How to become an advertising manager
Official title: Advertising manager
Also called: Advertising account manager, Advertising account executive, Media account director
Advertising managers supervise staff and plan and direct the promotion of products or services for an organisation or company.
Main tasks
- Manage advertising campaigns for clients
- Manage relationships between clients and agencies
- Brief creative teams on campaigns
- Develop ideas that match client needs
- Create plans for media advertising
- Prepare budgets for advertising campaigns
- Book spaces for advertisements in media
- Make sure campaigns meet deadlines and budgets
How to become one
You usually need a qualification and experience to become an advertising manager. You usually need NCEA Level 3 to do the study or training for this job. Other requirements: a relevant tertiary qualification in sales and marketing, communication and media or similar area; experience in similar work.
Ways in
- University: Business & Commerce degrees, Offered by 6 universities in New Zealand
- University: Communications & Media degrees, Offered by 4 universities in New Zealand
Pay · Past change · AI and this job
- Most common pay: $69,000 to $144,000 a year (median $98,000), a TEC estimate before tax.
- Lower: $55,000 a year · Upper: $214,000 a year
- TEC's pay figures are estimates only. TEC says they must not be used to set pay, in pay negotiations or in visa applications.
- People employed in the group Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Managers: 39,447 at the 2018 Census and 42,105 at the 2023 Census (+6.7%). Past change, not a forecast.
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Who does this work
- In the group Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Managers, 46% of workers are female (sex at birth, 2023 Census).
- Where people in the group Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Managers work (2023 Census): Auckland 49.1%, Canterbury 12.2%, and Wellington 10.7%.
Related jobs
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Questions people ask
How do I become an advertising manager?
You usually need a qualification and experience to become an advertising manager. You usually need NCEA Level 3 to do the study or training for this job. Other requirements: a relevant tertiary qualification in sales and marketing, communication and media or similar area; experience in similar work.
How much does an advertising manager earn in New Zealand?
The Tertiary Education Commission estimates median pay at $98,000 a year, before tax. Most common pay is $69,000 to $144,000 a year.
Will AI change the work of an advertising manager?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Stats NZ (via Figure.NZ): Census totals by topic for individuals 2013, 2018, 2023 (CEN23_TBT_004): employed by occupation, ANZSCO V1.3, summed to unit group (2023 Census (CEN23_TBT_004)), CC BY 4.0 (Stats NZ), CC BY 3.0 NZ (Figure.NZ), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Stats NZ (via Figure.NZ): Census 2023: employed by regional council, occupation (ANZSCO V1.3 unit group) and sex at birth (2023 Census), CC BY 4.0 (Stats NZ), CC BY 3.0 NZ (Figure.NZ), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Tertiary Education Commission (Tahatu Career Navigator): Tahatu career ideas: descriptions, tasks, pay estimates, people employed, employment change 2018 to 2023, entry requirements, registration, interest scores (Site scrape 2026-10 (816 career ideas, sitemap lastmod 2026-10-01)), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
This content is sourced from the Tertiary Education Commission through the Tahatū Career Navigator website (www.tahatu.govt.nz) and used under the CC BY 4.0 licence. All or some of the information has been modified by Peernovo. TEC has not approved, endorsed or tested these modifications. TEC will not be held accountable for any errors within this content.
Qualification information from NZQA, used under CC BY 3.0 NZ.
This work is based on/includes Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Census data via Figure.NZ.
Includes information from O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Sources: Tertiary Education Commission, Tahatū Career Navigator (career ideas, pay estimates, entry requirements and study options, CC BY 4.0, modified by Peernovo); Stats NZ, 2023 Census (via Figure.NZ) and the National Occupation List (CC BY 4.0); NZQA qualification information (CC BY 3.0 NZ); O*NET interest scores (CC BY 4.0); ILO global generative AI exposure index (CC BY 4.0). Links between career ideas and ANZSCO groups, degree fields and broad job groups are Peernovo's.
These results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which is carefully managed by Stats NZ.
Graduate outcomes: these results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which is carefully managed by Stats NZ.
Updated 4 October 2026