Digital Marketing Manager, Paid Social Media & PPC

Sallie Mae; Newark (DE); Hybrid; USD 95,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salaries

Bonus incentives

Generous PTO and holidays

401k with employer match

Medical, dental, vision

Flexible hybrid work arrangements

Tuition Reimbursement and Family Sch.

Career development and training

Job summary

Sallie Mae is seeking a Digital Marketing Manager, Paid Social Media & PPC to lead paid media across Meta, LinkedIn, Google Ads and emerging platforms. You will own strategy and hands-on execution, helping drive lead generation and user growth while managing a $1M+ budget.

Collaborate with the growth leadership team to optimize campaigns for CPA and ROAS, expand paid media to new channels, and design test-and-learn roadmaps. Ensure accurate tracking and reporting across platforms.

Qualifications

• 4+ years managing paid media at scale in acquisition-focused environments.
• Experience managing $1M+ annual paid search budgets with efficiency discipline.
• Strong lead generation background with focus on efficient acquisition costs.
• Experience optimizing toward LTV or value-based metrics.
• Advanced performance analysis: forecasting, planning, attribution.
• Proactive performance management with minimal direction.
• Hands-on with Meta, Google Ads, LinkedIn and TikTok platforms.
• Experience in education/financial services is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own paid media strategy and execution across Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Google Ads and DSPs.
• Drive product lead volume within budget, CPA, and ROAS targets.
• Support lead generation through awareness, consideration, and acquisition stages.
• Manage a $1M+ budget and optimize investment for marginal efficiency.
• Build scalable account structures aligned to acquisition, engagement, and revenue goals.
• Monitor performance, identify variances, and surface recommendations.
• Analyze data, identify trends, and implement ongoing optimizations.
• Design test-and-learn roadmaps across campaigns, formats, and landing pages.
• Forecast media investment and track run rate 12–18 months out.
• Ensure accurate tracking, signals, audience inputs, and attribution frameworks.

Skills

Paid media management

Lead generation

Budget management

Campaign optimization

Forecasting & attribution

Analytical thinking

Cross-channel platforms

Automation & TCPA

Meta/Google/LinkedIn/TikTok

Job description

When you join Sallie, you become a champion for all students.

Sallie’s Education Services team is a diverse group of growth-obsessed entrepreneurs, data analysts, engineers, and developers with a passion for imagining and building scalable businesses for students and families on their unique journey to-through and immediately after higher education. We’re on a mission to revolutionize how students and their families plan, pay and complete this journey with confidence. Join a team of seekers, challengers and creative thinkers to change the way students plan for their future for the better.

What You’ll Contribute

Our client, the leading student loan provider in the US is hiring for a Digital Marketing Manager, Paid Social Media & PPC, to join their talented team. They have launched a new service empowering young people to make the best-informed decision for the financial future, and are looking for a Paid Social Media & PPC Manager to help them in reaching the widest possible audience to drive growth.

This person will work closely with the growth marketing leadership team, and own execution of paid social media and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for a critical part of the business. You should be comfortable with both the strategy and hands-on execution of paid campaigns across Meta, LinkedIn and Google Ads, with a strong understanding of the nuances of campaigns, adjustments and optimizations required to drive improved performance. This person will drive lead generation and user growth across core media platforms while leading the expansion of paid media efforts into new and emerging test platforms.

What You’ll Do

• Own paid media strategy and execution across Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads, Google Ads, Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) and other media platforms
• Drive the growth of product lead volume while operating within defined budgets, cost-per-acquisition (CPA) and return on ad spend (ROAS) targets
• Support the lead generation cycle for each product through awareness, consideration, and acquisition customer lifecycle stages
• Manage a $1MM+ budget across the paid media portfolio and drive investment strategy to maximize ad spend return and drive growth with a focus on marginal efficiency
• Build and maintain scalable account structures aligned to acquisition, engagement, and revenue goals
• Monitor campaign performance proactively, identify variances, and surface recommendations before issues compound
• Analyze performance data, identify trends, and implement ongoing optimizations to improve efficiency, scale, and conversion outcomes
• Design and execute structured test-and-learn roadmaps across campaign types, ad formats, creative, targeting, bidding, and landing pages
• Own media forecasting and investment planning aligned to business targets, tracking current run rate through 12 to 18 months out
• Ensure accurate tracking, value signals, audience inputs, and attribution frameworks are properly configured to drive platform performance

The above information is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this job; it is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees in this role.

What you have

Minimum: Indicate minimum education, skills and experience required.

• 4+ years managing paid media at scale in acquisition-focused environments
• Demonstrated experience managing $1M+ annual paid search budgets with consistent efficiency discipline under growth targets
• Strong lead generation background with a focus on driving volume at efficient acquisition costs
• Experience optimizing toward LTV or value-based metrics, with a solid understanding of marginal economics and incremental return evaluation
• Advanced performance analysis skills, including forecasting, planning, and attribution across the lead generation funnel
• Proactive approach to performance management, with a track record of identifying issues independently and acting without waiting to be directed
• Strong understanding of automation-first campaign structures, including target cost per acquisition (TCPA) bidding
• Hands-on experience with paid media platforms including Meta, Google Ads, LinkedIn and TikTok
• Background in lead generation or marketing in the education, financial services or other regulated vertical is a plus
• Exposure to landing page testing, CRO, or SEO strategies is a plus

The Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination by employers, in compensation and employment opportunities, against qualified individuals with disabilities who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the "essential functions" of a job. A function may be essential for any of several reasons, including: the job exists to perform that function, the employee holding the job was hired for his/her expertise in performing that function, or only a limited number of employees are available to perform that function.

Sallie Mae is proud to be an equal opportunity (EEO) employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, gender identity, disability, Veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

Feeling your best helps you do your best:

• Competitive base salaries
• Bonus incentives
• Generous PTO, Floating Holidays and 12 Federal Holidays observed
• Support for financial-well-being and retirement401k with employer match
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, hospital indemnity, critical illness, pet insurance and more
• Employer paid short-term/long-term disability and basic life insurance
• Flexible hybrid working arrangements.
• Paid parental leave and adoption reimbursement programs
• Free access to on-site staffed fitness centers (in Delaware) and gym subsidy (for locations outside Delaware)
• Confidential counseling support (EAP), Health Advocacy services and Wellness program with financial incentives
• Tuition Reimbursement and Family Scholarship Programs
• Career development and training opportunities

Reasonable accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities in all phases of the application and employment process. To request an accommodation please call [phone] and choose option 9. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.