Performance Marketing Director

OLIVER Agency; London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading marketing firm in London is seeking a Performance Marketing Director to lead their Paid Social and Search efforts. This role involves setting strategies, leading a talented team, and integrating AI solutions to drive client success. Ideal candidates will have proven leadership experience in performance marketing and a strong understanding of social media and search engine marketing. A passion for innovation and team collaboration is essential.

Qualifications

• Proven success in leading high-performing teams.
• Advanced knowledge of paid social and search techniques.
• Experience in integrating paid strategies with organic campaigns.

Responsibilities

• Lead Paid Social Activation and Search service lines.
• Develop and execute strategies in paid social and search.
• Foster a culture of testing and innovation.

Skills

Leadership

Paid Social Strategy

Search Engine Marketing

Analytical Skills

AI Integration

Tools

Meta Ads

LinkedIn Ads

Google Ads

SEMrush

Screaming Frog

Job description

Established in 2004, OLIVER is the world’s first and only specialist in designing, building, and running bespoke in-house agencies and marketing ecosystems for brands. We partner with over 300 clients in 40+ countries and counting. Our unique model drives creativity and efficiency, allowing us to deliver tailored solutions that resonate deeply with audiences.

As a part of The Brandtech Group, we're at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to revolutionise how we create and deliver work. Our AI solutions enhance efficiency, spark creativity, and drive insightful decision-making, empowering our teams to produce innovative and impactful results.

Role: Performance Marketing Director

Location: London, England, United Kingdom (3 days a week from our London HQ)

About the role

We are seeking an ambitious, senior-minded Performance Marketing Director to spearhead our Paid Social and Search services, and support our innovation in Creative Optimisation, Test + Learn, and Connected Measurement. Reporting to the Head of Data EMEA, you’ll lead, inspire, and scale our performance marketing capability at a critical point in our growth. This is a hands-on leadership opportunity for a change-maker: you’ll shape a cutting-edge, GenAI -powered offering, direct a talented team, drive best-in-class delivery, and champion our integrated ‘total social’ proposition. You’ll collaborate widely, set a commercial tone, and play a pivotal role in embedding and expanding these services with our clients across the business.

What you will be doing

• Performance Capability Leadership
  • Take ownership of our Paid Social Activation and Search service lines, setting strategic vision, best practices, and driving ambitious growth in both areas.
  • Operate as a player-coach: hands-on in campaign strategy and execution; directing, upskilling, and inspiring your team to excellent outcomes.
• Paid Social Activation & 'Total Social' Integration
  • Lead the strategy, activation, and optimisation of paid social campaigns across key platforms (including Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, and emerging channels).
  • Ensure paid media seamlessly integrates with organic social, influencer, and community management, supporting a powerful 'total social' offering that delivers on client and business objectives.
  • Collaborate with the audience intelligence team to activate high-value custom audiences in paid social, and help develop and scale this integrated, audience-led approach across the business.
  • Continuously innovate in paid social, trial new formats and features, introduce automation and AI tools, and keep our offering at the forefront of industry best practice.
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with platform partners and tech vendors, securing early access and unlocking growth opportunities for clients.
• Search & Discovery Optimisation
  • Own our approach to paid search (PPC), technical and content SEO, and next-gen search-including LLM / AI-powered search and search in social, ensuring comprehensive strategy and delivery.
  • Develop, standardise, and evolve frameworks, processes, and measurement approaches for optimal search performance and integration.
  • Keep our teams and clients ahead of the curve by identifying and implementing new technologies, techniques, and best-in-class solutions across all touchpoints.
• Collaborate with creative and strategy teams, leveraging our GenAI tool Pencil for asset development, leading variant testing and continuous creative optimisation, and feeding paid social insights back to inform future work.
• Embed a test and learn culture, fostering experimentation, data-led iteration, and systematic improvement throughout your team and with clients.
• Drive the use of connected, always-on measurement frameworks (in partnership with social and analytics specialists) to clearly communicate performance impact and unlock actionable insights.
• Directly manage and develop a team of junior and mid-weight performance specialists; support their progression and foster a high-performing, ambitious, and accountable culture.
• Lead integration and best practice sharing between your team, in-house client teams, wider social, creative, and analytics stakeholders, ensuring seamless collaboration and value delivery.
• Confidently deliver senior-level, strategic communication-using high-quality visual and written storytelling to influence, inspire, and clarify outcomes for stakeholders at all levels.
• Play a proactive role in business development: pitching, presenting, and embedding our performance marketing services with new and existing clients.
• Set the tone for adopting GenAI as a core part of our client and agency offering, positioning us at the leading edge of performance marketing effectiveness.
• Inspire teams, clients, and the wider business on the possibilities and commercial impact of innovative, integrated performance marketing.
• You will be open and willing to attend sustainability training relevant to your role and soak up recommended research and reading about sustainability issues

What you need to be great in this role

• Proven success building, leading, and scaling high-performing paid social and search teams, ideally in an agency or hybrid in-house environment.
• Advanced hands-on knowledge of paid social (Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, others), PPC, SEO, and next-generation search (LLM / AI-powered), and an ability to create, deliver, and optimise full-funnel campaigns.
• Experience developing and integrating paid strategies with organic, influencer, and community-social elements to enable a true 'total social' outcome.
• Proficiency with key ad and research platforms / tools (e.g. Meta Ads, LinkedIn, TikTok Ads, Google Ads, SEMrush, Screaming Frog) and ease in building partnerships with tech vendors / platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with creative, strategy and data functions for creative optimisation and attribution.
• True leadership mindset: able to set direction, communicate strategically (avoiding tactical or operational focus at the senior level), and instil confidence in stakeholders.
• Personally ambitious, commercially astute, proactive, and accountable-a self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Able to confidently engage in challenging or ambiguous scenarios, clarify and resolve quickly, and demonstrate senior-level resilience.
• Values-driven with a passion for innovation, always learning, and making a measurable business impact.
• You can be the change - you prioritise environmental responsibility, social equity, and economic viability and how that translates into your day-to-day role

Our values shape everything we do:

Be Imaginative to push the boundaries of what’s possible

Be always learningand listening to understand

Be actively pro-inclusive and anti-racist across our community, clients and creations

OLIVER, a part of the Brandtech Group, is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive working environment where all employees are encouraged to reach their full potential, and individual differences are valued and respected. All applicants shall be considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by local laws.

OLIVER has set ambitious environmental goals around sustainability, with science-based emissions reduction targets. Collectively, we work towards our mission, embedding sustainability into every department and through every stage of the project lifecycle.

Create a Job Alert

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

First Name *

Last Name *

Preferred First Name

Email *

Phone *

Location (City) *

Resume/CV *

Enter manually

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Enter manually

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

LinkedIn Profile

Website

How did you hear about this job?

What is your notice period? *

What are your salary expectations (gross, per annum)? *

If you are selected for interview is there anything we should take in to consideration?

Please say yes or no as to whether you have worked for the following agencies in the last 7 years, Inside Ideas Group, Aylesworth Fleming, MORE, OLIVER UK, Dare or Adjust Your Set *

Do you have the legal right to work in the UK? *

Will you require now or ever, sponsorship to work in the UK? *

Point of Data Transfer *

Acknowledge/Confirm

When you apply to a job on this site, the personal data contained in your application will be collected by OLIVER ("Controller"), located at 151 Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4 AB, and can be contacted by emailing [e-mail], and by Adjust Your Set ("Controller") at the same address, and by DARE ("Controller") at the same address, and by Aylesworth Fleming ("Controller") at the same address, all at [e-mail]. Your personal data will be processed for recruitment purposes in accordance with applicable data protection law. Such processing is permissible under Art. 6(1)(f) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 as necessary for legitimate interests pursued by the Controller to solicit, evaluate, and select applicants.

Your personal data may be shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., a cloud services provider located in the United States, to help manage recruitment. If you are located outside the United States, your data may be transferred to the United States.

Your personal data will be retained as long as necessary to evaluate your application. You may request access to, rectification or erasure of, or restriction on processing of your data, request data portability, or lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

Should you be shortlisted for this role, please indicate if you require any reasonable accommodations or assistance during the interview process *