Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Digital Media Specialist

🎯 Role Definition

The Digital Media Specialist is responsible for planning, executing and optimizing integrated digital media campaigns across paid, owned and earned channels. This role blends creative content development with performance marketing, analytics and technical tagging to maximize reach, engagement and conversion goals. The ideal candidate has hands-on experience with Meta/Facebook Ads, Google Ads, programmatic platforms, GA4 and creative production tools (Adobe Creative Suite), and can translate data into actionable optimizations that improve ROI.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Social Media Coordinator
Marketing Coordinator
Content Creator / Junior Content Producer

Advancement To:

Digital Marketing Manager / Paid Media Manager
Head of Digital / Director of Digital Marketing
Performance Marketing Lead

Lateral Moves:

SEO Specialist
Email & Marketing Automation Manager
Content Strategist
Analytics / Growth Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop and execute integrated digital media strategies across paid, owned and earned channels (search, social, display, video, programmatic, and email) to drive brand awareness, leads and direct conversions while aligning to marketing and business objectives.
Plan and manage end-to-end paid social campaigns (Meta/Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X), including audience segmentation, creative briefs, bid strategies, budget pacing, and performance optimization for CPA/ROAS goals.
Build, launch and optimize Google Ads (Search, Display, Discovery, Shopping and YouTube) campaigns, including keyword research, negative keyword management, bidding strategies and ongoing performance tuning to maximize ROI.
Manage programmatic display and video buys through DSPs and private marketplaces, including audience targeting, frequency capping, viewability standards, and publisher/vendor negotiations.
Create and maintain comprehensive media plans and campaign calendars that include objectives, KPIs, budget allocation, channel mix, flighting and measurement frameworks.
Lead creative concepting and production for digital assets—brief designers and video editors, develop social-first video and static ad creative, approve final assets and coordinate A/B creative tests to improve CTR and conversion rates.
Implement and maintain accurate tracking and tagging using Google Tag Manager, enforce UTM standards, and ensure conversion tracking is functioning across all channels for accurate attribution.
Configure and maintain analytics properties (GA4), create reusable dashboards and custom reports, and perform attribution analyses to inform channel investment and optimization.
Execute landing page optimization and conversion rate optimization (CRO) tests using A/B testing tools (Optimizely, VWO, Google Optimize replacement workflows), analyze results and ship improvements to increase funnel conversion.
Manage campaign budgets, pacing, forecasts and reconciliations; provide weekly and monthly reporting on spend, performance, and recommendations to meet business targets and maximize return.
Conduct deep-dive performance analyses (cohort, funnel, LTV, CAC) to uncover growth opportunities, reduce waste, and scale high-performing tactics across channels.
Oversee community management and organic social publishing cadence in alignment with paid amplification strategies; escalate and manage brand reputation or crisis situations on social channels.
Collaborate closely with content, design, product, sales, and legal teams to ensure campaigns meet brand standards, regulatory compliance, and deliver consistent messaging across channels.
Manage influencer and creator partnerships end-to-end: identify partners, negotiate scope and budgets, coordinate content deliverables, track performance and ensure contractual and disclosure compliance.
Develop and execute email marketing and remarketing strategies for audience nurture using ESPs/marketing automation (HubSpot, Klaviyo, Marketo), including segmentation, lifecycle campaigns, and deliverability best practices.
Maintain and grow audience targeting strategies including custom audiences, lookalike models, CRM-based segmentation and first-/third-party data activation to improve relevance and campaign efficiency.
Lead cross-channel experiments (creative, audience, landing page, bid strategy) and maintain a prioritized test roadmap to systematically improve key metrics and accelerate learning loops.
Provide stakeholder-facing reports, executive summaries and presentations that translate complex performance data into clear recommendations and business impact (CAC, ROAS, LTV).
Ensure privacy and data governance practices are embedded in campaigns (consent management, CCPA/GDPR considerations, cookieless strategies) and adapt targeting/measurement strategies accordingly.
Maintain up-to-date knowledge of platform changes, emerging channels (OTT/CTV, podcasts), measurement innovations (clean rooms, MMP integrations) and industry trends to advise senior leadership on strategic shifts.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc performance analyses, audience deep-dives and campaign post-mortems for product and growth teams.
Contribute to multi-quarter media and measurement roadmaps; recommend tech stack improvements (tagging, attribution, analytics visualization).
Collaborate with data engineering and analytics teams to integrate first-party data, build audience segments and validate tracking pipelines.
Assist in vendor selection and manage relationships with agencies, creative partners, and ad tech vendors to ensure quality execution and ROI.
Provide training and best-practice documentation for marketing teammates on ad platforms, tracking standards, and creative optimization.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies when working cross-functionally on marketing technology projects.
Maintain a repository of creative assets, case studies and tested playbooks to streamline campaign launches and reduce time-to-market.
Monitor competitive media activity and share intelligence to inform creative and targeting decisions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Paid Social Platforms: Meta Ads Manager, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, X Ads.
Paid Search & Display: Google Ads (Search, Display, Video/YouTube, Discovery) and keyword strategy.
Web & Tagging: Google Tag Manager implementation and troubleshooting; strong UTM tagging discipline.
Analytics & Measurement: Google Analytics 4 (GA4) setup, custom events, funnel analysis and reporting.
Programmatic: Familiarity with DSPs, PMP deals, RTB fundamentals and programmatic buying strategies.
Creative Tools: Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects) or tight collaboration workflows with designers and editors.
CRO & A/B Testing: Experience with A/B testing tools (Optimizely, VWO), landing page testing methodology and UX best practices.
Email & Automation: Hands-on with ESPs and marketing automation (HubSpot, Klaviyo, Marketo) including segmentation and trigger-based flows.
SEO Fundamentals: On-page optimization, keyword research, meta and schema basics to align organic and paid strategies.
Attribution & Analytics Tools: Familiarity with attribution models, looker studio/data studio dashboards, and basic SQL for ad-hoc queries.
Ad Tech & Data Privacy: Understanding of cookies, server-side tracking, consent frameworks, and privacy-first measurement approaches.
Advanced Excel / Google Sheets: Pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, and building reporting templates.
CRM Integration: Experience integrating ad platforms with CRM (Salesforce) and using CRM audiences for targeting.
Video & Audio Ad Formats: Knowledge of best practices for in-feed video ads, skippable/non-skippable pre-roll and OTT/CTV specs.
Budgeting & Pacing: Campaign budget forecasting, bid strategy selection and spend reconciliation.

Soft Skills

Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making: able to translate numbers into strategic actions and A/B test hypotheses.
Excellent written and verbal communication for cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder presentations.
Creative problem-solving and a test-and-learn mindset to iterate quickly on campaigns and creatives.
Project management and prioritization to manage multiple campaigns, vendors and timelines concurrently.
Attention to detail for tagging accuracy, QA of ad creative and ensuring measurement integrity.
Collaboration and influencing skills to work across marketing, product, design and analytics teams.
Adaptability to shifting platform policies, algorithm updates and business priorities.
Time management and resourcefulness in fast-paced environments.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Advertising, Business, Journalism, Digital Media or related field.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's + relevant certifications (Google Ads Certification, Google Analytics Certification, Meta Blueprint) or Master’s in Marketing/Analytics.
Ongoing professional development in ad tech, measurement, and creative strategy.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Marketing
Communications
Digital Media / Multimedia
Business Administration
Journalism
Data Analytics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years of hands-on experience in digital marketing or media buying with demonstrable campaign ownership.

Preferred: 3–7+ years experience managing multi-channel paid campaigns, experience with agency or in-house media teams, proven track record of improving ROI and scaling paid initiatives. Experience managing budgets of $50K+/month and working with programmatic or advanced analytics is a strong plus.