Paid Media Manager

Brandesign; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 420,000 - 540,000; Full time

Job summary

Brandesign is seeking a hands-on paid media specialist in Cape Town to own the account end-to-end across Google and Meta. You will drive strategy, build campaigns from strategy and creative, and partner with the rest of the agency to deliver revenue, margin and CAC improvements.

You will forecast spend, manage budgets, and participate in client meetings, presenting performance and defending recommendations with data-driven insights.

Qualifications

• Minimum three years in paid media, with retail or e-commerce accountability.
• Deep, current Google Ads proficiency including Shopping and Performance Max.
• Meta Ads Manager experience including catalogue management and creative testing.
• GA4 and attribution knowledge; familiarity with reporting and analytics.
• Excel or Google Sheets for pacing and return view dashboards.

Responsibilities

• Own the account end to end across Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube) and Meta.
• Forecast spend, control pacing, and justify budget decisions.
• Present performance and defend recommendations in client meetings.
• Develop the paid media function as the account grows.
• Coordinate with creative and audiences for planned testing and optimization.
• Protect measurement accuracy with GA4, conversions API and consent mode.

Skills

Google Ads

Meta Ads Manager

GA4

Attribution

Excel/Sheets

Budget management

Campaign reporting

Retail/e-commerce knowledge

Communication

Mentoring

Tools

Google Ads Console

Meta Ads Manager (Tool)

Conversions API

Consent Mode v2

Job description

The role:

You will own the paid media on one of our largest retail accounts, across Google and Meta, with another team member reporting into you as the account grows.

Where you fit:

Paid media is not a bolt on here. Your campaigns are built off strategy, brand and creative in the same building, and you will have a say in all three. This is a hands on role. You will be in the accounts every day, building the paid media function around a significant retail account.

What you will be doing:

• Own the account end to end.
• Strategy, build, optimisation, pacing and reporting across Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube) and Meta.
• Manage real budget.
• Forecast spend, hold pacing and decide where the next rand goes, then explain why.
• Part of client meetings.
• Present performance and defend recommendations.
• Platform metrics alone do not survive here.
• We want revenue, margin and cost of acquisition.
• Run a proper testing discipline.
• Creative, audiences, bidding and landing experience, planned rather than ad hoc.
• Protect the measurement.
• GA4, conversion tracking, feed health, Conversions API and consent.
• Develop the team.
• Review builds, explain the thinking and give work that stretches.
• As the function grows, so does what you run.
• Work with the rest of the agency.
• Brief creative properly and push back on briefs that will not perform.

What we need from you:

• Minimum three years in paid media, with retail or e-commerce accountabilityDeep, current Google Ads.
• Shopping and performance max in particular, with product feeds you have had to fixMeta Ads Manager, including catalogue, signal quality and creative testingGA4, and a working grasp of attribution and its limitsGoogle Ads and Google Analytics certificationExcel or sheets to the point where you build your own pacing and return viewsClear writing and confident presenting to senior client stakeholdersMeticulous.
• Feeds, budgets and tracking punish carelessnessRetail with a considered purchase cycle involving finance, delivery or a store visitAgency experience, or evidence you can carry client relationships as well as campaignsRestricted advertising categories on Meta and the targeting limits that come with themServer side tagging, Conversions API and Consent Mode v2POPIA literate on tracking and audience dataChannels beyond Google and Meta
• We do not run these today, but the account may extendMentoring or reviewing someone else's work

What will put you ahead:

We are not screening on degrees.

Prove the work and the qualification is secondary.