Senior Paid Strategist

Job Description:

This role will involve leading and guiding a small team of junior/intermediate paid analysts, helping them to drive RoAS by implementing stronger processes, tools, and strategies. The ideal candidate is analytical and strategic with hands-on experience in managing and optimizing digital and social media advertising on a range of platforms, including programmatic, Facebook/Instagram, and LinkedIn. It is also important for the candidate to always be learning and exploring other/new paid media channels and customer acquisition opportunities (e.g., platforms, media types, etc.) to bring new thinking to our clients. The ideal candidate will have excellent communication skills and have an entrepreneurial spirit.

About Us:

At Spark Growth, we’re a growing team, passionate about digital marketing that focuses on driving real business results, primarily through digital ads, social media, and growth marketing. Our company has been around for a decade, with offices in Toronto and NYC, and has 6 core values that we look for in all our team members:

• Strategic – go beyond checking the boxes
• Fired Up – do what we do with passion
• Resourceful – find the possibilities, not the problems
• Inclusive – be who you are
• Straightforward – say what you feel
• Results-driven – set aggressive goals, then measure and achieve them

Perks & Benefits:

We offer a fun, flexible working environment, a fully-stocked kitchen with snacks, and a focus on physical and mental wellness!

• Our office is located at Dundas and Spadina
• Team lunches from our favorite local restaurants every two weeks 
• Music in the office to give you that boost of energy
• Sponsored learning opportunities
• Health and wellness benefits plan

Your Mission:

Achieve clients’ goals by maximizing digital and social media campaign RoAS using strategic testing, analytics, and insights.

Role Competencies:

• Strategic in your approach to Paid Media (aligning tactics to a strategy that delivers on client goals), with a focus on programmatic ads, as well as Facebook/Instagram, LinkedIn ads, and potentially Tiktok and other platforms 
• Strong analytics capability. Ability to draw insights from the data being analyzed, and translate it into actionable recommendations to guide the team and share with clients
• Resourceful and creative in developing strategies for clients with limited resources (budgets are not necessarily small, but there is still a need to prioritize and optimize the spending, given the multitude of possibilities)
• Collaborative with other team members (e.g., Social Media, Analytics, Design team), working towards the best solutions and campaigns for our clients
• Strong attention to detail, organized and deadline-oriented 
• Business-impact focused, ensuring we are constantly driving strong results
• Ability to work efficiently in Excel spreadsheets at an intermediate or advanced level. Your role will primarily be focused on guiding other team members to do this work vs executing it yourself.
• Ability to effectively communicate ideas, both within the team and to the client
• Ability to develop effective structures and processes that can streamline workflows, optimize team performance, and drive results (regularly evaluating and refining processes to improve overall efficiency and effectiveness) 
• Curiosity that drives continued learning and the sharing of insights related to digital marketing strategies and optimization tactics
• Ability to take over client ad account management if the need arises (likely for a short-term transition period). This involves developing a deep understanding of the client’s business and industry, their goals and objectives, and their unique needs and challenges

Core Responsibilities: 

Responsible for supporting analytics and strategy surrounding social media and various advertising platforms.

• Develop and articulate strategies to achieve the client’s objectives, through appropriate digital paid media types and platforms
• Launch, monitor, and optimize paid media campaigns on several platforms (including Programmatic Ad Platform(s), Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ad Manager, LinkedIn Ad Manager, Twitter Ad Manager, Pinterest Ad Manager, YouTube Ad Manager, and TikTok Ad Manager) 
• Help set client goals, KPIs, and budgets that optimize available ad spending across ad types, campaigns, and platforms
• Guide the creation and interpretation of analytics and insights reporting for paid media showing our campaigns’ real business impact 
• Guide other digital marketing analytics, including social listening and research for blog posts 
• Provide guidance and strategic direction to our team of paid analysts and media buyers to effectively maximize the ROI for our clients
• Find opportunities for improvement within the team and develop strategies that the team can implement to enhance overall performance
• Ensure that strategies and recommendations are effectively executed and continuously monitored to ensure ongoing optimization

Core Qualifications:

• Client-facing digital advertising campaigns on a range of platforms, including programmatic management platforms and social media advertising platforms (agency background preferred)
• Experience managing $100k-1M+ ad spend budgets (per year)
• 3 – 5+ years of experience creating and managing Paid Media campaigns that exceed client expectations across paid media channels including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube ads.
• 3 – 5+ years experience with Google Analytics 
• Experienced in developing an A/B testing plan for paid campaigns 
• Experienced in managing and optimizing campaigns directly using paid platforms (e.g., Meta Business Manager), from strategy development to conversion tracking setup to day-to-day execution to deriving insight from the data
• Experienced in using Excel and Google Slides to present Paid Media strategies and campaign reports for clients and sharing with clients in a results-focused, compelling way
• Experienced in working with a cross-functional team and ideally in managing a team of ad managers) to develop strong client campaigns and strategies

Job Type: 

• Part-time, contract
• 10-20 hours per week
• Must be available to work between 9:30 am – 5:30 pm ET