Internship: Ad Operations Executive x1 at The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)

Main purpose of the position:

• The Ad Operations Executive is responsible for the flawless execution, monitoring, and optimisation of all digital advertising campaigns across SABC-owned and operated platforms — including SABC+, News, Sport, Radio, and Video Entertainment — as well as campaigns delivered through external sales partners (MediaMark, MediaNorth, and Arise/365 Digital) and programmatic supply partners (Castoola, Magnite, Adform, etc.).
• The role ensures campaign delivery accuracy, platform compliance, and revenue assurance across both direct and programmatic channels. It combines trafficking, quality assurance, yield monitoring, and troubleshooting to safeguard revenue integrity and optimise performance across all sales streams.

Key Accountabilities:

• Execute and QA all digital campaigns in Castoola and other ad servers (including partner servers).
• Validate creatives, tags, click-through URLs, and placements before launch.
• Monitor pacing, impressions, and delivery to ensure campaigns deliver booked revenue.
• Troubleshoot trafficking, tag, or serving issues in collaboration with internal teams and external partners.
• Support trafficking for campaigns sold through MediaMark, MediaNorth, and Arise/365.
• Support programmatic deal setups (e.g., PMP, open exchange) in collaboration with agencies and trading desks.
• Monitor programmatic campaigns sold via SSPs such as Magnite, Adform, and Castoola, ensuring correct setup and pacing.
• Assist with inventory forecasting and yield optimisation across SABC digital properties.
• Apply data insights to improve campaign efficiency across CPM, CTR, and ROI metrics.
• Stay up to date with industry ad tech trends, new formats, and partner capabilities.
• Optimise floor prices, fill rates, and viewability metrics to maximise yield across SABC inventory.
• Analyse revenue performance across direct, partner, and programmatic channels to identify optimisation opportunities.
• Ensure all campaigns comply with SABC policies, PFMA, and brand-safety standards.
• Reconcile campaign delivery data with SAP bookings and partner reports.
• Consolidate reporting across Castoola, Magnite, Adform, and partner systems for unified dashboards.
• Identify and flag under-delivery or discrepancies early and coordinate recovery actions.
• Serve as operational liaison for external partners — MediaMark, MediaNorth, Arise/365 Digital — ensuring alignment on trafficking, QA, and reporting standards.
• Coordinate daily with SSP account managers (Magnite, Adform, Castoola) for issue resolution and performance tracking.
• Share performance insights with partners and sales teams to improve delivery consistency.
• Support onboarding and training of partner teams on SABC’s trafficking and reporting workflows.
• Stay updated on ad tech trends, emerging programmatic formats, and yield optimisation strategies.
• Document best practices and assist in developing internal Ad Ops SOPs.
• Participate in training sessions and cross-departmental learning to build capability within Sales and Ad Ops teams.

Requirements:

• NQF 6-7 degree/diploma in Marketing, Media, Digital Business, or equivalent.
• Hands-on experience with ad servers (Castoola, Google Ad Manager, Freewheel, Xandr) and SSPs (Magnite, Adform, etc.).
• Familiarity with DSPs (DV360, The Trade Desk) and PMP/programmatic guaranteed workflows.