Head of Paid Media

Performance Media Director / Head of Performance Marketing - B2B

Location: London / Hybrid

Salary: Up to £80,000 + benefits, dependent on experience

The Opportunity

An ambitious international agency specialising in the financial services sector is building a new performance media capability and is looking for an experienced media and performance marketing professional to play a key role in its development.

The agency works with a range of leading global and UK financial services organisations, including asset managers, investment banks, wealth managers and financial advice brands.

With an international presence and a close-knit team spanning strategy, creative, content and production, the business operates with a collaborative, entrepreneurial culture and a relatively flat management structure.

This is an opportunity for someone who combines strong analytical thinking with creativity and commercial awareness, and who genuinely understands how media and social channels can be used to identify, segment and target audiences and deliver measurable client outcomes.

The successful candidate will be comfortable operating across the full media lifecycle — from strategy and planning through to buying, optimisation, reporting and client presentation — and will have the confidence to demonstrate the commercial value of media investment to senior clients.

About You

You will ideally:

• Have at least 8 years’ agency experience, preferably within media, performance marketing or a related discipline.
• Be an entrepreneurial, energetic self-starter with strong drive and initiative.
• Have significant digital marketing experience and a strong understanding of digital media, content and online performance.
• Understand emerging approaches to AI-driven media buying, creative strategy and ROI attribution.
• Have a thorough understanding of social media channels and know how to develop effective strategies for predominantly B2B audiences, alongside some B2C activity.
• Bring strong digital media planning, activation and implementation expertise.
• Be highly motivated by delivering measurable outcomes for clients, with experience in audience segmentation and optimisation across paid, earned and owned channels.
• Be able to develop compelling media programmes, proposals and pitches and confidently present recommendations to clients.
• Have strong commercial awareness and an understanding of how to create value for both clients and the agency.

Key Responsibilities

Campaign Strategy & Execution

Develop, execute and optimise performance marketing campaigns across platforms including Google Ads, Meta, Instagram, LinkedIn and other relevant digital channels.

Plan and manage paid search, paid social, display, programmatic and retargeting activity designed to drive traffic, leads, conversions and measurable commercial outcomes.

Take an integrated view of the media mix, identifying opportunities to improve performance across channels and throughout the customer journey.

Analytics, Reporting & Optimisation

Monitor and analyse key performance metrics including CTR, CPC, CPA, conversion rates and ROAS, using insights to continually improve campaign effectiveness.

Develop appropriate testing strategies across creative, audiences, landing pages, messaging and ad formats.

Produce clear campaign reporting and translate data into meaningful, actionable recommendations for clients.

Help establish robust approaches to attribution and measurement, ensuring clients understand the impact of their media investment.

Budget Management

Plan, allocate and optimise media budgets to maximise ROI and achieve agreed KPIs.

Forecast and track spend across channels, identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Maintain strong commercial oversight of campaigns and client accounts.

Creative & Strategic Collaboration

Work closely with strategy, creative, content and client teams to develop integrated campaigns tailored to specific audiences and objectives.

Provide media expertise throughout the creative and strategic process, ensuring campaigns and content are designed with channel performance and activation in mind.

Advise on audience journeys, customer experience, campaign structure and content activation best practice.

Audience Targeting & Segmentation

Develop sophisticated audience strategies and segmentation approaches for different customer and prospect groups.

Use platform, analytics and CRM data to improve targeting, personalisation and campaign performance.

Apply insights from tools including Google Analytics/GA4, Meta audience tools, LinkedIn Campaign Manager and relevant CRM platforms.

Innovation & Market Development

Stay informed about changes in digital media, social platforms, AI, measurement, privacy and advertising technology.

Identify and test emerging channels, tools and approaches that could improve client performance.

Help develop the agency's performance media proposition, processes and capabilities as the function grows.

Key Skills & Experience

Essential

• Significant experience in digital media and performance marketing, ideally gained within an agency environment.
• Strong understanding of the social media landscape and both paid and organic content strategy.
• Demonstrable experience delivering growth, leads, conversions and ROI through performance marketing.
• Expertise across platforms such as Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager and LinkedIn Campaign Manager, with exposure to programmatic advertising.
• Strong digital media planning, buying, activation and optimisation capabilities.
• Experience with analytics and reporting tools such as GA4, Looker Studio and Excel.
• Understanding of attribution, measurement and performance reporting.
• Good understanding of SEO principles and how organic and paid strategies work together.
• Experience developing audience segmentation and targeting strategies.
• Strong client-facing and presentation skills.
• Knowledge of financial services, particularly in relation to media planning, digital marketing and social content strategy.

Additional Experience

Experience with some of the following would be advantageous:

• HubSpot, Marketo or similar CRM and marketing platforms.
• Marketing automation and remarketing strategies.
• Email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp.
• AI-enabled media buying, optimisation or creative tools.
• Basic HTML/CSS knowledge.

Personal Attributes

You will be:

• Highly analytical with strong problem-solving skills.
• Commercially minded and focused on measurable outcomes.
• Confident communicating complex media and performance concepts to clients.
• Comfortable managing multiple campaigns and competing priorities.
• Collaborative and able to work effectively across strategy, creative, content and account teams.
• Proactive, curious and willing to experiment with new platforms and approaches.
• Comfortable working at pace and delivering accurate reporting to tight deadlines.
• Motivated by the opportunity to help build and shape a growing media capability.

Salary up to £80,000, dependent on experience, plus a competitive benefits package.

This is an opportunity to join a growing specialist agency at an important stage in the development of its media offering, with the scope to have a meaningful influence on the capability, client proposition and future growth of the function.