Senior Paid Media Manager

The Senior Paid Media Manager is a hands-on delivery lead across Paid Search and Paid Social, responsible for campaign performance and the quality of media execution across their portfolio and team. Working closely with the client team, you will translate client strategy and objectives into effective media plans, campaign builds and ongoing optimisation across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, Tik Tok, Reddit, Snapchat and Pinterest.

You will also collaborate with the SEO team to align paid and organic search. You will take a hands-on role in day-to-day campaign setup, optimisation and reporting, while coaching Paid Media Managers and Executives and reviewing the quality of their output. You will also provide senior support on complex builds, troubleshooting and performance challenges. Strong budget management, QA and consistent delivery processes are central to the role.

Working with the Head of Media Strategy and other Senior Managers, you will help improve how the team delivers media, embed best practice and apply new tools and platform developments where they improve quality, efficiency or performance.

Campaign Delivery, Planning & Optimisation Lead end-to-end Paid Search and Paid Social campaign delivery, ensuring campaigns are planned, built, launched and optimised accurately and on time. Work with the Account Director to translate client strategy into channel plans, campaign structures, targeting and testing approaches aligned with agreed KPIs and budgets. Take responsibility for ongoing campaign performance, ensuring the team acts on data quickly and effectively to improve results.

Regularly review account setup and performance, identifying delivery issues and optimisation opportunities and following through on the actions needed. Use audience, keyword, creative and competitor analysis to inform planning, testing and optimisation across the funnel. Collaborate with SEO to align paid and organic search through shared insights, testing and measurement. Turn platform and third-party data into clear insights and practical recommendations for campaign improvements.

Build relationships with platform partners such as Google and Meta, using their expertise, support and testing opportunities to improve campaign performance and resolve delivery or technical issues. Stay ahead of platform developments and share relevant opportunities and learning across the team.

Manage budgets across your portfolio, maintaining accurate pacing against agreed media plans and ensuring forecasts, budget changes and billing information are kept up to date. Set and uphold best-practice standards for account structure, campaign setup, naming, tracking, measurement, optimisation and QA, ensuring they are consistently followed across the team. Embed robust pre-launch QA, second-person reviews and post-launch delivery checks, including checks on targeting, creative, tracking, budgets and spend limits.

Ensure regular pacing and delivery checks are completed, with risks and issues flagged promptly to the Account Director and relevant team members and followed through to resolution. Conduct regular account audits and work reviews, ensuring agreed media plans and subsequent changes are accurately reflected in platform execution. Improve paid media processes, documentation and ways of working, helping the team adopt tools, automation and AI where they improve delivery, with appropriate checks on quality and accuracy.

Work with other Senior Managers to embed consistent standards and implement improvements agreed with the Head of Media Strategy.

Act as the senior Paid Media point of contact across your accounts, providing confidence in…