Senior Associate, Digital Activation in Toronto

The Senior Associate, Digital Activation possesses advanced tactical knowledge and programmatic expertise to develop innovative strategies and bring them to life in media buying tools (DSPs) to deliver impactful business results across various channels. You are detail-oriented, strategic with a strong logical thought process, and have an unparalleled focus on client solutions and campaign outcomes. Coupled with the ability to work collaboratively with audience strategy, communications design, and data & analytic teams, you will translate programmatic campaign requirements into actionable engagements with suitable inventory partners, data vendors, and technology providers.

You demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the programmatic ecosystem and its key parties and stay up to date with current trends and challenges facing the industry to assist the team in finding solutions to ensure a competitive edge for the client’s business.

Reporting to the Associate Director, Digital Activation (Team Lead), this interdisciplinary role requires a combination of strategy planning, hands-on execution, and ongoing optimization of programmatic campaigns, as well as support for the Associate Director in training and coaching junior members and aiding in uplifting the overall efficiency of the team’s operations.

Key Responsibilities

• The Senior Associate, Digital Activation is responsible for providing strategic recommendations and setting up programmatic campaigns in various DSPs in accordance with the client’s needs and expectations.
• You are accountable for executing and maintaining oversight on all aspects of programmatic campaign management processes – from campaign strategy, audience list setup, tagging recommendations and implementation, to campaign setup in DSP consoles, delivery management (pacing/budget/spend), insights analysis, and billing reconciliation.
• Be knowledgeable, keep track of, and actively share experience on programmatic media buying (both proven and emerging channels), optimization strategies, troubleshooting guides, and brand safety practices.
• Manage and communicate frequently with internal and external stakeholders to ensure they are kept up to date on the progress of tasks and campaign results.
• Develop audience targeting, data approach, inventory strategy, tactical recommendations, and budget allocation as parts of delivering data-informed and logically-sound proposals.
• Ensure that programmatic proposals and any improvements or changes to campaigns align to and deliver a consistent brand and positive user ad experience where possible.
• Proactively ensure that governance practices are followed when executing digital media buys and provide full transparency into buy decisions.
• Setup, monitor, and regularly optimize campaigns as per best practices while managing pacing, performance, and quality to achieve campaign objectives.
• Generate and analyse reports not only from DSPs but also technology platforms to ensure visibility into where ads are appearing and implement automated reports that track campaign performance and support the development of new metrics.
• Perform campaign analysis by turning large amounts of segmentation data into actionable insights to assist with KPI setting and campaign benchmarks, optimizing and providing budget reallocation guidance.
• Offer insights on how to improve campaign effectiveness through deep use of data and platform functionality.
• Ensure that data sources (e.g., remarketing lists, 1st party data) and technologies (custom bidding) connect properly and perform maintenance on these integrations when needed.
• Ensure that data management and sharing conform to privacy and security requirements.
• Troubleshoot and involve relevant stakeholders to resolve campaign issues in a timely manner.
• Ensure full delivery of campaigns with performance that meets or exceeds client goals.
• Manage and maintain a direct relationship with key digital partners, DSP/SSP/DMP/technology providers – stay up to date on current offerings and work closely with partners to ensure pacing and performance are as expected, any algorithm changes that could impact campaign outputs, as well as to understand new opportunities/features and limitations of implementation.

Secondary Responsibilities

• Actively assist the Associate Director, Digital Activation in identifying knowledge gaps among programmatic campaign managers and drive initiatives/trainings to address them.
• Recognize process inefficiencies and pressure points and propose solutions/procedures in collaboration with internal and external parties.
• Help build, maintain, and update best practice documentation for multiple DSPs and data/technology platforms regarding campaign setup and supply strategy.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge and assist in the implementation of brand safety and suitability guidelines mitigating unfavourable adjacencies for the brand.
• Ensure the use of a multi-layered approach to monitoring and safeguarding data to reduce the risk of unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of data. Follow and ensure the team follows incident protocols in the event of a data breach.
• Shape and drive assigned tasks/projects to completion.

Qualifications

• Mid to intermediate experience in programmatic media management with a leading advertising agency, publisher, advertising exchange, or optimization firm.
• Knowledge of digital buying best practices, digital marketing, and strong familiarity with self-serve buying platforms (e.g., DV360, Xandr, The Trade Desk, Amazon Ads, Yahoo DSP) would be advantageous.
• Exceptionally meticulous, detail-oriented, and organized self-starter.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively, execute quickly and proactively for campaign success in a deadline-driven environment.
• Office suite fluency, including MS Excel pivot tables, SharePoint, Google Sheets.
• Strong communication skills (verbal and written); ability to provide concise, clear reporting and actionable analysis.
• Excellent quantitative and analytical skills with the ability to draw conclusions based on data.
• Proven ability to self-check work to ensure results are error-free.
• Ability to plan, organize, and work on multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Curious and passionate about continuous development with a keenness to learn new platforms and technology.

Omnicom Media Canada is dedicated to cultivating a workplace that not only respects but actively champions Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity through Action (IDEA). This commitment ensures our workforce reflects the rich cultural mosaic of Canada, shaping how our teams, leadership, and client relationships thrive.