Paid Media Director
Location: London — Hybrid
Salary: £55,000
Sector: Lifestyle, Entertainment & Culture
Employment: Full-time
The Role
We’re looking for an experienced Paid Media Director to lead paid media strategy and delivery across a portfolio of lifestyle and entertainment clients.
This is a senior, hands-on role for someone who can combine strategic media thinking, strong platform knowledge, commercial awareness and confident client leadership.
You’ll own the direction of paid media accounts across Meta, Google, YouTube, TikTok and emerging platforms, working closely with creative, strategy and account teams to develop campaigns that build audiences and deliver measurable commercial results.
You’ll also play an important role in developing the agency’s paid media offering — improving processes, identifying growth opportunities and helping more junior members of the team develop.
What You’ll Be Doing
Strategy & Performance
- Own paid media strategy across a portfolio of key agency clients.
- Develop integrated paid social, search, video and performance media plans.
- Translate client objectives into clear channel strategies, budgets and KPIs.
- Oversee campaign activation, optimisation and reporting across Meta, Google Ads, YouTube and TikTok.
- Lead audience, creative, bidding and budget strategies across the funnel.
- Use performance data to identify opportunities for growth and improved efficiency.
- Develop testing roadmaps across creative, audiences, channels and campaign structures.
- Ensure tracking, attribution and measurement frameworks are robust and actionable.
- Forecast performance and make informed recommendations around investment and channel mix.
Client Leadership
- Act as the senior paid media contact for key clients.
- Lead strategic conversations, campaign reviews and performance presentations.
- Turn complex performance data into clear commercial recommendations.
- Challenge briefs constructively and identify opportunities beyond the client's initial ask.
- Build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders.
- Work alongside account and strategy teams on annual planning and campaign development.
Creative & Culture
Our clients operate in industries where creative and cultural relevance matter.
You’ll work closely with creative teams to ensure media insight influences the work — and that creative performance informs what we make next.
You’ll understand how audiences behave differently across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Search and other digital environments, and use those differences to shape campaign strategy.
Experience across entertainment, music, events, hospitality, fashion, travel, sport or broader lifestyle brands would be particularly valuable.
Leadership & Agency Growth
- Mentor and develop junior members of the paid media team.
- Set high standards for campaign management, reporting and optimisation.
- Improve processes and ways of working across the department.
- Support resource planning across client accounts.
- Contribute to pitches and new-business proposals.
- Identify opportunities to expand existing client relationships.
- Help shape the future direction of the agency’s paid media proposition.
What We’re Looking For
You’ll likely have 5+ years of paid media experience, with significant experience working within an agency environment.
You’ll have strong hands-on knowledge of Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads, alongside experience with platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.
More importantly, you’ll be able to demonstrate:
- Ownership of significant paid media budgets.
- Strong strategic planning and channel-selection skills.
- A track record of improving campaign performance.
- Excellent understanding of paid social and paid search.
- Strong knowledge of measurement, attribution and analytics.
- Confidence presenting to senior client stakeholders.
- The ability to translate data into clear commercial insights.
- Experience managing or mentoring junior team members.
- Strong commercial judgement and an understanding of agency economics.
- The ability to balance several clients and priorities in a fast-paced environment.
What Success Looks Like
You’ll be the person clients trust when they ask:
Where should we invest? What is actually working? What should we change next?
You’ll bring together media, data, creative and commercial thinking rather than treating paid media as simply campaign activation.
Internally, you’ll raise the standard of the agency’s paid media work, develop the people around you and help turn strong client performance into longer, more valuable relationships.
Package
£55,000 per annum, plus agency benefits.
Hybrid working from our London office, with the opportunity to work across an ambitious portfolio of lifestyle and entertainment brands.
