Media Activation Manager

About WPP Media

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth. 

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com.

About Media Futures Group (MFG)

Google has consolidated its media agency partnership into WPP Media, building on the world class digital work that Essence has delivered for Google for over 17 years. Media Futures Group (MFG) is a bespoke team that delivers on our commitment to Google for a more strategic, creative and integrated media approach established to drive better business results.

The MFG team is made up of best in class digital, offline, and integrated media experts who work together to enhance media’s contribution to Google’s business. MFG is powered by EssenceMediacom and other constituent parts of GroupM around the world.

The Role

The Media Activation Manager plays a critical role within the Media Activation (Programmatic) team at MFG, responsible for the flawless execution and optimization of programmatic and biddables campaigns for Google focused largely on display and video channels. This role is primarily focused on performance campaigns and will leverage a combination of real-time and guaranteed buying across both open exchange and/or direct publishers as needed. This role demands a deep understanding of programmatic platforms, a data-driven approach to optimization, and strong communication skills to collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders.

Role responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Directly or indirectly (via management) supports 1-3 markets/accounts

• Able to own up to 3 campaigns E2E at any one time while assisting on others as needed

• ~60% time allocated to individual campaign assignments, ~40% time allocated to work outside of individual campaigns (e.g. management tasks, team projects, training others)

• Delivers media plans, wrap-ups, and milestone outputs utilizing established best practices against client communication strategy according to timelines

• Able to launch campaigns on time/does not contribute to gating issues, in compliance with platform (DSP/DMP) best practices (naming conventions, IO/LI)

• Flawless delivery of all campaigns (launch, pacing, performance goals)

• Meets campaign objectives by EOQ (e,g, client KPIs, Pacing), and/or flags potential performanceissues in a timely manner

• Confident and steady in optimization and improvement of campaign performance (not just delivery).

• Strong knowledge of media planning fundamentals e.g. reach, frequency, channels, formats

• Strong knowledge of tactical essentials such as inventory and data sources

• Excellent tracking of sub-campaign level details including but not limited to pacing, performance, etc.

• Strong understanding of adjacent and/or connected disciplines (e.g. Data Strategy, Analytics, AdOps, Experience) and relationship with Programmatic

• Strong knowledge of the programmatic/ad-tech ecosystem (publishers, data, platform, etc.)

• Strong grasp of overall campaign lifecycle and the role programmatic plays within it

• Communicates successes, failures, and escalations to line manager in a timely manner

• Directly responsible for managing 1 junior team member assuming staffing

• Escalation point for campaign level issues

Desired background experience:

Required

• 3-4 years work experience on the programmatic/ad-tech buy-side (e.g. agency, trading desk, DSP company)

• Excellent proficiency planning and deploying campaigns using enterprise level DSPs (e.g. DV360, The Trade Desk, MediaMath)

• Experience planning and executing campaigns delivering against both Brand and Direct Response objectives

• Experience deploying campaigns across multiple environments/devices via both direct and open buying leveraging audience and/or contextual data as needed

• High attention to detail, and good organizational skills, with an understanding of optimization levers & testing approaches across programmatic platforms

• Experience directly managing at least one direct report with demonstrable skills in guiding his/her professional development

• Highly developed interpersonal, team building and relationship management skills

• Strong analytical skills and a natural affinity for numbers is key; You must be able to analyze raw data, draw insights and develop actionable recommendations as needed

• Strong organization and time management skills. Able to prioritize recurring deliverables against ad hoc requests. Mindful of personal deliverables and projects without needing reminding from line manager

• Up-to-date knowledge on the current state of programmatic/ad/mar-tech with a POV on future developments

• A passion for everything digital, with an active interest and understanding of digital marketing/advertising industry trends

Desirable

• Strong Google stack experience

• Experience working with Data Management Platforms (DMPs) or equivalent data organisation/deployment tool/platform

• Familiar with feed-based creative setups using Creative Management Platforms (CMPs)

• Experience working with data science teams and good grasp of campaign analytics fundamentals (e.g. control/exposed segmentation, survey and panel based measurement, regression analysis)

• Experience with Google Analytics (plus certification)

• Experience with running campaigns across multiple countries / languages

• Familiarity with industry-relevant programming languages (e.g. HTML, Javascript, SQL, Python, R)

What you can expect from MFG

MFG’s mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world. We do this by employing the world’s very best talent to solve some of the toughest challenges of today’s digital marketing landscape. It’s important that we hire people whose values reflect those of our own: genuine, results-focused, daring and insightful. As an MFG employee, we promise you a workplace that invests in your career, cares for you and is fun and engaging. We believe these factors create a workplace where you can be yourself and do amazing work.

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