SEM Manager – Search Strategy & Key Account Performance

Digilatics

Lahore

On-site

PKR 3,600,000 - 6,000,000

Full time

2 days ago

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Job summary

Digilatics in Lahore, Pakistan is seeking a Senior SEM Manager to own strategy for a portfolio of premium clients across paid search and local organic channels. You will lead research, define winning campaign strategies, and ensure QA on tracking and conversions.

This role interfaces with directors and senior managers to translate insights into client-ready playbooks. The ideal candidate has 8+ years in search/performance marketing, deep paid-search expertise, and strong English communication.

Qualifications

8+ years in search/performance marketing, with deep paid-search expertise across SEO, local search, CRO, and conversion analytics.
Agency-side US lead-generation experience strongly preferred.
Excellent English communication, both written and spoken.
Ability to translate research into winning campaign strategies and client strategy conversations.

Responsibilities

Own the performance of key accounts across paid and organic search, with QA and sign-off on strategy, tracking, and conversion quality.
Lead quarterly strategy reviews with premium clients and present findings to leadership.
Develop high-conversion concepts, testing plans, and playbooks for Ads and SEO teams.
Direct the research agenda: untapped channels, AI search, landing page patterns, and creative angles.

Skills

Paid search

Local search

Conversion analytics

Strategy

Client communication

Job description

SEM Manager – Search Strategy & Key Account Performance

Explore More

About Digilatics

Digilatics is a performance marketing agency serving 50+ US home-services businesses on recurring retainers. We build lead generation engines: paid search, local SEO, conversion tracking, and lead analytics that make ROI visible in dollars. Our clients judge us on one number, cost per qualified lead, and we judge ourselves the same way.

Why This Role Exists

Our highest-Value clients pay us for strategy and certainty, not task execution. This role is the strategic brain of our search practice across paid and organic. You research the industry, find what converts efficiently, and turn it into winning campaign strategies. You own the performance of our key accounts, quality-check their campaigns before launch, and lead the strategy conversation with those clients directly. What you prove on key accounts becomes the playbook our Ads and SEO teams run on every other client.

You do not manage the delivery teams. You make them better. This role reports to a Director on a single reporting line, and works alongside the Senior Ads Manager and the SEO Manager as the internal customers of your research

What You Get You Get

The key account portfolio. Our Premium clients, with direct client access. You lead quarterly strategy reviews with these clients yourself.
The full search surface, paid and local-organic. Our clients are local service businesses; their customers decide in the Google local pack, Maps, Local Services Ads, and increasingly in AI answers. Your mandate spans all of it: Google Ads, Local Services Ads, Microsoft Ads, Google Business Profile, local rankings, and AI search. This role isn’t just owning the paid side of that equation.
A real mandate, in writing. On key accounts, your findings are implemented by default: delivery teams either implement within the agreed window or file a written objection to the Director, who decides. Silence is not an option. This protocol is part of the role, not something you negotiate after joining.
The pre-launch QA gate on key accounts. No key-account campaign, landing page, or major creative goes live without your sign-off on strategy, tracking, and conversion quality.
The research agenda. You decide what we test: untapped channels, AI search advertising, creative angles, landing page patterns. [Insert annual research and testing budget], spent at your discretion within budget.
Direct leadership access. You present findings to the Director and CEO monthly.

What (You Own)

Blended cost per qualified lead, in dollars, across the key account portfolio, counting paid, organic, and local-attributed leads together. Target: CPL reduced by 25% within 12 months of joining. Delivery teams execute; you are accountable for whether the number moves, and shifting lead mix toward cheaper local-organic sources is one of your primary levers.

Industry and conversion research across paid and local-organic: search demand shifts, competitor strategies, Google Local Services Ads, AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews), Microsoft/Bing, and emerging channels no one else in our market is using yet
High-converting campaign concepts for both channels: offers, angles, keyword and audience strategy, and the creative that carries them
Conversion creative standards: reviewing and directing landing pages, static ads, and video creative for key accounts against what engages the target homeowner and converts. You do not produce the creative; you define what converts better (based on stats, A/B Testing, market research) and reject what will not convert.
Pre-launch QA on key accounts: strategy soundness, tracking integrity, creative quality, and landing page conversion readiness, signed off before anything goes live
Opportunity audits within live key-account campaigns and local presence: wasted spend, untapped queries, local pack and Maps ranking gaps, Google Business Profile health, review velocity, service-area coverage gaps, LSA positioning, and creative fatigue
Quarterly playbooks translating key-account wins into deployable systems for the Ads and SEO teams to run on all other clients
Client-facing strategy communication on key accounts: quarterly business reviews and strategy escalations

What You Not Own

The Ads and SEO teams. The Senior Ads Manager and the SEO Manager lead their people, launch gates on non-key accounts, and day-to-day delivery.
Non-key-account decisions. There, your playbooks are recommendations, and their voluntary adoption rate is one of your KPIs. Findings nobody chooses to adopt are the wrong findings.
Creative production. Design and content teams produce; you set the conversion bar and approve for key accounts.

One owner per outcome. Yours is key account search performance and the strategy engine behind it. Where a boundary is unclear, the Director decides.

First 90 Days

Day 30: Full audit of every key account across paid, organic, local, and AI search visibility, including creative and landing page conversion review. Written findings with dollarized opportunity sizing, presented to leadership and to each key client.
Day 60: Pre-launch QA gate live on all key accounts. First research-driven campaign concept in market with a defined success threshold. Decide-or-escalate protocol running with both delivery teams.
Day 90: Measurable CPL movement on at least two key accounts against the documented baseline. First quarterly client strategy review led by you. First playbook delivered to the Ads and SEO teams.

Non-Negotiable Requirements

8+ years in search/performance marketing, with deep paid-search expertise and substantial strategic experience across SEO, local search, CRO, and conversion analytics. Agency-side US lead-generation experience strongly preferred.
Deep, current expertise in Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, plus real command of local search for service businesses: Google Business Profile, local pack dynamics, and Google Local Services Ads. Working knowledge of AI search advertising and AI answer-engine visibility (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews)
A proven eye for conversion creative: you can look at a landing page, a static ad, or a video and explain, with evidence, why it will or will not convert the target audience, and what to change. Portfolio or case examples required.
Proven case studies where your strategy moved cost per lead or revenue, with numbers you can defend under questioning
English communication at 9/10 or above, spoken and written. You will lead strategy calls with US business owners. Tested with a live client-call simulation during the interview process. No exceptions.
Comfort operating through influence and a written escalation protocol rather than direct authority over delivery teams

KPIs

Blended CPL in dollars across key accounts vs the documented 2025 baseline, with lead mix (paid vs local-organic share) reported alongside it
Qualified lead volume per key account per month, across paid, organic, and local sources
Key-account local visibility trend: local pack presence and Google Business Profile conversion actions across each client’s service area, tracked as leading indicators of the blended number (day-to-day ranking ownership sits with the SEO Manager)
Key account retention and expansion revenue
Client-caught defects on key accounts (target: trending to zero; every miss logged with root cause)
Playbooks shipped per quarter (minimum one) and their adoption rate across non-key accounts
Research-driven tests launched per quarter with documented outcomes, win or lose

Growth Path

This role is the natural predecessor to senior search leadership as Digilatics grows. That step is earned, not promised: reviewed at month 12 based on key account results, playbook adoption, and leadership readiness.

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