Media Buyer & Planner

SPARK•Tampa, FL

About The Position

As a Media Planner & Buyer at SPARK, you will build and execute client media plans. Working alongside the Client Experience lead, you will translate strategy into tactical media recommendations, run RFP processes with publishers and vendors, and launch campaigns on tight timelines. The role calls for creative thinking, a willingness to explore varied tactics, and the ability to manage hands-on execution. You will plan across digital and traditional channels, develop audience-focused recommendations and client-ready planning documents, and seek creative opportunities such as out-of-home activations, experiential campaigns, and non-standard publisher partnerships. You will manage vendor proposals and negotiations, execute and QA campaigns, coordinate campaign assets and deadlines, monitor performance, recommend optimizations, and produce client-ready reports and organized handoff documentation.

Requirements

At least 3 years of experience planning and buying media, including hands-on buying experience.
Hands-on experience with Google Ads, an ad server, Meta Ads Manager, programmatic DSPs, and Google Analytics.
Experience running RFP processes with publishers and vendors.

Nice To Haves

Traditional media experience, including out-of-home, TV, radio, print, or local partnerships.
Previous agency experience.

Responsibilities

Translate campaign strategy and client objectives into tactical media recommendations across digital and traditional channels.
Build media plans that reach layered audiences, including older demographics through traditional and local channels and younger demographics through digital and social.
Develop creative media approaches, including out-of-home activations, experiential opportunities, and non-standard publisher partnerships.
Develop flowcharts, budget allocations, and rationale documents for client review and approval.
Write and issue media briefs and RFPs to publishers and vendors with clear specifications, timelines, and objectives.
Encourage publishers to propose creative, non-templated ideas rather than relying only on submitted rate cards.
Collect, normalize, and compare vendor proposals against budgets and objectives.
Negotiate rates, added value, and placement to maximize modest budgets.
Execute media buys across paid search, paid social, programmatic, and traditional channels.
Build and manage campaigns in Google Ads and Meta, including setup, targeting, and quality assurance.
Manage insertion orders, trafficking, creative specifications, and launch checklists to ensure campaigns launch on time and correctly.
Coordinate with internal creative and account teams on asset specifications and deadlines.
Monitor in-flight campaign performance and recommend optimizations.
Build clear, client-ready performance reports tied to campaign objectives.
Maintain organized documentation of plans, buys, insertion orders, and vendor communications for internal team handoff.