Our client operates a technology-driven indoor soccer facility chain with dozens of locations across North America and an aggressive expansion target over the next two years. Founded by a former professional and international player, the business runs three product lines: youth and adult soccer classes, a proprietary technology-based one-on-one training system with no direct competitor, and a fast-growing adult pickup format. On-site conversion is already strong, so the mandate is simple. Bring more qualified leads through the door. They are hiring a Paid Media Specialist to take paid acquisition in-house from an outside agency, own Meta as the primary channel, support Google as the secondary channel, and raise the quality and velocity of creative. This is a 30 hour per week remote engagement.
Need to have qualifications:
- 4+ years managing paid media with direct, hands‑on ownership of Meta Ads Manager (not oversight of someone else running it)
- Proven experience running lead generation campaigns, not traffic or awareness campaigns
- Demonstrated ability to diagnose and reverse rising cost per lead through audience, structure, and creative changes
- Experience briefing, directing, and evaluating creative for paid social, including video and UGC‑style content
- Track record of shipping new creative on a consistent testing cadence rather than letting evergreen assets run for months
- Working knowledge of Google Ads (Search, Performance Max, YouTube) sufficient to manage and optimize a secondary channel
- Experience with account hygiene: naming conventions, campaign structure, archiving dormant assets, clean reporting
- Experience with multi‑location or local advertising, including geo‑targeted structure and budget allocation across markets
- Ability to give specific, practical conversion feedback on landing pages
- Familiarity with conversion tracking and measurement: Meta pixel and Conversions API, GA4, UTM discipline, lead‑stage reporting
- Ability to explain performance in terms of cost per qualified lead and downstream conversion, not CTR and CPM alone
- Strong written and verbal communication, with genuine real‑time responsiveness rather than scheduled check‑ins
- Ability to set a testing roadmap independently where no playbook exists
- Comfort with AI creative tools, paired with the judgment to reject output that does not look realistic
- C2 or Native level English is a must
- Meaningful daily overlap with US Central time hours
Nice to have:
- Experience marketing to parents of youth athletes, or in youth sports, fitness, gyms, studios, or membership businesses
- Personal familiarity with soccer or another participation sport, enough to speak credibly to a knowledgeable audience
- Experience marketing to two distinct buyers in the same account (a parent buying for a child, and an adult buying for themselves)
- Experience with franchise or multi‑unit brands, including new market launches
- Ability to script or storyboard short‑form video and write UGC creator briefs
- Familiarity with Webflow and dedicated campaign landing pages
- Experience building campaigns around founder‑led brand storytelling
- Experience with free trial and first‑session lead magnets, and the follow‑up sequence behind them
- Experience with Higgsfield, Runway, Midjourney, or comparable AI creative tools
- Experience taking an account over from an outside agency and rebuilding it
- Agency background combined with in‑house pace and ownership
Responsibilities:
- Own day‑to‑day Meta campaign management, including structure, audience testing, budget pacing, bidding, and daily optimization
- Rebuild and clean up the existing ad account, retire dormant assets, and set a clear naming and structure standard
- Run a continuous creative testing cadence so no ad set is left running on stale assets
- Brief, direct, and evaluate creative across static, video, and UGC formats, working alongside the in‑house social and video lead
- Develop creative concepts around the founder story, the proprietary training technology, measurable improvement and touch‑count proof points, and the adult pickup product
- Write and iterate ad copy and hooks for distinct audiences, including soccer‑savvy parents and adult recreational players
- Build and test lead magnet offers such as a free one‑on‑one session or a free trial class, and the messaging around each
- Manage Google Ads as a secondary channel across Search, Performance Max, and YouTube
- Recommend and adjust budget allocation between Meta and Google based on cost per qualified lead, not historical split
- Review dedicated landing pages and give specific conversion feedback to the internal web owner
- Build campaign structure that scales across a growing facility count and supports new market launches
- Monitor performance daily and raise changes in real time rather than holding them for a scheduled review
- Report on cost per lead, lead quality, and cost per acquisition by location and by product line
- Partner with the email and lifecycle manager so paid leads are handed off cleanly into nurture
- Document what was tested, what won, and what was learned, so the account's learnings compound
- Provide overlap and continuity through the transition off the current outside agency, with no gap in live advertising