"The first rule of social meida is that everything changes all the time. What won't change is the community's desire to network." - Kami Huyse
Source: Martech
In week 11 of the Digital Marketing Seminar class of the Digital Media Marketing program at George Brown, my classmates and I had the opportunity to listen to a presentation given by Amanda Lee from the Aber Group. Amanda introduced the class to the topic of paid media advertising and gave us an overview of what a career in the industry is like.
Source: The Aber Group
Amanda currently works for the Aber Group, a marketing agency that uses digital channels exclusively. The services offered at the Aber Group include:
Search Engine Marketing
Digital Media Buying
Programmatic Media
Social Media Advertising
Mobile Advertising
Data, Reporting, and Analytics
Reaching Niche Audiences
Not-For-Profit Marketing
However, the four main pillars of the business are Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing, Analytics, Tracking and Troubleshooting, Digital Media Planning and Buying, and Education and Consulting.
What to Expect From A Career in PPC/SEM
Source: Social Champ
Ashely gave provided the class with a brief overview of the different positions she has held at the Aber Group and the responsibilities associated with each job. She started her time there as an SEM intern, where she was responsible for day-to-day search engine marketing tasks and campaign management. Other responsibilities required of an SEM intern include developing keywords and search ads and uploading SEM campaigns into various search engines.
After being an intern with the Aber Group, Amanda eventually began a new role with the company as the account coordinator. Some of the responsibilities associated with this position include building and monitoring display, search, and social campaigns. The account coordinator works alongside the SEM intern and assists with the day-to-day campaign management.
She then moved into a new position as an account strategist. The responsibilities associated with this job include building campaign strategies across search, programmatic, social, and display channels. In addition to this, providing strategic optimization and manages the execution of marketing campaigns.
Amanda finally advanced into her current position as an account manager with the Aber Group. In her role as an account manager, she is responsible for leading the client and campaign management, as well as presenting the final results to the clients. There is a creative aspect to this position, as the account manager is expected to bring innovative ideas and tests forward to share with the rest of the team.
Changing Roles of a Marketing Intern Over Time
Source: Towards Data Science
As marketing trends and strategies change throughout the years, the roles and responsibilities of digital marketing interns change as well. Amanda highlighted the different day-to-day tasks required of an intern in 2014 compared to today.
In 2014, the role of an SEM intern included these responsibilities:
Checking search engine campaigns (Bing and Google)
Build new SEM keywords and advertisements
Upload marketing campaigns to search engines
Look at Google Display campaigns for opportunities to expand outside of search
Today, the responsibilities of a Digital Marketing intern include:
Checking Google and Bing Search, as well as social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Google Display, YouTube, Pinterest, Spotify)
Prepare strategic optimizations across various platforms
Work with the coordinator and strategies to help provide input on new tests and creatives
Keeping Up With Trends and Changes In The Industry
Source: KPS3
Ensuring you are keeping up with the latest trends and changes in the industry is important to show your audience you are relevant and up to date with what’s popular. An example of changes in the industry includes the social media platforms that are available for marketers to advertise on.
Thinking back to the early 2010s, there were only a handful of social media platforms and social media marketing was not an essential aspect of a marketing strategy. As time continues on, some social media platforms continue to be popular, but there are also many new platforms that didn’t even exist in the early 2010s. Ensuring you are advertising on the right platforms is important to connect to your target audience, but also shows your potential audience that you are up to date with what is trending.
Opinions On A Career In Paid Media Marketing
After listening to Amanda’s presentation about her experiences working the paid media marketing, I am now interested to learn more about the field and its impact on the industry. Whenever I think about a job in marketing, I specifically think of content marketing or social media marketing, but never really considered the paid media side of it.
Networking Tips
Source: The Beat
Amanda gave the class some really great advice as we continue our job search. As someone who can relate to our experience in this program, she gave us some tips she used throughout her application process with the Aber group, but also from the perspective of an account manager. Some tips she shared with us for when we are networking and applying for jobs include, proofreading the application, reaching out to the hiring manager on LinkedIn, researching the company and any other necessary information about the hiring manager, and completing relevant courses/certifications.
References
Lee, A. (2022). Paid Media Advertising: The Ever-Changing Digital Landscape. Lecture.
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