Which roles run a programmatic campaign, and who decides what?
Part of Programmatic media planning
The short answer
A programmatic campaign can draw on six roles: a planner who turns the brief into a site list, a buyer who secures deals and terms, a trader who runs the campaign in the buying platform, ad operations who build and traffic it, an analyst who reports, and a client lead who owns the relationship and the final sign off.
Key takeaways
- Job titles vary between companies, so define roles by the decisions each person makes, not by the title on the org chart.
- The buyer owns commercial terms with sellers; the trader owns what happens inside the buying platform once those terms exist.
- Ad operations turns approved decisions into working campaigns, tags and lists, and keeps the record of what was changed.
- Every site list decision needs exactly one accountable person, and that person should not be the one who prepared the change.
Which roles work on a programmatic campaign?
No industry body publishes a standard org chart for programmatic teams, and the same title can mean different work at two companies. Buying platform permissions are the closest thing to a shared vocabulary. Google's Display & Video 360 user roles (opens in a new tab) separate planners, who create and change plans and inventory, standard users, who manage campaigns, creatives and audiences, and reporting only users, who manage reports. Campaign Manager 360 (opens in a new tab) describes media planners as responsible for the high level planning and setup of campaigns, and traffickers as the people who upload creatives and assign ads to placements. The glossary below builds on those splits.
Definition
- Planner
- Turns the brief into a plan: which sites, channels and audiences fit, with the evidence for each. The planner proposes the site list. The full role is covered on the programmatic media planner page.
Definition
- Buyer
- Secures access to inventory on commercial terms: private marketplace and guaranteed deals, prices, volumes and the contracts or insertion orders behind them. The buyer talks to sellers.
Definition
- Trader
- Runs the campaign inside the buying platform: bid strategy, pacing, frequency caps and daily changes to line items. The trader talks to the platform.
Definition
- Ad operations
- Builds and traffics campaigns, loads creatives and tags, applies inclusion and exclusion lists, and checks that what is live matches what was approved.
Definition
- Analyst
- Reports delivery and results, reconciles platform numbers with other sources, and checks where ads ran after launch.
Definition
- Client lead
- Owns the relationship with the advertiser, carries the brief in and the approvals out, and gives the final sign off on anything the client must agree to.
How is a media buyer different from a trader?
The two titles overlap, and on small teams one person does both. The useful line is where the work happens. A buyer works with sellers: negotiating a deal, agreeing a floor price, confirming which sites a curated deal covers. A trader works in the platform once the deal exists. Google's steps for a Display & Video 360 video line item (opens in a new tab) list the trader's inputs: targeting, flight dates, budget and pacing, bid strategy, frequency cap, creatives and conversion tracking.
| Area | Buyer | Trader |
|---|---|---|
| Main counterpart | Publishers, exchanges and sales teams | The buying platform and its reports |
| Decides | Which deals to pursue and on what terms | How to bid and pace within those deals |
| Output | Deal IDs, agreed prices, an insertion order | Line items, bid settings, daily changes |
| When the work peaks | Before launch and at renewal | Every day the campaign runs |
| Strength of a separate role | Seller relationships carry across campaigns | Fast, specialist changes during a flight |
| Risk of a separate role | Deal terms set without seeing delivery data | Bid changes that drift from what the deal intended |
What does ad operations do on a programmatic team?
Ad operations is the build and control function. In Campaign Manager 360 terms, the trafficker sets advertising in motion by uploading creatives and assigning ads to placements. In Display & Video 360, the same function applies channels (opens in a new tab), which are groups of sites or apps used for inclusion, optimization or exclusion. A channel blocked at the partner level is blocked automatically in every advertiser, campaign, insertion order and line item below it, so one change by ad operations can reach every client on a partner.
Ad operations tasks on one flight
- The approved site list is loaded as a channel or placement list, and its name includes the version date.
- Creatives are uploaded, approved by the platform and assigned to the right line items.
- Exclusion lists and brand suitability settings match the approved brief, checked against the platform's own view.
- Every change to brand safety settings is logged, using the platform's change history where it has one.
- A launch check confirms that live settings match the approved plan before spend starts.
Record keeping matters as much as the build. Display & Video 360's Brand Controls page (opens in a new tab) shows an advertiser's coverage of content exclusions, authorized sellers and keyword settings, and lets the user download a list of recent changes to content labels and sensitive categories. Downloading that list after each change gives the analyst and the client lead a record they can read without platform access.
Who is responsible for each site list decision?
A RACI table names, for each decision, who is Responsible for doing the work, who is Accountable for the result (one person only), who is Consulted before it is made and who is Informed after. The table below is a proposed design for one site list's life, from first draft to retirement. It differs from an approval rights table because it covers the whole team, including the people who only need to know.
| Decision | Planner | Buyer | Trader | Ad operations | Analyst | Client lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draft the site list from the brief | R | C | I | I | C | A |
| Check selling paths for listed sites | C | R | I | I | I | A |
| Approve the list version for launch | R | C | I | I | I | A |
| Load the list into the buying platform | I | I | C | R | I | A |
| Remove a site during the flight | R | C | C | R | C | A |
| Report where ads actually ran | C | I | C | I | R | A |
| Retire or replace the list | R | C | I | R | C | A |
Two rules keep the table honest. Only one letter A per row, or no one is accountable. And the person marked R for drafting a change should not also hold the sign off for it; where the client lead drafts, someone else on the client side approves.
How do roles differ between agencies and in house teams?
At an agency, the six roles can sit in different departments, and the client lead is the account director who faces the advertiser. In house, the client lead becomes the internal marketing owner, and roles merge when the team is small. IAB Europe's Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising report (opens in a new tab) asked agencies whether they use an in-house agency trading desk, outsource to an independent trading desk or run a hybrid, a reminder that trading can sit in a different unit from planning. What a brand team takes on when it moves the work is covered on the in house programmatic guide.
| Role | At an agency | In house at the brand |
|---|---|---|
| Planner | Planning or strategy team | Marketing or media team member |
| Buyer | Investment or trading team | Merged with the trader on small teams |
| Trader | Trading desk, sometimes a separate agency unit | In house trader, or kept at the agency |
| Ad operations | Central operations team | The trader, or a shared marketing operations role |
| Analyst | Analytics team across clients | Marketing analytics or finance |
| Client lead | Account director | The marketing manager who owns the budget |
Some responsibilities do not move with the role. In the United States, the FTC's Rules of the Road (opens in a new tab) says advertising agencies are responsible for reviewing the information used to substantiate ad claims and may not simply rely on an advertiser's assurance. In Canada, the Privacy Commissioner's accountability bulletin (opens in a new tab) says accountability under PIPEDA rests with designated individuals, even when others handle day to day collection and processing.
How does PlacementGraph map to a programmatic team's roles?
What do the roles look like on one account?
Fictional example
A kombucha brand in Georgia and the Carolinas
An unnamed kombucha maker sells in grocery stores across Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh and Columbia, and an agency runs its spring display campaign on food, wellness and local lifestyle websites. Five people cover six roles: the agency's planner, a buyer who also trades, an ad operations specialist, an analyst shared with other clients, and the agency account director as client lead.
The planner drafts a list of regional food and wellness sites, and the buyer checks which exchanges sell each one and sets up a curated deal. The account director takes the list to the brand's marketing manager, who approves it in writing. Ad operations loads it as a channel named with the version date and downloads the brand safety change history after setup.
Midway through the flight, the analyst's placement report shows a recipe site has started publishing alcohol cocktail content, which the brand avoids. Following the RACI table, the planner proposes the removal, the buyer and trader are consulted on the deal, ad operations makes the change, and the account director informs the brand and records the reason.
Frequently asked questions
Is a programmatic trader the same as a trading desk?
No. A trader is a person who runs campaigns in the buying platform. A trading desk is a team or business unit that does that work for several accounts, either inside an agency or as a separate company. A trader can work on a trading desk, at a brand or at an agency without one.
Does a small team need all six roles?
It needs all six functions, not six people. Two or three people can cover them if each function has a named owner and the person who drafts a site list is not the one who approves it. Write the merged roles into the RACI table so gaps are visible.
Which role should hold admin access in the buying platform?
As few people as possible, and not the people who build lists every day. In Display & Video 360, only Admin users can create and edit users and have full billing access, so that level belongs with an operations or team lead who reviews access, while traders and ad operations work with standard access.
Who should talk to publishers when a listed site causes a problem?
The buyer, because the buyer holds the seller relationship and the deal terms. The planner supplies the evidence of what the site published, and the client lead decides whether the site comes off the list. Keeping one voice toward sellers avoids conflicting requests from the same advertiser.
Sources
- Manage users in Display & Video 360 (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Manage user access (opens in a new tab)Google, Campaign Manager 360 Help
- Purchase digital video inventory (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- About channels (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- View and edit brand controls for your advertiser (opens in a new tab)Google, Display & Video 360 Help
- Attitudes to Programmatic Advertising Report, November 2024 (opens in a new tab)IAB Europe
- Advertising and Marketing on the Internet: Rules of the Road (opens in a new tab)Federal Trade Commission
- Interpretation Bulletin: Accountability (opens in a new tab)Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.