Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Digital Account Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Digital Account Manager (DAM) is the primary client-facing operator responsible for planning, executing, optimizing and reporting on integrated digital marketing campaigns across paid search, social, display, programmatic and video. The DAM translates business goals into measurable channel strategies and KPIs, manages budgets and vendor relationships, coordinates cross-functional teams (creative, media, analytics, ad ops), and drives client retention and growth through performance, insight and consultative recommendations.

This role demands a data-driven marketer who is comfortable in ad platforms (Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, DSPs), analytics tools (GA4, Adobe Analytics), and BI/reporting environments (Looker, Tableau, Data Studio). The ideal candidate combines strong client relationship skills with operational experience in trafficking, tagging, testing and campaign optimization.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Junior Account Executive or Account Coordinator (agency)
Paid Media Specialist / PPC Specialist
Marketing Coordinator with exposure to digital channels

Advancement To:

Senior Digital Account Manager
Account Director / Group Account Director
Head of Client Services or Director of Digital Strategy

Lateral Moves:

Performance Marketing Manager
Media Planner / Programmatic Buyer
Product Manager (ad tech / martech)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead end-to-end digital campaign management for assigned clients, owning strategy, execution, optimization and reporting across paid search (PPC), social advertising, programmatic display, native and video to meet agreed KPIs, ROAS and CPA targets.
Act as the primary client point of contact for day-to-day communications — build trust, facilitate strategic conversations, manage expectations, summarize outcomes and escalate issues to senior stakeholders when needed.
Translate client business objectives into measurable digital strategies and channel-specific KPIs; develop integrated media plans and channel mixes to maximize reach, conversions and lifetime value.
Monitor campaign performance continuously and produce actionable weekly and monthly performance reports that include insights, trend analysis, root-cause diagnostics and prioritized optimization recommendations.
Manage campaign budgets, pacing and spend allocations across platforms; reforecast and reallocate budgets in-flight to capitalize on performance windows while maintaining strict budget discipline.
Execute tactical optimization in-platform (bids, budgets, audience layering, creative rotation, negative keywords, placements) and document changes with impact analysis to demonstrate value.
Set up and QA tracking, pixels, conversion events, UTM taxonomy and Google Tag Manager implementations to ensure accurate measurement and attribution for reporting and optimization.
Coordinate with creative, UX and production teams to brief assets, recommend creative testing roadmaps, conduct pre-launch QA and iterate on creatives based on performance and messaging tests.
Partner with ad operations and media buying teams to manage campaign trafficking, insertion orders, pixels, frequencies and ad verification partners to ensure technical delivery and compliance.
Conduct A/B and multivariate testing programs across landing pages, creatives and targeting; interpret test results and implement winning variants to drive continuous improvement.
Use analytics platforms (GA4, Adobe Analytics) and BI tools (Looker, Tableau, Data Studio) to build dashboards, run deep-dive analyses and surface insights about funnels, cohort behavior and LTV.
Identify upsell, cross-sell and expansion opportunities based on performance data and client business needs; create pitch decks, commercial proposals and business cases to secure incremental revenue.
Lead campaign troubleshooting, incident response and technical root-cause analysis with ad tech, measurement partners and engineering to restore or optimize campaign performance and tracking.
Prepare executive-level monthly and quarterly business reviews (QBRs) that translate performance into business impact, strategic recommendations and next-quarter roadmaps.
Manage vendor relationships including DSPs, ad verification providers, measurement partners and third-party data providers; negotiate terms and ensure service-level expectations are met.
Oversee contract renewals, statements of work (SOWs) and scope changes in collaboration with finance and legal teams; ensure accurate billing, invoicing and budget reconciliation.
Conduct competitive and marketplace analysis to identify industry trends, channel innovations and audience signals that inform strategy adjustments and opportunistic spends.
Implement privacy-forward measurement approaches (first-party data strategies, server-side tagging, modeled conversions) and ensure campaigns comply with ad platform policies and regional privacy regulations.
Build and refine client-facing templates, SOPs and reporting frameworks that scale across accounts and reduce onboarding time while maintaining high quality and insightfulness.
Train and mentor junior account staff and client teams on platform features, reporting interpretations, optimization tactics and campaign best practices to raise account capability.
Drive client retention through proactive performance conversations, strategic planning workshops, roadmap alignment and stakeholder relationship-building beyond tactical execution.
Collaborate with business development and pitch teams to scope new business, craft integrated digital proposals, produce estimates and present strategic media plans to prospective clients.
Manage multi-market or regional campaign rollouts including localization, target segmentation, budget allocation and coordination with local teams to ensure consistent execution and measurement.
Track and report campaign health metrics (frequency, viewability, invalid traffic, CTR, conversion rate) and take remediation steps to protect performance and client spend.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests, exploratory data analysis and dashboard development to answer business questions and identify opportunities for optimization.
Contribute to the organization's digital strategy and roadmap by surfacing channel trends, martech needs and measurement improvements based on account learnings.
Collaborate with analytics, data engineering and product teams to translate measurement requirements into tracking specifications, tag plans and acceptance criteria.
Participate in agile ceremonies and sprint planning for cross-functional projects involving ad ops, analytics and engineering to prioritize client-impacting work.
Assist in developing internal training materials and playbooks for campaign setup, creative QA, platform updates and reporting best practices.
Help maintain knowledge base entries for platform updates, privacy rules and ad policy changes to keep teams and clients informed.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Google Ads (Search, Display, Video) — campaign setup, bidding strategies, audience targeting and performance optimization.
Meta Ads Manager (Facebook/Instagram) — creative testing, catalog management and campaign structuring for conversions and ROAS.
Programmatic DSP experience (DV360, The Trade Desk, or similar) — deal types, PMP, targeting, and inventory management.
Web analytics (Google Analytics 4, Adobe Analytics) — event tagging, funnel analysis, attribution and conversion modeling.
Tag management and tracking (Google Tag Manager, server-side tagging) and pixel troubleshooting.
Reporting & BI tools (Looker, Tableau, Google Data Studio / Looker Studio, Power BI) — dashboard creation and automated reporting.
SQL and data-querying basics — ability to pull performance and user-behavior data for ad-hoc analysis.
A/B testing platforms & methodologies (Optimizely, VWO, Google Optimize alternatives) and statistical interpretation of results.
CRM and ad stack integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot) — lead flows, audience syncs, and measurement handoffs.
Advanced Excel / Google Sheets (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, macros, modeling) and financial forecasting for budgets.
Understanding of SEO fundamentals and how organic and paid strategies complement each other.
Familiarity with privacy and consent frameworks (GDPR, CCPA), and cookieless measurement strategies.

Soft Skills

Strong client relationship and stakeholder management — trusted advisor mindset with proactive communication.
Strategic thinking and commercial acumen — ability to convert insights into business growth and revenue opportunities.
Clear written and verbal presentation skills — comfortable presenting performance and recommendations to executive audiences.
Problem solving and analytical rigor — structured approach to troubleshooting and hypothesis-driven testing.
Project management and organization — able to manage multiple campaigns, timelines and deliverables concurrently.
Negotiation and persuasion — closing upsell opportunities and coordinating cross-team agreements.
Attention to detail — ensuring accurate tracking, reporting and campaign QA.
Adaptability and continuous learning — staying current with platform changes, ad formats and privacy updates.
Collaborative mindset — working effectively with creative, product, analytics and engineering teams.
Time management and prioritization — balancing reactive client needs with proactive strategic initiatives.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, Advertising, Digital Media or related field — or equivalent practical agency/client-side experience.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Marketing, Digital Media, Business Analytics, or an MBA with relevant marketing/analytics coursework.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Marketing
Advertising
Business Administration
Communications
Digital Media / UX
Data Analytics / Information Systems

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years of progressive experience in digital account management, paid media, or agency-side campaign management. Mid-level roles commonly require 3+ years.

Preferred:

4–7 years with demonstrated success managing multi-channel digital campaigns in an agency or in-house performance marketing environment, experience with enterprise clients, and exposure to programmatic and cross-channel measurement frameworks.