The goal of advertising something is to build awareness of it and to make people want to buy the product. You are selling the idea of having that product to the consumer. This is a part of marketing and so advertisers will be a part of the marketing department or will work for an advertising agency that offers their services to companies. We should also note that an advertiser can advertise more than just a good or service. They can advertise a political party or candidate, a faith-based organization, or even arms of a huge organization like the UN or a government agency.
The advertising space is incredibly competitive, so you need to be especially creative and convincing to get a foot in the door or promotion in this field. While an educational background in marketing or a similar field would be a huge advantage, it is not an absolute requirement and can be substituted with a breadth of experience. Here are some advertiser resumes and some tips to create your own and nab the job.
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An advertising manager is responsible for creating the team’s strategy, overseeing its work, and ensuring the team has everything it needs to succeed. This requires strong managerial skills. You may also be the main point of contact with clients so you must have impeccable communication and negotiating skills. This is generally not an entry-level position.
Recruiters will be looking to see a bachelor’s degree in advertising, journalism, or a similar field. Beyond that, they will be eager to see the success of your team and the metrics to show that success. Here is an example of a strong advertising manager resume.
This position has a dualistic aspect. You must be able to successfully complete advertising tasks while also effectively managing a team. Your resume should equally represent that dualism. Ensure you do not emphasize your skills and successes in one and ignore the other.
Show recruiters that you are an effective manager by ensuring your tools section reflects industry standards and is extensive. Show all the tools you use to manage your team. From the tools, you use to schedule meetings, to which work suites you are familiar with (e.g. Google Workspace).
Advertising account executives serve as the primary liaisons between agencies and their clients. These professionals are often strong communicators, with a creative streak and superb multitasking abilities. In this role, you would be expected to meet with clients to understand their needs, create and propose advertising services, and coordinate the advertising campaign through to completion. Advertising account executives should have a mix of developed people skills and industry knowledge.
For this role, hiring managers will be looking for someone with a bachelor’s degree in communications, public relations, or another related field. Hiring managers may look for a candidate with a mix of sales, marketing, and advertising experience. Prior professional experience in roles such as lead generator, digital marketer, or public relations associate can help you land this role. Moreover, hiring managers will be looking for someone with the right soft skills, such as superb communication, public speaking skills, and strong organizational abilities.
The advertising account executive is responsible for more than just meeting with clients and creating solutions for them. They must also oversee these campaigns through to completion. For this reason, it is wise to highlight your project management experience on your resume. Be sure to highlight previous roles where you have managed large projects or any project management certifications you might have.
When it comes to landing this role, superb communication skills are top of mind. In this role, you will be expected to communicate with clients, internal stakeholders, freelancers, and many other parties. It is valuable to showcase your ability to effectively communicate with different audiences on your resume.
Within an advertising agency, an advertising account executive is a middleman between the client and the creative team. Your tasks will include communicating to clients to agree on a vision for their desired campaign, relaying the client’s ideas and feedback to the creative team, and ensuring the creative team delivers high-quality content on time and within the client’s budget.
Interpersonal and multitasking skills will be the most vital skills for you in this position so make sure your experience section shows your success in these areas. Recruiters will usually expect to see at least an undergraduate degree in marketing, advertising, business, or a related field as well as experience in advertising. Take a look at this successful advertising account executive resume.
Account executives need to have a portfolio to show recruiters the kinds of campaigns they have run in the past. Make sure you include all your most successful campaigns and any campaigns for big and noticeable clients. Make sure quantifiable success of the campaigns is included in the portfolio.
Beyond a bachelor’s degree, you may have pursued further certification in advertising. If you have any such certification, make sure to include it. It shows dedication to your career, a deep level of knowledge, and puts you above your competitors.
Advertising account executives need a strong awareness of marketing, advertising, and brand awareness. As an advertising account executive, you’ll need to really understand your clients, including their product, their voice, and their target audience. Pitching campaigns, understanding marketing strategy, and familiarity with social media are all skills you’ll need to have on hand.
You can easily tailor your resume by including the job title at the top of your resume and listing past job titles in the same format as the job you’re applying for. Simple tweaks like these will help your resume get past any automated resume screeners and make your experience easily scannable by a recruiter.
If you’ve completed any relevant projects, including marketing campaigns or projection tools above and beyond the scope of your normal responsibilities, let them shine by including them in their own section. List these like you would any other work experience, by using action verbs and metrics to demonstrate your accomplishments and their impact.
An advertising agency manager is in charge of the agency’s advertising campaigns. Your tasks include planning and overseeing the campaigns and communicating with the client, creative team, and other stakeholders needed for a campaign's success. This position is an office job that is particularly fast-paced and high stress due to the many moving pieces and deadlines.
Recruiters will expect to see a bachelor’s degree in advertising or a related field, a wealth of experience in an agency and a managerial position, and success in your previous positions. This resume does a good job of capturing all of the above.
Recruiters want to know that you are a time and money-efficient agency manager. So include how many campaigns you managed, how much time or money you saved the agency, and how many clients you successfully worked with. You will also want to note the actual size of the teams you have successfully managed.
Have you had a lot of experience advertising for medical products or events? If you have extensive marketing experience for a specific industry, ensure that you make that known in your intro section.
An advertising account manager acts as the client’s representative within the agency. In this position you will sit down with clients to get a clear idea of their wants, goals, and ideas, you will relay that information to the creative team and will advocate for the client throughout the development and engagement of the campaign. You will be responsible for keeping the campaign within the client’s budget and the agreed time frame. You will usually graduate to this position from the account executive position.
To succeed in this role your interpersonal, networking, and communication skills must be very strong. You will be expected to have a bachelor’s degree in advertising or a closely related field, and will be expected to have years of experience working with clients in an agency. Recruiters will also be keen to see your tools section. Here is an example of a strong advertising account manager.
Communication is at the core of this role, so being able to speak multiple languages is a huge plus for recruiters. The more languages an agency’s employees can speak, the more clients, who speak these languages, they can attract.
There are many tools that an account manager will be expected to use. Show recruiters that you are active in the industry by making sure your tools section is updated to reflect the newest tools being used in the industry. This could range from communication tools to CRMs.
We spoke with hiring managers at top advertising agencies like Ogilvy, BBDO, and Wieden+Kennedy to get their insights on what makes a great advertising resume. Here are some key tips they shared that will help your resume stand out and impress potential employers in the advertising industry.
In advertising, your creative work is often the most important part of your resume. Make sure to:
Don't make the mistake of just listing your previous roles and responsibilities without showing the actual creative work you produced in those roles, like this:
A summary on your advertising resume is optional. It's a chance to provide additional context about your career goals and highlight key advertising skills, especially if you're a career changer or executive with extensive experience. Keep it concise - no more than a paragraph. Avoid repeating information already in your resume, and never use an objective statement.
When done right, a summary can help you pass applicant tracking systems by including relevant keywords. Use objective language and metrics to showcase your impact. Avoid generic soft skills and corporate buzzwords.
Your work experience section is the heart of your advertising resume. It's where you show hiring managers how you've excelled in previous roles and what makes you the best candidate for the job.
In this section, we'll break down the key steps to writing a compelling work experience section that will help you stand out from the competition and land your dream job in advertising.
The education section of your resume shows employers that you have the necessary educational background to succeed in the advertising field. It also highlights any specialized training or certifications that make you stand out. Here are some key tips for crafting a strong education section on your advertising resume.
Strong action verbs help recruiters understand your role in specific tasks. An advertiser's resume should use action verbs that are relevant to advertisement. Action verbs like "Developed", "Inspired" or “Revamped" are examples of strong action verbs for this profession.
For more related action verbs, visit Sales Action Verbs.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
When you speak of skills for an advertiser, you will want to list the communication and creative skills used in advertisement.
Here is a list of skills you would expect to see in an advertiser’s resume. Add those that you are experienced with to your resume to impress recruiters.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Advertising job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
