Junior Technical Digital Marketing Consultant 2021

Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency that specialises in the delivery of unique, personalised customer experiences across platforms and devices. We call it ‘people-based’ marketing, and with over 25 years’ experience, we are proud to be recognised as a global leader.

Merkle’s heritage in data, technology and analytics is the foundation for our understanding of consumer insights that drives our people-based marketing strategies. Combined with our expertise in performance creative and media, we can then offer our clients content-driven, contextual and compelling customer experiences that drive business growth.

In 2016, the agency joined the Dentsu, one of the world’s biggest media companies to form the Customer Experience Management (CXM) Line of Business.

The Role

Want to forge a career in one of the most exciting and dynamic areas of digital marketing? If you’d say you’re a logical person with a love of all things technical, a position in our Media Solutions department might be just the ticket.

Our Media Solutions team is a newer department within the company, launched to ensure that Merkle remains a market leader in digital advertising. The team works to understand the processes of clients’ marketing campaigns and subsequently works to automate and improve the efficiency of these processes. Otherwise known as advanced automation projects! We’ve recently improved a reporting system for one of our clients by creating an efficient way to pull marketing data from their campaigns into a variety of visual charts and reports. In the process, saving them total of 60 hours a month that their employees would normally spend doing this manually. We also work closely with the Paid Search and Paid Social departments to execute innovative marketing campaigns, whether that be with text ads on Google Search, or ads across Facebook and Instagram. Our work is varied, spanning data feed management and optimisation, coding, reporting strategy, and technical platform configuration.

We’re looking for candidates with a keen interest in digital marketing and a particular passion for all things technical. As a junior associate in Media Solutions, you’ll support our senior associates in feed management and solution development for some of our largest clients.

This is a unique opportunity to work in the relatively new area of technical solutions (e.g. working with platforms, tools, scripting and coding) within digital marking. In this role you will gain an expansive skillset and an exposure to a broad variety of projects, with plenty of time dedicated to training and personal development.

We welcome new joiners from all backgrounds; you can be freshly graduated or looking for a change of career – all we ask is that you have a keen interest to specialise in digital advertising, particularly in the technical elements. Our current team comes from a range of academic backgrounds; within the team, we have people who studied English literature, and others who studied theoretical physics at university!

Following a comprehensive induction programme, our Junior Associates rapidly build their skillset while gaining exposure to a wide array of client business types and industries. In time, you’ll become a market leading consultant in digital advertising technology and automation, working with clients and strategists to design, develop and deliver cutting edge solutions to help them exceed their business objectives.

Life in Media Solutions at Merkle

Training. You will have a custom training programme. You will receive training for feed management, coding, and technical account management. There will also be training for the fundamentals of PPC, specifically paid search. You will quickly be introduced to the world of digital advertising through in-person classroom sessions, online training and various workshops. You will be assigned a coach who is dedicated to your learning and will assist you with any questions you may have. Everyone learns at their own pace and your coach is there to support you throughout your training!

Data. Your focus will be on the manipulation of the data rather than the analysis (although this will still be crucial when working with Paid Media Campaigns). Through doing this you will be quickly introduced to Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Additionally, from the outset you will be spending time in Excel and other data visualisation tools.

Feeds. A core part of the role will be feed management for your first clients. Our clients use feeds in many forms, think product inventory, airline flight routes, store locations, and many more. Working with this data and using it effectively within marketing campaigns is a critical step for many of our clients.

Coding. A core responsibility of the Media Solutions team is creating automation scripts for clients. Don’t worry if you’ve not done much coding before, we have an intensive training programme you’ll undergo, tailored specifically to the work the team does. This is complemented by self-study tasks and the ability to get hands on with actual client coding work, with guidance from your coach.

Consultative. You’ll need to be prepared to communicate with clients over the phone and via email to build relationships to help you understand how to improve their systems and campaigns.

Tools and Platforms. As a Junior Associate, you will be specializing primarily in Paid Search automation to begin with. You will need to become extremely familiar and confident working with a variety of platforms. The most common being Google Ads and Microsoft Excel. Through our online training platform, Merkle University, you will also have the opportunity to take several courses to improve and enhance your skills on a variety of other platforms.

The Progression. While the early emphasis will be on working with data feeds, there are many ways in which you could grow your career within Merkle in this role. You could progress to work with larger clients focusing on learning their every need and how we can make processes more efficient and speedier using technical solutions. Or you may wish to progress into becoming an expert in other technical fields within this space, such as cloud technology or software product management.

Happiness. It’s hard to overstate the importance we place on employee happiness. We want all our employees to enjoy coming to work in our offices (which we’re rather proud of!) and working in a super-friendly and supportive team. At Merkle, everyone has a voice and a part to play in driving the organization forward.

Qualifications

What we are looking for in you

• To show evidence of your interest in coding (JavaScript or Python, specifically) - a hobbyist is absolutely fine! We don’t need you to be fully trained, we just need to see that you’ve explored coding and enjoy it - maybe through trying to build a website or script to help solve a problem. Whatever it may be, we’re keen to hear it!
• A passion for all things digital and tech
• An understanding that this is a hybrid role that will involve working closely with paid media delivery teams, feeds, and coding/technical solutionsWell-developed logic and reasoning skills, including a passion for data analysis and data manipulation
• A curiosity to learn about the technical underpinnings of the digital advertising ecosystem
• A co-operative and supportive personality; a true team player
• The ability to work autonomously and to efficiently manage multiple projects
• A keen eye for detail and highly articulate in verbal and written communications
• A strong sense of professionalism, commercialism and a deep respect for others
• Finally, we expect that you’ll have really done your research into the digital marketing world and looked into Paid Search in particular. We’ll want to see a genuine passion for this kind of role that allows for work in a digital team and a technical team.

The Interview Process

Firstly, we suggest you apply at your earliest convenience (make sure you’ve done your research!) as our roles are always very popular and do fill quickly. We hire on a first-come basis.

In this position, you will be focusing solely on Data used within marketing so we will want to see a passion and enthusiasm for this particular area. This interest can be showcased in your research and ability to go above and beyond when looking into this area.

• Application – When you apply you will be asked a couple of questions to showcase your interest in Data and Analytics.
• Video Interview – If your application is successful you will be asked to complete record a video interview (they sound scarier than they are, we promise!). The video interview is a chance for us to get to know more about you and your knowledge and recent research. Think about looking into Google analytics, tools, platforms, metrics etc
• Online Interview - If successful after a video interview then you would progress to the Online Interview. This is a chance for you to meet the team via video call, learn more about the company and showcase your skills, passion and research in person. You will also be given a coding test so you can showcase your coding ability.
• Final Interview – If you reach the final interview, you will be asked to put together an Data focused presentation, based off a pretend client brief. Until we all return to the office you will present this over video call.

Throughout the entire process we will be wanting to learn more about you as an individual (your interests, skills and understanding of the role), your passion for this area and the research you’ve done. Don’t focus on the nerves, make sure you come prepared and ensure you interview us as well! At the end of the day you’ll be with us 5 days a week, so you want to make sure its somewhere you want to work to.

If you have any special requirements or needs throughout the interview process, please let us know so we can accommodate these.

Diversity & Inclusion

At Merkle, we believe that a diverse and inclusive environment improves us as a community and as a business. We want to foster an environment of growth, where ideas and contributions are actively encouraged. We need this culture of courage to continue to thrive in our fast-paced industry.

We have created six Diversity and Inclusion Pillars. Each pillar is made up of a community of members who serve as role models and spread a message of inclusion throughout our global workplace. Pillar members are responsible for planning initiatives, events and training, along with championing change within our business. These pillars are Gender, Ethnicity, Mental Health, Religion, Disability, LGBT+.

Merkle is a place that embraces differences of opinion. To be an advocate for real change we really encourage applications from women, candidates with disabilities and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as we recognise that these groups are currently underrepresented in our marketing/technology industry.

Benefits

Whether it’s the joy of working with people at the top of their game or the Merkle social calendar, people love working here – and we hope you will too

• Career development through Merkle University and other tools; with access to courses, textbooks and mentorship
• Private Medical Insurance, Company Pension, life insurance and other corporate benefits
• A selection of other benefits including ability to buy additional holiday, season ticket loan and 2 volunteer days