Whilst advertising is an old industry, the tools and analytical techniques used to manage targeted advertising campaigns are relatively new and proliferating at a rapid rate.
From commercial to analytical and client management to coding, the advertising technology (Ad Tech) industry has a range of hugely diverse job opportunities. However, even across this spectrum of roles there are some core qualities necessary to be successful in this field.
Enthusiasm for Learning
From programmatic OOH advertising to blockchain based Ad Tech, new technologies are constantly entering the industry and anyone working in Ad Tech needs to be able to keep up. If you want to work in Ad Tech, you need to keep your finger on its pulse so that you don’t get left behind.
There are plenty of ways to ensure you have the necessary knowledge to work in Ad Tech and that you are engaged with how it’s progressing. Paying attention to influential voices in the industry, following relevant industry news pages and keeping an eye on key companies within the space will help you to understand what’s happening.
Top Industry News Pages to follow:
Key Companies to keep up to date with:
- Innovid – A leading video Ad Tech who recently received $30M Series E funding to fuel their international growth
- TheTradeDesk – A demand side platform that is dominating the market in terms of scale and innovation
- Beeswax – Offering companies a unique Bidder-as-Service solution allowing brands to take their programmatic advertising inhouse
- DoubleVerify – An innovative online media verification and campaign effectiveness tool helping the digital advertising industry to combat ad fraud.
The Relevant Skills
There are various roles you might consider if you want to work in Ad Tech including Agency Sales, Enterprise Sales, Account Management, Programmatic Analyst, Ad Operations, Trading and Solutions Engineering.
Whatever you decide to do, you’re likely to need a specialist skill set to be able to fulfil your role. Many entry-level roles in the Ad Tech look for people have strong excel skills and are confident with understanding and presenting data. Additional skills such as SQL or basic coding can also be an added bonus for roles with a more technical focus.
For individuals already working in the Ad Tech industry, many companies offer upskilling or training programs to help employees to develop their skills or simply keep them up to date. Outside of work, there are many workshops, meet-ups and training courses available to people in the Ad Tech industry where you can improve or diversify your technical skills and network.
An Analytical Mind
Whether your role is commercially or technically focused, to work in Ad Tech, a firm grasp on analytical thinking is essential. In the push for delivering increasingly personalized advertising, big data has become one of the areas of focus in recent years and putting it to good use is essential for effective advertising and marketing.
In addition to the big data inputted into advertising, understanding the results of advertising campaigns and being able to provide brands and agencies a deep level analysis of these results and offer suggestions on how to improve the success of campaigns based on data trends is also essential.
Even when not working directly with data, being able to think analytically and combine it with creative thinking offers anyone an advantage in the Ad Tech world.
Good Communication
Communication skills are always important in advertising, and things are no different when working in the more technical field of Ad Tech. You need to have good communication skills yourself, and you also need to understand how to make decisions about a brand’s communication that range across brand identity, target audiences and brand safety.
Interacting with customers and being able to communicate technical details to them are also important parts of working in Ad Tech. It’s necessary to be able to communicate with others in your company who might need to know what you’ve been working on, but don’t have the same technical knowledge as you.
If you want to work in Ad Tech, focus on building both hard and soft skills, as well as ensuring your knowledge remains up to date.