Paid Media Lead - Social & Digital

We have an exciting opportunity for a talented Paid Media Lead to head up our growing team and drive innovative, high-impact campaigns across paid social, PPC, YouTube and programmatic channels. This is a senior, hands-on leadership role at Associate Director level, suited to someone excited by both strategic direction and day-to-day optimisation.

Our digital and social team has been named Best In-House Agency Team multiple times at the UK Social Media Awards. We work with some of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands, and pride ourselves on delivering seamless, channel-agnostic campaigns that balance creativity with performance.

We’re passionate about creating seamless brand experiences for top-tier global B2B and B2C clients and continuously exploring new platforms and technologies.

You’ll lead a team of four paid media specialists within a wider digital team of 30+, acting as the senior strategic lead across all paid media activity. You’ll also collaborate with other channel leads to evolve our offering and drive the next phase of growth.

The Role

As Paid Media Lead, you will:

• Own the strategic direction of our paid media output – across social, search, display, YouTube, and programmatic
• Lead and manage a team of four, overseeing delivery, development, and performance across multiple client accounts
• Act as the senior point of contact for clients, providing consultancy on paid strategy, platform mix, budgeting, and optimisation.
• Ensure campaigns are delivered on time, on budget, and aligned with client KPIs – while driving continual improvement through testing and insight
• Collaborate with account teams and creatives to ensure media plans are fully integrated and support broader brand and comms goals
• Drive innovation by staying ahead of industry trends and platform changes, and sharing knowledge with the wider team
• Support business development efforts by contributing to pitches and identifying opportunities within existing accounts

About You

We’re looking for someone with:

• Experience in line management and supporting the development and growth of junior team members
• Proven experience in managing large-scale paid social campaigns and multi-channel media plans, across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X.
• Strong analytical and strategic skills, with the ability to translate data into actionable insights that drive campaign performance.
• Exceptional client management skills, adept at building and maintaining strong client relationships, presenting strategies, and handling feedback.
• Experience mentoring and developing junior team members, with a collaborative and empowering leadership style.
• An innovative entrepreneur who can spot opportunities and build propositions to respond to them
• A hands-on approach and willingness to support the team with day-to-day tasks when needed, contributing directly to project success.
• A proactive approach to account management, able to identify opportunities for growth within existing accounts and contribute to new business pitches.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail, ensuring that projects are managed efficiently and effectively.
• Interest in other paid digital channels such as PPC, YouTube, Google, and programmatic advertising. Experience in these areas is a plus but not required as training can be provided.

Why Join Us?

• Lead the paid media function of one of the UK’s most awarded digital teams
• Be part of an award-winning team that values creativity, collaboration, and professional development.
• Work across a diverse range of global brands.
• Opportunities for continued learning and growth, with the chance to expand your skills into new areas like PPC, display, and programmatic advertising.
• A fun, inclusive workplace where we celebrate our wins and support each other through challenges.

All employees at Brands2Life are offered a fantastic working environment, excellent long-term career opportunities and highly competitive range of benefits. We offer regular internal and external training (at all levels), 360 reviews, personal development plans, health and dental insurance, flexible working, and plenty of company socials. As well as all of that, we offer a two-month sabbatical after four years (paid!!).

As of December 2023, Brands2Life has been part of the Paritee agency platform, a new kind of network that combines the best of large agency thinking and entrepreneurial excellence. Paritee has a vision to create a new breed of agency network and model for collaboration, one that brings together National Champion agencies in each key market and enables them to co-operate for mutual benefit and to provide clients with world-class services and advice, based on deep sector insight.

*Brands2Life is an equal opportunities employer and encourages applications from all backgrounds. We believe a diverse and inclusive workforce enhances our ability to be creative, innovative and entrepreneurial. We do not discriminate against applicants or employees because of race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status or citizenship status.