The advertising and marketing fields have significantly moved towards incorporating data science and technology into their business models. By collecting data on users, products, web traffic, and ads, modern-day marketers can learn how to improve their strategy, and entrepreneurs can improve their brands. Data collection and analysis applied to audience feedback and business competition can also be used to target niche markets. Data science students and professionals can apply their programming languages, data visualization, and predictive analytics skills to create better advertising and marketing campaigns.
The Role of Data Science in Advertising and Marketing
It is a rare company indeed that does not have an online presence today. From online sales to advertising campaigns, a company’s website and social media presence play crucial roles in the growth and development of the business. Digitalization of the business model provides greater access to advertising and marketing data, such as web-traffic statistics, sales data, and even sentiment analysis, which offers in-depth information about consumer wants and needs. Advertising and marketing professionals use data science to collect user data, analyze advertising campaigns, and improve product and business strategies.
Data collection and analysis provide insight into consumer sentiment about a business or product. Merging this insight with data gleaned from product sales and web traffic informs the development of a marketing strategy. For example, a business that sells backpacks targeted at children and teens would develop a social media strategy that advertises the backpacks on popular youth platforms. Data collection from these platforms would help determine the most popular backpacks—which would affect marketing strategy—as well as what this target market is looking for in a backpack, which would affect product improvement.
Demand for Data Scientists in Advertising and Marketing
Marketing agencies and businesses once consulted with data science professionals for analysis and insight into how effective an advertising campaign was and to improve their marketing strategy. However, business intelligence and data analytics tools have made it easier for individuals and institutions to analyze their data in-house. So, there is increased demand for data scientists in advertising and marketing as more companies see the value of collecting and analyzing their information and data. Careers in the field are varied and include business analytics, social media analytics, and advertisement automation.
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics predicts that the demand for advertising and marketing professionals will grow ten percent through 2030. And according to Harvard Business Review, "The Next Great Digital Advantage" for companies is the use of data to learn more about consumers. Advertising and marketing professionals can use this data to anticipate and respond to consumer trends. The analytics skills of data science professionals are a natural fit for various roles in this field.
Advertising and Marketing Careers for Data Scientists
Marketing Data Analyst
Marketing data analysis is the most directly-related advertising and marketing career for data scientists, using market, product, and advertising campaign data to create an effective marketing strategy. Data scientists can apply the same skills in other industries to study marketing data. Marketing Data Analyst is a position best suited for students or professionals with strong backgrounds in data analytics and digital marketing tools like Google Ads. This position is also similar to a consumer insights specialist or advertising analyst.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists focus on two aspects of advertising data: website ranking and website traffic data. SEO specialists analyze who is visiting a site, how often they visit it, and other data points pulled from a site's traffic. After collecting and analyzing this data, SEO specialists craft a strategy that appeals to a target audience to increase web traffic and improve search rankings with effective keywords. In addition to data science and analytics skills, SEO specialists also benefit from web design and development training.
Digital Marketing Specialist
Digital marketing specialists develop a company’s online brand identity and voice, pushing out brand messaging through various digital communication platforms, including websites, social media, and email. Like marketing data analysts, digital marketing specialists tailor content and campaigns for websites, social media, and email. Digital marketing specialists benefit from data science and technology skills, web and graphic design, and content writing and editing.
Social Media Manager
Social Media Managers have responsibilities similar to digital marketing specialists, with a primary focus on social media marketing. Social media specialists have in-depth knowledge of the features and limitations of various platforms and the audience, advertising, and content relevant to each platform. Although social media managers do not require a background in data science, data analytics and general data literacy skills are an essential part of the job. Social media specialists who have a data science background can use their automation and machine learning knowledge to schedule content and scrape data from the web. Working as a social media manager is worthwhile for beginner data scientists passionate about platforms like Facebook and Twitter and studying user data.
Machine Learning Engineer
Machine learning engineers in advertising and marketing develop machine learning models that pull user behavior information to find patterns. Machine learning and automation are also used to test the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, analyze market segmentation, automate ads and other forms of communication, and predict how users respond to changes in a brand, product, business, or advertising campaign.
Want to Start a Career in Advertising and Marketing?
Data science and technology skills are sought after in advertising and marketing. Noble Desktop's data science classes include multiple options for learning about advertising and marketing using data analytics technologies or business intelligence tools. Noble’s Data Analytics Certificate offers an introduction to information technology with hands-on experience using business intelligence and data analysis tools. The Digital Marketing Certificate program prioritizes search engine optimization and strategic analysis and pairs well with any of Noble Desktop's data science classes. By applying programming and predictive analytics skills to social media and marketing, data science students and professionals can easily transition to the advertising and marketing industry!