Online Microcredential in Business & Management

Digital Advertising Operations

Master the fundamentals of ad ops and gain the skills to monetise online content and audiences through digital advertising.

Created by

Deakin UniversityDeakin University

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Co-created by

Interactive Advertising BureauInteractive Advertising Bureau

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Learn from the digital technology experts at Deakin University and IAB Australia

Digital advertising operations involve the use of cutting-edge digital technologies and advertising products to monetise online content and audiences. It is an evolving ecosystem of new technologies, changing consumer media habits, and increasing use of automation via programmatic advertising, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. In addition, mobile advertising is gaining in importance as more and more internet usage shifts to mobile devices.

On this microcredential, you’ll explore the essentials of digital advertising operational requirements and skills from a seller’s perspective – that is, the publishers, media owners, and ad networks. You’ll discover how to maximise revenue and value generated from your content, audiences, and resulting advertising opportunities.

Learn about various ad technology platforms, crucial metrics, and insights to succeed as a seller

You’ll be guided through digital advertising technologies and strategies to attract new audiences – user acquisition methods. You will also discover how to personalise recommendations for a variety of audiences and use core measurement metrics to judge your success as a publisher – such as impressions, clicks, and conversions.

Uncover key processes for digital advertising from a publisher’s perspective

You’ll develop expertise in the basics of publisher ad-serving and campaign management, as well as an understanding of the different options available for publishers and media owners.

You’ll enhance your skills by learning how to work with SSPs and ad exchanges, different data integrations, validation technologies, and how to manage quality assurance. You will be guided through the various programmatic deal types, and learn how to work with varying types of data from a variety of sources.

Dive into campaign launch, management, and post-campaign best practices

As part of campaign and post-campaign management, you will delve into inventory forecasting, IO approvals, campaign set-up, and targeting. You will consider different ad products and environments and learn how to make recommendations for campaign optimisation.

Lastly, you will gain knowledge and skills in post-campaign reporting and ongoing product improvement processes.

How will digital advertising operations improve my career opportunities?

Job vacancy rates for digital advertising and ad tech industry roles have more than doubled in the last twelve months.

Equipped with the skills gained in this microcredential, you’ll be able to showcase your knowledge of digital advertising operations and in-demand, industry-specific tools and platforms when applying for jobs in this sector.

If you already work within advertising, the knowledge you’ll gain on this microcredential will help you strategise and deliver a competitive advantage, employing your practical knowledge of digital advertising operations.

How will I be assessed?

The assessment task requires you to critically evaluate the available options for publishers to competently monetise their audiences through digital advertising in two parts:

Part A: analyse example campaigns in a Microsoft Excel workbook (provided).

Part B: produce two self-recorded videos, presenting an outline of the monetisation options for sellers, discussing direct and programmatic mid- and post-campaign reports, reflecting on decisions made, and providing recommendations.

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    Skip to 0 minutes and 0 seconds Welcome to the Ad Operations microcredential run by Deakin in conjunction with IAB Australia. The internet advertising sector has grown significantly for more than ten years. This has been made possible largely by the abundance of high-quality content and services that have been made freely available to customers in the form of text, video and audio content as well user-generated social media content. This is made possible because media owners and platforms of those services have come up with creative and efficient ways to monetize the audiences that have been drawn to it. Digital advertising is an ever-changing eco-system of evolving consumer media habits, new advertising technologies and relentless opportunities & challenges.

    Skip to 0 minutes and 46 seconds These changes continue to drive new and exciting ways to buy and sell the many forms of advertising, which we’ll work through with you in this course.

    Skip to 0 minutes and 58 seconds This microcredential is designed to introduce you to the operational requirements and skills in digital advertising from a seller’s perspective - the publishers, media owners, and ad networks. In digital advertising, the seller’s goal is to maximise profits and value from the audiences their content attracts and the resulting, constantly changing advertising opportunities made accessible to advertisers. You’ll learn everything there is to know about the various ad technology platforms and the crucial metrics and insights you’ll need to succeed. Further, you’ll learn the full range of operational procedures that are crucial for the delivery of digital advertising to support the success of media owners’ content and maximising yields.

    Skip to 1 minute and 43 seconds Experienced facilitators and industry experts will support you in increasing your knowledge of the components of advertising operations. The microcredential has the benefit of being standalone or stackable to build towards a postgraduate Deakin degree. There’s never been a better time to be employed in digital advertising and marketing and, indeed, never a better time to have these skills to build your career in the dynamic digital advertising industry.

    What skills will you learn?

    • Ability to evaluate services and solutions within the digital advertising and programmatic landscapes
    • Ability to utilise the appropriate measurement metrics to justify chosen advertising products & solutions
    • Proactively optimise the campaigns to improve their effectiveness
    • Create campaign reports
    • Provide meaningful recommendations to clients and internal teams
    • Analyse and manage direct and programmatic campaigns

    What you will achieve

    By the end of the microcredential, you’ll be able to...

    • Critically evaluate emerging trends in the digital advertising and programmatic landscapes and the services provided by the participants
    • Demonstrate knowledge of the fundamentals of digital advertising in terms of products, measurement metrics and which solutions best suit certain advertising requirements
    • Analyse and proactively optimise two types of campaigns – direct and programmatic – to improve their effectiveness, whilst maximising yields for the publisher
    • Present coherent examples of campaign reports (both mid and post campaign activities) which include insights and reflections on any decisions made, and meaningful post campaign recommendations – both internally and externally

    Are you eligible for this microcredential?

    This microcredential has no specific prerequisites. It is a postgraduate level course, so it’s recommended that learners enrol with an undergraduate degree in a relevant area, such as marketing, digital marketing, or advertising prior to taking this course. We also recommend a high English proficiency level.

    Is this microcredential right for you?

    This microcredential is for publishers, media owners, and businesses that sell digital media who require skills and knowledge in digital ad operations.

    It specifically targets in-demand jobs such as ad operations managers and executives, campaign managers and executives, digital programmatic operations, programmatic managers, and programmatic operations specialists.

    Syllabus

    What happens before, during, and after your microcredential

    • Before learning

      You’ll have access to the welcome area to introduce yourself and familiarise yourself with the microcredential structure and course materials.

    • Course

      From 13 Mar 2023

      Woman's eye working with data information

      Digital Advertising Operations

      Delve into ad ops and digital technologies to help hone your skills in digital advertising.

      6 weeks

      10 hours per week

      • Week 1

        Digital advertising fundamentals and the ad technology ecosystem
        • Let's get started
        • Digital advertising
        • Programmatic advertising
        • Weekly wrap
      • Week 2

        Publisher ad server
        • Ad calls and website structure
        • Campaign setup and ad server priorities
        • Integration with the publisher ad server
        • Yield management, insertion orders and forecasting availability
        • Weekly wrap
      • Week 3

        Products, processes and partners
        • Working with SSPs and ad servers
        • Working with data
        • Viewability and verification
        • Weekly wrap
      • Week 4

        Campaign launch and management
        • Forecasting, setup and ad format considerations
        • Reporting and optimisation
        • Weekly wrap
      • Week 5

        Post-campaign and ad tags in detail
        • Post-campaign
        • Ad tags
        • Final considerations for ad ops
        • Weekly wrap
      • Week 6

        Assessment, summary, and next steps
        • Assessment preparation and submission
        • Course wrap
    • After learning

      You’ll receive a statement of completion from FutureLearn and digital certificate from Deakin University.

    What you will receive

    0.5 Deakin Credit Points at Postgraduate level from Deakin University

    You’ll receive a digital Credly badge worth 0.5 postgraduate level credits. With these credits, you can build towards a degree from Deakin University.

    Find out how credits work and where you can use them in our FAQs.

    A Digital Badge from Deakin University and Credly

    image ⬅️ Click this image to see more information about the digital badge you will receive upon successful completion, validated by Credly.



    Learn more about this organisation

    Additional benefits

    Complete your course within 6 weeks, including the assessment, or take extra time and use the regular assessment submission windows to complete within 20–26 weeks of your enrolment.

    What is a microcredential?

    Microcredentials are designed to upskill you for work in rapidly-growing industries, without the time and cost commitment of a full degree. Your microcredential can stand alone as an independent credential, and some also offer academic credit to use towards a degree.

    Learn online with expert instructors

    Complete online courses led by experts over multiple weeks with a dedicated group of professionals.

    Complete project-based assessments

    Test your understanding with online tutor-marked assessments and exercises.

    Earn a professional credential

    Finish your learning and pass your assessments to gain an accredited credential.

    Advance further in your career

    Use your microcredential as evidence of your specialised skills and progress further in your industry.

    Deakin University

    Career-focused learning by Deakin University

    Deakin University is one of Australia’s largest universities with more than 61,000 students and over 15,000 online.

    • Established

      1974
    • Location

      Melbourne, Australia
    • World ranking

      Top 280Source: QS World University Rankings 2021
    Logo

    Career-focused learning by Interactive Advertising Bureau

    The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia is the peak trade association for digital advertising with over 170 media, marketing, and technology organisations as members. As well as driving local initiatives, we are a part of a network of 47 international IAB organisations that sets global standards for the digital industry. The role of the IAB is to grow sustainable and diverse investment in digital advertising in Australia.

    Delivered by experts

    Gai Le Roy

    CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia. Senior executive & board director with over 25 years experience working in the media & digital advertising industry.

    Jonas Jaanimagi

    Jonas is the Technology Lead for IAB Australia and has cross-functional knowledge and experience across digital media operations, online ad products and advertising technology - since 1999.

    Learning on FutureLearn

    Your learning, your rules

    • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
    • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
    • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

    Join a global classroom

    • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
    • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
    • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

    Map your progress

    • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
    • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
    • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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    When would you like to start?

    Enrolment for this microcredential is closed. We aim to run our microcredentials every few months. Register to find out more about this microcredential and future start dates.

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      FAQ

      We can accept payments made by card (Visa, Mastercard and American Express) or PayPal via our online system.

      You will have 14 days from the day the course starts to apply for a refund. If this Microcredential has any non-refundable costs they will be stated in the ‘Overview’ section above. You can find more information in our cancellation and refund policy.

      Microcredentials are designed to fit around your life and timezone.

      There may be live events as part of your studies, but these will be recorded and can be watched afterwards if you aren’t online for the live broadcast.

      No, microcredentials are designed to be taken anywhere in the world. You won’t need the right to study in the country where the university offering the microcredential is based.

      Want to know more? Read the microcredential FAQs, or contact us.