Paid Media Manager

As our Paid Media Manager, you will run the paid media function. This is a functional leadership role, not a campaign management role with a bigger title. You will operate at a high level and independently drive PPC results for every Zeder brand and market. The Head of Performance Marketing sets the direction and holds you to account for the outcome, but the strategy to get there, and the work that delivers it, are yours to build and own. You are accountable for three things at once: strategic planning, management of the function, and execution. You will not carry the delivery alone. This role is supported by team members who execute the work, and part of the job is directing them well: setting the tasks, holding the standard, and lifting their output. You will bring 7+ years of paid media experience across both Paid Search and Paid Social, and the management capability to run a function rather than a task list. Above all, this role is expected to think for itself: to read the accounts, the websites, the products and the market, and come back with its own priorities and recommendations rather than waiting to be told what matters. Ad copy and creative are produced by our Performance Marketing Coordinators to your brief, so you direct and approve the work rather than writing it.
1. PPC Strategy and Planning
- Own the paid media strategy across all Zeder brands and markets, weighted to the commercial priorities set by the Head of Performance Marketing.
- Take a stated outcome, such as a revenue target, ROAS target, CAC target, lead volume, market entry or margin recovery, and build the strategy to deliver it, including channel mix, account architecture, budget split, bidding approach, audience strategy, testing roadmap and timeline.
- Set the quarterly and monthly PPC plan and defend it with reasoning and numbers rather than waiting for the plan to be handed down.
- Decide how Paid Search and Paid Social are weighted for each brand and market, and when to shift weight between them.
- Own the testing agenda: what gets tested, why it is worth testing, and what a result has to look like before it changes the strategy.
- Identify and build the case for new channels, markets, campaign types and platform products, including the cost, the expected return and the risk of doing nothing.
2. Commercial and Budget Ownership
- Own the PPC budget across brand, region, channel and campaign, including allocation, in-month pacing, reforecasting, and the call on where to scale, hold or cut.
- Forecast paid performance by brand and market, and be accountable for the forecast, not only for reporting against it.
- Work to the commercial model behind each brand, including margin, average order value, product mix, stock position, promotional calendar, and the difference between consumer and trade demand.
- Build the investment case when more budget is warranted, and say so plainly when spend should be reduced or moved.
- Flag budget risk and opportunity early, with the recommendation attached.
3. Team Leadership and Task Ownership
- Lead the PPC function day to day, including the Senior PPC Specialist and the PPC Specialists.
- Translate strategy into the team's task list, brief the work, set priority order and deadlines, and hold the team to the standard.
- Manage workload and capacity across a multi-brand, multi-region account set, and make the call on what does not get done this month.
- Set and run the operating cadence for the function, including planning, stand-ups, reviews and handovers.
- Manage performance directly: expectations, feedback, one-on-ones, review cycles, and escalating a performance issue rather than absorbing it.
- Brief the Performance Marketing Coordinators on ad copy and creative requirements, review what comes back, and approve it or send it back with clear direction.
4. Hands-On Execution and Quality Control
- Build, restructure and optimise campaigns personally across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok and other platforms in use, to the standard expected of the team.
- Audit the team's work directly in the accounts rather than from a dashboard.
- Take the hardest or highest-risk work personally, including new market launches, failing accounts, structural rebuilds and platform migrations.
- Own tracking and measurement integrity in partnership with the website and analytics teams, including conversion setup, feeds, attribution assumptions, and knowing when the numbers are wrong.
- Set the QA standard for the function and enforce it on every launch.
5. Initiative and Business Reading
- Read the accounts, the websites, the product range and the market without being asked, and return a prioritised list of what should change, why, and what it is worth.
- Bring proposals rather than questions: options, recommendation, cost and expected return.
- Monitor competitor paid activity, auction dynamics, platform changes and new ad products, and decide what Zeder should do about them.
- Identify problems in adjacent areas that hurt paid performance, including landing pages, feed quality, stock availability, pricing and promotional mechanics, and drive them to resolution with the relevant owner.
- Operate as the source of initiative for the PPC function, so that the Head of Performance Marketing is not the only person generating direction.
6. Process, Standards and Governance
- Define and maintain the PPC operating standards, including account structure, naming conventions, QA checklists, launch and pack-down process, and change logging.
- Document how the function works so that it does not live in one person's head, and keep the documentation current.
- Own the onboarding and training path for new PPC hires.
- Ensure all activity complies with platform policy, brand guidelines and regional advertising regulation.
- Maintain account access, billing structure and account health across brands and regions.
7. Reporting and Stakeholder Communication
- Report PPC performance upward with the implication attached: what happened, why, what it means commercially, and what is being done about it.
- Own the monthly and quarterly PPC review, including the parts that are not going well.
- Escalate early on risk, spend anomalies, platform issues and missed targets.
- Work across SEO, Email, SMS, CRO, ecommerce, brand, creative, analytics and sales so that paid activity lines up with everything else in market.
8. Capability Building and Resourcing
- Build the capability of the PPC team through coaching, structured training and raising the standard of work reviewed.
- Own the resourcing plan for the PPC function: what the team needs to look like over the next twelve months, what each seat is for, and when it is needed.
- Contribute to hiring for the function, including role design, screening and technical assessment.
- Identify single points of failure in the team and remove them through documentation, cross-training and succession.
In addition to the duties listed above, the position holder must carry out tasks assigned by the supervisor that are essentially related to duties.