Media Buyer — What Kind of Profession is This and How is it Different from an Affiliate Marketer?

Blog » Media Buyer — What Kind of Profession is This and How is it Different from an Affiliate Marketer?

In the world of digital advertising, there are many professions related to traffic management and optimization. One of them is the media buyer. These specialists manage advertising campaigns, set targeting and monitor the effectiveness of invested funds.

In 2025, the demand for media buyers, advertising purchasers and traffic managers remains high, as it is crucial for businesses to 🙋‍♂️ attract customers, and the competition for audience attention is only increasing. Companies are willing to pay professionals who know how to manage advertising budgets, reduce lead costs and increase profits.

However, media buyers are often confused with affiliate marketers, as both professions are related to traffic purchasing. But there are key differences between them. In this article, we’ll 🤔 explore what a media buyer does and how they differ from an affiliate.

Media Buyer: Who is it and What do They Do?

A media buyer is a specialist in advertising purchasing and internet traffic for advertising campaigns. Their main 🛠 task is to buy impressions or clicks at the most profitable price and bring in an audience that will take the right action: submit a request, make a purchase or install an app.

Unlike affiliate marketers, media buyers usually work in agencies, in-house teams or for a specific brand. They manage the advertising budgets of companies and are 👨‍⚖️ responsible for the effectiveness of these investments.

Media buying includes such competences as:  

• Choosing an advertising platform — social media, ad networks, search engines, video hosting sites and so on;
• Setting up targeting — selecting and analyzing the target audience by interests, age, geolocation, behavior;
• Testing various creatives, headlines, calls to action (CTAs) and audiences to find the most conversion-optimized combinations;
• Campaign optimization — analyzing metrics and making adjustments;
• Managing the advertising budget;
• Communicating with ad account managers.

How to Become a Media Buyer?

A media buyer must understand analytics, have a grasp of user psychology and be able to quickly adapt to changes in advertising algorithms. This profession requires not only technical knowledge but also strategic thinking.

Here’s the minimum set of skills necessary to become a media buyer:

• Understanding the basics of online advertising: how advertising platforms work and what payment models exist (CPC, CPM, CPA).
• Mastering advertising systems: advertising dashboards are available in social networks, search engines and video hosting platforms — this is one of the main tools for work.
• Analytics and optimization: working with metrics, understanding which indicators influence the effectiveness of advertising.
• Theory: you can master the profession faster through training — courses in media buying or a mentor.
• First experience: small projects or an internship in an advertising agency.
• Professional growth: the field is very dynamic, so to just stay in place, you need to run very fast.

💲 The salary of a media buyer depends on experience, work format (full-time, freelance, agency) and region. A newcomer in this field can expect a stable income, while experienced specialists often receive a percentage of the profit, significantly increasing their earnings. A fast look through analysis showed that the services of a media buyer with no experience are valued at $600-1400.

Who is an Affiliate Marketer and How is he Different from a Media Buyer?

Now, let’s break down who an affiliate marketer is so we don’t confuse them with media buyers, even though both are involved in traffic buying. They have different goals, approaches to work and levels of responsibility. But let’s go through everything step by step.

NB! Another term often encountered is “webmaster.” An affiliate is not a synonym for this. A webmaster is a specialist who creates and promotes their own websites, monetizing them through ads, affiliate programs or selling services.

So, what do arbitrageurs do? An affiliate marketer is a specialist who independently buys traffic and monetizes it through 🤝 affiliate programs and offers. He doesn’t work for a brand or company, but earns from the difference between the cost of acquiring a customer and the payouts from the advertiser.

The main ⚙️ tasks in affiliate marketing include:

• Finding profitable offers;
• Buying traffic at their own expense;
• Testing and identifying effective combinations based on geo, creatives and sources;
• Optimizing and scaling successful campaigns.

How to Become an Affiliate?

Affiliate marketing is a way to make money online, where you 💰 buy traffic for less than you sell it. To succeed in this field, you also need to understand how advertising platforms work, what traffic sources exist, how to analyze results, work with creatives and find offers.

To master the profession, you need to:

• Understand the basics of affiliate marketing and how the scheme works: traffic source → advertising campaign → leads → profit from the difference;
• Choose a traffic source;
• Study affiliate programs;
• Launch test campaigns on different sources and evaluate the results;
• Analyze and optimize profitable funnels;
• Learn to work with antidetect browsers and proxies;
• Continuously develop as a specialist.

The answer to the question 🔎 “How much do affiliate specialists earn?” depends on many factors. An analysis of platforms where people look for jobs showed that there are no vacancies at all for the query “affiliate marketer” with a filter “no experience” on. The situation is better for the query “traffic manager,” but salaries are rarely listed. 

Most likely, this is because, unlike media buyers, affiliate specialists don’t have a fixed salary — their income depends entirely on the success of their advertising campaigns.

Comparison table: Media Buyer vs Affiliate Marketer

For clarity we’ve prepared a comparison in the form of a table between the two professions. 

Conclusion 

A media buyer, in simple terms, is not just an ad purchaser who has mastered the traffic manager role, but a specialist who deeply understands digital marketing, can analyze data, and make decisions that impact the profitability of advertising campaigns.