Essential Hires for In-Housing Programmatic
Talent is one of the most important considerations when in-housing programmatic marketing. From securing the correct resource to building the right team structure, talent will provide a solid foundation to get the wheels of in-housing in motion.
Opportunities such as increased transparency and control continue to fuel the appetite towards in-housing, and research continues to highlight positive results. For example, Bannerflow’s In-Housing report highlights positive findings surrounding enhanced creativity and brand affinity. In this piece, we will explore key considerations for this journey, and the potential hires needed to succeed in transitioning programmatic in-house.
In-housing looks different to everyone:
Below is a list of key considerations:
How much time and financial investment can you allocate to support the transition?
What existing relevant skillset do you already harness in-house?
Are you looking to be self-sufficient without partnering with external vendors, partners, agencies, or consultants?
What job functions are needed to fulfil the positions?
What programmatic control would you like, and can you hire accordingly against the desired skills
Are external consultants required to expedite this?
How quickly can the hired talent adapt and adhere to the ever-changing landscape of autonomy, best practice, policy, and regulation in programmatic?
Can you adapt your programmatic team to encourage creativity, training, fresh talent and mounting approval processes across mediums?
So, who do I hire?
The below will outline a mid-tier structure for programmatic essential hires for your in-house team. This list is by no means exhaustive and will inevitably differ between organisations. You likely won’t need to mirror your current agency setup. Most marketing teams will have a VP/ CMO in a position to build the over-arching strategy, measurement of success and implementation of the activity, alongside respective channel directors.
Head of Programmatic/ Programmatic Director
Crucial for devising, implementing, and delegating all aspects of strategy; overseeing all programmatic activity. Therefore, they should be a fountain of knowledge to the team and wider business in this area. The individual will be well versed in emerging media, data sources and technology. They should be able to effectively communicate and promote programmatic products that will reach business and advertising goals.
Brand & Performance Managers
They can bring their expertise in to amplify the programmatic activity to reach campaign goals in the respective areas. It is essential that they hold a wealth of experience across both discipline’s to facilitate a full-funnel approach to activity.
Trading Managers & Traders:
If you want to run campaigns in-house, then trading managers are essential; they also harness a wealth of knowledge across the programmatic landscape and have ample experience in all campaign components. Trading managers and traders are responsible for monitoring the campaign delivery, ensuring the KPI’s and objectives are being met. These individuals hold external relationships with vendors and partners, which can lend themselves well to a smoother in-house transition. The trading manager is always looking for innovative ways to execute the programmatic activity and feeds into other programmatic roles.
Ad Operations:
The backbone to any prosperous in-house digital team. They are the individuals setting up and implementing tracking and tagging across the campaigns to ensure your activity is fully measurable and collecting data. One key consideration here is that the team will no doubt increase in size to manage all the above elements and also, typically assist with creative management and brand safety implementation.
Data Analysts:
Can keep track of your digital footprint by analysing the information generated across all digital output. They are used to spot trends and ensure the way that you are handling data is in line with current and developing regulations. There are multitudes of data touchpoints across channels that will give the insight to brand perception, strategy, and the elements of digital marketing that are performing to your desired goals. They can correlate the wealth of data from your programmatic activity into precise and accurate reports.
Summary
In-housing programmatic does not mean you must bring every function in-house. The roles outlined above may not be suitable for every brand but highlight some of the key roles that should be considered when in-housing programmatic.
Programmatic essential hires will continue to grow in importance, as buying continues to become more automated, at a larger scale. Programmatic is not simply the buying of display; now marketers are able to run a substantial proportion of their activity programmatically. Having an expert team in place with a wealth of experience is essential for any high performing in-house set-up. Ensure that you have considered the specific functions required in your team and how accessible talent is to manage these functions before moving any activity in-house.