Associate Director, Performance Media

About the role

Swell Media is looking for an experienced performance media professional who brings a strong combination of strategy, platform expertise, and client leadership. This is a senior, hands-on role for someone who knows paid search and paid social deeply and can move seamlessly between developing media strategy, managing client relationships, analyzing performance, and getting into the platforms to execute when needed. You’ll lead performance media strategy across key client accounts, manage media budgets, and serve as a trusted strategic partner to clients. You may also mentor or manage members of the performance media team.

Responsibilities

• Develop and oversee paid search and paid social strategies
• Translate client business goals into actionable media strategies
• Manage media budgets, pacing, and overall account performance
• Analyze performance and identify opportunities for growth
• Present performance, insights, and recommendations to clients
• Build strong, trusted client relationships
• Identify opportunities to improve and grow client partnerships
• Serve as a senior strategic partner to clients
• Lead performance and strategy conversations
• Translate media data into clear business recommendations
• Mentor and develop team members
• Potentially manage direct reports
• Help elevate the team's platform and strategic expertise

Platform Expertise

Deep, current hands-on experience across:

• Paid Search: Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Performance Max / AI Max, Demand Gen, YouTube)
• Paid Social: Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat

You understand campaign structure, bidding, audiences, creative testing, conversion tracking, optimization, and scaling. Most importantly, you can develop the strategy and execute it yourself when needed.

What Success Looks Like

• Clients trust you as a strategic performance media partner
• Media strategies drive measurable business results
• Budgets are managed thoughtfully and efficiently
• Priorities, opportunities, and performance challenges are identified early and proactively moved toward action and resolution
• You can move comfortably between strategy, client conversations, and platform execution
• The team becomes stronger because of your expertise and leadership

Qualifications

• 7+ years of performance media experience
• Strong, recent hands-on experience with both paid search and paid social
• Deep expertise in Google Ads and Meta; additional platform experience is a plus
• Proven experience developing and executing paid media strategy
• Experience managing significant media budgets
• Strong client-facing and account management experience
• Ability to analyze performance data and turn insights into action
• Experience with ecommerce, lead generation, B2B, or other performance-driven businesses
• Strong communication and presentation skills

Bonus Points

• Experience managing or mentoring team members
• Experience with Google Merchant Center, feed optimization, or offline conversion tracking
• Experience with automation, scripts, or AI tools
• Experience with incrementality or lift testing

Location & Travel

This role can be based anywhere in the United States. This is a remote-friendly position, with periodic travel for client meetings and agency gatherings, including an annual all-hands meeting.

Benefits

• The chance to be a part of a growing company and the next success story
• Amazing opportunities for career development
• Recognition programs
• Employee referral bonus
• Hybrid work schedule; 2 days in the office, 3 days working from home
• Fun and collaborative work environment
• Casual dress code
• Insurance Coverage (medical, dental, vision, life, and disability)
• 401(k) retirement plan, with employer 4% match
• Work/life benefits, including mental health and wellbeing support
• Flexible Time Off Policy
• Paid holidays, including agency soft closing Christmas Eve–New Year’s Day
• Paid leave options, including sick leave, medical leave for self and family, and parental leave