Imagine running ad campaigns that adjust in real time, delivering the right message to the right audience while maximizing every dollar spent in your marketing efforts. That's the power of programmatic marketing—an automated approach to ad buying and placement that blends data, technology, and precision targeting to transform how businesses connect with their customers.
However, this automation is far from straightforward. Managing programmatic campaigns across different platforms demands expertise in targeting, budgeting, and performance analysis. Without a specialized digital marketing team structure, it's easy to waste resources or miss opportunities. By building a well-structured marketing department, you can maximize ROI through sharper audience targeting, optimized budget allocation, and continuous performance analysis of your marketing efforts.
In this guide, I’ll cover:
- The key roles in a programmatic marketing team;
- The difference between programmatic marketing teams and traditional marketing/ad teams;
- A programmatic marketing workflow;
- The problems faced by programmatic marketing teams and how to overcome them;
- The tools and technology programmatic marketing teams need to be effective;
- How to future-proof your programmatic marketing team;
Key Roles in a Programmatic Marketing Team
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Building a successful programmatic marketing team requires a blend of strategic thinking, technical expertise, and creative talent. Each role within the team plays a critical part in ensuring the seamless execution of marketing campaigns, whether crafting strategies, managing ad placements, analyzing performance, or troubleshooting technical issues.
Below, I’ll break down the essential roles in a programmatic marketing team:
1. Programmatic strategist
The Programmatic Strategist/Marketer is the visionary leader of the team. They craft the overall strategy, identify the most effective platforms, and define audience targeting parameters. This role ensures campaigns align with broader business objectives and that the right tools and tactics are employed to reach the intended audience.
Responsibilities
- Develop the overarching programmatic strategy.
- Identify and select platforms/tools for ad buying (including social media platforms).
- Define and refine audience targeting criteria based on campaign/marketing goals.
- Collaborate with other team members (including the digital marketing team) to ensure alignment with strategy.
- Stay updated on programmatic trends and innovations.
2. Media Buyer
The Media Buyer executes the strategy by purchasing ad inventory on programmatic platforms like PubMatic and The Trade Desk. They optimize bids, manage budgets, and ensure marketing campaigns run smoothly across various platforms.
Responsibilities
- Use programmatic platforms to execute ad buys.
- Monitor campaign performance and adjust bids as needed.
- Manage daily budgets to prevent overspending.
- Collaborate with the data analyst to make data-driven decisions and iterations.
- Ensure compliance with programmatic platform policies.
3. Data analyst
Data is at the core of programmatic marketing. The Data Analyst’s job is to transform raw data about ad campaigns into actionable insights. They track campaign performance, identify trends/patterns, and recommend optimizations to improve targeting and ROI. Their presence ensures that decisions are informed by actual performance, rather than assumptions.
Responsibilities
- Monitor and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Provide regular reports on campaign performance.
- Identify opportunities for optimization based on data
- Collaborate with the programmatic strategist and media buyer to refine targeting and budget allocation.
- Use predictive analytics to forecast future performance.
4. Ad operations specialist
The Ad Operations Specialist handles the technical aspects of delivering ads. They ensure that ads are set up correctly, troubleshoot delivery issues, and ensure marketing campaigns run without technical glitches.
Responsibilities
- Upload and manage ad creatives within programmatic platforms.
- Troubleshoot technical issues, such as delivery failures or incorrect tracking.
- Ensure ads meet platform specifications and compliance requirements.
- Collaborate with the creative team to test ad formats and placements.
- Maintain documentation of campaign setups and troubleshooting processes.
5. Creative Team
Even with precise targeting and technical execution, poorly designed ads won’t engage the audience. The Creative Team designs the visuals and copy that make up the ad creatives, and they ensure that the content resonates with your target audience while aligning with your brand’s identity.
Responsibilities
- Design ad creatives (banners, videos, and interactive formats).
- Ensure creative assets align with your brand’s tone and style.
- Test multiple creative variations to identify high-performing formats.
- Work with the ads operations specialist and digital marketers to optimize creative delivery.
- Update and refresh creatives to avoid ad fatigue.
Collaboration in action: Media buyer and data analyst
Effective collaboration between team members is vital to programmatic marketing success. One example of that is the collaboration between the media buyer and the data analyst.
For instance, when a media buyer notices that a campaign is underspending in a high-performing segment, they consult the data analyst, who provides insights from the performance data. For this scenario, the data shows that ads targeting users aged 25-34 are driving the most conversions.
Based on this information, the media buyer reallocates the budget from underperforming segments to this high-converting audience. They also increase the bid for this segment to ensure that the campaign remains competitive.
By collaborating in real time, the media buyer and data analyst optimize ad spend and maximize campaign ROI mid-flight, significantly improving programmatic marketing outcomes.
Programmatic marketing team structure
Now that you know the main roles you need to hire, here are a few ideal marketing team structures tailored to businesses of various sizes:
Small businesses
If you're a small business, you likely have limited resources, and have fewer marketing efforts and simpler targeting needs. Your digital marketing team structure might only need 3-5 people, most of whom will be generalists who can wear multiple hats. Here's an ideal marketing team structure for small businesses:
- Programmatic strategist (dual role as digital marketer)
- Media buyer
- Data analyst (who can also handle keyword research)
- Creative director (handles design and copywriting)
Why this team structure works:
Since the budget and resources are limited, this lean structure ensures that every critical function is covered without overwhelming your business’ financial capacity. The programmatic strategist doubles as the Team Lead, providing both strategic direction and oversight. A single Media Buyer can manage campaigns on multiple DSPs, while a Data Analyst focuses on tracking and optimizing performance.
The Creative Director will be a generalist who ensures that visuals and copy align with campaign goals, without the need for a full creative team.
Mid-sized businesses
As your business grows, you’ll start to run campaigns across multiple marketing channels and audiences, which necessitates a team with distinct roles for strategy, execution, and optimization. Here, you’ll move from hiring generalists to bringing in specialists who can scale campaigns effectively.
- Programmatic strategist
- Media buyer
- Ads operations specialist
- Data analyst
- Creative team
- Creative director
- Designer
- Copywriter
Why this team structure works:
This structure includes dedicated roles for each core programmatic function—strategy, media buying, ad operations, data analysis, and creative development. The Creative Team (Director, Designer, and Copywriter) ensures higher quality and more diverse creative assets, which are critical for scaling campaigns and maintaining engagement across different digital channels.
Enterprise businesses
If you run an enterprise business, your digital marketing team structures need to be more comprehensive. You likely have different product lines and global reach, requiring a robust marketing department and sophisticated marketing strategies. This structure allows for advanced segmentation, faster optimization, and better collaboration, ensuring campaigns perform at the highest level.
- Team lead/Manager
- Programmatic strategist
- Media buyers (2-3 for different platforms)
- Ads operations specialist
- Data analysts (2-3 for segmentation and optimization)
- Audience analyst
- Creative team
- Creative director
- Designers (2-3, including one focused on video)
- Copywriters (2-3)
- Video editor
- Technology specialist
- Account manager
Why this team structure works:
Enterprise-level programmatic marketing teams handle a high volume of campaigns with complex targeting and reporting requirements. This structure supports scalability with multiple specialists in each key area, such as Media Buyers for platform-specific expertise and Data Analysts for advanced performance tracking.
Additional roles like Audience Analyst, Technology Specialist, and Account Manager increase targeting precision, streamline tool integrations, and ensure clear communication and alignment with external stakeholders.
A robust Creative Team with multiple designers, copywriters, and a video editor ensures that assets remain fresh and engaging across large-scale campaigns.
Read: How to Create a Marketing Team Structure (With Examples)
Why a Programmatic Marketing Team is Different from Traditional Marketing Teams
Transitioning to programmatic marketing requires a fundamental shift in how teams operate. Unlike traditional marketing teams that depend on manual processes and static data, programmatic marketing teams thrive on automation, advanced technology, and real-time decision-making.
Below is a table breaking down the numerous differences between a programmatic marketing team and a traditional marketing/ad team.
Programmatic Marketing Workflow and Collaboration
The success of a programmatic marketing campaign depends on seamless collaboration between each team member and a structured workflow that moves from strategy development to execution, analysis, and optimization. Below is a step-by-step overview of how the team works together throughout a campaign lifecycle:
1. Strategy development
Who’s involved: Programmatic strategist, data analyst, creative director/team
Process: The programmatic strategist typically leads the campaign planning by defining the overarching business goals, target audience, platforms, and budget. The data analyst provides insights from past campaigns or market research to inform decisions, while the creative director/team contributes ideas for ad formats and messaging tailored to the target audience.
Output: A detailed campaign strategy outlining audience segments, KPIs, budget allocation, and creative guidelines.
2. Creative development
Who’s involved: Creative team, ad operations specialist
Process: Based on the strategy, the creative team designs ad assets such as banners, videos, or interactive creatives. The ads operations specialist then reviews these assets to ensure compliance with platform specifications and compatibility with DCO tools.
Output: A complete set of ad creatives ready for upload and deployment.
3. Campaign setup and ad buying
Who’s involved: Media buyer, ads operations specialist
Process: The media buyer sets up the campaign in a DSP, configuring targeting parameters, budget caps, and bidding strategies. The ad operations specialist ensures the creatives are correctly uploading, tracking pixels are implemented, and all technical details are in place.
Output: A fully configured and technically sound campaign ready to go live.
4. Campaign launch and monitoring
Who’s involved: Media buyer, data analyst
Process: Once the campaign goes live, the media buyer monitors its performance daily, focusing on budget pacing, bid performance, and impression delivery. The data analyst begins collecting real-time data to identify trends, patterns, or issues.
Output: Regular reports and insights on initial campaign performance.
5. Performance analysis
Who’s involved: Data analyst
Process: Midway through the campaign, the data analyst provides a detailed performance analysis, highlighting areas where KPIs are being met or where adjustments are needed. This includes identifying high-performing (and low-performing) audience segments, creatives, or placements.
Output: Data-driven recommendations for optimization.
6. Campaign optimization
Who’s involved: Media buyer, data analyst, programmatic strategist
Process: Based on the analysis, the media buyer makes adjustments such as reallocating the budget to better-performing segments, refining targeting criteria, or tweaking bidding strategies. The strategist ensures these changes align with the overall campaign objectives.
Output: A refined campaign that maximizes ROI and addresses performance gaps.
7. Post-campaign analysis and reporting
Who’s involved: Data analyst, programmatic strategist, creative team
Process: After the campaign ends, the data analyst compiles a comprehensive performance report, measuring KPIs and highlighting lessons learned. The programmatic strategist uses this data to refine future campaigns, and the creative team evaluates the success of different assets.
Output: A post-campaign report with actionable insights for continuous improvement.
Tools and Technology for Programmatic Marketing Teams
Leveraging the right tools is critical for programmatic marketing teams to automate the marketing process, analyze data, and optimize campaigns effectively. Below is a breakdown of five key tools used in programmatic workflows and how they contribute to the team’s success.
1. The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk is one of the most powerful Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) available, offering media buyers access to a wide range of ad inventory across channels like display, video, audio, connected TV, and mobile. It allows advertisers to programmatically bid on ad spaces in real time through advanced algorithms.
Key features
- Advanced targeting options, including demographics, behaviors, and contextual data.
- Customizable bidding strategies for different campaign objectives.
- Integration with third-party data providers for enhanced audience segmentation.
- Unified reporting dashboard to monitor campaign performance.
Role in workflow: Media buyers use DSPs like The Trade Desk to set up campaigns, define budgets, and automate the bidding process.
The Trade Desk alternatives
- Google DV360 (Display & Video 360)
- MediaMath
- Amazon DSP (to target Amazon shoppers)
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a widely used web analytics platform that provides in-depth insights into website traffic, user behavior, and campaign performance. It helps data analysts (and digital marketing teams) measure the effectiveness of programmatic campaigns and understand audience interactions.
Key features
- Real-time tracking of user activity on websites and apps.
- Conversion tracking to measure campaign ROI.
- Custom reports for detailed performance analysis.
- Integration with Google Ads and other marketing platforms.
Role in workflow: Data analysts rely on analytics platforms like Google Analytics to assess how users engage with landing pages and track conversions driven by programmatic ads. These insights help refine targeting, improve user experience, and optimize future campaigns.
Google Analytics alternatives
Read: How to Structure a Digital Marketing Team in 2025
3. Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager is a robust ad-serving platform that enables ad operations specialists to manage the delivery of ads across various channels. It’s also used for dynamic creative optimization (DCO), ensuring the right ad creative is shown to the right audience at the right time.
Key features
- Real-time ad delivery and tracking.
- Support for multiple ad formats, such as banners, videos, and interactive ads.
- Creative management, including testing and version control.
- Comprehensive reporting on ad impressions, clicks, and engagement.
Role in workflow: The ads operations specialist uses ad-serving tools like Google Ad Manager to upload and configure creatives, troubleshoot delivery issues, and monitor technical performance. Its ability to handle complex ad setups ensures campaigns run smoothly and meet technical requirements.
Google Ad Manager alternatives
4. Lotame
Lotame is a data collaboration platform designed to aggregate and organize first-party, second-party, and third-party audience data. It enables programmatic marketing teams to create granular audience segments for more effective targeting.
Key features
- Unified audience data collection across devices and platforms (including online, offline, mobile, social, and search).
- Sophisticated segmentation tools for defining target audiences.
- Integration with customer data platforms (CDPs), onboarding, data enrichment, and curation tools.
- In-depth audience profile reports showing their behaviors and interests.
Role in workflow: Programmatic strategists and media buyers use data collaboration/management platforms like Lotame to identify and refine audience segments. The data is fed into DSPs like The Trade Desk, allowing for more precise targeting and improved campaign outcomes.
Lotame alternatives
5. Slack
Slack is a communication platform designed for team collaboration. It helps programmatic marketing teams stay aligned by providing a centralized space for messaging, file sharing, and task management.
Key features
- Real-time messaging and file sharing.
- Customizable channels for specific campaigns or projects
- Integration with tools like Google Analytics and Asana for streamlined workflows.
- Searchable message history for easy access to past discussions.
Role in workflow: All team members use collaborative tools like Slack to communicate updates, share performance insights, and troubleshoot issues in real time. For example, a data analyst can alert the media buyer to optimize underperforming segments, or the creative team can quickly upload updated assets.
Slack alternatives
Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Programmatic marketing offers unparalleled precision and efficiency, but it comes with its share of challenges. Being aware of these obstacles is crucial for programmatic marketing teams to mitigate risks, optimize campaign results, and ensure the best ROI. Here’s a table showing the challenges programmatic marketing teams face and how to overcome them:
Optimizing Team Structure for Business Growth
As your business or campaign volume grows, scaling and optimizing your programmatic marketing team becomes essential to maintain efficiency and maximize performance. Expanding the team with specialized roles at the right time ensures that the increasing workload is distributed effectively and that campaigns continue to deliver strong results.
Below are key considerations for optimizing your team structure for growth.
1. Recognizing when to scale
Here are some indicators that show you that it’s time to scale your programmatic marketing team, including:
- Running multiple campaigns across different platforms simultaneously.
- Expanding to new audience segments or geographies.
- Managing larger ad spends.
2. Adding roles for sustainable business growth
When your team reaches capacity or campaigns require more specialization, consider adding these roles:
- Junior Media Buyer. As campaign volume grows, senior media buyers may struggle to manage daily tasks like budget pacing, bid adjustments, and platform setup. A junior media buyer can handle routine platform management, freeing senior buyers to focus on strategic optimization and high-value campaigns.
- More Data Analysts. When campaigns become more complex or require advanced analytics, such as multi-touch attribution or predictive modeling, you can hire more data analysts to focus on specific parts. For example, some of them could do audience segmentation, while others can focus on performance reporting.
- Audience Analyst. When targeting precision becomes critical, you can hire an audience analyst to focus exclusively on refining segmentation strategies, ensuring ads reach the most relevant users.
- Creative Specialists. If creative fatigue becomes a recurring issue or campaigns require highly personalized ad variations, it may be time to build a dedicated team with specialist designers and/or video editors. This ensures you can handle the asset development and testing required for DCO or multi-channel campaigns.
- Team Manager. As the team grows beyond 5-6 members, having a dedicated manager to oversee daily workflows ensures smooth operations and clear communication with stakeholders.
3. Strategies for optimization
To optimize your growing team for maximum efficiency:
- Train junior team members to handle basic tasks across roles, ensuring flexibility during high-demand periods.
- Encourage team members to focus on specific areas, such as platform expertise (e.g., Google DV360, Amazon DSP) or verticals, to improve overall campaign outcomes.
- Use advanced automation tools for repetitive tasks like reporting, budget pacing, and bid adjustments.
- Conduct periodic reviews of team performance and workflows to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement.
Programmatic Marketing Team Technical Requirements by Role
As you hire each role to fill up your programmatic marketing team, here are the requirements you should ensure they have:
1. Programmatic strategist
- Google Marketing Platform certification.
- Deep understanding of DSPs like The Trade Desk, Google DV360, or Amazon DSP.
- In depth knowledge of DMPs such as Lotame or Oracle BlueKai.
- Statistical analysis skills.
- Awareness of privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) to ensure compliance.
2. Media Buyer
- Expertise in DSP platforms like The Trade Desk and MediaMath.
- Understanding of real-time bidding (RTB) processes and automated bidding strategies.
- Familiarity with budget pacing and bid management tools.
- Basic knowledge of analytics platforms like Google Analytics for performance tracking.
- Knowledge of attribution modeling.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and/or SQL.
3. Data Analyst
- Advanced skills in data visualization tools like Tableau and Power BI.
- Proficiency in analytics platforms like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics
- In depth knowledge of programming languages like Python, SQL, or R.
- Understanding of predictive analytics and multi-touch attribution models.
- Knowledge of A/B testing methodology.
4. Ad Operations Specialist
- Proficiency in ad-serving platforms like Google Ad Manager or Flashtalking.
- Knowledge of tracking pixel implementation and troubleshooting.
- Knowledge of dynamic creative optimization (DCO) tools.
- Ability to test and troubleshoot creatives for compatibility with platform specifications.
5. Creative Team
- Creative Director: Proficiency in design principles and creative tools like Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator).
- Designers: Expertise in creating static and dynamic creatives using tools like Adobe Photoshop or Figma.
- Copywriters: Strong command of persuasive writing and familiarity with A/B testing tools for ad copy.
- Video editor: Advanced video editing skills using software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro.
Read: Hire Brand Designers—Develop a Recognizable and Trustworthy Brand
Future-Proofing Your programmatic marketing team
As the digital marketing landscape expands, programmatic marketing teams must stay ahead of emerging market trends to remain competitive and effective. Here are some ways you can future-proof your programmatic marketing team:
- Privacy-first marketing approach: programmatic marketing teams should implement robust privacy compliance protocols to safeguard user data. They should also use CMPs to collect and manage user permissions transparently.
- AI/ML integration in workflows: programmatic marketing teams should use AI-powered tools to automate bid adjustments, audience segmentation, and creative personalization. They should also incorporate ML models for predictive analytics to anticipate campaign performance and optimize targeting.
- Maintaining competitive advantage: programmatic marketing teams can stay ahead of competitors by experimenting with emerging ad formats like interactive video or augmented reality (AR) ads.
- Contextual targeting: Train team members on contextual advertising technologies and how to pair them with real-time bidding.
- First-party data strategies: programmatic marketing teams should develop strategies for collecting and activating customer data ethically and effectively. They should also invest in customer data platforms (CDPs) to unify data across marketing channels and deliver actionable insights.
- Preparing for a cookieless future: As third-party cookies phase out, teams should develop contextual targeting expertise to serve relevant ads based on content rather than user behavior. They should also leverage customer data collected directly through owned channels (website, social media platforms, email lists).
Build Your programmatic marketing team with MarketerHire
A well-structured programmatic marketing team is essential for navigating the complexities of automated ad buying, optimizing campaign performance, and getting a strong ROI. Each role, from programmatic strategists to data analysts, plays a critical part in ensuring campaigns are effectively planned, executed, and analyzed.
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Beyond programmatic marketing, MarketerHire provides access to professionals in various roles, including a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), SEO manager, email marketing manager, social media manager, and growth marketer, allowing you to build a comprehensive marketing team tailored to your business needs.
If you’d like to know more about how MarketerHire can ease the hiring process for you, schedule a call with us today.