How To Become A Media Buyer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a media buyer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Media buyers source and attain advertising space for print, television, radio, online campaigns, and billboards. They direct market research, source appealing media slots and space, negotiate with advertising sales agents and ensure that the advertising medium effectively reaches the desired target audience. You have to conduct marketing research and analyze demographics, participate in media planning to identify target audiences, and optimize plans and budgets according to the best media mix. You will often need to negotiate with advertising sales agents to ensure the most cost-effective deal structures, experiment with new channels, build and maintain a network of advertising agents and broadcasting networks.

As a media buyer, you need a bachelor's degree in advertising, marketing, communications, or other similar fields. You should be familiar with media buying, planning, and research and have an interest in following media trends. You should also have excellent communication, negotiation, and critical thinking skills. Your average salary per annum is $59,533.

ScoreMedia BuyerUS Average

Salary

5.8

Avg. Salary $74,390

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.9

Growth Rate 8%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.78%

Asian 7.67%

Black or African American 8.86%

Hispanic or Latino 12.21%

Unknown 4.39%

White 66.09%

Gender

female 69.92%

male 30.08%

Age - 49

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 49

Stress Level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.9

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.1

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a media buyer

Explore media buyer education requirements

Most common media buyer degrees

Bachelor's

87.2 %

Associate

5.9 %

Master's

4.1 %

Start to develop specific media buyer skills

Skills	Percentages
Digital Marketing	18.27%
Campaign Performance	8.65%
Media Buying	7.71%
Facebook	7.20%
Google Analytics	5.54%

Complete relevant media buyer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New media buyers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a media buyer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real media buyer resumes.

Research media buyer duties and responsibilities

Manage both PPC and display buys across a network of clients.
Manage day to day performance expectation of SEO, SEM, and outside vendors.
Manage the client's Youtube page and report monthly on all social media platforms.
Manage the @ RCIHelp twitter account and provide RCI consumers with direct responses and posts.

Prepare your media buyer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your media buyer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a media buyer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Media Buyer Resume templates

Build a professional Media Buyer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Media Buyer resume.

Apply for media buyer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a media buyer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do media buyers rate their job?

4/5

Based On 1 Ratings

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Media Buyer reviews

4.0

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2019

Pros

I get to work with a lot of people that I might not know

Cons

Very long days