The digital advertising industry is fast-changing, innovative, and highly competitive. Knowing the top LinkedIn Groups for the digital ad industry can help find a solution to an ad ops problem, fill a critical job role, or help understand trends and competitive forces in the market.
For publishers, ad ops, rev ops, or ad tech vendors, staying abreast of trends, regulations, and opportunities is where the greater community can help.
LinkedIn usage continues to grow beyond 500 million professionals, and presents several networking advantages:
- Authenticity - The profiles connected to LinkedIn users are typically much more complete and informative than profiles you will find on other platforms.
- Engagement - Social media is more about engagement today, and you can easily take a discussion from a LI group post, to a one-to-one connection with someone that may actually solve a key problem, or fill your critical position.
- Moderation - LinkedIn has better community management tools than some other platforms, though it's up to the group manager team to use them effectively.
We reviewed the LinkedIn group memberships from working professionals in ad ops, ad tech, rev ops, publishers, and brands. We also followed the profiles of influencers at industry organizations like IAB, AdAge, and AdWeek. Except for the NYC Ad group, we didn't include many groups that are region-based, such as Online Marketing & Advertising Australia / NZ.
Top LinkedIn groups for ad industry professionals:
1) Ad Ops Professionals - by Ad Tech Daily
- Created Jul 2008
- 20,056 members
- Owner: Otilia Otlacan - VP Business Operations at AAX
- Manager: Simone Nesznik
For those working in ad tech, advertising operations, ad optimization, media planning, media buying, ad production, or if your site is ad-supported, ad networks management, or web revenue optimization. Members are encouraged to help and share.
Group created by Ad Tech Daily, and hosts a mix of posts from asking for help solving an ad ops problem, looking for skill players for ad teams, and topical trends in the industry.
2) American Advertising Federation (AAF)
- Created Nov 2007
- 50,922 members
- Owner: Matt Harlow - Engagement Strategist/Project Manager, DJ Case & Associates
Created and sponsored by AAF, the oldest national advertising trade association. AAF also has 200 regional ad clubs in major cities, and 226 college chapters.
Posts and discussions cover the full range of advertising, not just digital. Topics can range from pitching video concepts to packaging ideas to event lighting. We saw plenty of vendors offering services to marketers, but now and then a decent nugget for discussion.
3) ThoseInMedia
- Created Dec 2007
- 142,790 members
- Owner: Brent Willen- Founder at Anthropa
- Manager: Anne Willen - President at ThoseInMedia
ThoseInMedia group expands beyond digital advertising to include trends, innovations, and influencers across the internet with an emphasis on Technology, eCommerce, and Digital & Traditional Media.
The Rules section for this group is one of the most extensive, more than a single-page scroll. It further defines the focus of the group with guidance such as:
- "Please keep the postings relevant to media (digital and traditional), and internet technology including eCommerce."
- "Job opportunities, industry news, and conference (brief) mentions are welcome."
- “NO - SPAM, OFF-TOPIC POSTS, RELIGIOUS or POLITICAL TOPICS”
4) Ad Exchange Masters: #Programmatic DSP DMP CDP SSP RTB Retargeting GDPR CCPA CTV DOOH OTT Trading
- Created Apr 2009
- 12,701 members
- Owner: Steve Englander. - Product + Code + Data + R&D + Blockchain + Crypto + Decentralization + Governance Systems Researcher
This group is for professionals worldwide working at an agency, publisher, advertiser, network, or exchange. Industry topics include Header Bidding, DSP, Demand Side Platform, Media Buying, Data Exchange, SSP Sell Side Platform, RTB, Real Time Bidding, Retargeting, Data Management Platform, DMP, Audience Management Platform, Audience Measurement Platform, AMP, OpenRTB, Programmatic Premium, or AdExchanger. General topics range from online advertising to media, marketing, ad ops, account management, traffic management, campaign management, and reporting metrics.
Posts require approval.
5) Digiday
- Created May 2010
- 9,786 members
- Owner: Nick Friese - CEO | Digiday
- Managers: Mike Madarasz, Aaron A. Gottlieb
Created and sponsored by Digiday it positions itself as an authority on Digital Media, Marketing and Advertising. The LI group, like their company website, is focused on digital media, marketing, and advertising professionals. Digiday the company produces many industry events and conferences, so the group management likely has a good finger on the pulse of the ad industry and major players.
6) Folio: MediaPros -- Publishing Professionals
- Created May 2008
- 22,439 members
- Owner: Danielle Sikes - Associate Publisher, PRNEWS & The Social Shake-Up Show at Access Intelligence
- Managers: Jessica Dombrowski, Greg Dool, Caysey Welton
This group is for professionals on the publishing side; people involved in driving revenue for a media brand, creating content, and engaging audiences. Folio: MediaPros has three rules:
- Off-topic Posts will be removed.
- Refrain from blatantly promoting your company, product/service, or yourself.
- Multiple off-topic or solicitation postings will result in removal from the group.
7) Ad Age Discussion Group
- Created Feb 2010
- 176,382 members
- Owner: Kevin Skaggs - Digital Media Executive
- Managers: Heidi Waldusky, Diane Firmalino, Emily Chiang
The Ad Age group is a natural for advertising industry pros but has expanded its topic coverage over the years to include the greater ecosystem, including social media, digital media, data-driven marketing, and CMO strategies. They post a few simple rules against spamming and self-promotion.
8) 212NYC - New York's Digital Advertising Community
- Created Apr 2008
- 7,868 members
- Owner: Group Moderator - Moderator at 212NYC New York's Digital Advertising Club
- Managers: Michael Rotella, Sophia Woodhouse, Ed Wise, Jay Wolff, Frank Minishak, Scott Rothstein, Marisa Flores
This group is specifically for advertising professionals in the New York area and boasts a high group manager-to-member ratio. Being regionally focused, it can help promote connections in the influential NY ad sector. The LinkedIn list was created to share insights and support the digital advertising community through education, programming, and philanthropy.
Posts require approval, and members must be associated with the digital advertising or marketing industry in the Greater New York area.
9) IAB
- Created Nov 2007
- 7,677 members (IAB has separate groups for many countries/regions)
- Owner: Shira 'Orbach' Neren - Senior Manager at Interactive Advertising Bureau
- Managers: Conor Healy, James Linney, Natalie Hamingson, Chris Glushko, Patrick Dolan
Created and managed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a critical trade association for the ad industry. IAB seeks to empower the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. The IAB organization includes more than 650 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital advertising or marketing campaigns. Together, they account for 86 percent of online advertising in the United States.
IAB advocates for the industry and maintains a Washington, DC office. They also help develop and promote ad industry standards and practices. Only one rule is posted for the group: IAB Linked In Group members must be actual members of the IAB. All current IAB (U.S.) members are encouraged to join.
10) Advertising & Marketing Industry Professionals
- Created Sep 2007
- 325,230 members
- Owner: Sean Griffey - CEO and Co-Founder at Industry Dive
- Managers: Cameron Chottiner, Samyuktha (Sammy) Srinivasan, Savannah Smith, Tom Waters, Melinda Ganther, Ryan Willumson, Robin Re, Olivia Iurillo
One of the larger LI Groups for professionals who work in advertising, marketing or communications. The group encourages discussion of advertising strategy, CMO strategy, digital marketing, communications, social media, mobile, email, video, analytics, PR, and more.
They have a well written list of guidelines including this principle: “In general, if you are posting something without the intention of starting a discussion, it will be removed. This includes links to outside stories posted without comment.”
11) Digital Analytics Association
- Created Oct 2007
- 21,753 members
- Owner: Marilee Yorchak, MBA, CAE - Retired Association Management Professional
- Managers: Kimberly Mosley, Brooke Weldon, Shannon Taylor
"Advancing the use of data to understand and improve the digital world through professional development and community." - Digital Analytics Association (DAA)
The DAA was originally founded as the Web Analytics Association in 2004, but changed their name in 2011 to account for the analyst's changing role of weaving together data from multiple sources and channels. Digital analytics has become a critical part of programmatic advertising, tracking ad performance, fraud, conversion optimization, attribution and much more.
Rules are brief but include no posting of job openings and discussion is limited to material relevant to the analytics industry.
12) Programmatic & Precision Marketing: The Evolution of Media. (DSP, SSP, DMP, RTB, CDP, Blockchain)
- Created Jun 2015
- 9,672 members
- Owner: Mazen Mroueh - Senior Global Digital Media and Martech Lead
This group welcomes POV, opinions, best practices and expertise about programmatic media. The group creator believes "Sharing knowledge is a key to grow and succeed in what we do everyday."
The group has a broad mix of post types, including hiring notices, event alerts, vendor promotions, industry news, and events relevant to programmatic pros. Global audience.
13) Digital Marketing: Social Media, Search, Mobile & more
- Created May 2008
- 926,371 members
- Owner: Ian Johnson - Founder at Encore Media Group, DMWF, Blockchain Expo, TechForge
- Managers: Matthew Hammerstone, Hannah Pinchbeck, Sophie Weaver, Rebecca Clinton-Floyed, Megan Davis, Simeon Dianga, Chris Comer, Rachael Reid, Ryan Daws, James Bourne
One of the larger memberships due to covering a broad digital landscape. Topics include: digital marketing, social media, search, mobile marketing, content marketing, marketing cloud, data marketing, personalised marketing advertising, pr, events, jobs, interactive & digital media. There are some basic written rules for the group.
There was more sharing of reports, insights, good blog posts and articles than some other LI groups reviewed. An admin has been a participant in multiple recent posts. Plenty of articles for digital marketers: strategy, guides, cheat sheets, etc.
Note: Ian is also the owner of Media & Marketing Professionals Worldwide with over 888,684 members in that LinkedIn group.
14) Newspaper Professionals Network
- Created May 2008
- 38,291 members
- Owner: Carl Brigandi - Account Executive @ Spectrum Reach Cable TV & Digital Advertising
Group for current and former newspaper professionals to exchange ideas about industry changes and trends. Our review found solid articles shared on the news business, journalism, print and digital, seeking skill players for publishers, relevant webinars, and legislation that affects the press.
Posts require admin approval.
15) Online Ad Professionals
- Created Nov 2007
- 100,911 members
- Owner: Kevin Denato - Global Leader in Product | Partnerships | Growth | Innovation | GTM | Digital Media | Social | Fintech | Payments | Startup Advisor
As the name implies, this group is focused on topics relevant to online ad pros. Owner Kevin says the group originally formed in 2004, before LI Groups had hit their stride. The group guidelines state the purpose of discussing digital media topics, networking job opportunities, and for the advancement of the digital media industry.
16) Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Network
- Created Jan 2008
- 301,272 members
- Owner: Miles Jennings - Founder & COO at Recruiter.com
- Managers: Sarah Schultz, Patti Epstein, Delinda Giles, Michael Woloshin
The CMO Network is geared to marketing executives and professionals, and covers a broad variety of marketing topics, insights, strategy, case studies, guides, and analysis. Our reviewers felt there was a higher degree of topic relevance for the audience than average LI groups.
Basic group guidelines include: “We regularly moderate conversations and comments for relevance to professional marketing.”
17) Digital Marketing
- Created Mar 2008
- 1,946,291 members
- Owner: John Horsely - CEO, Demand Exchange / Digital Doughnut
- Managers: Gregory Brown, Phoebe Aitken, Adrianna Malolepszy, Nicholas Colthorpe,Alan Bowman, Simon Johnson, Mike Backs, Greig Dowling, Danyon Billings
Digital Marketing is one of the largest marketing LinkedIn groups at almost 2 million members. It has a bevy of managers, and both they and the owner have strong pedigrees in digital marketing. The topics span the scope of the digital marketing landscape, including social media marketing, mobile marketing, search engine marketing, online PR, email marketing, online advertising, measurement and web analytics, best practice digital marketing and more.
The creators vow to "provide updates to the latest whitepapers and industry reports to keep you updated on trends, innovation and best practice digital marketing."
Our review found a bit of hit and miss on quality posting. Hopefully the large manager crew can do some pruning to serve the large membership.
The group rules and guidelines include:
- Post only in English
- Be respectful of other members
- Do not post items that have nothing to do with marketing
- Share insightful marketing information that encourages discussion
- Keep your headline clear and to the point
- We operate a one strike and you're out rule, we will remove you from the group if you break these rules.
18) Advertising Pros
- Created Feb 2008
- 115,508 members
- Owner: Ivan R. - Management Consultant / Software Engineer / AdsoftheWorld.com Founder / Clio Awards Product Manager
Advertising Pros is a global group focused on advertising. Posts should be content related to creative advertising. Posts require approval.
A Few Smaller Linkedin Groups (memberships under 6,000)
- AAMP | Association for Audience Marketing Professionals - 1029 members
- AdTech and AdOps - 1,954 members
- Digital Media Buyers Group - 1,647 members
- Digital Advertising Operations - 5,161 members
Related content: Megalist of training resources for AdOps, AdTech, an digital advertising professionals.
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