The Modern Media Buyer: Evolving Skills and Strategy

The Evolving Role of the Media Buyer

What’s your perspective on how the role of the media buyer is changing?

Undoubtedly, it’s evolved. It used to be an incredibly technical-first role, where you had to understand the idiosyncrasies of the ad platform, almost like this complex control panel with tons of buttons and settings. Things have simplified now. But what that means is that everything you do in your ad account—even though it’s a more stripped-back, automated version—has a bigger impact than before. Previously, you were doing lots and lots of different things, and the sum of all those added up to your goal. Now you’ve got fewer inputs, but what you do with those inputs has more impact on your business.

So, in my opinion, the role of the media buyer is still incredibly valid, still incredibly important—as important as it was before. But the actual day-to-day has evolved and will keep evolving. Now it’s about understanding business context and how what you do in the ad account translates to real outcomes.

Yeah, and that kind of leads into the need for building a cross-functional team, which is very much where performance marketing is going. You need people who understand marketing, along with the technical and data analytics side, and also the creative strategy we’re going to implement across paid social channels. Plus, you need someone who knows how to make sure you’re capturing all the demand available on search-based channels, for example.

So it’s that cross-functional piece and building a marketing engine that applies to lower-funnel channels as well that’s just so important. I think that’s what a lot of people might lose sight of. What companies used to buy was an “army,” for lack of a better phrase, to handle a lot of the nitty-gritty. Now, with automation, the value of that has diminished. What companies should now be buying is the strategic thinking on how to use the ad platforms effectively. There’s a distinction there.

And it’s not just about how to use them well; it’s about how to use them well and apply that strategy to your business, considering the nuances of your product, your sales cycle, and all that sort of stuff, which has a huge impact on the results you can get from performance marketing. If it’s not working, it’s likely because you’re not making it work in the right way.

There’s also a need for resources, especially when managing lots of markets and creative strategies that are localised for each one. It’s essential to have the time and understanding to deliver high-quality work—that’s still absolutely necessary. Automation doesn’t just solve everything. It’s not like you set up a single campaign, press a button, and go. You still need to decide how much to spend, where, and which objectives to aim for in order to get the best results.

So there’s still a lot of technical nuance, like you say, but it’s about taking a marketing-first approach and then applying a lens of “is this driving business value?” to the whole process. That’s really where I’m seeing things shift, at least.