Head of Performance Marketing

Travel Trade Recruitment; Greater London; Remote; GBP 68,000 - 92,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote

Regular travel to London

Bonus scheme

Benefits package

Job summary

Travel Trade Recruitment is partnering with a niche tour operator to hire a Head of Performance Marketing who will own paid media strategy across Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and more, while driving CAC, ROAS and revenue.

This hands-on leadership role requires seniority, cross-functional collaboration, CRM/ lifecycle mastery, and an AI-forward approach. The role is fully remote with regular travel to London and a bonus scheme.

Qualifications

• Senior performance marketing leader with 5+ years in a similar role.
• Proven track record across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok and YouTube.
• Experience marketing to the US market preferred.
• Annual paid media budgets > £1–2m.
• Strong analytical mindset and measurement discipline.
• CRM/lifecycle marketing experience valued.
• AI-forward approach in media and CRM.

Responsibilities

• Own paid media strategy and delivery end-to-end with CAC, payback and ROAS as KPIs.
• Set and run strategy across channels: search, paid social, programmatic, display, video and OOH.
• Manage senior platform and media-partner relationships and agency performance.
• Partner with Brand, Creative & Campaigns on high-performing performance creative.
• Own CRM and lifecycle marketing across email, SMS and WhatsApp.

Skills

Senior leadership

Travel industry knowledge

Data-driven

CRM / lifecycle

AI-forward mindset

Collaborative

Tools

Google Ads

Microsoft Ads

Meta

TikTok

YouTube

Job description

Are you a Head Of / Senior Marketing Manager looking for your next exciting opportunity? Do you have hands on experience across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok and YouTube? Do you have experience / knowledge around working with the US Market? We have the role for you!

We are excited to be working with niche and growing Tour Operator who bring destinations to life, offering guests special insider access to landmarks, museums, bars and restaurants that they simply wouldn't discover on their own.

They are looking for a Head of Performance Marketing to join their growing team!

This is a role for a commercially-sharp, highly analytical operator who can both set strategy and execute it - hands-on across the platforms, rigorous on measurement, and AI-forward in how you work.

Key Responsibilities:

Paid media

• Own paid media strategy in partnership with the VP of Marketing, and own its delivery, execution and results end-to-end. Accountable for CAC, payback, ROAS and revenue contribution as commercial KPIs that ladder up to the wider growth plan.
• Set and run the paid strategy across channels - search, paid social, programmatic, display, video and OOH; Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok, YouTube and emerging channels - across all of our brands.
• Own senior platform and media-partner relationships, and hold the bar on account structure, testing rigour and platform excellence.
• Manage our paid media agency and hold them accountable to performance.
• Partner with Brand, Creative & Campaigns on high-performing performance creative - driving hit rate and creative-driven CAC - while the creative function itself sits with that team.

CRM & lifecycle

• Own CRM and lifecycle marketing, including oversight of the customer communication journey across email, SMS and WhatsApp.
• Partner closely with the Service and Operations teams to deliver best-in-class, joined-up customer communications.
• Grow upsell, cross-sell, repeat booking, retention and lifetime value.

Measurement & testing

• Build measurement maturity - own the roadmap for incrementality, marketing-mix modelling, attribution and reporting, and translate what you learn into how we invest.
• Build a testing culture across creative, audiences, incentives and messaging.

Ways of working

• Champion an AI-forward way of working across media buying and CRM - leveraging platform AI capabilities and reducing manual effort, so the team moves faster and the business learns quicker.
• Act as a senior, commercial voice in the marketing leadership team, connecting paid decisions to LTV, retention and unit economics - not just channel-level CAC.
• Operate strategically and hands-on in equal measure, with a strong ability to collaborate widely across a matrixed organisation.
• A hands-on, player-coach role now, with the mandate to build and lead a team as the function scales.

Skills & Experience:

• A senior performance marketing leader (Head of or Senior Manager level) with a minimum of 5 years' experience and a demonstrable record of high performance and delivering results.
• Background in travel, experience of hospitality (highly desirable)
• Deep, hands-on expertise across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok and YouTube, with a clear point of view on where each platform is heading.
• Ideally, experience marketing to the US market, with a strong understanding of the US landscape and consumer - a key market for us.
• Has handled paid marketing budgets in excess of £1-£2m per year, and knows what breaks as the number gets bigger.
• Highly analytical and data-driven, and rigorous on measurement - experience with incrementality testing (geo, in-platform lift or similar) and the trade-offs between attribution approaches.
• Commercially sharp - connects paid decisions to LTV, retention and unit economics, and can hold their own in a leadership conversation.
• A strong CRM / lifecycle background (paid media is the priority, but genuine CRM depth matters).
• AI-forward - AI is embedded in your thinking and how you work, not a bolt-on.
• Highly motivated and highly collaborative, and comfortable owning performance creative alongside media in partnership with a creative team.
• Genuinely curious, collaborative and guest-obsessed - at home in a values-led business built on curiosity, connection and authenticity

The package:

• The role is paying an annual salary of circa £80,000 (dependant on experience) + bonus scheme
• Fully remote, with regular travel to London
• The opportunity to take a successful, high-performing function to the next level, and shape how marketing scales across the group.
• A full, updated benefits package