Job Summary:
The Media Acquisition Specialist is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and securing media opportunities to support the company’s marketing and communication strategies. This role involves building and maintaining relationships with media partners, negotiating contracts, and ensuring the effective placement of content across digital and traditional channels. The specialist works closely with the marketing team to maximize reach, enhance brand visibility, and achieve campaign objectives.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Strategy & Planning:
- Collaborate with marketing and account teams to understand campaign goals, target audience, and budget constraints.
- Conduct market research to identify the most effective media channels (e.g., social media, search engines, connected TV, radio, podcasts, billboards).
- Develop media plans that outline the proposed channels, budget allocation, and anticipated reach and frequency.
2. Negotiation & Purchasing:
- Request for Proposals (RFPs): Send RFPs to media vendors to solicit rates, availability, and added value opportunities.
- Negotiation: Negotiate pricing, placement, timing, and added value (e.g., bonus impressions, sponsored content) to maximize the budget. This is a critical skill for the role.
- Execution: Finalize and place media orders, ensuring all details are accurate (creatives, dates, URLs, etc.).
3. Relationship Management:
- Build and maintain strong relationships with media sales representatives from various publishers, networks, and digital platforms.
- Serve as the main point of contact for vendors, managing communications and resolving any issues that arise.
4. Campaign Management & Optimization:
- Monitor live campaigns to ensure they are running as ordered and delivering on key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Analyze performance data (impressions, clicks, conversions, cost-per-acquisition, etc.) and make real-time adjustments to optimize campaign performance.
- Troubleshoot delivery issues, such under-delivery or technical problems.
5. Reporting & Analysis:
- Prepare and present post-campaign reports, analyzing the results against the original goals and KPIs.
- Calculate the ROI and effectiveness of different media channels.
- Provide insights and recommendations for future media strategies based on data.
Qualifications:
Employers look for a combination of education, skills, and experience.
- Bachelor’s Degree: Typically in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business, or a related field.
- 1-3 years of experience in a media-related role, such as:
- Media Planner / Media Buyer
- Digital Marketing Specialist
- Account Coordinator (at an advertising agency)
- Sales Planner (on the vendor side)
- Experience with media buying platforms is a huge plus (e.g., Google Ads, The Trade Desk, Facebook Ads Manager, Google Marketing Platform).
- Negotiation: Exceptional negotiation skills to secure premium placements at competitive rates.
- Analytical Abilities: Proficiency in analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and making data-driven decisions. Strong Excel skills (PivotTables, VLOOKUPs) are often required.
- Numerical Aptitude: Comfort with numbers, budgets, and calculating metrics like CPM (Cost per Mille), CPC (Cost per Click), CPA (Cost per Acquisition), and ROI.
- Media Planning: Understanding of the media landscape and how to build an effective plan.
- Platform Proficiency: Familiarity with ad servers (e.g., Google Campaign Manager), DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms), and social media advertising interfaces.
- Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills to deal with internal teams and external vendors.
- Relationship Building: Ability to build and maintain positive professional relationships.
- Detail-Oriented: Meticulous attention to detail to avoid costly errors in orders and trafficking.
- Time Management & Organization: Ability to manage multiple campaigns and deadlines simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.
- Problem-Solving: Aptitude for quickly identifying and resolving issues that may arise during a campaign.