Paid Media Manager

Location: Remote or Hybrid in Cleveland  |  Pay range: $95,000 - $110,000  |  Reports to: Supervisor, Paid Media

The Paid Media Manager owns paid media strategy, execution, and performance for a portfolio of client accounts. This role sets data-driven strategy across paid search, paid social, and programmatic, ensures the work is polished and accurate, and is accountable for results. Acting as a primary client contact, a manager of more junior strategists, and the lead of one of our client pods, the Paid Media Manager is a passionate digital marketer who guides team output while remaining hands-on in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment.  The Paid Media Manager is a player-coach role and will be in the accounts every week building and optimizing campaigns alongside providing client-facing communication, campaign strategy, and pod leadership.

• Leads, sets, and owns the strategy, activation and management of paid media campaigns for assigned clients—including tactics, budgets, projected impact, targeting, ads and keywords—based on client need and opportunity.
• Builds, launches, and optimizes campaigns hands-on for some of the pod’s accounts, from keyword research and ad copy to audiences, bids, and budgets.
• Owns strategy across paid search, paid social, and programmatic/display, with the depth to guide execution in each channel.
• Manages and develops the Paid Search Strategist and Associate team members; reviews and approves their work for strategic quality, accuracy, and client-readiness.
• Ensures ongoing optimizations and campaign adjustments across the pod’s portfolio align with client business goals and overall campaign strategy.
• Owns the quality of final deliverables across the team and presents them effectively to clients.
• Builds and oversees campaigns in platforms such as Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, and programmatic platforms such as StackAdapt; owns the QA process and final review for accuracy across the team.
• Runs A/B tests on ads, audiences, and landing pages and shares what works across accounts.
• Reviews campaigns weekly across the portfolio and sets the strategic and tactical optimization roadmap.
• Oversees weekly campaign management and optimization across the portfolio—budget pacing, SQR review, performance check-ins, and execution against the optimization roadmap.
• Leads monthly client reporting, owns the performance narrative, and sets the go-forward strategy for paid campaigns.
• Occasionally supports new business through media planning, forecasting, and contributions to pitches and scoping.
• Stays current on platform betas and industry trends and disseminates best practices to the team.

• 5+ years of hands-on paid media experience, with at least 4 years building and managing Google Ads campaigns yourself
• 2+ years managing or mentoring direct reports preferred (leading a team informally counts too)
• Expert-level knowledge in paid search required; proficiency in paid social preferred
• Proven results on campaigns such as lowering CPC or CPA, growing conversions, or driving increased revenue
• Conversant with paid media terminology and major platforms (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, etc.)
• Comfortable looking beyond platform level metrics to tie campaign performance to down-funnel success
• Agency experience highly preferred; in-house experience across multiple brands or accounts works too
• Experience managing a portfolio of accounts and multi-channel budgets
• Experience presenting to senior client stakeholders
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Experience with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager preferred, including setting up conversion tracking
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) or Google Workspace tools (Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets), with intermediate to advanced Sheets/Excel skills
• Ability to communicate with a variety of subject matter experts and clients
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Very strong ability to organize work and adhere to deadlines, including the work of junior team members
• Highly accountable and proactive