Associate Director, Paid Search

Digital Matter is a next-generation growth and transformation partner built for the realities of today’s market. We combine the pace and precision of a startup with the discipline and rigor of a global advisory firm.

We help consumer brands manage media as a strategic asset class, with the same intentionality and governance applied to capital allocation. By connecting data, technology, and creative, we turn media investment into measurable enterprise value: accelerating growth, improving efficiency, and building durable capabilities.

Over the past seven years, we’ve guided organizations through IPOs, digital turnarounds, and successful exits. Our point of view is simple: when media is managed as capital, it becomes a catalyst for transformation at scale.

We're looking for an Associate Director of Paid Search to lead search strategy, execution, and growth across our client portfolio. This is a senior, client-facing leadership role for someone who has deep, hands-on paid search expertise built over a decade of experience and who has seen the business from both sides of the table, having worked agency-side and platform/vendor-side (Google or Microsoft).

This person will own paid search performance and strategy for a book of business and be accountable for the revenue tied to that book and play an active role in growing it through client retention, upsell, and new business support.

• Strategy & Leadership
  • Own and evolve paid search strategy across assigned client accounts, ensuring alignment with each client's broader marketing and business objectives.
  • Serve as the senior search point of contact for clients, presenting strategy, performance, and recommendations directly to client stakeholders, including senior marketing leadership.
  • Translate platform-level trends (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and emerging AI-driven search products) into actionable strategic recommendations for clients.
  • Partner cross-functionally with integrated, paid social, programmatic and product to ensure integrated, full-funnel media strategies.
• Planning & Activation
  • In partnership with the integrated media team, lead paid search campaign planning, budget allocation, and channel strategy across search accounts, ensuring efficient and effective use of client media investment.
  • Oversee campaign build, QA, and activation, ensuring accuracy and adherence to best practices at scale.
  • Stay ahead of platform betas, product releases, and policy changes across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, and proactively bring relevant opportunities to clients.
• Optimization & Analytics
  • Direct ongoing campaign optimization, including bidding strategy, audience/keyword strategy, and creative/ad copy testing.
  • Own performance reporting and analysis, delivering clear, insight-driven readouts that go beyond metrics to explain the “so what” and “what's next.”
  • Lead test-and-learn agendas (incrementality testing, brand lift, channel mix testing) to continuously improve performance and prove impact.
  • Ensure measurement infrastructure (conversion tracking, attribution, tagging) is set up correctly and audited regularly for accuracy.
• Team Leadership
  • Build scalable processes, playbooks, and best practices to standardize search execution across the team and client roster.
• Business Growth & Revenue Ownership
  • Own growth of your book of business, proactively identifying opportunities to expand scope, budget, and services within existing client relationships.
  • Be accountable for revenue goals tied to your book of business, tracking performance against targets and taking ownership of the outcome.
  • Support new business efforts, including contributing search strategy and POVs to pitches and RFPs.
  • Build strong, trust-based client relationships that lead to…