Lead Specialist, Digital Marketing (Paid Media / Performance)

Define and deliver performance marketing strategies across paid search, paid social, and demand generation campaigns, aligned to agreed commercial objectives. 

Translate business and portfolio goals into channel-level strategies, budgets, and KPIs. 

Ensure activity is audience-led, insight-driven, and optimised to deliver measurable ROI and revenue contribution. 

Own performance marketing execution across multiple campaigns, products, and qualification portfolios. 

Oversee paid media strategy, implementation, optimisation, and reporting across platforms including Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, including Search, Display, YouTube, and Performance Max; Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit, Spotify, Quora and emerging channels, ensuring best-practice application. 

Build out testing frameworks, and lead on creative experimentation, audience strategies, and bidding approaches. 

Maintain platform health, governance standards, naming conventions, account structures, and documentation. 

Own day-to-day and strategic relationships with paid media agencies and external partners. 

Manage priorities, testing roadmaps, optimisation requirements, and performance expectations with agencies and partners. 

Quality-assure agency output, challenge recommendations where required, and ensure best-value delivery. 

Resolve performance or delivery issues, coordinating with agencies, platforms, and internal stakeholders as needed. 

Own performance measurement across paid media channels, ensuring robust tracking, attribution, and reporting. 

Maintain GA4, GTM, Consent Mode v2, enhanced conversions, and cross-domain measurement approaches. 

Provide actionable insights through reporting, dashboards, and executive summaries for senior stakeholders. 

Support forecasting, budget pacing, and performance modelling in collaboration with finance and senior marketing leadership. 

Lead on day-to-day paid media operations, driving consistency, quality, and efficiency. 

Partner with portfolio leads, subject marketers, CRM, and senior marketing stakeholders to shape campaign approach and priorities. 

Translate complex performance data into clear, non-technical insights suitable for leadership audiences. 

Advise on channel performance, investment decisions, and optimisation opportunities. 

Establish and maintain best-practice processes, BAU optimisation routines, and campaign governance standards. 

Maintain central trackers, documentation, credit card expenses, and request processes for paid media activity. 

Contribute to knowledge sharing and capability uplift across the wider marketing team. 

Identify and action opportunities for improvement across automation, tooling, attribution, and workflow efficiency, and help drive adoption where appropriate. 

Support adoption of new technologies, platforms, and AI-driven optimisation approaches where appropriate. 

Extensive hands-on experience in performance marketing, with deep expertise in paid search and paid media strategy. 

Proven track record of delivering ROI-positive campaigns aligned to commercial objectives. 

Strong analytical capability, with confidence working directly with data, platforms, and performance metrics.  

Advanced knowledge of GA4, GTM, Consent Mode v2, enhanced conversions, and attribution modelling. 

Experience reporting to senior, non-technical stakeholders and producing executive-ready insights. 

Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence without direct authority. 

Experience managing agencies and external partners. 

Highly organised, detail-oriented, and comfortable operating across multiple portfolios and timelines. 

Experience within education, qualifications, or regulated sectors. 

Exposure to BigQuery, Looker, or data warehousing environments. 

Experience contributing to capability building, documentation, or training initiatives. 

Understanding of advanced statistical analysis techniques such as marketing mix modelling and correlation modelling. 

Google Ads and/or platform certifications.