Afsha Iqbal
Senior Ad Operations Specialist
Greater Chicago Area,IL
Summary
Senior Ad Operations professional with 5+ years of extensive background in managing and optimizing digital advertising campaigns. Proficient in all aspects related to ad trafficking, campaign management, data analysis, and campaign performance optimization with a strong background in working with various ad platforms and technologies.
Overview
5
5
years of professional experience
6
6
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Senior Ad Operations Manager
Travel Spike
Remote, IL
09.2024 - 12.2024
- Ad Serving & Campaign Trafficking: Utilized Xandr as the primary ad server to generate ad tags and manage trafficking across 30 priority travel and hospitality accounts
- Audience Targeting & Data Intelligence: Leveraged Travelogic™, proprietary travel data to target travel-specific audience segmentation and enhance digital campaign performance
- CTV & Rich Media Campaign Management: Managed and optimized video campaigns using MNTN’s CTV platform, worked with Programmatic Mechanics to execute conversational rich media ad units, and partnered with GumGum to execute In-Image ads for our for our advertisers reach high-value audiences in premium streaming environments
- Creative & Media Execution: Designed and executed on-site, native, email placements, and daily newsletters for major travel media publishers including Kayak, Frommers, TravelWorldNews, and SmarterTravel, using an internal Ad Ops tool named YODA
- Client Portfolio & Partnerships: Supported campaigns for major brands such as Southwest Airlines, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Visit Anchorage, and tourism boards including Arizona, Orlando, and Colorado
- Pacing & Budget Oversight: Actively monitored delivery and pacing for high-budget accounts, ensuring efficient ad spend and alignment with performance KPIs
- Billing & Invoicing: Managed billing for around 40 publishers and advertisers combined, processed invoices, and ensured accurate reconciliation using internal systems and documentation protocols
Ad Operations Manager
Nexxen
Chicago, Illinois
03.2022 - 09.2024
- Campaign Setup and Management: Individually manage the set-up, trafficking, QA of all paid video, display, and native ads for more than 50 campaigns worth 2M in net revenue.
- Optimization and Performance Monitoring: Actively monitor campaign performance against KPIs (e.g., CTR, CPC, CPA) and adjust bids, targeting, and creatives based on performance data to improve outcomes.
- Technical Troubleshooting: Experience in troubleshooting issues related to campaign delivery, discrepancy, tag functionality, internal and external pixel implementation.
- Data Analysis: Generating regular reports and providing insights on campaign performance. Experience in analyzing detailed campaign reporting to ensure smooth delivery.
- Interdepartmental Collaboration & Vendor Management: Work with internal teams such as Client Success, Programmatic Traders, Data Ops, Product Ops, etc. via Jira to ensure cohesive campaign management and liaising with third party vendors (DoubleVerify, IAS, Innovid, etc.) for campaign setups and troubleshooting.
Digital Traffic Coordinator
Rhea + Kaiser
Naperville, Illinois
10.2019 - 03.2022
- Ad-Serving: Monitor, traffic and troubleshoot advertising campaigns using Google’s ad serving platform (Double Click Manager) for more than 50 brands across 20 publishers.
- Pixels & Site Tagging: Place GCM floodlights on brand’s websites and piggyback vendor pixels to enable to measure site tracking and conversion to optimize campaigns.
- Pre & Post-Launch QA: Review, Test and QA ad creatives and tags before sending them out to the publishers. Troubleshoot ad serving errors and report discrepancies.
- Reporting & Billing: Provide weekly and monthly pacing reports on campaign delivery and performance. Review and approval of monthly vendor invoices to match with GCM reporting.
- Paid Social Trafficking: Support Social media team to activate paid boosted posts on Facebook and Twitter.
Education
MBA - Digital Marketing
Benedictine University
Lisle, IL 12.2017 - 06.2019
Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management - Financial Management
St Joseph's College of Commerce
India 03.2016 - 03.2017
Bachelor in Business Management - Business Management
Kuvempu University
India 05.2012 - 06.2015
Skills
Ad Tagging & Measurement: Basic HTML & JavaScript ad tags, VAST/VPAID tags, Nielsen Brand Lift, Nielsen DAR
Analytics & Data Tools: Advanced Microsoft Excel, Google Analytics, Looker Studio
Ad Servers/Trafficking: DCM (Campaign Manager 360), Sizmek, Innovid, Flashtalking, Xandr/AppNexus, Yahoo, ShareThrough, Triplelift, Celtra
Ad Verification: DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science (IAS), Moat
Project & Workflow Management: Trello, Jira, Salesforce
Timeline
Senior Ad Operations Manager
Travel Spike
09.2024 - 12.2024
Ad Operations Manager
Nexxen
03.2022 - 09.2024
Digital Traffic Coordinator
Rhea + Kaiser
10.2019 - 03.2022
MBA - Digital Marketing
Benedictine University
12.2017 - 06.2019
Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management - Financial Management
St Joseph's College of Commerce
03.2016 - 03.2017
Bachelor in Business Management - Business Management
Kuvempu University
05.2012 - 06.2015
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