Director, Commerce Media

Be essential at Cars Commerce

At Cars Commerce, we’re fanatical about simplifying everything about car buying and selling. We do right by our customers and consumers to better connect the industry with simplified and tierless technology to enhance, measure and drive local automotive retail. Whether through our No.1 most recognized marketplace, Cars.com, our industry-leading digital experience, Dealer Inspire, our trade and appraisal technology, AccuTrade, our reputation-based digital wholesale auction marketplace, Dealerclub, or our new Cars Commerce Media Network, Cars Commerce is essential for success in the automotive industry.

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, Cars Commerce is collaboration. In fact, it’s built into the very fabric of our shared values. We like to say we Rise Together – putting people at the center of what we do, from consumer to customer to community. Life at Cars Commerce makes it easy when we share the ethos to be Open to All, encouraging open-minded communication because we know diverse thinking yields better outcomes. But critical to our success is Caring to Challengeand Taking Ownership, fueling a competitive spirit in a respectful environment where we think about tomorrow but act today. At our foundation, we have integrity, Doing the Right Thing, even when it’s hard. It’s our shared commitment to these values that makes Cars Commerce a place where growth becomes not only possible, but downright unavoidable.

But don’t take our word for it. As a U.S. News & World Report Best Company to Work For in 2024, we're obsessive about the employee experience. We are among the top 20% being declared “Best” of our industry based on six critical factors that are important to employee wellbeing, like quality of pay, benefits, work life balance and more.

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

• Manage the building and maintenance of onsite ad products, investigate digital ad technology, drive spec compliance, automate processes, monitor ad health, and consult with cross-functional teams to guide the evolution of digital advertising on Cars.com

• 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

• Oversee team that owns pre-sales media planning and post-sales campaign delivery for on and offsite national sales customer media buys

• 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

Salary Range

$131,400.00-164,250.00

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans
• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up
• Generous PTO
• Refuel - a service based recognition program where employees receive additional paid time away to learn grow and reset
• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!
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