Alongside marketers, sales agents, and clients, an advertising manager is given the hefty responsibility of planning and implementing programs that generate public interest over a business’ product or service. As promotional campaigns continue to play a prominent role in how organizations maintain and expand their public exposure, the demand for advertising managers will be high to coordinate these campaigns to introduce new products into the competitive marketplace. In fact, the employment of advertising managers is expected to grow about as fast as average at the rate of 12%, thus creating 38,000 new jobs before 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In order to determine if this career path is the right fit for your professional ambitions, the following is a full overview on the vital role of advertising manager.
Advertising Manager Job Description
As liaisons between clients and an advertising agency, advertising managers are responsible for sparking interest among potential buyers for an organization to increase profitability. In most cases, advertising managers are employed in advertising agencies, media firms, and other organizations that put together advertising campaigns. Also known as account executives, advertising managers manage various clients’ accounts to generate ideas for advertising campaigns as well as prepare estimated costs, but do not supervise the creative services behind the actual development of the campaign. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 35,500 advertising managers are employed throughout the United States, with the largest percentage employed in advertising firms.
Responsibilities for Advertising Managers
Often times, advertising managers will work well beyond the traditional 40-hour week with long night, weekend, and even holiday hours. On the typical day in the life of an advertising account executive, managers will be responsible for collaborating with department heads on marketing plans, planning promotional campaigns, negotiating advertising contracts, assessing the appearance of campaign layouts, initiating market research studies on customer responses, developing price strategies, meeting with clients, and directing the hiring of advertising staff members. If advertising managers are employed by larger organizations with more extensive advertising departments, there may be multiple managers overseeing accounts concurrently.
How to Become an Advertising Manager
In addition to having years of work experience in advertising, promotional campaigns, sales, and/or marketing, advertising managers are typically required to have at least a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. While most employers prefer a bachelor’s degree related to advertising or journalism, others will be interested in candidates with experience in business administration, marketing, economics, sales, communications, technology, visual arts, computer science, finance, and management too. Although completing an internship will provide hands-on experience, the majority of advertising managers must work up the ranks by serving as sales representatives, purchasing agencies, marketers, or public relations specialists first before receiving the promotion.
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Overall, advertising managers fulfill an essential position in consulting with various clients to determine how to improve sales and market share through the creation of effective promotional campaigns that spark interest. Due to their importance in different industries, advertising managers bring home an average annual salary of $88,590 with the highest 10% making a sizeable six-figure salary of $166,400. If you have strong analytical, creative, decision making, interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills for leadership, you are encouraged to consider becoming an advertising manager to get on the pathway to a lucrative in-demand profession.