Karlin McGinness explains what DELVE’s Media Planning team does, the challenges they take on, and their current opportunities for growth.
Karlin, what do you do at DELVE?
I’m the Head of Media Planning, and my team oversees cross-channel and omnichannel media activations to provide a high-level perspective on campaign performance—which complements the efforts of our SEM, Social, and Programmatic teams. This inclusion in media activations includes Ad Ops functionality, which ensures that all ads are delivered and tracked as expected while building the foundation for all reporting.
Why is the work of your team so important?
Ad Ops is the foundation of DELVE’s Delivery team, which is responsible for delivering high-quality results to our clients across all areas of engagement. This includes Media, Data Collection, Data Science, Data Engineering, Creative, Reporting, and Analytics. The Ad Ops function allows all of this work to be completed (e.g., media to be delivered and optimized, dashboards to be built on strong data foundations, creative performance to be understood to influence future creative work). In our daily work we use a range of tools and technology platforms including Google Campaign Manager, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Google Ads, DV360, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, and more.
What challenges are faced by you and your team?
There are a lot of moving pieces that the Ad Ops team must monitor. A tracking issue can pop up at any given moment: for example, pixels might drop from an ecommerce site, which means data stops populating in our media platforms. The team has to be prepared for the unexpected at all times—which makes every day interesting and keeps the team on their toes. The work requires strong attention to detail and problem-solving skills, but it’s very fulfilling for those who love to solve new problems every day.
Your team is still growing. Who are you looking for right now?
Currently I’m looking for an Ad Ops Specialist who will support me in developing the Ad Ops practice at DELVE. The role provides technical support to DELVE’s Programmatic teams for all campaigns (Display, Digital Video, Audio and CTV), including creating and troubleshooting pixels, ad serving and tracking tags, troubleshooting discrepancies between platforms, tracking tagging issues, creative QA, and more. The online job description provides full details, and I encourage all interested Ad Ops specialists to apply:
https://delvedeeper.com/company/careers/
What kind of skills are you looking for in candidates?
We’re looking for someone who is curious, likes to solve problems and loves to pitch in to help the entire team be successful. From a technical perspective, we’re looking for candidates that have extensive experience with Google Campaign Manager, including trafficking, floodlights, creative QA, and pixel implementation.
In your opinion, why is it worth joining DELVE?
DELVE’s unique value proposition is that we’re able to partner with our clients in a number of different ways. Our diverse suite of technology tools allows us to customize our approach for each partnership and drives expertise within our team—which makes our day-to-day work really fun and exciting because every day is different. I also love the support that I have from the rest of my team. I never feel alone in trying to find a solution for a client because I’m surrounded by incredibly smart, curious people who are always ready and willing to help.