Senior Manager Digital Ad Ops at ShopriteX

Role Purpose

The Senior Manager Digital Ad Ops plays a major role in the development and enablement of our precision marketing proposition within the business. The role is actively involved in the execution of advertising campaigns while also managing the team to deliver campaigns across all digital channels accurately, within budget and within agreed timeframes and performance standards. The role traffics and manages these campaigns by working with sales departments, advertisers, technology teams and clients to ensure smooth delivery of the campaign. The Senior Manager Ad Ops further performs quality assurance checks to ensure the campaign meets required standards and generates reports to communicate a campaign’s status and directly inform the team’s next steps. This role manages a team of specialists in ad platforms, revenue products and traffic operations and maintains a seamless and efficient way of working between the ad operation team and the wider business.

Role Description

• Lead and drive the smooth execution of the day-to-day activities within the department.
• Own the full campaign process, from a campaign set up, technical integration, quality assurance, delivery, optimisation, reporting, and issue resolution.
• Serve as the main point of contact between the advertising operations department and the rest of the business.
• Effectively manage the team - allocating work, setting priorities, managing performance and ensuring the team is guided, equipped and enabled to deliver on their objectives. 
• Build relationships within the team, across the team and with other stakeholders.
• Works with the sales, content, and strategy teams in defining the planning, inventory management, prioritization, testing, scheduling, and delivery of advertising programs and campaigns.
• Establish processes and protocols for pre-launch prep work, including performing quality assurance on ad tags and creatives.
• Monitors campaign delivery to ensure campaigns are running as expected and provide troubleshooting support for traffic issues.
• Reviews dashboards and ad campaign performances to generate informed, fact-based solutions that efficiently increase the performance of client campaigns.
• Use data sets from existing campaigns to influence strategies for upcoming campaigns, in addition to considering performance metrics, behavioural and transactional targeting to ensure improved ROAS for our clients.
• Troubleshoot tracking problems, develops solutions, and documents internal procedures for the campaign management team to adhere to in the execution of departmental duties.
• Perform quality assurance checks to ensure campaigns have been set up correctly and are delivering across platforms.
• Analyse data, generate insights, prepare recommendations, and perform periodic optimizations that lead to increased sales, improved campaign performance and the achievement of the business's overall objectives.
• Identify, establish, and implement best practices on advertising campaign set-up, optimisation, measurement, and reporting.
• Consult with stakeholders including account managers, product management, product design, and other teams on platform capabilities and enhancements.
• Keep up to date with the latest trends in the market and contribute insights and ideas to enable continuous improvement.

Qualifications and experience

• Degree or Diploma in Marketing, Advertising, Media, Sales or related – (essential).
• +5 years experience in advertising operations of which at least 2 years in a management role, with a depth of understanding of ad-serving capabilities, rich media, mobile implementation, creative processes, dynamic ads, campaign management and digital media planning and buying processes in a leading retailer, brand, or agency firm – (essential).
• Strong knowledge of the latest digital media platforms and solutions to know the scope at which advertisement campaigns should run – (essential).
• Strong commercial acumen with demonstrated understanding of the media landscape and different online advertising pricing structures (CPC, CPM, CPA, etc.) – (essential).
• Solid knowledge of marketing principles, audience targeting, data collection and programmatic methods – (essential).
• Knowledge of Ad Tech products, data vendors, industry, third party technology, and market trends – (essential).
• Proficiency in the use of HTML, Javascript, XML along with standard ad systems, such as Google Ad Manager, Google Analytics, DV360 and advertising on social media platforms – (essential).
• Experience troubleshooting ad serving technical issues, for example, delivery investigation and third-party media issues, inclusive of the identification of several tag types, e.g., HTML and JavaScript, and potential issues associated with each – (desired).
• Strong knowledge of analytical methodologies and tactics for optimising data-driven marketing campaigns (i.e., segmentation, predictive response models, etc.) – (desired).
• Strong proficiency in MS Office – (essential).

Key competencies and work ethic

• A flexible thinker with the ability to think on their feet – Makes decisions and execute tasks in a fast-paced environment; absorbs, analyses, and integrates multiple data sources and concepts to create solutions, influence stakeholders and solve challenges in an evolving shopper landscape.
• Commercial awareness – Understands the advertising operations landscape, what the key issues and risks are that drives business success; and how they impact commercial viability and profitability. 
• Strong leadership skills – Able to motivate and drive a team in a unified direction with a common vision. Understands how to manage a team through an advertising campaign from its conceptualisation to the achievement of the set goals of the campaign.
• Planning and organising skills with strong project management capability – Strong focus on execution, quality and improving processes; manages multiple projects and competing deliverables in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
• Flexible and resilient – Able to manage and balance a diverse portfolio while remaining productive and maintaining high levels of performance in a fast-paced, pressurised environment.
• Excellent communication skills - Communicates effectively; able to convey information and data clearly, accurately, and succinctly in a meaningful and insightful way. Adopts a range of styles to deal with and facilitate challenges internally and externally.
• Self-motivated and driven with strong integrity - Takes accountability for actions and mistakes.
• Team player and collaborative partner – Builds strong relationships both internally and externally; maintains strong agency management and vendor relationship skills. Thinks and acts independently as well as collaboratively.
• Curious and adaptable and keeps up to date with the latest trends and technologies. Thinks outside the box to come up with solutions while applying sound judgment to generate value for the business.