How To Become A Senior Media Buyer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior media buyer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior media buyer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $38.97 an hour? That's $81,054 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 22,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSenior Media BuyerUS Average

Salary

6.3

Avg. Salary $81,054

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.9

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.78%

Asian 7.03%

Black or African American 9.06%

Hispanic or Latino 12.43%

Unknown 4.41%

White 66.29%

Gender

female 58.19%

male 41.81%

Age - 49

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 49

Stress level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.1

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior media buyer

Explore senior media buyer education requirements

Most common senior media buyer degrees

Bachelor's

87.8 %

Associate

5.5 %

Master's

3.3 %

Start to develop specific senior media buyer skills

Skills	Percentages
Digital Marketing	20.80%
Campaign Performance	11.52%
Media Buying	8.53%
ROI	4.74%
Media Planning	4.20%

Complete relevant senior media buyer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior media buyers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior media buyer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior media buyer resumes.

Research senior media buyer duties and responsibilities

Manage current media and allocate keyword buys to meet ROI targets while remaining within client's budget expectations.
Manage the implementation of essential MRO procurement initiatives to increase quality of technology while minimizing cost and timing.
Negotiate and manage purchase orders for mechanical, electrical and electronic commodities, as well as items fabricate per engineering specifications.
Analyze return on investment of media schedules on a quarterly basis using market specific Nielsen ratings.

Get senior media buyer experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a senior media buyer. The most common roles before becoming a senior media buyer include media buyer, media planner and buyer team lead and account executive.

Prepare your senior media buyer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior media buyer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a senior media buyer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable senior media buyer resume templates

Build a professional senior media buyer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your senior media buyer resume.