Channel Planning Manager

Reporting of the role 

This role reports to: Performance Director

3 best things about the job: 

• Lead data-driven programmatic strategies that deliver measurable business outcomes and push the boundaries of advertising innovation.


• Work with IBM, WPP teams, and platform vendors, collaborating across strategy, creative, and operations for impactful, full-funnel campaigns.


• Push boundaries by challenging best practices, inspiring innovation, and mentoring junior team members, all while elevating your expertise in programmatic across display, audio, video, and pDOOH!

3 months:

• Conduct a comprehensive review of IBM’s current programmatic media strategies, including the audience targeting and inventory planning.


• Gain expertise in IBM’s media guidelines, brand safety benchmarks, and dynamic creative optimization frameworks.


• Launch and optimize initial programmatic campaigns, demonstrating early success through measurable improvements in delivery, pacing, and targeting strategies.

Six months:

• Develop a programmatic media roadmap aligned with IBM’s business objectives, focusing on audience growth, platform capabilities, and inventory planning.


• Foster a culture of data-driven decision-making by collaborating with cross-functional teams and training junior team members on optimization and reporting.


• Provide regular performance optimizations and actionable insights on targeting strategies, creative effectiveness, and audience engagement.


• Build relationships with key stakeholders, including IBM, WPP teams, and platform vendors, while attending weekly WIP meetings to align on goals.

Twelve months:

• Collaborate with global teams to define IBM’s annual programmatic media strategy, ensuring alignment with broader business goals.


• Drive innovation in programmatic planning processes, audience targeting, and technology adoption to stay ahead of industry trends.


• Define and implement key performance indicators (KPIs) for tracking and reporting campaign success, ensuring accountability and transparency.

Key Responsibilities:

• Launch, traffic, QA, and analyze programmatic campaigns across platforms, including display, audio, video, and pDOOH.


• Ensure proper bidding, budgeting, and targeting optimizations are implemented using data-informed insights, in collaboration with WPPAP.


• Ensure all programmatic campaigns comply with IBM and WPPMedia brand safety benchmarks, including adherence to inventory quality standards across display, audio, video, and pDOOH channels.


• Proactively suggest and implement new test-and-learn initiatives to improve campaign performance across all programmatic channels


• Conduct in-depth channel analyses for all campaigns, draw actionable insights from data, and share findings with the broader planning team to inform strategy.


• Provide bi-weekly reports to client teams on campaign performance, explaining what’s working and why based on campaign KPIs, with a focus on all programmatic formats (display, audio, video, and pDOOH).


• Monitor budget pacing to ensure campaigns across all formats remain on track and aligned with business goals.


• Work with the investment/audience strategy/planning team, ad operations, and DCO ad-server teams to manage dynamic creative optimization (DCO) framework.


• Develop audience strategies using data signals and inventory planning to align with IBM’s media guidelines, ensuring optimal targeting across display, audio, video, and pDOOH.


• Participate in campaign brainstorming sessions with integrated planning and leadership teams to develop innovative strategies for programmatic campaigns across all formats.


• Challenge existing best practices and propose new hypotheses to continuously improve programmatic channels


• Work with junior traders, mentoring them on the basics of media execution, optimization, and campaign management across all programmatic formats.


• Be familiar with all AdOps-related steps across different third-party and client measurement tools, ensuring smooth execution and accurate reporting for display, audio, video, and pDOOH campaigns.


• Maintain strong relationships with external platform vendors and partners to stay ahead of platform updates and innovations