000

MarketingAdvertisingDigital MediaMedia BuyingAd Operations

🎯 Role Definition

The Advertising Associate is a tactical, execution-focused team member responsible for end-to-end campaign trafficking, day-to-day optimization, reporting, and cross-functional coordination to ensure digital advertising campaigns meet KPI, budget, and creative specifications. This role sits at the intersection of ad operations, media buying, and analytics and requires proficiency with ad servers, programmatic platforms, and campaign measurement tools.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Media Planner
  • Marketing Coordinator with digital exposure
  • Ad Operations Assistant or Trafficker

Advancement To:

  • Senior Advertising Associate / Ad Operations Manager
  • Digital Campaign Manager / Media Buyer
  • Programmatic Specialist / Platform Lead

Lateral Moves:

  • Performance Marketing Specialist
  • Analytics or BI Analyst focused on media
  • Client Services / Account Management in advertising

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Manage end-to-end campaign trafficking in ad servers (e.g., Google Campaign Manager 360, Google Ad Manager), ensuring line items, creatives, targeting, frequency caps, and budgets are configured to spec and delivered on time.
  • Implement and QA tagging and pixels (Google Analytics, Floodlight, Facebook Pixel, third-party trackers), validate event firing across devices and browsers, and troubleshoot discrepancies between ad server and analytics data.
  • Launch, monitor, and optimize paid media campaigns across search, display, social, and programmatic channels (e.g., Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, DV360, The Trade Desk) to maximize performance against KPIs (CPA, CTR, ROAS, viewability).
  • Monitor pacing and delivery daily, identify under- or over-delivery, reallocate budget or adjust flighting and targeting, and communicate remediation plans to stakeholders.
  • Produce regular and ad-hoc performance reports using Excel, Google Sheets, Data Studio, Looker, or Tableau; synthesize insights and actionable recommendations for campaign optimizations.
  • Conduct creative trafficking and QA for all ad formats (static, GIF, HTML5, VAST/VPAID), verifying click-through URLs, third-party tags, creative rendering, and fallback assets across desktop, mobile web, and in-app environments.
  • Configure and manage programmatic deals (PMPs), private marketplace setup, and deal ID management with demand-side platforms (DSPs) and supply-side platforms (SSPs).
  • Reconcile delivery and reporting discrepancies across ad servers, DSPs, publisher reporting, and billing; prepare documentation for finance and account teams to support invoice reconciliation.
  • Execute A/B and multivariate tests for creative, audience, placement, and bid strategies; document test methodology, measure statistical significance, and advise on winners and next steps.
  • Maintain up-to-date trafficking documentation, campaign tags library, runbooks, and SOPs; ensure change management and version control for campaign setup parameters.
  • Coordinate with internal creative, product, and engineering teams to resolve technical issues, support creative builds, and ensure ad assets meet platform specifications and brand guidelines.
  • Communicate proactively with clients, brand teams, and external publishers on pacing, performance, deliverables, IOs (Insertion Orders), and flight updates; act as day-to-day point of contact for operational matters.
  • Manage campaign-level budgeting including daily caps, flight budgets, and cost forecasting; update spend forecasts and flag potential overspend or underspend scenarios.
  • Configure targeting strategies using first- and third-party audiences, contextual and placement targeting, geo, device, demographic and custom audience segments to improve relevancy and performance.
  • Ensure brand safety, fraud prevention, and viewability standards are enforced via pre-bid and post-bid tools; run monitoring and apply exclusions or whitelists as needed.
  • Create and maintain campaign calendars, milestone trackers, and post-launch checklists to ensure timely delivery of creative, tags, and measurement.
  • Support programmatic optimization including bid strategy adjustments, dayparting, frequency capping, and audience bidding to improve campaign ROI and meet pacing goals.
  • Troubleshoot live campaign issues, including tracking loss, creative rendering failures, latency problems, and device-specific bugs; escalate to engineering or vendor support when required.
  • Prepare post-campaign performance analyses and debrief decks that clearly articulate outcomes, learnings, and recommendations for future buys or tests.
  • Help negotiate basic insertion orders and media terms with publishers and partners under guidance from senior media buyers or procurement.
  • Assist in maintaining and updating campaign templates, macros, and automation scripts to streamline trafficking and reporting processes.
  • Stay informed on platform changes, privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), and industry best practices; adapt traffic and measurement approaches accordingly.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc analytics requests, build custom dashboards, and perform exploratory data analysis to answer performance and attribution questions.
  • Assist in developing the organization's measurement framework, including attribution models and conversion tracking strategies.
  • Work with engineering and product teams to translate measurement requirements into tagging and data collection specifications.
  • Participate in sprint planning, documentation, and agile ceremonies when working within cross-functional product or engineering teams.
  • Partner with procurement and legal teams to maintain accurate records of IOs, contracts, and vendor SLAs related to media buys.
  • Contribute to training materials and internal knowledge sharing for junior team members on trafficking standards and platform best practices.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Campaign trafficking and ad server configuration (Google Campaign Manager 360, Google Ad Manager, or equivalent).
  • DSP and programmatic platform experience (DV360, The Trade Desk, Xandr, MediaMath).
  • Social and search platform management (Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Ads basics).
  • Tagging and measurement: Google Analytics / GA4, Floodlight, Facebook Pixel, server-side tagging fundamentals.
  • Strong Excel and Google Sheets skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, advanced formulas).
  • SQL for querying campaign event and conversion datasets; ability to join, aggregate, and transform data for reporting.
  • Reporting and visualization tools: Looker, Google Data Studio, Power BI, or Tableau.
  • Creative formats knowledge: HTML5 banners, VAST/VPAID video tags, rich media, and IAB specs.
  • Basic HTML/CSS troubleshooting for ad creatives and landing page checks.
  • Ad verification, brand safety, and anti-fraud tools familiarity (MOAT, Integral Ad Science, DoubleVerify).
  • Experience with analytics-driven optimization and A/B testing frameworks.
  • Basic understanding of programmatic deal types (PMP, Preferred, Open Auction) and RTB fundamentals.
  • Familiarity with privacy and consent frameworks (GDPR, CCPA), cookie-less strategies, and data governance implications.
  • Experience with automation tools and macros, and basic scripting (Apps Script, Python for data tasks is a plus).

Soft Skills

  • Strong written and verbal communication; able to explain technical campaign details to non-technical stakeholders.
  • High attention to detail and a methodical approach to QA and troubleshooting.
  • Time management and ability to prioritize multiple live campaigns and deadlines.
  • Problem-solving mindset and proactive ownership of operational issues.
  • Collaborative team player who partners effectively across creative, product, analytics, and account teams.
  • Client-facing professionalism and ability to present results and recommendations with clarity.
  • Adaptability to fast-paced change and new platform features or industry regulations.
  • Analytical thinking with a results-oriented focus on KPIs and continuous improvement.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Marketing, Communications, Business, Advertising, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Digital Media, Data Analytics, Business, or Communications with certifications (Google Ads, DV360, Meta Blueprint, IAB).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Marketing
  • Advertising
  • Communications
  • Business Administration
  • Data Analytics / Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 1–3 years in advertising, ad operations, media buying, or digital campaign management.

Preferred:

  • 2–4 years of hands-on experience with ad trafficking, DSPs/ad servers, and campaign optimization.
  • Demonstrated experience producing analytical reports and using SQL/BI tools to drive decisions.
  • Prior agency-side or in-house experience managing multiple simultaneous campaigns and coordinating with cross-functional teams.
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