As agencies look at self-serve digital programmatic media buying platforms, they are asking, “How many people do we need to run this programmatic platform?” Generally, it depends on the marketing program needs and goals. A $1 million national branding campaign requires less effort to execute than a $1 million campaign split into 100 hyper-local campaigns. However, programmatic teams have some key tasks to perform with a self-serve digital media buying platform. Not sure who you need on your team to run a self-serve programmatic platform? Whether it is one person that delegates all responsibilities or a team that fills individual responsibilities, below are a few key roles needed to successfully manages a self-service digital media buying strategy.
Creative Designer:
Creative development is still an essential role in the execution of digital media campaigns. This member of your team is responsible for the development of creative elements to use within the campaign. This includes building ads, landing pages, and making adjustments as needed. They should be comfortable with designing ads of different sizes as well as modify based on campaign performance.
Campaign Manager or Media Trader:
This member of your team is the key individual to set up and optimize campaigns. They should have an understanding of programmatic space, capabilities, and dynamic pricing. It is important for them to have a good comfort level with hands-on technology platform operation as they will be one on the team digging into the campaign, often overcoming programmatic hurdles as they appear.
Billing Lead:
Traditionally the accounts receivable team has been in charge of billing and collecting from clients for all media buying. With self-serve digital media buying platforms, this team can do the same thing for all media bought through self-serve tools. They should have access to billing receipts and campaign spend reports so they can accurately bill your end client.
Data Analyst (Optional):
An analyst is a helpful role to have within an agency that is adopting self-serve programmatic tools. Ultimately they examine reporting and data for actionable insight they should be comfortable with analyzing data to understand customer challenges and campaign performance opportunities.
As more agencies look to take digital media buying processes in-house, it is important for them to understand the key roles that are needed within an agency to execute self-serve digital media buying.
