u/Coffee-Addict-1

I have been working in digital marketing specializing in programmatic advertising for the past 5 years for an automotive client at a marketing agency. I worked as a marketing coordinator for 2 years, then was promoted to Assistant Marketing Manager 3 years ago. I loved my job, & the best part about my job was it was permanently work from home! But I felt that I need to find something better as I wasn’t given a raise or a promotion after 2 years at my role as an assistant manager, the third year I kept fighting for a promotion even going above & beyond showing that I’m ready. But still no luck. I ended up giving up & decided to look for another job.

I recently got a new job at another marketing agency as a full on Marketing Manger. I have to go in the office 3 days a week & take a 1 hour train ride to go & come back from the office. At my new job, I’m responsible for all the planning, execution & the post campaign reporting. I am dealing with 3 food clients, with having one of the client composing of independently owned franchises. While the other 2 are big fast food brands. Each client consists of their own planners who will decide on a budget, tactics, & the audiences. I thought that will make my job easier as it saves me trouble from doing all the campaign planning.

Meeting with the planners they all had one thing to say. “The clients goal is to increase foot traffic in their stores. With my programmatic advertising background I was like that’s easy we can just implement location targeting so it’s only people close to store locations who get targeted. Majority of the campaigns are awareness based using primarily standard display & location based ads. which is fine.

What is strange, when I asked them if they have done anything in programmatic advertising, the planners specifically told me “they like to buy direct from publishers, it’s much easier”. Also, none of the team members have any access to programmatic platforms. At this stage, I felt that why did I get hired in the first place if the planners do not want to use Digital Programmatic Advertising.

During one of the campaign proposal meetings I made the proposal of using YouTube Shorts for vertical ads & to use Bumper 6s & 15s skippable on YouTube from couple of the mock ads which were created. To which the director & the planner are looking at me giving me that WTF! Impression. There was an awkward silence for about 10 seconds. The next question was, will this increase the foot traffic in stores. I told them with digital we can only calculate the behaviour of a persons online activity when they are seeing the ad. Unless they click on the ad & use the features from the clients website to commit to a in-person interaction, it will be difficult to calculate the in store foot traffic. One of my other coworkers, oh “We can contact this publisher & see if we can setup a programmatic advertising deal with them.” To which the Director & Planner replied yeah let’s do that. I got shot down.

I met up with other programmatic managers in our company & they all seem to tell me just do a programmatic deal or contact the publishers & see if they can run programmatic advertising on your behalf, it will save you soo much work.

Not sure if anyone has dealt with the same I’m feeling. I’m starting to feel like I may have made a mistake leaving my old job & getting an outside firm to do what I was trained to do for the past 5 years will devalue my skills & experience in the long run.

Am I overreacting into thinking that my team is clueless about running programmatic advertising in house? Truthfully, speaking a part of me wants to go back to my old job as I’m not seeing the potential of long term growth towards becoming a Senior Marketing Manager with in next 3 years.

So far here are my considerations:
- Ask my manager at my previous job to take me back & settle for a 15k lower salary. But I highly doubt she’ll take me back. But atleast I’ll get permanent work from home if she takes me back.
- Start looking for a new job in hopes I’ll find something where my skills are actually applied & there’s potential for growth towards becoming a senior marketing manager.
- Suck it up for 1 year, if things don’t get better then start looking

What are your thoughts, any one faced issues like this?

I have been working in digital programmatic advertising for the past 5 years on the campaign execution side for an automotive client. I worked as a marketing coordinator for 2 years, then was promoted to Assistant Marketing Manager 3 years ago. I was mainly involved in awareness campaigns & occasionally lower funnel campaigns using CRM lists. I also have somewhat experience on the planning side of things as to use what tactics to use, targeting audiences & so on. I loved my job, & the best part about my job was it was permanently work from home! But I felt that I need to find something better as I wasn’t given a raise or a promotion after 2 years at my role as an assistant manager, the third year I kept fighting for a promotion even going above & beyond showing that I’m ready. But still no luck. I ended up giving up & decided to look for another job.

I recently got a new job as a full on Marketing Manger role. I have to go in the office 3 days a week & take a 1 hour train ride to go & come back from the office. At my new job, I’m responsible for all the planning, execution & the post campaign reporting. I am dealing with 3 food clients, with having one of the client composing of independently owned franchises. While the other 2 are big fast food brands. Each client consists of their own planners who will decide on a budget, tactics, & the audiences. I thought that will make my job easier as it saves me trouble from doing all the planning.

Meeting with the planners they all had one thing to say. “The clients goal is to increase foot traffic in their stores. I was like that’s easy we can just implement location targeting so it’s only people close to store locations who get targeted. Majority of the campaigns are awareness based using primarily standard display & location based ads. which is fine.

What is strange, when I asked them if they have done anything in programmatic advertising, the planners specifically told me “they like to buy direct from publishers, it’s much easier”. Also, none of the team members have any access to programmatic platforms. At this stage, I felt that why did I get hired in the first place if the planners do not want to use Digital Programmatic Advertising.

During one of the campaign proposal meetings I made the proposal of using YouTube Shorts for vertical ads & to use Bumper 6s & 15s skippable on YouTube from couple of the mock ads which were created. To which the director & the planner are looking at me giving me that WTF! Impression. There was an awkward silence for about 10 seconds. The next question was, will this increase the foot traffic in stores. I told them with digital we an only calculate the digital metrics such as CTR, VCR, & VTR etc. Unless they have floodlights setup it’s will be difficult to calculate the in store foot traffic. One of my other coworkers, oh “We can contact this publisher & see if we can setup a programmatic deal with them.” To which the Director & Planner replied yeah let’s do that. I got shot down.

I met up with other programmatic managers in our company & they all seem to tell me just do a programmatic deal or contact the publishers & see if they can run programmatic advertising on your behalf, it will save you soo much work.

Not sure if anyone has dealt with the same I’m feeling. I’m starting to feel like I may have made a mistake leaving my old job & getting an outside firm to do what I was trained to do for the past 5 years will devalue my skills & experience in the long run.

Am I overreacting into thinking that my team is clueless about running programmatic advertising in house? Truthfully, speaking a part of me wants to go back to my old job as I’m not seeing the potential of long term growth towards becoming a Senior Marketing Manager with in next 3 years.

So far here are my considerations:
- Ask my manager at my previous job to take me back & settle for a 15k lower salary. But I highly doubt she’ll take me back. But atleast I’ll get permanent work from home if she takes me back.
- Start looking for a new job in hopes I’ll find something where my skills are actually applied & there’s potential for growth towards becoming a senior marketing manager.
- Suck it up for 1 year, if things don’t get better then start looking

What are your thoughts, any one faced issues like this?

I have been working in Programmatic advertising for the past 3 years on the campaign execution side as an Assistant Manager for an automotive client. The primary DSP I use on 90% of time is DV360. I also have experience in using other DSP’s such as Yahoo, Teads Ad Manager & Amazon. I was mainly involved in awareness campaigns & occasionally lower funnel campaigns using CRM lists. I also have somewhat experience on the planning side of things as to use what tactics to use, targeting audiences & so on.

I recently got a new job as a full on Programmatic Manger role. Meaning, I’m responsible for all the planning, execution & the post campaign reporting. I am dealing with 3 food clients, with having one of the client composing of independently owned franchises. While the other 2 are big fast food brands. Each client consists of their own planners who will decide on a budget, tactics, & the audiences. I thought that will make my job easier as it saves me trouble from doing all the planning.

Meeting with the planners they all had one thing to say. “The clients goal is to increase foot traffic in their stores. I was like that’s easy we can just implement FSA targeting so it’s only people close to store locations who get targeted. Majority of the campaigns are awareness based using primarily standard display & OOH ads. which is fine.

What is strange, when I asked them if they have done anything programmatic, the planners specifically told me “they like to buy direct from publishers, it’s much easier”. Also, none of the team members have any access to DSP’s.

During one of the campaign proposal meetings I made the proposal of using YouTube Shorts for vertical ads & to use Bumper 6s & 15s skippable on YouTube from couple of the mock ads which were created. To which the director & the planner are looking at me giving me that WTF! Impression. There was an awkward silence for about 10 seconds. The next question was, will this increase the foot traffic in stores. I told them with digital we an only calculate the digital metrics such as CTR, VCR, & VTR etc. Unless they have floodlights setup it’s will be difficult to calculate the in store foot traffic. One of my other coworkers, oh “We can contact this publisher & see if we can setup a programmatic deal with them.” To which the Director & Planner replied yeah let’s do that. I got shot down.

I met up with other programmatic managers & they all seem to tell me just do a PG deal or contact the publishers & see if they can run programmatic on your behalf, it will save you soo much work. Not sure if anyone has dealt with the same I’m feeling. I’m starting to feel like I may have made a mistake leaving my old job & doing everything programmatic guaranteed will devalue my skills & experience in the long run.

Am I overreacting into thinking that my team is clueless about running programmatic in house? Truthfully, speaking a part of me wants to go back to my old job as I’m not seeing the potential of long term growth towards becoming a Senior Programmtic Manager with in next 3 years.

What are your thoughts, any one faced issues like this?