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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Digital Advertising Manager

💰 $ - $

MarketingAdvertisingDigital MarketingPaid MediaPerformance Marketing

🎯 Role Definition

The Digital Advertising Manager is a performance-driven marketer who designs, executes, and optimizes multi-channel paid media campaigns (search, social, programmatic, display, video, CTV/OTT) to drive customer acquisition, revenue, and measurable ROI. This role blends strategic campaign planning, hands‑on platform execution, data analysis, and cross-functional stakeholder management. The ideal candidate is proficient in Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, programmatic platforms (DV360, The Trade Desk), conversion tracking (GTM, GA4), and is comfortable translating business goals into scalable media plans and testing roadmaps.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Paid Media Specialist / PPC Specialist
  • Performance Marketing Associate
  • Digital Marketing Coordinator

Advancement To:

  • Senior Digital Advertising Manager / Head of Paid Media
  • Director of Performance Marketing
  • VP of Marketing / Head of Growth

Lateral Moves:

  • Growth Marketing Manager
  • E‑commerce Manager
  • Marketing Analytics / Attribution Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop, own, and execute the end-to-end paid media strategy across search, social, programmatic display, video, and connected TV to meet customer acquisition, conversion rate, revenue, and ROAS targets; translate high-level business goals into measurable campaign KPIs and media plans.
  • Manage full campaign lifecycle: strategy, audience definition, creative brief and testing, setup and trafficking, budget pacing, bid management, optimization, reporting and performance reviews for daily to quarterly cadences.
  • Build and manage channel-specific media plans and cross-channel media mixes that balance short‑term performance (CPA/ROAS) with long‑term brand reach and prospecting objectives.
  • Own paid media budgeting, forecasting and pacing across channels; reallocate spend in real time to maximize efficiency and ensure month‑over‑month and quarter‑over‑quarter targets are met.
  • Execute and optimize paid search campaigns in Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising including keyword strategy, match types, negative lists, ad copy testing, extensions, and bidding strategy implementation.
  • Design, launch and iterate paid social programs on Meta (Facebook & Instagram), TikTok, LinkedIn, X/Twitter and Pinterest with audience segmentation, placement testing, creative sequencing and measurement of funnel metrics (impressions → clicks → conversions).
  • Plan and manage programmatic buys on DSPs such as Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk, or other platforms: set targeting, deal types (PMPs, programmatic guaranteed), viewability and brand safety settings, and bid strategies.
  • Implement and validate conversion tracking with Google Tag Manager, pixel implementation (Meta Pixel, TikTok Pixel), server-side tagging where applicable, and GA4 event and conversion schema to ensure accurate measurement and attribution.
  • Lead A/B and multivariate tests for creative, landing pages, bidding strategies and audience definitions; design hypothesis-driven experiments, measure statistical significance, and translate findings into scalable optimizations.
  • Partner closely with analytics and data teams to develop robust attribution models, lift and incrementality studies, and reporting frameworks that inform media strategy and budget allocation.
  • Create timely, executive-level and deep-dive performance reports using dashboards (Looker Studio, Tableau, Power BI) and SQL data pulls; provide actionable insights, next-step recommendations and forecasting models.
  • Manage agency relationships and external vendors, including media buying agencies, creative partners, ad tech vendors, and measurement providers; set SLAs, conduct QA, manage contracts and evaluate vendor performance.
  • Ensure campaign execution meets brand safety, legal, privacy and compliance requirements: oversee creative approvals, ad copy disclaimers, and privacy-preserving measurement techniques (consent management, cookieless strategies).
  • Oversee creative strategy and production priorities: manage creative briefs, test creative variants (static, carousel, video), implement creative refresh cadence and optimize creative based on performance and engagement metrics.
  • Execute audience strategy including first‑party data segments, CRM and DMP integrations, lookalike/prospecting models, retargeting, dynamic remarketing and lifecycle audience management to drive efficient conversion funnels.
  • Lead tagging, trafficking and quality assurance processes such as ad server setup, placement verification, and creative QA to prevent misfires, broken tracking or display errors that impact measurement.
  • Implement automated bidding and campaign automation workflows (scripts, rules, API) and partner with engineering to scale automation safely while monitoring for performance drift.
  • Coordinate with product, merchandising and e‑commerce teams to align paid efforts with promos, product launches, pricing strategies and catalog integrations for dynamic feeds and shopping campaigns.
  • Conduct competitive and market research to identify trends, platform innovations, new channel opportunities (CTV, audio, retail media networks) and integrate learnings into the media roadmap.
  • Mentor and coach junior media buyers and cross-functional stakeholders; create documentation (SOPs, playbooks) and training materials to scale best practices across the organization.
  • Manage billing, reconciliation and campaign delivery invoices; ensure accurate spend attribution and timely resolution of any platform or vendor discrepancies.
  • Prepare and present monthly and quarterly business reviews to marketing leadership and cross-functional partners, highlighting performance against KPIs, insights, optimizations and the upcoming test roadmap.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad‑hoc analyses such as creative performance deep dives, audience overlap analysis, and channel contribution modeling to inform strategy and budget prioritization.
  • Develop and maintain a paid media testing roadmap and experiment backlog that aligns with business seasons, product launches and promotional calendars.
  • Contribute to the organization’s measurement strategy including tag governance, GA4 migration, server-side tracking and preparation for privacy-first measurement environments.
  • Collaborate with CRM, SEO, content and creative teams to align acquisition messaging, landing page experience and conversion rate optimization (CRO) priorities.
  • Participate in RFPs and vendor evaluations for new ad tech and measurement solutions; run pilots and vendor POCs to validate ROI before scaling.
  • Drive process improvements (SOPs, auto-reporting, deployment templates) to reduce manual effort and improve reaction time to performance shifts.
  • Represent the paid media team in cross-functional sprint planning and agile ceremonies when working with product and engineering teams on integrations or data pipelines.
  • Stay current on platform policy updates, ad product launches and privacy regulatory changes; proactively recommend adjustments to maintain compliance and performance.
  • Provide training and knowledge sharing across marketing teams to upskill stakeholders on paid media fundamentals and measurement literacy.
  • Support crisis response and rapid campaign changes for brand safety incidents, performance drops, or urgent corporate communications.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Video) — campaign setup, scripts, automated bidding strategies, keyword strategy and optimization.
  • Meta Ads Manager & Facebook Business Manager — ad buying, campaign structure, audience creation, and creative testing.
  • Programmatic DSP experience (DV360, The Trade Desk, other DSPs) — PMP setups, programmatic guaranteed, targeting and bidding.
  • Analytics & Tagging: Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Tag Manager (GTM), pixel implementation and server-side tracking fundamentals.
  • Attribution & Measurement: understanding of multi-touch attribution, incrementality testing, holdout groups and MTA tools or analytics frameworks.
  • Reporting & BI: Looker Studio (Data Studio), Tableau, Power BI or equivalent dashboarding tools; comfortable with SQL to extract and validate metrics.
  • E‑commerce & Retail Media: experience with shopping feed optimization, dynamic remarketing, and retail media platforms (Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect).
  • Ad Operations & QA: ad trafficking, creative specs, ad server knowledge, and QA workflows to ensure accurate delivery and tracking.
  • Experimentation & CRO: design and analyze A/B tests, landing page optimization, and conversion funnel analysis.
  • Spreadsheet & Modeling: advanced Google Sheets / Excel (pivot tables, Solver, modeling) for forecasting, budget allocation and bid modeling.
  • Familiarity with other platforms: TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Microsoft Ads, CTV/OTT platforms and attribution connectors.
  • Basic scripting or automation experience (Google Ads Scripts, APIs, Python for automation) is a plus.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic thinker with a performance-first mindset; able to translate business goals into testable media strategies.
  • Strong analytical and quantitative skills; comfortable interrogating data and deriving actionable insights.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication; able to present complex metrics to non-technical stakeholders.
  • Project and stakeholder management skills; prioritize across competing deadlines and coordinate cross-functional work.
  • Attention to detail for trafficking, tagging, budget pacing and campaign QA.
  • Leadership and mentorship skills to grow junior team members and manage agency partners.
  • Adaptability in a fast-moving ad tech landscape and a problem-solver when encountering tracking or attribution issues.
  • Negotiation skills for media buys, publisher deals and vendor contracts.
  • Time management and organization to juggle multiple campaigns, reporting cadences and optimization cycles.
  • Collaborative approach; works well with analytics, product, creative and sales teams.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Advertising, Business, Economics, Data Analytics, Communications or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration (MBA), Data Analytics or equivalent.
  • Industry certifications such as Google Ads Certification, Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GA4), Meta Blueprint Certification.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Marketing / Advertising
  • Business / Economics
  • Data Analytics / Statistics
  • Communications / Media Studies
  • Computer Science / Information Systems (beneficial for technical tracking)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 4–8 years of progressive experience in digital advertising, paid media, or performance marketing roles.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years managing end-to-end paid media programs in-house or at an agency, including leadership or direct management of junior buyers.
  • Demonstrated track record of improving ROAS/CPA and scaling profitable acquisition channels.
  • Experience with programmatic platforms, e‑commerce optimization, and cross-channel attribution projects.
  • Experience with enterprise reporting tools and the ability to work with data engineers or analysts to build scalable data pipelines and dashboards.
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