Challenges in Finding an In-House Programmatic Ads Leader

Finding a skilled leader to start our in-house programmatic ad team has been quite a challenge. This person needs to set up everything from scratch, as transferring resources from our agency might not be practical, and manage a budget of $400-$500K per month. Most of this will be through The Trade Desk, with potential use of DV360 and Amazon DSP. Candidates with the experience we need are scarce, especially since running programmatic in-house is still relatively uncommon. Most applicants have only led programmatic at agencies, which often involve a lot of client interaction and sales experience. However, this role focuses solely on execution and optimization, without the need for client-side interaction. Unfortunately, many candidates fail our simple job test, struggling with basic tasks like setting up pivot tables and analyzing data for insights. We might be better off looking for someone with an analyst background in programmatic ads. Alternatively, it’s possible that our expectations might require several different roles rather than a single position. We’ve been searching for a while and still haven’t found a candidate who fits our needs. Key skills required for this role: - Building, executing, optimizing, and analyzing campaigns from start to finish - Excellent organizational skills to manage multiple tasks - Familiarity with The Trade Desk, and ideally DV360 and Amazon DSP, though experience with other DSPs is also valuable What’s not needed: - Sales or client-facing skills - Design skills or evaluating creative