Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Advertising Intern

🎯 Role Definition

An Advertising Intern supports the advertising and media team by assisting with campaign planning, execution, optimization, and reporting across paid search, social, display, and programmatic channels. This entry-level role is designed to give practical experience in ad operations, creative production, data analysis, and client or cross-functional collaboration. The Advertising Intern helps implement media strategies, monitors KPIs (CTR, CPC, CPA, ROAS), troubleshoots delivery issues, contributes to creative and copy testing, and produces weekly and monthly performance summaries. The position emphasizes learning ad platforms (Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager), analytics tools (Google Analytics, Looker Studio), and industry best practices for audience targeting, bid strategies, and measurement.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Marketing student or recent graduate seeking practical experience
Campus advertising club, student agency, or freelance/social media background
Customer service or retail role with demonstrated communication skills

Advancement To:

Junior Media Buyer / Paid Media Coordinator
Ad Operations Specialist / Trafficking Coordinator
Digital Marketing Specialist (PPC / Paid Social)

Lateral Moves:

Social Media Coordinator
Content Marketing Assistant
Creative Production Assistant

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Assist with the end-to-end setup of digital advertising campaigns across platforms such as Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads, and programmatic DSPs, including campaign structure, targeting, budget pacing, and ad scheduling.
Prepare and QA ad trafficking assets: upload creatives, map landing pages, set UTM parameters, validate creative sizes and formats, and ensure correct naming conventions and version control.
Monitor daily campaign performance and KPIs (impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, CPA, CPM, conversion rate, ROAS) and escalate anomalies or underperformance to senior team members with recommended next steps.
Build and maintain reporting dashboards and automated reports in Excel, Google Sheets, or Looker Studio (Data Studio) to communicate campaign results to internal teams and clients.
Conduct A/B and multivariate testing support for creative concepts, messaging variants, audiences, and landing pages; document test design, hypotheses, and results.
Assist in audience research and segmentation using platform tools and third-party data to inform targeting strategies (lookalike audiences, interest/behavioral targeting, demographic/geo splits).
Support keyword research and match type strategy for paid search campaigns, including negative keyword lists and search term analysis to improve relevance and quality score.
Implement tracking and measurement tasks, including installing pixels/tags, verifying event firing, and troubleshooting discrepancies between ad platforms and analytics tools.
Help prepare creative briefs and collaborate with designers, copywriters, and video editors to produce on-brand ad assets optimized for platform specs and performance.
Execute campaign changes requested by senior media buyers or account leads, such as bid adjustments, budget reallocation, pacing strategies, and dayparting.
Participate in weekly stand-ups and campaign review meetings, present findings on small campaign subsets, and contribute observations that drive optimization decisions.
Conduct competitive and market research to gather insights on industry benchmarks, competitor ad creatives, channel mix, and emerging ad formats.
Support media buying negotiations by compiling placement proposals, estimating reach and frequency, and documenting inventory and cost assumptions for programmatic or direct buy opportunities.
Coordinate with web, CRM, and analytics teams to align campaign tagging, conversion tracking, and audience activation across tools like Google Analytics, GA4, Salesforce, and HubSpot.
Troubleshoot ad delivery and policy violations, communicate required changes to creative teams, and resubmit ads for approval in a timely manner.
Assist in managing influencer or creator ad partnerships by tracking deliverables, creative approvals, and performance metrics tied to paid amplification.
Perform basic data cleansing and transformation tasks to prepare raw campaign data for analysis and visualization.
Update and maintain campaign playbooks, SOPs, naming conventions, and documentation to support scalable operations and onboarding.
Support paid social community moderation and ad comment monitoring when paid promotions are running, escalating PR or brand-safety issues to the team.
Coordinate logistics for shoot days or creative production (scheduling, asset intake, release forms) when assisting with ad creative development.
Assist with budgeting and invoicing support by tracking ad spend against budgets, producing reconciliations, and compiling media spend summaries.
Aid in audience activation and retargeting setup by creating lists/segments based on website visitor behavior, CRM attributes, and past campaign engagement.
Help prepare client-facing deliverables like campaign summaries, insights memos, and creative performance recaps with actionable recommendations.
Stay current on platform updates, ad formats, privacy and data regulation changes (e.g., cookieless initiatives), and synthesize key implications for campaign strategy.
Provide day-to-day operational support for the ad ops team including queue management, ticketing systems, and prioritization of delivery tasks.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc research requests to evaluate new ad platforms, publishers, or audience providers and present findings to the marketing team.
Assist with basic SEO tasks that intersect with paid initiatives, such as landing page header checks, meta-tag verification, and keyword alignment.
Contribute to cross-functional projects with content, design, and analytics teams to ensure campaigns are cohesive and measurement-ready.
Participate in trainee or internship program workshops, training sessions, and mentorship meetings to accelerate practical skills.
Maintain an organized asset library for creative versions, legal approvals, and historical campaign results to facilitate knowledge transfer.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Familiarity with paid-media platforms: Google Ads (Search & Display), Meta Ads Manager (Facebook & Instagram), LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads, and basic programmatic concepts.
Basic Google Analytics / GA4 skills: setting up goals, reading acquisition reports, and reconciling conversions with ad platforms.
Spreadsheet proficiency: advanced Google Sheets and Excel skills for pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, and basic macros to manipulate campaign data.
Experience or coursework in PPC fundamentals, keyword research tools (e.g., Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Moz), and negative keyword management.
Working knowledge of pixels and tag management basics (e.g., Facebook Pixel, Google Tag Manager) and how tags relate to conversion tracking.
Hands-on experience with reporting tools and dashboarding (Looker Studio, Tableau, Power BI) — creating clean visualizations and automated reports.
Basic familiarity with creative tools and workflows: Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator), Canva, or video editing basics for ad asset QA.
Exposure to ad ops systems and trafficking platforms, including ad servers (e.g., Google Campaign Manager) or ad management tools.
Understanding of A/B testing principles, experiment documentation, and statistical significance at a fundamental level.
Knowledge of audience targeting strategies: demographic, contextual, behavioral, retargeting, and lookalike modeling.
Basic HTML/CSS familiarity to diagnose landing page or tracking issues.
Comfortable using collaboration and project management tools such as Slack, Asana, Trello, or Jira.

Soft Skills

Strong written and verbal communication for concise reporting and cross-functional alignment.
Attention to detail and meticulous QA habits—critical for trafficking, tagging, and reporting accuracy.
Analytical mindset with the ability to turn campaign data into actionable insights and hypotheses.
Time management and prioritization skills to balance multiple campaigns, deadlines, and ad-hoc requests.
Curiosity and eagerness to learn emerging ad technologies and industry best practices quickly.
Team-oriented attitude and ability to collaborate with creative, analytics, and account teams.
Problem-solving and troubleshooting instincts, especially under tight timelines.
Client-facing professionalism for assisting in presentations or status updates when needed.
Adaptability and resilience in a fast-paced, iterative advertising environment.
Creative thinking for contributing to brainstorming sessions and optimization ideas.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Current undergraduate student or recent graduate (Bachelor’s level) in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business, or related field.

Preferred Education:

Coursework or minor in Digital Marketing, Data Analytics, Media Studies, or Graphic Design.
Certifications such as Google Ads, Google Analytics, Meta Blueprint, or HubSpot Academy are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Marketing / Digital Marketing
Advertising / Media Studies
Communications / Public Relations
Business Administration / Analytics
Graphic Design / Multimedia Production

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

0–2 years (internship, campus agency, freelance, or part-time marketing roles)

Preferred:

3–12 months of prior paid media or advertising internship experience, demonstrable coursework or project experience running small ad campaigns, or experience with analytical and creative tools used in advertising campaigns.