The training program behind every KeyPlayers assistant

Media Buyer · KeyPlayers Academy

School of Agency Operations

Opens October 7

Media Buyer

Meta Ads and Google Ads at a working level: tracking you can trust, creative strategy, launch QA with special ad categories, testing, scaling inside a written change policy, and reports clients act on. Ends in a graded day fixing three broken ad accounts.

This program opens on Wednesday, October 7. Applications open the same day.

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Courses: 2
Modules: 15
Lessons: 46
Practice drills: 2

Who it's for

Assistants who hold the KeyPlayers AI-Trained VA and want to do this work for clients.

By application, after KeyPlayers Foundations. The admissions team reviews every application.

What a graduate can do

Every graduate has already done this work once, under grading. The final asks them to produce:

Account diagnosis: for Summit, Wildroot and Larkspur, every problem you found with the evidence (file, dates and figures), what it's costing or risking in the client's own numbers, and anything you checked and ruled out
Prioritized fix plan: every fix ranked, with its policy level, who approves, who does it, when, and how you'll check it worked
Launch QA of Larkspur's sellers campaign: the handbook's checklist line by line (Pass, Fixed in draft, or Blocked), what you changed in the paused draft, what still blocks launch and who must approve it, and your go or no-go to Amira

Curriculum

What's taught, course by course

Modules pair lessons with quizzes. Modules marked Drill include hands-on practice on a realistic task. Downloads are available to trainees once they sign in.

KP-MB-101

Meta Ads for Media Buyers

The Meta Ads course a top agency would hand its own new media buyer. How Meta's ad platform is built and how to structure an account, business portfolio and access hygiene, tracking you can trust (pixel, Conversions API, events, UTMs, verifying data before a dollar is spent), offers, angles and creative briefs, testing that reaches a real decision, launch QA with naming conventions, special ad categories and policy, optimization and scaling rules with a change log, and reporting a client can act on. Built around Halyard Growth Co. and the KeyPlayers house method: judge by cost per qualified booked call, change nothing outside the written rules.

Opens Oct 7

1
Platform foundations and account structure
2
Access and business portfolio hygiene
3
Tracking you can trust
4
Offers, angles and creative strategy

Assessment

The graded final

A realistic case, worked the way a client would expect. A KeyPlayers trainer grades it against the rubric below. AI may prepare first-draft scores backed by exact quotes from the work, and the trainer decides every result.

Graded simulationPass mark 80%2 attempts

Final Assessment: Fix three broken ad accounts at Halyard

Work one shift as the Media Buyer at Halyard Growth Co., a fictional Toronto performance marketing agency, while the Paid Media Lead is on leave. Health-check three client accounts from exported data and screenshots written as text: Summit Comfort's Google Search, Wildroot Apparel's Meta and GA4, and Larkspur Home Team's Meta and Google. Find and prove the problems, fix what the agency's written Media Change Policy lets you fix, QA a new real estate campaign before it launches, write the client's weekly report, and keep a change log. Along the way: a daily budget that doesn't match the change log, a client who wants more spend and a hiring ad, a client quoting a lead count that isn't real, a contractor and a client offering logins, a co-founder who wants to kill prospecting, and an account lead asking for a go or no-go.

Automatic fails

Changing budgets, launching, pausing or editing live campaigns outside the written policy; sharing, asking for or using any login or password; publishing or calling ready an ad in a special category without the right setup, or putting a recruiting ad in a non-employment campaign; or inventing results (numbers not from the pack, platform numbers you know are wrong, benchmarks, forecasts or promises) fails the assessment regardless of score.

Review and sign-off

A program opens to trainees only once each review below is signed off. Every sign-off records exactly which version of the content was reviewed, and lasts 12 months, so the program is reviewed again every year.

Content review
Reviewed by: Training Manager

Status: Opens October 7

How the credential is verified

Graduates earn the KeyPlayers AI-Trained Media Buyer, with its own credential ID.
Anyone can enter that ID on the verification page to see whether it's valid, expired, suspended or revoked.
It's valid for 6 months. After that it shows as expired until it's renewed through the yearly update.

Verify a credential

How to get in

By application, after KeyPlayers Foundations. The admissions team reviews every application. New to KeyPlayers? Take the skills quiz, then apply. Already training with us? Open the program from your Academy account.

Apply to KeyPlayers Already a trainee? Open it

School of Agency Operations

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Nine real workplace situations, with your score and what each answer means. Training is free for KeyPlayers candidates.

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The rubric

Diagnosis and evidence
Finds the problems in each account from the data and proves each one with the file, the dates and the figures, in the client's own numbers. Separates real problems from normal noise.
Change control and authority
Every change fits the Media Change Policy at the moment it's made, with the right approval cited. The emergency brake is used exactly as written. Clients, teammates and account leads asking doesn't turn into a change without the written approval the policy requires.
Tracking and attribution
Explains tracking problems correctly, uses the CRM as the source of truth, recommends the simplest correct fix with the right owners, and says how to verify it and what it won't repair.
Special categories, ad policy and launch QA
Runs the launch QA line by line, catches every special ad category, targeting, copy, form, budget and lead-flow problem, fixes what's allowed in the paused draft, names who unblocks the rest, and gives an honest no-go. Routes recruiting ads to a separate Employment campaign.
Prioritization and fix plan
Ranks fixes by money at risk, launch and security risk, then measurement and efficiency. Each fix has a policy level, approver, owner, timing and a way to check it worked. Timing judgment is sound.
Client reporting and honesty
The weekly report uses GHL for leads and appointments and the platforms for spend, with a source on every line, flags the double count, and makes no forecast. It's ready for the account lead on time.
Escalation, access and communication
Things outside the trainee's authority reach the right person fast, in one clear note with figures and yes/no questions. Login offers are refused and reported. Clients are acknowledged on time in their own zone and promised nothing.
AI-enabled work
Claude is used where it saves time and is safe, only in Halyard's Claude Team project. Every AI output is checked against the files, and the log is honest and complete, including what stayed out of AI.

Written feedback on every result. A result can be appealed within 7 days, and a different trainer decides the appeal.

Foundation Year

KeyPlayers Foundations