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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Advertising Director

💰 $ - $

MarketingAdvertisingMedia

🎯 Role Definition

The Advertising Director is a strategic and operational leader who owns the development, execution, and continuous optimization of paid advertising programs across digital, social, programmatic, broadcast, and out‑of‑home channels. This role sets media strategy, directs budgets and vendor negotiations, defines performance KPIs and attribution approaches, collaborates with brand, product, and sales teams, and manages internal and agency resources to consistently deliver measurable ROI and scalable growth. The Advertising Director balances long‑term brand building with high‑performance direct response tactics and is accountable for campaign performance, creative effectiveness, compliance, and team development.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Media Planner / Senior Paid Media Manager
  • Marketing Manager (with strong digital/ad experience)
  • Media Buyer / Programmatic Lead

Advancement To:

  • VP / Head of Advertising or Media
  • Senior Director of Marketing or Growth
  • Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Lateral Moves:

  • Brand Director
  • Head of Growth / Performance Marketing
  • Director of Media Strategy

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop and own the global advertising strategy and annual media plan, aligning channel mix (search, social, programmatic, TV/streaming, audio, OOH) with business objectives, seasonal priorities, and product launches to maximize reach, conversion, and lifetime value.
  • Manage and optimize the annual advertising budget, allocate spend by channel and campaign, forecast ROI, and implement pacing and reallocation tactics to hit quarterly and annual revenue and CPA/CPL targets.
  • Lead media buying and vendor negotiation for direct buys and programmatic platforms; secure favorable rates, added value, and guaranteed placements while enforcing contractual SLAs and performance clauses.
  • Oversee programmatic strategy and execution including DSP/SSP configurations (e.g., DV360, The Trade Desk), audience segmentation, PMP deals, frequency caps, viewability standards, and fraud mitigation practices.
  • Architect measurement and attribution frameworks (multi-touch attribution, incrementality testing, holdouts) in partnership with analytics to ensure transparent, actionable reporting and to remove attribution leakage across channels.
  • Translate brand strategy into effective creative briefs and campaign concepts; partner with creative, brand, and agency partners to iterate on messaging, format testing, and execution for native, video, static, and interactive ad units.
  • Implement a test-and-learn roadmap that includes A/B testing, creative performance experiments, landing page optimization, and channel pilots to improve conversion rates and cost-per-outcome.
  • Own campaign trafficking, ad ops, and QA processes; ensure correct tagging, pixel setup, UTM governance, creative rendering across devices, and timely trafficking to ad servers and DSPs.
  • Build and maintain executive-level dashboards and weekly/monthly performance reviews that summarize KPIs (impressions, reach, CTR, CVR, CPA, ROAS), insights, and actionable recommendations for business stakeholders.
  • Lead cross-functional advertising programs with product, CRM, sales, and analytics teams to coordinate GTM timing, promotions, retargeting strategies, and customer lifecycle campaigns.
  • Manage agency relationships and RFP processes for creative, media buying, and analytics partners; set clear SLAs, KPIs, and governance to hold agencies accountable for delivery and innovation.
  • Drive compliance with privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) and industry standards; partner with legal and data/privacy teams to maintain consented targeting, data handling practices, and vendor contracts.
  • Evaluate and recommend emerging channels, ad formats, and technology partners (CTV/OTT, podcast ads, AR/interactive formats) and run rapid pilots to test viability and scalability.
  • Conduct competitive ad intelligence and market benchmarking to inform media strategy, creative differentiation, and bidding strategies.
  • Establish and standardize processes for campaign planning, creative approvals, trafficking, and post-campaign analysis to improve speed to market and reduce operational risk.
  • Provide leadership, mentorship, and career development for advertising, ad ops, and media planning teams; recruit talent, run performance reviews, and set professional development plans.
  • Drive cross-channel optimization by aligning paid, owned, and earned media efforts to enhance brand consistency and customer experience from ad exposure through conversion.
  • Prepare and present detailed business cases and ROI forecasts for incremental ad investment, pilots, or new vendor integrations to senior leadership.
  • Lead crisis response for advertising issues (creative errors, brand safety incidents, regulatory escalations) ensuring rapid remediation, communication, and post-mortem improvements.
  • Negotiate and manage commercial relationships with publishers and platform partners to secure preferred placement, beta access, and enhanced reporting capabilities.
  • Supervise production budgets and timelines for ad creative and video shoots, coordinating internal stakeholders, external production teams, and post-production workflows to meet launch dates.
  • Monitor and optimize paid media frequency and saturation to avoid audience fatigue and maintain brand health while achieving performance goals.

Secondary Functions

  • Support cross-functional analysis requests and provide advertising-related insights for sales enablement, product prioritization, and investor reports.
  • Contribute to long-term marketing and digital transformation roadmaps by identifying technical and process investments needed to scale advertising operations.
  • Collaborate with data engineering and analytics teams to translate business measurement needs into implementable tracking requirements and data pipelines.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies when coordinating with centralized marketing ops or ad tech teams to deliver tooling and automation improvements.
  • Create standardized reporting templates and playbooks for campaign launches, optimization loops, and creative performance reviews.
  • Mentor junior members in best practices for media planning, creative briefing, trafficking, and vendor negotiations.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Strategic media planning and cross-channel campaign design (digital, TV/streaming, audio, OOH)
  • Programmatic buying and DSP/platform fluency (DV360, The Trade Desk, Trade Desk, etc.)
  • Search Engine Marketing (Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising) and keyword bidding strategies
  • Social media advertising across Meta (Facebook/Instagram), X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat
  • Measurement and analytics: GA4, Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, conversion tracking, and UTM governance
  • Attribution modeling, incrementality testing, and experiment design
  • Ad ops, trafficking and tag management (Google Campaign Manager, Google Tag Manager, ad servers)
  • Marketing automation & CRM integration (Marketo, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud)
  • BI and reporting tools (Tableau, Power BI, Looker) and ability to write basic SQL for data interrogation
  • Budget management, forecasting, media buying negotiations and contract management
  • Creative development oversight and experience with video production, editing workflows, and format optimization
  • Knowledge of privacy/compliance frameworks (GDPR, CCPA) and industry ad standards (IAB, MRC)
  • Familiarity with SEO principles and how paid/search and organic work together
  • Vendor selection, RFP creation, and third-party partner evaluation

Soft Skills

  • Strategic leadership and vision with a bias for measurable outcomes
  • Excellent stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills
  • Strong analytical mindset with ability to translate data into clear recommendations
  • Outstanding communication and executive presentation skills
  • Negotiation skills and commercial acumen when dealing with vendors and publishers
  • Project and time management; ability to manage multiple large campaigns and deadlines
  • Creative problem solving and curiosity to test new channels and formats
  • Team building and mentorship; experience growing and coaching high-performing teams
  • Adaptability in fast-paced environments and resilience under changing priorities

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

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

Preferred Education:

  • MBA or advanced degree in Marketing/Business, or equivalent professional certifications (e.g., Google Ads Certification, IAB programmatic certificates).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Marketing
  • Advertising/Media Studies
  • Communications
  • Business Administration
  • Data Analytics / Digital Media

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 8–12+ years in advertising, media planning, or performance marketing with progressive leadership responsibilities.

Preferred:

  • 10+ years managing full-funnel advertising programs and teams, with demonstrated success managing multi‑million dollar media budgets.
  • Proven track record running programmatic, search, social, and CTV/OTT campaigns with measurable ROI improvements.
  • Experience leading agency relationships, negotiating media buys, and implementing attribution frameworks in collaboration with analytics teams.
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