About Cars Commerce:
Cars Commerce is an audience-driven technology company empowering the automotive industry. The Cars Commerce platform includes our flagship automotive marketplace and dealer reputation site, Cars.com, innovative digital marketing technology and services from Dealer Inspire, industry-leading trade and appraisal technology from AccuTrade, an exclusive in-market media network, and powerful and predictive AI technologies that enable more efficient and profitable retail operations.
About the Role:
Reporting to the Vice President, Audience Strategy & Activation, the Director of Commerce Media will help grow and shape the future of automotive media solutions. Working directly with our largest clients, and partnering with Product, Technology, Analytics, Revenue and Marketing stakeholders, this person will guide the design, execution, and optimization of all Cars Commerce Media Network products, as well as consult on measurement and audience executions.
The Director will oversee various media buying and operations activities, including offsite programmatic and social activation, supply-side strategy and publisher tech stack for the Cars.com site, campaign management for national advertising campaigns, and margin delivery of all media products. This person will lead several dynamic and talented teams that span onsite and offsite media activation, and pub-side technology management.
This role will be a high-impact and visible leadership position, combining business insights, strategy, analytics, media activation, and technology to drive best-in-class digital solutions for national and local automotive brands and their agencies.
Responsibilities:
- Key owner of activation and development of the Cars Commerce Media Network
- Lead the Cars Commerce Media Network activation teams (Media, Ad Tech & Campaign Management)
- Coach and mentor direct and indirect reports to foster a collaborative and growth-focused environment
- Guide organizational thinking around Cars Commerce Media Network strategy, and help the business capitalize on emerging trends and best practices for media product design, go-to-market strategy, audience utilization, and execution in the Commerce Media space
- Demonstrate expertise in client and media agency needs, and help match Cars Commerce Media Network solutions with these needs
- Lead the evaluation and onboarding of new inventory sources and media capabilities; manage and develop existing and future partner and platform relationships
- Consult with Technology and Product teams to drive innovation of adtech stack inclusive of pub-side tech stack and offsite programmatic tech stack
- Partner with cross-functional internal colleagues in Strategy, Client Service, Sales, Creative and Data & Analytics to drive media strategy and value demonstration
- Work in very close partnership with Media Product leaders to consult on product offerings and packages
- Active role in management of Cars Commerce automotive upfront approach and operations
- Join meetings with key strategic accounts to help brainstorm, engineer, and champion Cars Commerce Media Network products and their place in the client’s media mix
- Take key client feedback back to the organization to inform product development and packaging strategy
- Work with Industry and Product Marketing teams to build powerful collateral and case studies that showcase the competitive advantage of Cars Commerce
- Champion media best practices and thought leadership across the Cars Commerce organization
- Partner with media experts across disciplines, including Corporate Media, Media Product, Product Marketing, and Dealer-Level Media Services, to act in a Media Center of Excellence (COE) capacity, cultivate the collective media expertise of the company, and cascade knowledge to the sales organization
- Ensure all commerce media executions are driving competitive KPI outcomes
- Own headcount and media cost management across commerce media
- Fiduciary responsibility to our customers and our product line profitability.
Preferred Skills:
- Deep understanding of audience-based comms planning and media buying
- Subject matter expertise in large ad platforms such as Google Ads, DV 360, Meta, The Trade Desk, etc.
- Working knowledge of audience segmentation and activation solutions including CDPs, Identity Solutions / Data Onboarding (i.e. LiveRamp), etc.
- Experience with tagging and tracking platforms (GTM, Adobe Launch, Tealium, etc.)
- Exposure to analytics and visualization platforms (Tableau, Amplitude, etc.)
- Comfort analyzing, evaluating Data Science and Advanced Analytical outputs like Propensity scores, CLTV, MMM, MTA, Churn, etc.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to communicate complex information clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Entrepreneurial enthusiasm for building things and launching new products or solutions
Qualifications:
- 10+ years marketing experience focusing on Digital Media Activation, MarTech, and Client Services
- 4+ years people management experience; including leadership of people managers
- 2+ years Commerce Media experience; preference for building and scaling Commerce Media solutions
- Masters Degree in Business, Marketing, or related field preferred, but not required
- Exposure and ability to navigate large matrixed organizations and establish influential and impactful relationships
- Comfort with making firm decisions where unknowns and multiple paths forward exist; conviction in owning and championing these decisions.
