Digital Growth & Paid Media Manager

Think Ahead Education; Alcobendas; Hybrid; EUR 35,000 - 42,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working from Alcobendas office

30 days holiday per year

Performance-based bonus up to €6,000

Job summary

Think Ahead Education is hiring a Digital Growth & Paid Media Manager to own lead generation across its digital ecosystem—websites, landing pages, paid campaigns, SEO/GEO, analytics and the CRM flow to convert enquiries into conversations with sales.

You will lead a full-funnel growth engine across Madrid-based academies and international markets, shaping strategy, managing vendors, and delivering measurable commercial results in Spanish and English.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in digital marketing with lead-gen ownership.
• Experience with paid media across channels.
• Strong funnel and conversion optimization.
• Fluent in Spanish and English.
• Experience with Zoho CRM.
• Ability to brief agencies and lead cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Own digital growth engine across services and markets.
• Lead qualified lead generation and CRM handovers to sales.
• Manage paid media campaigns (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok).
• Measure CAC, LTV, and channel performance across markets.
• Collaborate with sales, content and operations teams.

Skills

Growth marketer

Paid media

Funnel optimization

Analytics & measurement

CRM management

Content strategy

International marketing

Claude AI

Sales alignment

Education

University degree in Marketing or related field

Tools

Zoho CRM

GA4

GTM

Looker Studio

Astro

WordPress

Job description

Think Ahead Education is hiring a Digital Growth & Paid Media Manager whose main objective is to own qualified lead generation across its whole digital ecosystem: the websites and landing pages, the paid media campaigns, the organic (SEO and GEO) programme, the measurement behind all of it, and the CRM flow that turns an enquiry into a conversation with sales.

Why this is a growth story

Since 2016 Think Ahead Education has helped thousands of students reach their full academic potential in the British and IB systems. Families who find us stay with us, recommend us and come back at every stage of their child's journey: from IGCSE to A-Level or IB, from exam preparation to university applications, and from Madrid to anywhere in the world. The next chapter is about scale, and this role is its engine.

We serve students and families (B2C) as well as schools and companies (B2B) with one standard of excellence, guided by three values: excellence, personalisation and innovation.

One brand, four ways to grow:

• Academy: strengthen our leadership in Madrid and turn every centre (Alcobendas, La Moraleja, Barrio Salamanca, Pozuelo) into a growth engine.
• Online: take the same teaching quality to any country that follows the British curriculum or the IB, with no geographical ceiling.
• University Guidance: reach ambitious families aiming at top UK and US universities, a high-value service with a natural link to the rest of our offer.
• Schoolling Programme + Exam Centre: drive enrolment in the Schooling Programme and grow the number of Exam Centre candidates through stronger positioning and well-run campaigns.
• B2B Schools and Corporate Support: position Think Ahead as the partner of choice for schools and companies.

Why now

This is a newly created position, part of a wider process of specialising and professionalising our marketing department as the group grows. Families, schools and companies reach us through many doors: a Google search, a parent's recommendation, an open day, a school counsellor, etc. Every inquiry needs to arrive at the right person, at the right moment, with the right follow-up; when it does not, good leads go cold before our sales team ever has a real conversation. Closing that gap, from first click to qualified handover, is the heart of this role.

This is marketing with real impact. Every qualified lead is a family facing one of the most important decisions they will make, and every enrolment is a student who gets better grades, more confidence and a real shot at the university they want.

Scope: what you will govern

You’ll lead the entire digital growth engine at Think Ahead Education, across Academy, Online, University Guidance, Schooling Programmes and B2B. Your mission is simple to state and ambitious to deliver: turn digital into qualified leads and enrolments. We judge success by commercial results, not form fills.

You set the strategy and the creative direction. External specialists execute against your brief.

Website and conversion

Own thinkaheadeducation.com, the landing pages, the forms and the CTAs as commercial assets. You’ll spot friction, prioritise improvements and ship them with our in-house developer and external partners, tracking performance by business line.

Paid media

Google (Search, PMax, YouTube, Demand Gen), Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, plus programmatic and DOOH at peak season. You’ll run three always-on lines (Brand, Performance and University Guidance) in Spanish and English, starting in Madrid and expanding to Spain and international markets. Work hands-on or lead an agency. Shift budget with performance and the academic calendar, and test new channels with clear rules for when to stop and when to scale. The KPI is cost per qualified lead, not cost per click.

SEO and GEO

Turn the external specialists’ recommendations into an internal plan that actually ships. Lead the blog and resources for British and IB families, and make Think Ahead the name AI assistants recommend.

Analytics

The external setup is done for you. You govern it from there: GA4, GTM, Search Console and dashboards connected to the CRM. You’ll track cost per qualified lead, lead-to-enrolment conversion, CAC, LTV and channel contribution, so decisions rest on clean data.

CRM and sales partnership

Zoho CRM is the only source of truth. You’ll own lead qualification, the handover to sales and nurturing by email and WhatsApp, and you’ll meet with sales regularly. The goal: no enquiry lost, every lead reaches sales with context, and every enrolment traced back to its channel.

Content and brand

Set the editorial strategy for parents, students, international families and schools. Lead the in-house creative team and outside partners, and protect a premium brand at every touchpoint.

Events and new markets

Bring digital capture and measurement to open days, fairs and partner schools. Open new channels, with priority on taking Think Ahead Online into international markets.

AI and tooling

Use CAI where it adds real value, in content, creative, funnel analysis and personalisation, without compromising quality or brand.

Who you are

A hands-on performance marketer who can also set the direction: you run the campaigns yourself, read the data yourself and still think in terms of the whole funnel and the business behind it.

• A growth marketer with a track record. 4+ years in digital marketing roles with direct responsibility for lead generation and commercial results, ideally in education or another sector where families or customers take time over a high-value decision.
• Hands-on in paid media. You have built and optimised Google Ads (Search, Performance Max, YouTube, Demand Gen) and Meta campaigns with your own hands, including audiences, remarketing, creative testing and budget reallocation.
• Fluent in the funnel. You know how a lead becomes a customer, and you can spot where it gets lost and fix it, on the landing page, in the form or in the follow-up.
• Comfortable with measurement. GA4, GTM, Google Search Console and dashboards are everyday tools; you can audit a tracking setup, spot an attribution problem and tell when a number is not to be trusted.
• Knowledgeable enough to direct specialists. You know SEO, GEO and analytics well enough to brief, challenge and evaluate an agency's work, and to turn its recommendations into an implementation plan that actually ships.
• Strong in CRM. You are comfortable building workflows, segmenting audiences and pulling reports yourself, and you see the CRM as a tool to grow, not an admin task.
• A content strategist, not just an executor. You have built and run a content strategy and have a clear point of view on brand, message and design, and you can brief a creative so the piece comes back right.
• A natural partner for sales. You have worked closely with sales teams and know how to keep that relationship productive.
• Internationally minded. You have taken a service to audiences in other countries and know how to adapt message, channels and timing to each market.
• A sharp, hands-on Claude user. You already use Claude in your day-to-day work and know how to turn a strategy into execution with it: drafting content, analysing funnel data, building campaigns and automating what slows you down.
• A strategist who gets things done. You set the direction and also roll up your sleeves, juggling several services and priorities with autonomy.
• A confident communicator. You can engage with families, students and schools, and present with ease.
• Full professional proficiency in Spanish and English, both spoken and written.
• Proven experience marketing to international audiences or an online, cross-border service.
• Legal right to work in Spain and an up-to-date criminal record check.
• University degree, ideally in Marketing or a related field.
• Hands‑on knowledge of the British or IB system, whether you have worked in an educational setting that follows these curricula (a school, tutoring centre or education company) or studied in one yourself.
• Experience with Zoho CRM or a comparable platform, marketing automation tools and AI applied to marketing.
• Experience with Looker Studio, Astro or WordPress, and basic video editing for campaign adaptations.
• Experience running or coordinating events (open days, information sessions, fairs) with a measured digital capture layer.

What we offer

• Real ownership and impact. A newly created role owning digital growth across four services, with the mandate to shape how Think Ahead Education grows in Madrid and internationally.
• A seat close to decisions. You report directly to the Head of Operations, with genuine influence on strategy and on how the budget is spent.
• Rewards linked to your results. €35,000 to €42,000 gross per year depending on experience and profile, plus up to €6,000 variable tied to four lead generation, efficiency and conversion KPIs agreed at the start, with clear salary progression.
• Flexibility. Hybrid working from our Alcobendas office, combining remote and on-site hours depending on the task.
• Room to build. Join a marketing department in the middle of its professionalisation, where your ideas, processes and tools will set the standard.
• Time to recharge. 30 days of holiday per year.