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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Advertising Buyer

💰 $50,000 - $120,000

MarketingMedia BuyingAdvertisingDigital MarketingProgrammatic

🎯 Role Definition

An Advertising Buyer is responsible for planning, negotiating, executing, and optimizing paid media buys across digital, video, mobile, connected TV (CTV), audio, and traditional channels. This role combines tactical ad trafficking with strategic vendor management, performance optimization, and measurement to achieve client or company KPIs (ROAS, CPA, CPM, CTR). The Advertising Buyer partners closely with internal teams (strategy, creative, analytics, ad ops) and external partners (publishers, DSPs, agency networks) to secure premium inventory, manage budgets and pacing, and continuously improve campaign performance through data-driven testing and optimization.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Media Planner / Assistant Media Planner
  • Digital Marketing Coordinator or Specialist
  • Ad Operations Trafficker

Advancement To:

  • Senior Media Buyer / Senior Programmatic Buyer
  • Programmatic Lead or Campaign Lead
  • Media Director or Head of Performance Marketing

Lateral Moves:

  • Campaign Manager
  • Account Director
  • Digital Strategist
  • Ad Operations Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Plan, execute, and manage end-to-end media buys across programmatic DSPs, social platforms, search, display, video, CTV, and audio to meet client KPIs (ROAS, CPA, CPL), ensuring budget pacing and delivery milestones are met.
  • Manage day-to-day campaign trafficking: set up line items, creatives, targeting, frequency caps, and tracking pixels in ad servers and DSPs; validate tags and creative rendering across devices and inventory sources.
  • Negotiate and secure direct deals with publishers, networks, and supply-side partners to obtain preferred inventory, private marketplace (PMP) deals, and guaranteed buys at competitive CPMs and value-added placements.
  • Build media plans and flight schedules that align with campaign goals, seasonality, and audience segmentation, recommending optimal channel mixes and buy types (guaranteed, non-guaranteed, open auction, PMP).
  • Implement programmatic strategies in platforms such as DV360, The Trade Desk, Xandr, and other DSPs, configuring bidding strategies, bid modifiers, and custom audience signals for performance optimization.
  • Optimize live campaigns daily using data-driven levers: bid adjustments, creative rotation, audience segmentation, dayparting, geo-targeting, device performance, and inventory source remediation.
  • Monitor and troubleshoot campaign delivery, pacing, and creative issues in real time, coordinating with ad ops, creative teams, and publishers to resolve discrepancies and ensure uninterrupted serving.
  • Analyze performance using analytics tools (Google Analytics, GA4, Adobe Analytics) and reporting platforms, producing actionable insights and hypothesis-driven tests to increase conversion rates and lower CPA.
  • Maintain and reconcile campaign budgets and IOs (Insertion Orders), tracking spend against forecasts, updating stakeholders on burn rates, and recommending budget reallocations when necessary.
  • Validate third-party measurement, viewability, brand safety, and fraud prevention tools (MOAT, IAS, DoubleVerify) to ensure inventory quality and accurate attribution across channels.
  • Lead A/B and multivariate testing on creatives, landing pages, audience segments, and bidding strategies; document learnings and scale winning variations across campaigns.
  • Create and present campaign performance reports and strategic recommendations to clients or internal stakeholders, translating technical metrics into business outcomes and next-step actions.
  • Implement and maintain tracking and attribution methods (UTM tagging, server-side tracking, pixel/SDK deployment, conversion APIs) to ensure accurate measurement of cross-channel performance.
  • Coordinate with creative and production teams to manage ad specifications, ensure assets meet platform requirements, and troubleshoot rendering or verification issues across formats (HTML5, VAST, VPAID).
  • Manage relationships with platform account reps and vendor partners to gain access to beta products, marketplace deals, audience segments, and advanced targeting capabilities.
  • Conduct pre-bid and post-bid analysis to evaluate inventory quality, CPM trends, viewability rates, fraud risk, and yield optimization opportunities across supply partners.
  • Develop and maintain targeting strategies including interest, contextual, behavioral, lookalike, CRM-match, and custom audiences to maximize relevance and returns.
  • Stay current on industry trends, privacy regulation impacts (GDPR, CCPA), and cookieless strategies; recommend and implement alternative targeting and measurement solutions (first-party data, clean rooms).
  • Ensure contractual compliance by reviewing IOs, insertion order terms, cancellation policies, pacing tolerances, and delivery SLAs with legal or finance teams as needed.
  • Implement frequency capping and creative sequencing strategies to balance reach and conversion while minimizing ad fatigue.
  • Forecast performance and create scenario planning for media investment shifts, providing stakeholder-ready impact assessments for reallocations or new channel tests.
  • Troubleshoot billing and reconciliation issues with finance and vendor partners, including invoice validation against delivery logs and IO terms.
  • Mentor junior buyers and coordinate with cross-functional teams to communicate campaign timelines, creative deadlines, and launch checklists.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc reporting requests and extract campaign-level data for deeper attribution modeling and lifetime value analyses.
  • Collaborate with data science and analytics teams to build audience segments, predictive models, and lookalike strategies from first-party data.
  • Contribute to the development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for trafficking, QA, budget reconciliation, and campaign launch checklists.
  • Participate in vendor evaluations and RFP processes, assessing DSP/SSP capabilities, measurement integrations, and pricing structures.
  • Assist in the development and documentation of unified measurement frameworks and cross-channel attribution methodologies.
  • Coordinate technical implementations with engineering teams for server-to-server integrations, tagging governance, and ad verification tool deployments.
  • Help maintain a central repository of creative assets, audience lists, and historical campaign performance to inform future planning.
  • Educate internal teams and stakeholders on new ad formats, inventory types, and platform capabilities to influence media strategy decisions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Programmatic DSP proficiency (e.g., Google DV360, The Trade Desk, Xandr) — campaign setup, bidding, targeting, and optimization.
  • Social and paid media platform expertise (e.g., Meta Ads Manager, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn, Twitter/X) including audience targeting and reporting.
  • Ad server and trafficking experience (e.g., Google Ad Manager, Sizmek) including creative tagging, line item configuration, and troubleshooting.
  • Strong analytics and reporting skills (Google Analytics/GA4, Adobe Analytics, Data Studio/Tableau/Looker) for performance analysis and visualization.
  • Tracking and attribution implementation experience (UTMs, pixels, server-side tracking, conversion APIs, tag management).
  • Knowledge of ad measurement and verification tools (DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, MOAT) for viewability, fraud prevention, and brand safety.
  • Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, macros) and familiarity with SQL for querying performance data.
  • Familiarity with audience data strategies (DMPs, CDPs, CRM onboarding, data clean rooms) and identity solutions (UIDs, probabilistic matching).
  • Experience negotiating insertion orders (IOs), PMP deals, preferred deals, and publisher guarantees including legal/compliance awareness.
  • Creative format and technical specifications knowledge (video VAST, HTML5, rich media, CTV/OTT ad specs).
  • Budgeting, pacing, and financial reconciliation skills for campaign spend management and invoice verification.
  • Basic understanding of privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) and their impact on targeting, cookies, and measurement.

Soft Skills

  • Strong negotiation and relationship management skills with publishers, vendors, and platform reps.
  • Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities with a bias toward data-driven decision making.
  • Clear communicator who can translate technical campaign metrics into strategic business recommendations.
  • Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple campaigns, deadlines, and stakeholders simultaneously.
  • Attention to detail for QA, trafficking, and reconciliation tasks.
  • Collaborative team player who partners effectively with creative, analytics, product, and account teams.
  • Adaptability to fast-changing media landscapes and platform updates.
  • Time management and prioritization skills in a high-volume, goal-oriented environment.
  • Client-facing professionalism with experience presenting performance results and strategic plans.
  • Continuous learning mindset and willingness to test new formats, audiences, and measurement techniques.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business, Economics, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Marketing, Data Analytics, Business Administration, or equivalent practical experience.
  • Industry certifications such as Google Ads / DV360 Certification, The Trade Desk Edge Academy, IAB programmatic certifications, or Analytics certifications are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

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

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 2–5 years for mid-level Advertising Buyer roles; 5+ years for Senior/Lead Buyer roles with proven programmatic and direct-sold experience.

Preferred:

  • 3+ years managing programmatic DSP buys and social paid media campaigns.
  • Demonstrated track record of negotiating PMP and direct deals, improving CPA/ROAS, and scaling media investments.
  • Experience working in agency environments or in-house marketing teams with cross-functional collaboration (creative, analytics, sales).
  • Experience with large-scale budgets, multi-channel attribution, and advanced audience targeting techniques.
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