Senior PPC Executive
2 days ago
Southampton
Plan, build and optimise high-performing paid media campaigns within a fast-paced agency environment, combining Google Ads expertise, commercial judgement and AI-driven tools to turn client budgets into measurable, high-quality leads. ICAAL is an award-winning, AI-first digital marketing agency and Google Premier Partner, based in beautiful Grade 2* listed offices in Southampton city centre. We help installers, home-improvement brands and other growth-focused businesses across the UK and internationally generate more of the enquiries that matter. Our work spans PPC, paid social, SEO and web experiences, with a simple focus: turning digital marketing investment into measurable commercial results. We're growing our Paid Media hub and are looking for a Senior Digital Marketing Executive with proven experience planning, launching and optimising paid campaigns for lead generation. You'll report to our Senior PPC Manager and work closely with our Account Managers, who own client relationships and coordinate activity across ICAAL's wider digital services. You'll be the paid media specialist they rely on to turn performance data into clear recommendations and better results. Your core focus will be Google Ads: building high-intent campaigns, controlling spend, improving conversion rates and continually finding ways to increase the volume and quality of leads. You'll also have the opportunity to develop your expertise in Microsoft Ads, as well as paid Meta, where we're continuing to grow our capability. An AI-first approach to paid media AI isn't a side project at ICAAL. It's changing how we run campaigns. Our AI-powered workflows continuously monitor paid activity, surface anomalies, flag potential wasted spend, identify search-term and creative trends, and draft potential optimisations. That means you won't spend your days doing work that automation can handle more efficiently. Instead, you'll spend more time thinking. You'll interrogate what the AI surfaces, decide what's commercially significant, challenge its recommendations where necessary, and make the changes that improve performance. We want someone who can combine the speed and scale of AI with the judgement, curiosity and strategic thinking that still requires a great marketer. It's a genuinely different way of working—and we’re looking for someone who wants to be part of it. We're a collaborative team that takes work/life balance seriously and invests in the people, technology and environment around us. You'll get hands-on exposure to AI-powered marketing workflows, structured training and plenty of scope to broaden your skills as the role develops. This is a hands-on role for a paid media specialist who cares about commercial outcomes, not vanity metrics. You'll take ownership of a diverse portfolio of paid accounts, with Google Ads at the heart of your day-to-day work. You’ll be responsible for understanding what each account is trying to achieve, identifying opportunities to improve performance, and turning those opportunities into action. You'll be supported by AI throughout the process. Rather than manually trawling through search-term reports, pulling data together or waiting for problems to become obvious, you'll have intelligent monitoring working continuously in the background. The expectation isn't that you blindly accept what AI tells you. It's the opposite. You'll need to know when it's right, when it's wrong, and what it's missing, and what to do next. That means using your experience and commercial judgement to: • Build and optimise Google Ads campaigns around high-intent searches, • Manage budgets with a clear focus on cost per lead and lead quality, • Analyse performance and identify the opportunities that will have the greatest impact, • Review and act on AI-generated insights and optimisation recommendations, • Test ad copy, targeting, landing pages and other conversion opportunities, • Use analytics and conversion data to understand what's actually driving enquiries, • Provide clear, outcomes-focused insight to Account Managers and clients, • Identify opportunities to expand or improve paid media activity across accounts Growing your paid social expertise Paid Meta is an increasingly important part of our offering, and we're keen to develop this further. If you're already comfortable running paid social alongside search, you'll have the opportunity to make that a bigger part of your role. If Google Ads is currently your strength and Meta is an area you'd like to develop, we'll support you in building that capability. We're particularly interested in people who understand that successful paid social isn't simply about targeting an audience. Creative, audience, offer and landing-page experience all have to work together, and paid social needs to complement, rather than compete with, high-intent search. More than campaign management We're not looking for someone who simply knows their way around an ad account. You'll become the paid media expert that both our clients and Account Managers trust. That means being able to explain what is happening, why it is happening, what you recommend doing about it, and what impact you expect that to have. You'll bring a test-and-learn mindset, challenge assumptions, and look beyond platform metrics to understand whether campaigns are generating the right enquiries for the business. We're looking for someone who is curious, commercially minded and AI fluent, with the organisation and confidence to manage multiple live accounts and budgets without dropping the ball. If you're ready to move beyond manual campaign management and develop as a modern, AI-enabled paid media specialist, we'd like to hear from you. PPC campaign management • End-to-end creation of Google Ads campaigns, from keyword research and audience selection through to ad group structure, extensions, conversion tracking and budget pacing., • Ongoing optimisation including search term reviews, negative keyword management, ad copy and asset testing, bid strategy and budget adjustments, and landing page recommendations to improve lead volume and quality., • Manage client budgets responsibly, keeping spend on track and flagging risks or opportunities early., • Own the core metrics for your accounts: CPL, conversion rate, lead quality, ROAS and impression share, and turn them into clear, actionable insights. Paid social • Support on paid Meta campaign builds, audience and creative testing, and ongoing optimisation., • Brief and iterate on ad creative with the Graphics team, aligning message and offer to campaign objectives., • Help clients understand how paid social contributes to the wider lead generation picture alongside search. AI-assisted campaign management • Use ICAAL's AI monitoring tools to review campaign health, spot anomalies and identify optimisation opportunities across your portfolio., • Review, validate and act on AI-generated recommendations, applying human judgement rather than accepting outputs at face value., • Use AI to accelerate research, ad copy ideation, search term analysis and reporting, while owning the quality of everything that goes live., • Feed back to the Senior PPC Manager on where our AI workflows work well and where they need improving, helping shape how the team uses them. Conversion and landing pages • Write and optimise ad copy and landing page content designed to convert clicks into qualified enquiries., • Work with the Web and Graphics teams to make sure tracking, forms, CTAs and UX support conversion., • Ensure campaign tracking is implemented and validated correctly across Google Ads, GA4 and any client CRM feeds. Client communication and workflow • Work alongside Account Managers, who own the client relationship across all ICAAL services and coordinate monthly reporting, giving them clear paid media commentary, results and recommendations in good time., • Join or lead client calls where needed to talk through paid performance, agree objectives, and capture lead-quality feedback and commercial context., • Produce clear performance analysis that explains what changed, why, and what happens next, in language a client can act on., • Manage your workload across multiple accounts, keeping tasks updated and deadlines visible to the Senior PPC Manager and your Account Managers. We are seeking a commercially minded paid media specialist with a strong interest in lead generation and performance: • Demonstrable hands-on experience managing Google Ads campaigns and budgets (in-house, agency, freelance or consultancy)., • Solid understanding of how spend, traffic, conversion rate and cost per lead fit together, and how to move each of them., • Experience with, or genuine enthusiasm for, paid Meta campaigns and creative testing., • Comfort and confidence working with AI tools in a live account environment, and sound judgement about when to trust an AI recommendation and when to question it., • Ability to craft clear, persuasive ad copy and landing page messaging., • Confident working with data in Google Ads, GA4, Looker Studio or similar., • Understanding of conversion tracking fundamentals, including GA4 events and Google Tag Manager (training provided)., • Familiarity with content management systems, ideally WordPress. Personal attributes • Motivated by results, not just outputs, with a genuine interest in testing and continual improvement., • Comfortable owning client budgets and being accountable for the numbers., • Able to work under pressure and manage multiple deadlines without sacrificing quality., • Clear, confident communicator, comfortable working with both colleagues and clients., • Self-driven and proactive about upskilling in paid search, paid social and AI-powered marketing., • Fantastic Remuneration and Benefits Package – From £28,000 per annum, 23 days paid holiday plus 8 bank holidays, enhanced company sick pay and an attractive pension opportunity., • Professional Development – Enhanced training and development programme with in-house training, a personal development plan with industry accreditations and certifications, a career progression plan, and industry learning days., • Work Environment – Beautiful Grade 2* listed offices in central Southampton, spacious and air-conditioned workplace, excellent transport links, and a vibrant location near retail and hospitality hubs., • Staff Wellbeing – Exciting social events calendar, with free teas, coffees and healthy snacks. Free Perkbox discount scheme membership with hundreds of discounts from leading brands including department stores and fashion brands. This role is not for you if… • You're sceptical about AI having a role in campaign management, or you'd rather do everything manually., • You're uncomfortable working with numbers, dashboards and targets such as CPL, ROAS and conversion rate., • You want to hand budget decisions upwards rather than own them., • You prefer fixed routines over testing, learning and changing direction based on data., • You're looking for a fully remote role. This position is based in our Southampton office.< #J-18808-Ljbffr
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