Paid Media Manager

Our client is a rapidly expanding technology-driven indoor soccer facility chain with numerous locations across North America. Founded by a former professional and international player, the business offers three main product lines: youth and adult soccer classes, a unique proprietary one-on-one training system with no direct competitors, and a fast-growing adult pickup format. With strong on-site conversion rates already established, the primary goal is to increase the number of qualified leads through paid media channels. To support this growth, they are seeking a Paid Media Specialist to bring paid acquisition in-house, primarily managing Meta platforms, supporting Google Ads as a secondary channel, and enhancing the quality and frequency of creative assets. This is a part-time, remote role requiring approximately 30 hours per week.

Key Responsibilities:
- Manage day-to-day Meta campaign operations, including audience testing, budget pacing, bidding strategies, and daily optimizations.
- Rebuild and organize the existing ad account by retiring inactive assets and establishing clear naming conventions and campaign structures.
- Maintain a consistent creative testing schedule to avoid reliance on stale ad assets.
- Collaborate with the in-house social and video lead to brief, direct, and evaluate creative across static, video, and UGC formats.
- Develop creative concepts centered on the founder’s story, proprietary training technology, measurable improvement metrics, and the adult pickup product.
- Write and refine ad copy and hooks tailored for distinct audiences, such as soccer-savvy parents and adult recreational players.
- Design and test lead magnet offers, including free one-on-one sessions or trial classes, along with their messaging.
- Manage Google Ads campaigns across Search, Performance Max, and YouTube as a secondary channel.
- Recommend budget adjustments between Meta and Google based on cost per qualified lead rather than historical allocations.
- Provide specific conversion feedback on landing pages to the internal web team.
- Build scalable campaign structures that support multi-location growth and new market launches.
- Monitor campaign performance daily and implement changes in real time, avoiding delayed reviews.
- Report on cost per lead, lead quality, and cost per acquisition segmented by location and product line.
- Collaborate with the email and lifecycle manager to ensure smooth lead handoff into nurture sequences.
- Document testing outcomes, learnings, and winning strategies to continuously improve account performance.
- Ensure seamless transition and overlap with the outgoing agency to maintain uninterrupted live advertising.

Required Qualifications:
- Minimum of 4 years of hands-on experience managing paid media campaigns, specifically with direct ownership of Meta Ads Manager.
- Proven expertise in running lead generation campaigns rather than traffic or brand awareness initiatives.
- Ability to diagnose and reverse rising cost per lead through strategic audience, campaign structure, and creative adjustments.
- Experience briefing, directing, and evaluating creative content, including video and UGC-style ads.
- Consistent track record of launching new creative assets on a regular testing cadence.
- Working knowledge of Google Ads platforms (Search, Performance Max, YouTube) sufficient to manage and optimize secondary channels.
- Strong account hygiene skills, including naming conventions, campaign structuring, archiving dormant assets, and clean reporting.
- Experience managing multi-location or local advertising with geo-targeted campaign structures and budget allocation.
- Ability to provide practical, actionable conversion feedback on landing pages.
- Familiarity with conversion tracking and measurement tools such as Meta pixel, Conversions API, GA4, UTM discipline, and lead-stage reporting.
- Capability to explain performance metrics in terms of cost per qualified lead and downstream conversions, beyond CTR and CPM.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with real-time responsiveness.
- Independent ability to develop a testing roadmap without an existing playbook.
- Comfort using AI creative tools while exercising judgment to reject unrealistic outputs.
- Native or C2-level English proficiency.
- Availability for meaningful daily overlap with US Central Time hours.

Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience marketing to parents of youth athletes or within youth sports, fitness, gyms, studios, or membership-based businesses.
- Personal familiarity with soccer or other participation sports to engage credibly with the target audience.
- Experience marketing to dual buyer personas within the same account (e.g., parents purchasing for children and adults purchasing for themselves).
- Background working with franchise or multi-unit brands, including new market launches.
- Ability to script or storyboard short-form video and write briefs for UGC creators.
- Familiarity with Webflow and dedicated campaign landing pages.
- Experience building campaigns around founder-led brand storytelling.
- Knowledge of free trial and first-session lead magnets and associated follow-up sequences.
- Experience with AI creative tools such as Higgsfield, Runway, or Midjourney.
- Proven ability to take over accounts from outside agencies and rebuild them.
- Combination of agency experience and in-house ownership mindset.

This role offers the opportunity to lead paid media efforts for a dynamic and growing brand, working remotely with flexible hours while making a significant impact on lead generation and business growth.