Advertising Agency Services, Jobs, Training, and Salaries

Advertising is all around you. It’s present on social media platforms, TV, the internet, and physical ads like billboards, panels, and signs. Working for an advertising agency can be an opportunity to produce creative marketing pieces with other talented professionals for clients. 

Learn more about the types of ad agencies, roles, what a job in an advertising agency entails, and the requirements to begin your career path.

What is an advertising agency?

An advertising agency is a company hired by clients and marketers to produce promotional advertising across various media formats. These organisations use various strategies and channels to reach their audience effectively.

What do advertising professionals do?

Advertising professionals work in various roles depending on the type of services the ad agency offers. Full-service agencies offer broad services, from creative work to media buying to ad placement. Smaller, niche advertising agencies may specialise in a few core services like rich media or banner ads for clients. The following are some top advertising agency types of jobs and roles to explore.  

Copywriting

If you enjoy writing, you might consider becoming a copywriter at an advertising agency. Copywriters are creative storytellers; they devise promotional advertising copy, brand stories, social media content, and product copy to promote and sell the products. Copywriters may work with team members to brainstorm creative ideas for an advertising campaign. 

Copywriters often think of advertising slogans that have lasted a generation, like Amul’s “The Taste of India,” Pepsi’s “Yehi hain right choice baby,” and Coca-Cola’s “Thanda Matlab Coca Cola.” All of these memorable slogans may have started from a copywriting session. 

Artwork

The overall artistic direction of an advertising campaign typically falls under the purview of the art or creative director and their respective teams. In these roles, some responsibilities may include:

• Building the image of an advertising campaign

• Determining how a product should look

• Choosing which colours and artwork to use for campaigns

Media planning and buying

Media planning is another part of an advertising agency. Your role includes finding the target audience for the advertised product or service. As a media planner, you’ll typically work with the client to learn about the target audience's preferences, their channels, and the most audience-appropriate messaging. 

Media buyers typically connect with the relevant advertisers and media sites for brands and agencies to advertise. You might approach media planning in several ways, including the following: 

• Using advertising platforms like Google Ads to place client ads within the Google search.

• Using social media and algorithms to enable real-time bidding for advertising space on channels that match the client’s target audience.

• Negotiating advertising rates and run times with advertisers, also known as direct buys, usually happens when the marketer and advertising channel have a mutually beneficial relationship. 

Producing commercial spots on radio and television 

You may also work in radio or TV production in a job that produces broadcast ads involving audio or video production. In these roles, you'll consider the audience's needs and current affairs. You'll work on writing scripts, creating storyboards, and working with a production team to engage talent and make the ad. 

Market research is an integral part of advertising, and advertisers often use it to identify customers, learn about their desires, and configure the product or service to reach more prospective customers. Good market research can turn a well-planned advertising campaign into a major win.

Social media manager

Social media acts as the voice of the brand. If you're in charge of a brand’s social media, you must understand what content they require. 

In this role, you will create and post content for the brand on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. You’ll likely also respond to customers and report on social media results to the client. 

Public relations

Public relations (PR) is media coverage earned through your efforts versus paid media or paid advertising. It involves creating newsworthy items to offer to media outlets that will carry coverage of your company's news. PR can help build a company's brand and reputation.

Merchandising and sales promotion

Merchandising and sales promotion are also areas that some specialised advertising agencies create for clients. In merchandising or sales promotion for an advertising agency, you’ll likely handle requests and orders for specialty items, like coffee cups, T-shirts, and other products. Merchandising products for a company serves to strengthen a company’s brand awareness. 

Marketing manager

A marketing manager is responsible for analysing and tracking aspects of advertising campaigns, such as marketing budget, creative materials, and web analytics.

A digital marketing background would be helpful for a marketing manager. You’ll need to understand the brand you're working with and its industry. 

Services offered by advertising agencies

When you work for an advertising agency, you'll learn the industry’s unique terms when working for an advertising agency. Ad agencies tend to use the following three terms to describe the services they offer. 

Above-the-line advertising (ATL)

Above-the-line advertising refers to efforts aligning with large-scale national advertising campaigns that bring repeat customer exposure through various channels. 

ATL advertising often refers to advertising efforts like TV, movie, radio, newspaper, and billboard ads targeting a broader audience. This could include national ads for mass-consumed products like beverages, detergents, and automobiles.  

Below-the-line advertising (BTL)

Below-the-line advertising often refers to more specific, targeted advertising aimed at a very focused group of consumers. For instance, advertising a company’s garage door services to an area postal code with many private homes with garage doors falls into this category. These are targeted advertising efforts towards a smaller audience than ATL.

Advertising agencies often include this type of work. You might work with couponing to a particular industry or conducting an email survey for a specific demographic. Additional examples of BTL advertising include search engine marketing, paid search, events, social media marketing, and content marketing.

Through-the-line advertising (TTL)

Through-the-line advertising is a mix of both ATL and BTL strategies. You might advertise in as many ways as possible to reach the customer. For example, you could help create and manage the flow of online banner ads, TV commercials, and podcast ads, along with more targeted blog content, social media contest posts, and email marketing. Through-the-line advertising happens on a wide scale and can draw prospects to other marketing channels to encourage a chance for customer conversions (turning a prospect into a customer). 

Types of advertising agencies you could work in

If you’re starting a career in an advertising agency, you may work in one of several different advertising agency types. These could include full-service, interactive, media buying, in-house agencies, and creative boutiques.

Full-service agencies 

Full-service advertising agencies provide services from planning to production and analysing marketing efforts. They also advertise in many media formats, including print, digital, audio, and video. Clients work with full-service agencies to handle their creative work by a single agency entity. You’ll likely work full-time in your chosen specialty if you work for a full-service agency. 

Interactive agencies 

Interactive agencies work with the internet and digital advertising. To work for an interactive agency, you would need to understand the internet, how online advertising works, and how to measure internet advertising. Examples of digital advertising services you might provide include social media, email, search engine marketing, mobile device campaigns, and more.

Creative boutiques 

Creative boutiques typically focus on smaller, more specialised advertising agency work. They may do more nimble, customised work for clients needing a more specific direction. 

You’ll likely be part of a smaller team when you work in a creative boutique agency. Your team may brainstorm new creative campaigns quicker than large agencies. Creative boutique agencies may allow you to introduce new ideas more efficiently than in an extensive agency pitch session. 

Media buying agencies 

Media buying agencies work strictly as the media buyers for the campaign. In this role, you might work as a paid media marketer or on the paid media team. Media buyers typically manage the media outlets that are important for the advertiser. 

Media buying agencies work to identify the ideal timing for a media buy, identify the best markets for advertising, and recommend a specific budget for the client. In a media buying agency, you might also track the results of an ad campaign. 

In-house agencies 

An in-house agency is a group of professionals working as the client's internal creative group. It does the advertising for a company within the company's formal structure rather than working with an outside company. 

Some of the benefits of working for an in-house agency are that every day, you’re learning about the brand, its assets, and the people who make the brand work. The work is generally creative, functional, and geared towards supporting the brand mission. You may be responsible for executing the work and brainstorming innovative ways to tackle the issue. 

Career outlook and the future of advertising

According to Statista, digital advertising will account for 44 percent of the Indian advertising market by 2029 [1]. Its growth throughout the country suggests a positive job outlook with various opportunities. The average annual salary for an advertising account manager is ₹9,37,500 [2], with marketing managers earning an average annual salary of ₹13,00,000 [3] 

Skills and qualifications required to work in advertising

Working in advertising often requires a degree in business, marketing, or similar as an essential requirement. Some skills you need to work in advertising typically include:

• Communication skills: Advertising jobs revolve around communication with consumers. You’ll work with teammates, clients, agency colleagues, and media outlets. 

• Project management skills: Advertising jobs are about details. You can juggle many details and deadlines to complete projects when you have good project management skills. 

• Creative skills: If you’re creative, you might work well in an advertising agency. You may use your creative talents for writing, artwork, production, web design, and audio work. 

• Marketing and media skills: Knowing how media works and using marketing through different forms of media are crucial skills for you to possess when working for an advertising agency. 

What degrees do advertising professionals typically hold?

Many entry-level positions in advertising require a bachelor's degree. Typical areas of study include communications, marketing, advertising, and business. 

You can also pursue a master's degree in the same fields to qualify for managerial roles or specialise in particular areas.

Job titles in advertising

Advertising agency jobs can be creative, administrative, or managerial. You might find work titles in an advertising agency's creative areas, including copywriter, photographer, graphic artist, web designer, video production artist, and art director. 

On the account management side of an advertising agency, you might work in various roles, including digital marketing analyst, art director, and more. Some typical roles and their median salaries include:

• Digital marketing analyst: ₹4,50,000 [4]

• Art director: ₹8,00,000 [5]

• Financial manager: ₹13,00,000[6]

• Marketing analyst: ₹5,49,747 [7]

• Advertising specialist: ₹5,60,000 [8]

Build the skills you need to get an advertising agency job

Exploring the diverse array of advertising jobs or working in a small agency to learn the work requirements can help you narrow your focus and chart your professional path forward. 

Continue learning and building critical skills with some of the advertising programmes and courses for beginners on Coursera to see what interests you. Some examples include the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate, Advertising and Society offered by Duke University, Integrated Marketing Communications by IE Business School, or Fundamentals of Social Media Advertising by Meta.