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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Advertising Strategist

💰 $ - $

MarketingAdvertisingDigital MarketingMedia Strategy

🎯 Role Definition

The Advertising Strategist is a senior practitioner responsible for designing, executing, and optimizing paid media and advertising campaigns across search, social, display, video, connected TV (CTV) and programmatic channels. This role combines audience insights, data-driven optimization, creative strategy, media buying expertise, and cross-functional collaboration to drive acquisition, brand awareness, and measurable ROI. The Advertising Strategist translates business goals into media plans, defines KPIs and measurement frameworks, and continually tests and scales tactics to improve performance and efficiency.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Media Planner / Paid Media Coordinator
  • Performance Marketing Analyst / PPC Specialist
  • Digital Marketing Associate

Advancement To:

  • Senior Advertising Strategist / Lead, Paid Media
  • Head of Paid Media / Director of Advertising Strategy
  • VP, Digital Marketing or Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Lateral Moves:

  • Growth Marketing Manager
  • Data & Analytics Lead (Marketing Analytics)
  • Media Buying / Programmatic Trading Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop comprehensive, channel-agnostic media strategies (search, social, display, video, CTV, programmatic) that align with brand objectives, business KPIs (CAC, CLTV, ROAS), and seasonal marketing calendars.
  • Lead audience segmentation and targeting strategies using first-, second-, and third-party data, combining demographic, behavioral, intent, and CRM signals to maximize reach and conversion.
  • Build detailed media plans and budgets, allocate spend across channels, and forecast expected performance using historical data, predictive models, and business targets.
  • Plan, set up, and execute paid search campaigns (Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising) with structured keywords, match types, bidding strategies, and negative keyword lists to optimize cost per acquisition.
  • Design and manage paid social campaigns (Facebook/Meta, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X) including creative briefs, audience testing, optimization rules, and placement strategies to improve engagement and conversion.
  • Lead programmatic and display buying via DSPs (e.g., DV360, The Trade Desk), including audience activation, PMP deals, frequency capping, viewability, and brand safety controls.
  • Oversee creative strategy and testing: collaborate with creative teams to produce ad copy, assets, and video variations; implement A/B and multivariate creative tests; and iterate based on performance insights.
  • Implement and maintain measurement and attribution frameworks (last-click, multi-touch, multi-channel attribution, incrementality testing) to ensure transparent reporting of media impact and incremental lift.
  • Conduct ROI and efficiency analyses, optimize bids and budgets in real time, and implement automation where appropriate (rules, scripts, bidding algorithms) to achieve target CPA/ROAS.
  • Establish campaign KPIs, build dashboards and reporting frameworks (Looker, Tableau, Data Studio/Looker Studio), and deliver weekly/monthly performance reviews to stakeholders and executives.
  • Run landing page and conversion rate optimization initiatives in coordination with product and UX teams, including hypothesis-driven testing and funnel analysis to lower friction and increase conversion rates.
  • Lead cross-functional collaboration with brand, CRM, SEO, paid social, and analytics teams to ensure cohesive omnichannel marketing plans and seamless customer journeys.
  • Conduct competitive and market research to identify new inventory sources, platform opportunities, and emerging ad formats (shoppable ads, CTV, programmatic audio) to keep strategies innovative.
  • Manage vendor and platform relationships (ad networks, DSPs, third-party measurement providers), negotiate media rates and IOs, and ensure contract compliance and cost-effectiveness.
  • Ensure campaign governance: implement tracking standards (UTM taxonomy, GTM, conversion pixels), maintain data quality, and adhere to privacy and compliance requirements (cookie consent, CCPA, GDPR).
  • Lead campaign launch playbooks and QA processes to verify tracking, creative rendering, budget pacing, and audience targeting before go-live.
  • Drive experimentation roadmap: define success criteria, prioritize tests, analyze results statistically, and scale winning tactics while documenting learnings and playbooks.
  • Optimize media funnels for upper-, mid-, and lower-funnel objectives, developing customized messaging and placements for awareness, consideration, and conversion stages.
  • Deliver shopper and retail media strategies where applicable (Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect) including catalog optimization, sponsored products, and DSP activity to support omnichannel sales goals.
  • Mentor junior strategists and media buyers, providing coaching on best practices, campaign troubleshooting, performance optimization, and career development.
  • Prepare and present strategic media recommendations and executive summaries, translating complex data into clear, action-oriented insights for senior stakeholders.
  • Monitor and manage campaign pacing, forecast burn rates, and reallocate budgets proactively to maximize quarterly or monthly targets and minimize under- or overspend risk.
  • Identify and remediate underperforming placements, creatives, or audience segments quickly, using root-cause analysis and prescriptive optimization tactics.

Secondary Functions

  • Support cross-functional measurement and analytics efforts by collaborating with data engineering and analytics teams to ensure clean ingestion of ad exposure and conversion signals.
  • Contribute to the organization’s advertising technology stack strategy and roadmap, evaluating new martech vendors, attribution partners, and identity solutions.
  • Provide ad-hoc audience analysis, cohort studies, and exploratory data analysis to inform experimentation and long-term media planning.
  • Document campaign playbooks, SOPs, and knowledge base articles for scaling best practices across the marketing organization.
  • Participate in strategic planning cycles and sprint planning within marketing and growth teams to prioritize paid media initiatives and resource allocation.
  • Assist procurement and legal teams with vendor agreements, IO reviews, and media buy reconciliation as needed.
  • Help onboard and train CRM and product teams on paid media-led growth tactics to improve downstream conversion and retention touchpoints.
  • Lead post-campaign debriefs and performance retrospectives to capture learnings and implement process improvements for subsequent campaigns.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Paid Search (Google Ads) campaign strategy, structure, bidding, and optimization
  • Paid Social platforms: Meta Ads Manager, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, X/Twitter Ads
  • Programmatic buying and DSPs: The Trade Desk, DV360, or equivalent demand-side platforms
  • Display, video, and CTV ad format expertise including VAST/VMAP and creative specs
  • Ad operations: tag management (Google Tag Manager), pixel implementation, and UTM taxonomy
  • Analytics and reporting: Google Analytics 4, Looker Studio (Data Studio), Tableau, or Looker
  • Measurement & attribution: multi-touch attribution models, incrementality testing, and MMM fundamentals
  • Conversion rate optimization (CRO) and A/B testing tools: Optimizely, VWO, Google Optimize (or equivalent)
  • Retail & marketplace advertising: Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, and catalog advertising best practices
  • Bid automation and scripting: Google Ads scripts, rules, and familiarity with bid-management tools
  • Basic SQL and data querying for performance analysis (preferred)
  • Familiarity with privacy and identity solutions: CAPI, SKAdNetwork, consent management platforms

Soft Skills

  • Strategic thinking with a strong business and ROI orientation
  • Excellent stakeholder management and cross-functional communication
  • Clear written and verbal presentation skills; ability to distill complex data into action
  • Strong analytical mindset with attention to detail and a hypothesis-driven approach
  • Creative collaboration and the ability to translate brand goals into measurable media tactics
  • Project management and prioritization under tight timelines and changing priorities
  • Coaching and mentorship for junior team members
  • Problem-solving and decisiveness when addressing underperforming campaigns
  • Adaptability to evolving ad platforms, privacy changes, and market conditions
  • Negotiation skills for vendor and media-buy discussions

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

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

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree or MBA in Marketing, Data Analytics, or Business preferred but not required
  • Professional certifications (Google Ads, Meta Blueprint, The Trade Desk Edge) a strong plus

Relevant Fields of Study:

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

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–7 years of progressive experience in digital advertising, paid media, or performance marketing (agency or in-house)

Preferred:

  • 5+ years managing cross-channel paid media strategies and budgets
  • Proven track record optimizing campaigns for acquisition and revenue metrics (ROAS, CAC)
  • Experience in agency account management or strategic roles supporting enterprise-level clients is advantageous
  • Hands-on experience with programmatic, retail media, or CTV implementations preferred
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