Find a Job You Really Want In
Advertisements are everywhere. On your phone, in your social media, on your commute to work, on your television, when you browse the internet — everywhere. The advertising industry is continuously changing, always evolving. At this point, it’s almost as if the media is reading your mind.
Ultimately, it’s job seekers like you who create these mind-worm ads, and their prevalence has made advertising a demanding job. With continual hard deadlines and high expectations, it is a high-paced and draining environment. But, if you want to channel the important qualities to work in advertising, then you’ll need the skills to succeed.
Key Takeaways:
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Important advertising skills include creativity, copywriting, and project management.
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Advertising is a subset of marketing that focuses of messaging to engage target audiences.
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Advertising requires a combination of soft and hard skills.
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Advertising can be separated into two categories: digital and traditional.
What are advertising skills?
Advertising skills are hard and soft skills that will help you find success in your advertising career. Certain traits, acquired skills, and experience will allow you to be a competitive candidate in the advertising industry.
Advertising, often used interchangeably with marketing, is a subset of the marketing industry. Advertising is the messaging used via print, digital, and video ads that attempt to engage the target audience and influence their behavior towards a specific result.
Top advertising skills to include on your resume
Every job in every industry will have a set of skills they expect job candidates to have mastered. Below are the skills needed for advertising that employers look for in successful advertising professionals:
Advertising Soft Skills
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Creativity. The advertising industry is highly competitive. National campaigns are now as simple as adjusting the location specifics on your digital ads. With the saturated market we see today, your company’s ads need to stand out to succeed.
Creative thinking skills are necessary for a position like this. You’ll be required to think outside the box to find something that no one has done before. A creative mind can be the difference between a dull ad and something that resonates.
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Interpersonal skills. Advertising will never be a solo mission. You will work with your clients, your superiors, coworkers in your department, and often employees in other departments.
Your clients and superiors will expect you to demonstrate solid interpersonal skills. If you can communicate efficiently and play well with others, you have the opportunity to become a key member of the team.
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Communication. While this does fall under the umbrella of interpersonal skills, your communication skills are integral to your success in advertising.
You should be able to actively listen and comprehend what your clients and your superiors want. You will also need to communicate with each member of the team via written and verbal communications. Public speaking will be part of the pitching and presenting processes.
Solid communication skills are expected in most positions. In advertising, it’s not just expected — it’s required.
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Analytical thinking. Analytical thinking skills are the “soft” side of analytical skills. This does not refer to the hard skills required in data analysis, but the ability to detect patterns, evaluate information, and make decisions based on that data.
It can sometimes be difficult to be both creative and analytical, but an industry like advertising calls for it. Your creative side will help your ads be unique, but the analytical side will ensure that they are geared towards your target audience and deliver effective results.
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Decision-making. Every step of the ad-building process will require a multitude of decisions. They may be as simple as color and imagery or they may be infinitely more complicated and research-backed. Strong decision-making skills will help you to make the right choices and meet your deadlines.
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Time management. In advertising, you will deal with continual, and often urgent, deadlines. There is a strong possibility of multiple projects occurring simultaneously as well. Without time management skills, you will never be able to complete your tasks and projects on time.
Can you analyze your workload, set a schedule — for yourself and others — assess priorities and delegate when necessary, and stay focused on the task at hand? Luckily, there is plenty of software available to help you schedule, monitor tasks, and collaborate with ease.
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Teamwork skills. Like many other soft skills, teamwork skills are a combination of several soft skills. It boils down to one thing: do you work well with others?
Advertising is a team sport. You may make certain decisions or complete certain pieces of the project on your own, but you will always be working with a team.
Advertising Hard Skills
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Copywriting. Advertisements include a copy. Strong copywriting skills are invaluable in advertising. You need a strong grasp of the language you’re working in and the ability to write clearly and concisely.
More than excellent writing skills, you need to have an understanding of your target audience and an ability to write persuasively without feeling too sales-y. It’s a delicate balance, but one you need to find success in this industry.
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Project management. Each ad campaign will need to be managed from start to finish. You must be able to handle the moving parts of each campaign — parts that may reach outside your department. That means good project management skills.
While project management is itself a hard skill, it consists of a mix of hard and soft skills. A good project manager is:
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Organized. You’ll have several smaller pieces that make up the whole of your campaign. Not to mention the number of hands in the pot.
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Able to track and meet deadlines. Building an ad campaign is a bottom-up effort. You’ll need each of the individual pieces to build the larger whole. Each campaign will have continual deadlines that need to be managed.
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Good at task management. You’ll need to schedule and assign each task, monitor progress, and provide feedback.
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Research skills. Advertising research, a form of market research, will help you determine if an ad campaign will be effective. This includes the research that happens before the campaign is built and launched, as well as the analysis of the results after the campaign has been launched.
Research in advertising goes far beyond a Google search. Data collection and analysis will play a role in every campaign. Beyond that, you need to intimately understand your customer personas and target audience.
You will be expected to keep up with market trends and social trends to build effective campaigns. You want your ads to be relevant and noticeable — for all the right reasons.
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Marketing. Advertising may fall under the marketing umbrella, but it requires a very specific set of skills. There are certain “marketing skills” that will be expected and required. You will want to have some mastery of:
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Customer Knowledge
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Branding
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Competitive Analysis
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Storytelling
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
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Marketing Automation
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Advertising skills resume example
Advertising skills can be more tangible when you can see them on a resume. Luckily, we’ve provided an advertising skills resume for you:
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Advertising Resume Example
Finnegan Bennett
117 Melrose Ave., Austin, TX, 73301 (662)-280-0092 FinneganBennett@gmail.com
Innovative and informed advertising manager with 10+ years of experience spearheading successful campaigns for a variety of companies. Possesses a Masters in Business Marketing from Austin University. Strong awareness of market conditions and experience managing a large team.
Professional Experience
Proofpoint, Austin, TX
Advertising Manager, September 2017 — Present-
Review ROI on campaigns and adjust budgets accordingly.
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Measured and reported on program performance, providing updates on sales results and ROI.
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Acted as the senior trafficking and reporting resource for online display campaigns.
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Utilized Photoshop to create visual content to be leveraged across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
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Spearheaded end-to-end online campaigns and programs for a portfolio of 50+ products and services.
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Managed online advertising campaigns to promote the Intel brand, processors and new consumer products.
ReachLocal, Austin, TX
Marketing Consultant, June 2015 — August 2017
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Utilize CRM (Salesforce) effectively and efficiently recording all sales activity.
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Design and implement individualized digital marketing strategies enabling maximum online visibility, customer retention and management.
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Educate advertisers on all online advertising mediums (PPC, Social Media, Display).
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Use WordPress to write blog posts and update the company website as needed.
Skills
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Rate Structures
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Spss
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Architecture
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Powerpoint
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Hardware
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R
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Analyze Data
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Focus Groups
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Data Analysis
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Market Conditions
Education
University of Austin, Austin, TX
Masters in Business Marketing, May 2015
Philips University, Austin, TX
B.A. in Advertising, May 2011-
Graduated with honors
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Digital advertising. With digital advertising, your ad campaigns will be distributed through online platforms. This type of advertising allows you to very selectively target your audience and track success in real-time. Digital advertising includes:
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Paid search advertising. Paid search advertising, often referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) or search ads, are the ads that show up with your search engine results. The advertiser bids on ad space associated with specific keywords; you only pay when the ad is clicked.
This involves copywriting with very narrow guidelines and extensive keyword research. This type of advertising is extremely data-driven and competitive.
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Social media advertising. Social media is king these days. Advertising on social media, through boosted posts and paid ads, allows you to serve ads in real-time to a targeted audience. With the ever-changing algorithms and guidelines, it requires you to stay on top of trends at a constant rate.
Platform matters here. This is a very competitive market; ad space is limited and highly sought after. So, you want to choose your platforms wisely based on your target audience and the goal of your campaign.
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Display advertising. Often referred to as “banner” ads, display ads are served to potential customers as they browse the internet. Served along the top or on the sides of web pages you visit, they are simply an image or video with a clear CTA.
Display ads are prevalent and not at all subtle in their attempts to sell. They can be ineffective, but they keep your brand and products or services at the forefront of your target audience’s mind. So, they can make your next ad more effective.
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Native advertising. Unlike the not-so-subtle display advertisements, native ads are intended to blend in. With this type of advertising, the sales message is often secondary. Served in the form of videos or articles, they are built to provide valuable information while also pushing you towards a product, service, or brand.
These types of ads can be curated by the company itself, through influencers on social media, or affiliate marketing.
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Traditional advertising. Traditional advertising is all forms of advertising that happen off-line. Think Mad Men. You’ll be able to channel your inner Don Draper with traditional advertising.
You may be able to get your ad in front of as many people as possible, but your targeting is severely limited. It can sometimes be difficult to determine the success of these ad campaigns as well.
Traditional methods are:
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Print advertising. With print advertising, you place your ads in…well, print. This can be newspapers or magazines, diner placemats, flyers, posters, direct mailers, banners, etc.
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Broadcast advertising. These are your television and radio ads. While we typically think of the commercials that play during show breaks, they can also be infomercials or “word-of-mouth” type advertising supplied by a radio announcer or tv host.
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Outdoor advertising. This type of advertising is focused more on branding and broad messaging. It relies heavily on graphic design and concise copy.
Traditionally, outdoor advertising is displayed on billboards. There is little to no targeting with these types of ads (outside of the area) and it is extremely difficult to measure results.
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Learn new technologies and ideas. New technologies and ideas in advertisement are tools waiting to be used. The most effective advertising agent has an extensive toolbox and knows when to use the right tools appropriately.
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Research. Always keep your ear to new trends and always learn as much as possible about your target markets. Research and knowledge equip you with crucial leverage.
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Keep everything concise. Whatever you are doing in advertising, make sure it gets to the point. You do not want to waste anyone’s time with irrelevancy because then you might lose your audience.
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Find a way to test new ideas. When you want to try something new, make sure you have a safe environment to do it in. You should not be afraid to take risks, however, you should do your best to mitigate any negative consequences when you do.
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What skill is the most important while working in advertising?
While there’s no one important skill when working in advertising, communication and creativity skills are a must. Creativity, mixed with a healthy amount of know-how, allows advertisers to create new, innovative and compelling ads. While communication allows advertisers to explain those ideas to bosses, co-workers, and most importantly: the consumers.
Overall, there are many skills that go into a good advertiser, and which skills are most important can depend on the type of advertising as well.
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Is advertising a growing industry?
Yes, the advertising industry is growing. In 2022, the advertising industry grew by 5.7%. In fact, even though most industries were reeling, or at the least stagnated during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the advertising industry continued to experience steady growth of over 10%.
Today, the entire industry is growing, and specific types of advertising like Digital Advertising are growing even faster than the average (8.55%). Ultimately, this means there are always jobs available for eager job seekers in the industry.
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Is advertising a good career?
Yes, advertising is a good career. Advertising jobs are not only highly financially rewarding, with an average salary between $50,000 to over $100,000 depending on experience level, but also allows workers to express their ideas and creativity.
Further, advertising is a growing and adaptable industry, meaning there are no shortage of jobs available for job seekers, and this availability is unlikely to waver going forward.
Types of advertising
Advertising skills are just as diverse as the different types of advertising out there. The hard skills you will be expected to have will depend on the type of advertising you choose to focus on.
Tips to improve advertising skills
Advertising skills can always be improved in this ever-changing, tech-driven market. While there are tried and true methods of reaching an audience, there are also many unique ways to engage people.
Especially due to technology, advertising is a dynamic industry. Those who work within it will want to keep their skills well developed.
This means that even if you struggle in certain areas of advertising, you can always work to improve yourself.
Tips to improve your advertising skills include:
With these tips in mind, you can apply them to your advertising skills and work towards improving your effectiveness .
Advertising skills FAQ
References
Author
Samantha is a lifelong writer who has been writing professionally for the last six years. After graduating with honors from Greensboro College with a degree in English & Communications, she went on to find work as an in-house copywriter for several companies including Costume Supercenter, and Blueprint Education.
