Advertising Account Manager, Mandarin & English (Cross-Border)

Your responsibilities will include:

• Retail Media Sales & Revenue Growth: Consistently meet and exceed advertising sales targets; proactively identify and convert upsell opportunities across international seller accounts.
• Seller Onboarding & Platform Enablement: Drive adoption of Takealot's self-service Sponsored Advertising platform by Mandarin-speaking Marketplace sellers; deliver platform training and skills transfer in Mandarin, ensuring sellers can independently operate and optimise campaigns.
• Strategic Account Management: Serve as the primary point of contact for a portfolio of international sellers; build trusted, long-term partnerships that deepen seller engagement and increase advertising investment over time.
• Media Planning & Consultative Selling: Develop tailored media plans and advertising strategies for top-tier sellers, aligned to their business objectives, seasonal peaks, and product launch calendars; present compelling, data-backed recommendations.
• Campaign Performance Management: Monitor live campaign performance against agreed KPIs (e.g. ROAS, CTR, conversion rate, spend pacing); generate regular performance reports (weekly/monthly/quarterly) and deliver actionable optimisation insights to sellers.
• Campaign Execution & Coordination: Coordinate the collection of creative assets; manage the integration of booked campaigns into the marketing calendar; liaise with retail marketing managers to ensure on-time, on-brief delivery.
• Billing & Financial Operations: Ensure managed services campaigns are invoiced accurately and on time each month; oversee reconciliation and invoice adjustment processes.
• Seller Acquisition: Develop and implement acquisition strategies to grow the base of international sellers investing in advertising on the platform.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with creative, analytics, campaign management, and CRM teams to ensure seamless execution and alignment with client objectives; support Marketplace Account Managers to drive advertising uptake across their key accounts.
• Seller Education & Content Development: Contribute to the development and hosting of educational webinars and training sessions in Mandarin; collaborate with the CRM team to produce seller-facing case studies and adoption/retention enablement materials.
• Platform Issue Resolution: Act as the first point of escalation for seller platform queries; escalate operational and technical issues to the relevant engineering and product teams and manage resolution timelines.
• Market & Platform Intelligence: Stay current with global retail media trends, platform updates, and competitive marketplace advertising developments; share insights internally to inform product and commercial strategy.

Attributes required:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, strong attention to detail and follow-through
• Ability to persuade sellers to adopt new technology
• Excellent content design; and presentation skills
• Strong analytical and critical thinking, using data to inform decisions
• Ability to work independently to achieve sales targets
• Solutions-oriented, can-do attitude, self-motivated
• Entrepreneurial mindset
• Understanding of the digital advertising and e-commerce environments

Qualification & Experience:

• Mandarin proficiency (spoken and written) — essential for seller communication, platform training, and skills transfer with international sellers.
• English proficiency (spoken and written) — essential for internal communication with line management and all South African-based stakeholders.
• Bachelor's Degree or Advanced Diploma in Marketing, Business, Commerce, or a related field. In the absence of a formal qualification, a minimum of 5 years of demonstrated account management experience will be considered.
• Minimum 3 years' experience in advertising sales and/or account management, with a proven track record of achieving or exceeding revenue targets.
• Solid experience in digital marketing and advertising (search, display, sponsored ads, or programmatic).
• Demonstrated ability to use data and campaign metrics to drive commercial recommendations and client decision-making.
• Strong consultative sales skills with a track record of managing and growing a portfolio of accounts.
• Excellent relationship management skills — ability to build trust and rapport across cultural and language boundaries.

Advantageous

• Experience working in or with e-commerce marketplaces (e.g. Takealot, Amazon or similar).
• Familiarity with retail media platforms and self-service advertising tools
• Experience with campaign analytics platforms.
• Understanding of cross-border e-commerce dynamics, particularly between China and emerging markets.
• CRM platform experience and comfort working with performance dashboards and reporting tools.