Trader Diaries: Hungry Agency Media Planner/Buyer

Age: 27
Title: Media Planner/Buyer
Employer Type: Agency
Years of Programmatic Trading Experience: 3

5:15 a.m.: My alarm goes off and I hit snooze four times — 36 minutes of planned exercise time down the drain. After showering, picking an outfit and packing lunch, I head to the office. Mentally, I’m determining which of yesterday’s unfinished to-do items should be atop of today’s list — check on a newly enabled medical programmatic campaign, diagnose a placement issue in DoubleClick campaign manager, determine what a reasonable cost-per-lead is on LinkedIn, work out after work since I snoozed through the morning.

8:45 a.m.: I left for work later than I should have (technically the work day begins at 8:30!), and I arrived by modern day horseback: a Ford Mustang. Parked the pony, jetted up the steps to my cube.

9 a.m.: The first thing I do once I get to work is take a deep breath then open my inbox. Inside, there are questions about tagging/implementation, and programmatic campaign setup. I give advice on what to include in a custom audience and how to properly tag HTML 5 creative.

10:30 a.m.: I’m comparing digital CPMs and CPCs for automotive campaigns. I’m always looking for the most impressions for the fewest dollars — clients, however, are fine with investing in high-dollar conversions. Buying a place instead of a face cost us over $100 per thousand impressions! The benefit of programmatic buying is that you can buy an audience, and never have to guess what sites or apps they use.

Noon: I brought leftovers for lunch, reheated my food and ate at my desk. The pot roast wasn’t the only thing I was chewing on — I was mulling over how to convince a client that there is no need to spend over $100 CPM when a similar video placement could have a CPM less than $10. My food got cold before I could eat it all. I was interrupted with a handful of “Can you pop over for a second?”’s.

3 p.m.: I’m on a client status call. We discuss programmatic market and creative rotation for their current campaign.

4 p.m.: My teammates and I discussed which fast food sandwich gif would generate the most engagement. Should we include a GIF showing a bite out of a crispy piece of chicken, or should we include the pouring of a creamy milkshake?

6 p.m.: I leave work and go to my traditional Tuesday at Buffalo Wild Wings. I missed my workout, too!

9:30 p.m. I quickly glance at my inbox and binge watch a few episodes of Younger on demand. It’s fantastic — hard to believe it’s a TV Land original.

11:12 p.m.: Time to get to sleep!