Paid Media Specialist

• Open Study College is a leading distance learning provider that supports people in achieving their goals through flexible, accessible education. With over 150,000 learners and more than 750 courses ranging from GCSE and A-levels, childcare and beuaty, the college offers opportunities for diverse interests and career paths. The organisation promotes continuous development and lifelong learning, enabling individuals to study around existing commitments without rigid timetables or commutes. Now in its 18th year, OSC is a growing community focused on well-being, support, and helping more people pursue their ambitions.
• We're looking for an analytical, commercially minded Paid Media Specialist to help drive profitable customer acquisition across our portfolio of online qualifications.
• You'll take ownership of our paid search campaigns while supporting wider paid media activity across Meta, affiliates and emerging acquisition channels.
• Working alongside our Growth Marketing Lead, SEO, CRM and Ecommerce teams, you'll continually optimise campaigns, landing pages and audience strategies to maximise lead quality, revenue and return on ad spend.
• This is an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys using data to solve problems, testing new ideas and identifying opportunities to scale performance in a fast-paced, commercially driven business.
• Reporting to: Growth Marketing Lead
• Location: Solihull – B37 (Hybrid – 3 days office based)
• What it’s all about…
• As our Paid Media Specialist, working alongside the Growth Marketing Lead, you'll be responsible for driving profitable growth across our paid acquisition channels through continual optimisation, experimentation and data-driven decision making.
• Paid Search & Performance Marketing
• · Own the day-to-day management and optimisation of Google Ads and Microsoft Ads campaigns including:
• o Search
• o Performance Max
• o Demand Gen
• o Display Remarketing
• · Optimise bidding strategies using Smart Bidding and Value-Based Bidding to achieve agreed CPA, ROAS and revenue targets.
• · Manage and optimise paid social campaigns across Meta, TikTok and other relevant platforms to support customer acquisition objectives.
• · Support wider demand generation initiatives including YouTube, affiliate marketing, lead generation partnerships and emerging paid acquisition channel
• Campaign Optimisation
• · Conduct keyword research, audience segmentation and competitor analysis to identify growth opportunities.
• · Develop structured testing roadmaps covering:
• o Campaign structure
• o Bidding strategies
• o Audience targeting
• o Ad copy
• o Creative
• o Landing pages
• o Offers
• · Work closely with the Ecommerce and CRO team to improve conversion rates and lead quality through continual testing and optimisation.
• · Monitor feeds to maximise Performance Max performance.
• Performance & Analytics
• · Support the management and optimisation of significant paid media budgets, ensuring spend is allocated effectively to maximise return on investment.
• · Monitor campaign performance using Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, GA4, PostHog, Meta Ads Manager and Looker Studio.
• · Produce weekly and monthly insight-led performance reports, identifying opportunities, risks and actionable recommendations rather than simply reporting metrics.
• · Contribute towards delivering agreed performance KPIs including:
• o Revenue
• o Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
• o Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
• o Conversion Rate
• o Impression Share
• o Lead Quality
• Tracking & Technology
• · Work with the Data and Development teams to help maintain accurate campaign tracking, Enhanced Conversions and Offline Conversion Imports.
• · Help identify opportunities to improve attribution, audience targeting and campaign measurement.
• · Use AI-powered tools to improve campaign optimisation, reporting and creative testing.
• · Stay up to date with platform developments, industry trends and best practice across paid search and paid social.

What we're looking for

• Essential
• · 2-4 years' experience managing Google Ads campaigns
• · Strong understanding of Google Search, Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns.
• · Experience with automated bidding strategies and Value-Based Bidding.
• · Excellent understanding of Google Ads Quality Score, Auction Insights and Impression Share.
• · Strong understanding of conversion tracking, attribution and campaign measurement.
• · Experience implementing or working with Offline Conversion Imports and Enhanced Conversions.
• · Experience using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager.
• · Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and make commercially focused recommendations.
• · Advanced Excel or Google Sheets skills.
• · Excellent communication skills with confidence presenting campaign performance and recommendations to stakeholders.
• · Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple campaigns and priorities simultaneously.
• · A proactive, commercially minded approach with excellent attention to detail.
• Desirable
• · Experience working within ecommerce, education, lead generation, financial services or subscription-based businesses.
• ·

Experience using shopify

·

Experience using posthog

·

Experience using bigquery

·

Experience building dashboards in looker studio

·

Experience managing product or data feeds

·

Experience using hubspot

• · Understanding of Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO).
• ·

Experience working with large advertising budgets

• · Experience using AI tools to improve marketing efficiency.
• Success in this role
• During your first 12 months you'll help us to:
• · Increase qualified customer acquisition.
• · Improve Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
• · Reduce Cost per Acquisition (CPA).
• · Increase Impression Share across priority product categories.
• · Improve lead quality and conversion rates.
• · Deliver a structured programme of continuous testing and optimisation.
• · Identify and scale new profitable acquisition opportunities.
• · Contribute to the continued growth of our digital marketing performance.
• Why join us?
• You'll be joining an ambitious, data-driven marketing team where you'll have genuine ownership of paid media performance and the opportunity to influence acquisition strategy.
• You'll work with a modern marketing technology stack including Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads, Shopify Plus, GA4, PostHog, HubSpot and Looker Studio, with the freedom to test new ideas and continuously improve performance.
• This role offers excellent opportunities for progression as we continue to invest in our growth marketing capability.
• The finer details
• · Permanent, full-time position.
• · 37 hours per week, Monday to Friday.
• · Hybrid working – three days per week in our Solihull office.
• Your application will be reviewed against the requirements of the role and the needs of the business.
• If you don't hear from us following your application, unfortunately you have not been successful on this occasion. We thank you for your interest and wish you every success in your future career.