Paid Media Specialist - Meta & Google Ads

We are looking for an experienced Paid Media Specialist to take ownership of paid acquisition across Meta and Google Ads for a portfolio of founder-led direct-to-consumer brands.

This is a senior, hands-on role for someone who combines strong platform expertise with commercial and strategic thinking. You will not simply be executing campaign briefs or making routine optimisations. You will be expected to understand each client's business, identify opportunities, challenge existing approaches where appropriate, and proactively recommend what should happen next.

The ideal person has significant experience managing paid media accounts and has developed the judgement that comes from seeing campaigns perform across different conditions, budgets and stages of growth.

You should be equally comfortable developing a paid media strategy, restructuring a Google Ads account, analysing Meta performance, proposing a testing roadmap and explaining your recommendations clearly to a founder or client.

Key Responsibilities

Paid Media Strategy

• Own paid media strategy across a portfolio of approximately 4–5 client accounts.
• Develop channel strategies based on each client's commercial objectives, customer journey, product mix and average order value.
• Identify the biggest opportunities and performance constraints within client accounts.
• Recommend appropriate budget allocation across Meta and Google.
• Balance short-term revenue generation with longer-term customer acquisition and brand-building objectives.
• Develop clear 30-, 60- and 90-day plans for new and existing client accounts.
• Proactively identify opportunities rather than waiting for detailed instructions or briefs.

Google Ads

Manage and optimise Google Ads activity including:

• Search campaigns
• Shopping campaigns
• Performance Max
• Brand and non-brand search
• Remarketing
• Audience strategies
• Feed-led performance activity

Responsibilities will include:

• Campaign and account restructuring where required.
• Search term and keyword analysis.
• Budget and bidding optimisation.
• Performance Max optimisation.
• Product and Shopping analysis.
• Conversion tracking and attribution analysis.
• Identifying inefficiencies and opportunities to scale.
• Developing and implementing testing roadmaps.

Meta Advertising

Manage and optimise Meta advertising including:

• Advantage+ Shopping campaigns
• Prospecting campaigns
• Retargeting
• Creative testing
• Audience testing
• Campaign structure and optimisation

You will work closely with clients and creative teams to identify which messaging, formats, products and creative concepts should be tested.

You should be able to distinguish between a media buying problem, a creative problem and a wider commercial or conversion issue.

Performance Analysis

• Regularly analyse campaign performance across Meta and Google.
• Diagnose what is working, what is underperforming and why.
• Identify what additional data is required to make informed decisions.
• Prioritise recommendations according to likely commercial impact.
• Monitor metrics such as ROAS, CPA, CAC, conversion rate, CTR, CPC and revenue.
• Look beyond platform metrics to understand the broader commercial impact of paid media activity.
• Turn performance data into clear actions and recommendations.

Testing & Optimisation

Build structured testing plans across areas such as:

• Creative
• Messaging
• Offers
• Audiences
• Campaign structures
• Landing pages
• Search strategy
• Budget allocation
• Bidding
• Product segmentation

Every test should have a clear rationale, success metric and next action.

Client Communication

This is a client-facing role.

You will be expected to:

• Communicate campaign performance clearly and confidently.
• Explain complex paid media concepts in simple commercial language.
• Present recommendations to founders and senior stakeholders.
• Participate in client meetings and performance reviews.
• Build trusted relationships with clients.
• Raise concerns and opportunities proactively.
• Be comfortable challenging assumptions when the data supports a different approach.

Clients are typically founder-led businesses, so strong interpersonal skills are essential.

Client Portfolio

You will predominantly work with founder-led DTC and e-commerce brands across sectors such as:

• Luxury
• Lifestyle
• Beauty
• Family
• Consumer products

Average order values can range from approximately £100 to £2,000+.

Experience working with premium, luxury or higher-consideration purchases would therefore be particularly valuable.

You should understand that the acquisition strategy for a £1,500 product is different from the strategy for a £30 impulse purchase.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone with substantial hands-on experience managing paid media campaigns.

You are likely to have operated at Senior Executive, Paid Media Manager, Performance Marketing Manager or equivalent level.

You should have:

• Strong practical experience across both Meta Ads and Google Ads.
• Significant experience managing e-commerce or DTC campaigns.
• Strong knowledge of Google Search, Shopping and Performance Max.
• Strong knowledge of Meta prospecting, retargeting and Advantage+ campaigns.
• Experience managing meaningful advertising budgets.
• Strong analytical and diagnostic skills.
• Commercial understanding beyond individual advertising metrics.
• Experience developing and executing paid media strategies.
• Confidence making recommendations with incomplete information.
• The ability to independently manage multiple accounts.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience presenting performance and recommendations to clients or senior stakeholders.
• A proactive approach to account optimisation.

The Type of Person Who Will Succeed

You will thrive in this role if you naturally look at an account and think:

What is happening? Why is it happening? What should we change? What should we test next?

You are someone who will proactively say:

"I've been reviewing the campaign results and I think we should try this."

rather than waiting for someone to tell you exactly what optimisation to make.

You should be comfortable operating independently while still collaborating closely with the wider team.

We are particularly interested in people who have enough experience to have seen both excellent and poor-performing campaigns and who have developed strong judgement as a result.

What This Role Is Not

This is not a junior media buying position.

We are not looking for someone whose experience is limited to:

• Following predefined campaign briefs.
• Making basic weekly optimisations.
• Producing reports without recommendations.
• Operating advertising platforms without understanding the wider business.
• Waiting for a manager to determine the strategy.

The successful person will be expected to diagnose, prioritise, recommend, execute, test and optimise.

Key Competencies

Strategic Thinking

You can connect business objectives to channel strategy and prioritise the actions most likely to improve performance.

Platform Expertise

You understand Meta and Google Ads from the platform level upwards and remain comfortable working directly inside both platforms.

Commercial Judgement

You understand how factors such as pricing, margins, customer acquisition cost, average order value and conversion behaviour affect advertising strategy.

Independence

You can self-brief, investigate problems and make informed recommendations without requiring constant direction.

Communication

You are personable, confident and able to explain your thinking clearly to non-technical clients.

Curiosity

You continuously investigate why performance is changing and actively look for new opportunities to improve results.

Example of the Work

You may inherit an e-commerce account spending approximately £2,000–£3,000 per month across Google and Meta.

You would be expected to:

1. Analyse existing campaign performance.
2. Identify the biggest performance issues and opportunities.
3. Determine what additional information or data is needed.
4. Recommend changes across Google and Meta.
5. Propose an appropriate budget allocation.
6. Build a 30-, 60- and 90-day optimisation plan.
7. Identify the first two or three tests to run.
8. Define success metrics for those tests.
9. Present your recommendations clearly to the client.
10. Implement and continuously optimise the strategy.

Role Details

Position: Paid Media Specialist – Meta & Google Ads
Level: Senior / Manager-level
Employment: Full-time
Location: South Africa / Remote
Primary Channels: Meta Ads and Google Ads
Client Load: Approximately 4–5 accounts

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role means that clients feel they have a trusted paid media expert proactively managing their accounts rather than simply an external campaign operator.

You will consistently:

• Identify opportunities before being asked.
• Improve the quality of strategic decision-making.
• Run disciplined testing programmes.
• Communicate clearly with clients.
• Maintain strong account organisation.
• Drive sustainable improvements in paid media performance.

Ultimately, we are looking for someone who thinks like a consultant, operates like a paid media specialist and communicates like a trusted client partner.