Paid Search Strategist

6 days ago

Chicago, Illinois, United States Critical Mass Full time
Media Planner - Paid Search and Social

You will lead the creation, execution, and optimization of paid search and paid social campaigns for a client's large recruitment effort. Acting as the strategic SEM and paid social support, you'll oversee budget and bid management, as well as ongoing performance optimization. You will collaborate across channels and departments and deliver data-driven insights and actionable performance reporting to clients. You'll define and communicate SEM and paid social goals, ensure client satisfaction, and educate internal and external teams on the evolving SEM and social landscape and emerging opportunities.

You Will
  • Ensure effective campaign performance with hands on keys.
  • Drive the ongoing development, implementation, and optimization of SEM and paid social for a US brand with $30MM+ budgets
  • Work as part of a larger Media team, aligning your campaigns with your colleagues' strategies to reduce costs & improve performance by sharing learnings
  • Translate business goals to SEM and paid social platform activation strategies/tactics
  • Own the hands-on execution and management of day-to-day performance for multiple campaigns, including budget pacing, campaign setup, account structure, targeting strategy, bid strategy, platforms, data usage, performance optimizations, testing strategy, troubleshooting, and downstream client funnel optimization
  • Clearly communicate paid search and paid social best practices and strategies, both internally and externally
  • Create and share search POVs
  • Develop consistent account processes and procedures
  • Craft compelling ad copy and guide CRO strategies to drive high-quality traffic and conversions
  • Deliver actionable insights to clients through insightful, visually compelling reports (including analysis and strategic recommendations)
  • Identify market and consumer trends, telling a story with search data
  • Run iterative testing strategies to drive incremental performance lifts
  • Map out search and social tactics and strategies on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis
  • Conduct regular SEM and social media audits and competitive analyses to identify net-new opportunities and recommendations to clients
  • Provide data-driven insights and recommendations to refine our strategy and improve campaign performance
  • Stay on top of the latest trends in the SEM and social landscape, keeping clients educated and adapting our search strategies as needed in response
You Have
  • 2+ years of hands-on experience managing and optimizing paid search and paid social campaigns, including Google Ads, Bing Ads, Search Ads 360, and Meta
  • Client-facing experience is a strong plus
  • Managing workflows and collaborating across departments to drive team alignment and deliver on campaign objectives and client goals.
  • Expertise in technical execution and reporting, with platform management experience across SA360, Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, other SEM tools, and Meta, and drive actionable insights.
  • Managing monthly and yearly campaign budgets, including forecasting, pacing, and collaborating with finance teams to manage financial reporting.
  • Leveraging performance data and analytics to make informed decisions, optimize campaigns, and provide actionable recommendations to improve ROI.
  • Strong ability to prioritize tasks effectively and remain flexible in a dynamic, fast-changing environment.
  • Leading conversion rate optimization efforts and A/B testing strategies to drive improved campaign performance.
  • Creating and presenting detailed reports and performance updates to clients, internal stakeholders, and senior leadership, with a strong focus on data visualization and actionable insights.
  • Proficiency in Excel and spreadsheet management, including advanced functions for data analysis and reporting.
  • Agency experience preferred, with a strong understanding of fast-paced environments and client deliverables.
What We Offer
  • Global maternity and parental leave
  • Competitive benefits packages
  • Vacation, compassionate leave, wellness days, and flex days
  • Six free therapy sessions through Therify
  • Access to online services for families and new parents
  • Hybrid work options
  • Summer Fridays (off at 3:00 PM local time every Friday)
  • Diversity and Inclusion Board with 12 affinity groups
  • Funding towards internal learning and development
  • Enterprise-wide employee discounts
The Talent Team at Critical Mass is focused on ensuring we provide the best training, onboarding, and employee experience possible Our new hires & employees are the future of our organization, and we want to set you up for long-term success. In an effort to do so, we expect our team to work from an office a minimum of 3 days a week. The ask stems from our want to:

Strengthen opportunity for continuous learning
Improve collaboration and team relationships.
Increase employee engagement

This hybrid model balances the need for individual flexibility while maintaining the relentless customer focus we provide at CM. We understand that not everyone may feel comfortable with this expectation, so we ask that you please let us know immediately if there are any concerns so we can help navigate accordingly.

We continually review ranges to address skills, experience and markets. Base salaries are determined during our interview process, by assessing a number of factors that include, but aren't limited to, a candidate's experience and skills relative to the scope and responsibilities of the position. For current CM employees, tenure will also be a consideration.

Salary Range

$75,000-$90,000 USD

Critical Mass is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We do not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. If you are an individual with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please reach out to accommodations@criticalmass.com.

We are committed to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion within our candidate pools.

The Critical Mass Talent Acquisition team will only communicate from email addresses that use the URLs criticalmass.com and us.greenhouse-mail.io. We will not use apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Google Hangouts for communicating with you. We will never ask you to send us money, technology, or anything else to work for our company. If you believe you are the victim of a scam, please review your local government consumer protections guidance and reach out to them directly.

If U.S. based: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams#avoid
If Canada based: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/finance/consumer-affairs.html
If U.K. based: https://www.gov.uk/consumer-protection-rights
If Costa Rica based: https://www.consumo.go.cr/educacion_consumidor/consejos_practicos.aspx

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