Head of Paid Media

We're excited to be partnering with an award-winning digital agency entering an exciting phase of growth, looking for an experienced Head of Paid Media to take ownership of its growing performance offering.

This is a rare chance to join an ambitious agency at a pivotal stage, helping shape how the performance function operates while staying hands-on across client delivery. You'll have genuine influence over strategy, processes, client growth and the future direction of the team, with a clear pathway to building and leading the function as the agency scales.

Working across an exciting portfolio of recognised brands, you'll combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution, ensuring exceptional performance across Paid Search and Paid Social campaigns while playing a key role in the agency's commercial growth.

• Shape and lead cross-channel paid media strategy across a diverse client portfolio.
• Independently plan, build, launch and optimise Paid Social campaigns, primarily across Meta, alongside Google Ads PPC campaigns.
• Remain actively involved in campaign setup, optimisation, testing and troubleshooting rather than operating in a purely strategic capacity.
• Manage bidding strategies, audience targeting, budget allocation and campaign optimisation to maximise performance.
• Take full ownership of campaign performance, budgets and reporting, with accountability for delivering measurable commercial results.
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, increase ROI and drive continuous performance improvements across accounts.

• Oversee campaign measurement, attribution and tracking frameworks.
• Produce meaningful performance reporting that focuses on business impact rather than platform metrics alone.
• Translate campaign data into actionable recommendations for both clients and internal teams.
• Stay ahead of developments across AI, automation and advertising platforms, implementing new tools where they add genuine value.
• Build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders, acting as the day-to-day performance lead.
• Present campaign performance confidently, providing strategic recommendations and clear commercial context.
• Identify opportunities to grow existing client accounts through additional channels, services and performance initiatives.
• Support new business activity by developing media plans, forecasts, channel strategies and performance-led proposals.
• Contribute to pitches and commercial conversations, embedding performance thinking into how the agency wins new business.

• Work closely with the leadership team as a genuine partner in shaping the agency's paid media offering.
• Help establish scalable processes, reporting standards, best practices and operational frameworks that will support future growth.
• Introduce structure and consistency across campaign delivery, reporting and account management.
• Coordinate closely with wider agency teams to ensure integrated delivery
• As the agency grows, take responsibility for managing freelancers and future hires, mentoring and developing the team while helping build a high-performing performance department.

We're looking for someone who combines technical expertise with commercial thinking and leadership ambition.

You’ll ideally have:

• Proven agency experience leading Paid Media or Performance Marketing campaigns.
• Strong hands-on expertise across Google Ads, Meta Ads and other major paid media platforms such as Linked In.
• The ability to independently manage both Paid Search and Paid Social campaigns from strategy through to optimisation.
• Experience managing significant monthly advertising budgets with accountability for performance against commercial objectives.
• Strong understanding of attribution, analytics, reporting and performance measurement.
• Confidence presenting campaign results to clients, explaining performance clearly and providing strategic recommendations.
• A commercial mindset with the ability to identify opportunities for account growth and contribute to agency revenue.
• Experience supporting new business pitches and developing media…