Hire a Media Buyer who manages ads around real results

Start with an audit task

Ask candidates to review your account or a sample account and identify the three biggest opportunities. Their answers reveal priorities, depth and honesty.

Agree target metrics upfront

Define acceptable cost per lead or acquisition and how lead quality will be judged. Without agreed targets, every result can be framed as a success.

Keep accounts in your name

Make sure ad accounts, pixels and analytics belong to your business, with access granted to the media buyer. This protects your data and history.

Fund testing deliberately

Allocate part of the budget to testing new audiences, creative and offers. Steady testing is how accounts keep improving as competitors adapt.

Review results with sales data

Compare ad platform results with CRM outcomes monthly. Campaigns that look efficient but produce poor leads should be adjusted quickly.

A sample job summary for a media buyer

A clear summary might read: we are hiring a media buyer to manage our Google and Meta advertising, owning campaign structure, conversion tracking, creative testing, budget pacing and reporting. You will optimise towards qualified leads recorded in our CRM, not just platform conversions, and share weekly insights with our marketing team. This role suits an analytical marketer who is careful with budgets and curious about what drives results.

Red flags when hiring a media buyer

Be cautious of media buyers who report only clicks and impressions, who resist sharing account access or who cannot explain how conversion tracking works. Also be wary of claims about secret tactics. Paid media results come from sound tracking, sensible structure and consistent testing. Ask how they handled an account where results declined, because honest answers reveal both skill and integrity.

What a good first week looks like

Your media buyer reviews account history, checks tracking end to end with test conversions and identifies wasted spend. They agree target metrics with you and propose an initial testing plan. Major restructures usually wait until tracking is verified, so the first week focuses on diagnosis and quick fixes, such as pausing clearly unprofitable campaigns or correcting duplicate conversions.

Protecting your advertising data and history

Your ad accounts contain years of performance history that helps platforms optimise. Keep accounts, pixels and analytics owned by your business, grant access to your media buyer through their own login and avoid creating new accounts unnecessarily. If you ever change providers, ownership of your accounts means your history and audiences stay with you.

Tools and access to prepare for your media buyer

Add your media buyer to your ad accounts through business manager or manager account access, rather than sharing passwords. Provide access to Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and any conversion tracking or call tracking tools, plus read access to the CRM fields that show lead quality and sales. Share historical performance reports, current budgets, target cost per lead or acquisition and brand guidelines for ad copy. Clear information about margins and customer lifetime value helps the media buyer decide how aggressively to bid.

Also share upcoming promotions, product launches and seasonal peaks so campaigns can be planned ahead rather than rushed.

Measuring your media buyer's performance

Focus on cost per qualified lead, cost per acquisition and return on ad spend, using CRM data where possible so lead quality is reflected. Track conversion rate on landing pages, creative test win rate and budget pacing against plan. Compare performance month on month and by campaign type, and account for seasonality. A good media buyer can explain every significant change in results and what they are doing about it.

Interview questions to ask a media buyer

1. What would you check first in our ad account?
2. How do you verify conversion tracking is accurate?
3. How do you structure a creative test?
4. When would you increase or decrease a campaign budget?
5. How do you judge lead quality, not just volume?
6. Tell me about an account you turned around.
7. How do you report results to a non-specialist?
8. How do advertising rules affect our industry?

A 30, 60 and 90 day plan for your new media buyer