Role Framework
Seven distinct digital marketing roles, each with a specific competency profile, performance expectations, and readiness criteria. The role is not a label - it is a structural specification.
7 roles
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Institutional architecture
Seven roles. Ten competencies. One framework.
aFactor's three frameworks define what digital marketing roles require, what competencies underpin them, and how readiness is measured.
Why a framework
The industry has no shared definition of what its roles require.
Job descriptions are written ad hoc, mixing strategic responsibilities with tactical tasks. The result is confusion - for professionals, for employers, and for educators.
aFactor's Role Framework defines seven distinct digital marketing roles, each mapped to ten universal competency domains with role-specific importance weightings.
The three frameworks address that structural gap directly:
- The Role Framework defines what each role demands.
- The Competency Model defines what underpins those roles.
- The Role Readiness Assessment measures where a professional stands against both.
Together they form a coherent system: clarity about the role, structure for the competencies, and diagnostic measurement of readiness.
The three frameworks
Clarity, structure, measurement.
Each framework is a public document. Each is governed by the same standards body. Each connects directly to aFactor's programs and assessments.
Competency Model
Ten universal competency domains every digital marketing professional needs, weighted differently depending on the target role. Not ten courses - ten integrated dimensions.
10 domains
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Role Readiness Assessment
A diagnostic instrument that measures professional judgement under ambiguity, not recall under pressure. Twenty scenario-based questions. No textbook answers.
45 minutes
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How they fit together
One coherent system, three connected instruments.
The frameworks are not standalone documents - they are tightly coupled. The Role Framework defines the destinations. The Competency Model defines the components. The Assessment locates you on the map.
01
Define the role
Pick a target role from the Role Framework. Each role specifies its performance expectations and the competency domains it depends on most heavily.
Role Framework
02
Decompose the role
The Competency Model breaks each role into its ten weighted domains - analytical ability, strategic thinking, communication, collaboration, and so on.
Competency Model
03
Measure readiness
The Role Readiness Assessment produces a profile across those domains. The gap between your profile and the role tells you what to work on first.
Assessment
In practice
Programs are calibrated to the gap.
When a learner arrives, aFactor knows their target role, their current competency profile, and the precise distance between them. The program is shaped around that distance, not around a generic syllabus.
Frameworks at a glance
Live
Defined roles7
Competency domains10
Assessment dimensions7
Scenario items20
Readiness bands4
GovernanceCouncil-led
The thinking
Competence over proficiency.
When a tool changes, the professional adapts - because their competence is in the thinking, not the clicking. This is the stable foundation the framework is built on.
Tools change every year. Google Ads redesigns its structure. Meta revises options. Competencies remain structurally stable. A professional trained in the competencies that underlie tool use - analytical thinking, channel strategy, budget optimisation - can adapt to any interface change. aFactor trains professionals, not tool operators.
Find the program that builds your role readiness.
The framework covers seven roles. aFactor runs programs for three of them: Digital Discovery Excellence (SEO), Digital Acquisition Excellence (PPC: Google Ads and Meta Ads) and Digital Attention Excellence (Social Media Organic), each 16 weeks with 48 live sessions.
Every program is built on this framework - mapped to a role, structured around competency domains, and designed for capability.
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