Associate Director of Performance Marketing

Associate Director of Performance Marketing

Location: Remote, U.S.-based only

Type: Full-time

Starting Salary: $100,000 per year

About Brightside

Brightside is a performance marketing agency specializing in fitness, wellness, franchise, lead generation, and e-commerce brands.

We build high-performing customer acquisition systems across Meta, Google, YouTube, TikTok, and emerging digital channels, combining paid media with audience intelligence, creative strategy, conversion optimization, attribution, and analytics.

We're a collaborative, supportive team that cares deeply about excellent work and helping each other grow. We move quickly, communicate openly, and believe talented people do their best work when they're trusted, supported, and empowered to contribute.

The Role

We're hiring an Associate Director of Performance Marketing to work closely with our Marketing Director and take significant ownership of paid media strategy, execution, and performance across a portfolio of client accounts.

This is a senior, hands-on position for someone who has spent years inside advertising platforms, understands what drives results, and has developed the judgment to know not just how to optimize campaigns, but where to focus, what to prioritize, and when a different strategy is needed.

We're not looking for someone who has moved away from the platforms into a purely managerial role.

We want someone who enjoys investigating performance, building campaigns, analyzing data, identifying opportunities, solving complicated problems, and helping others become better marketers.

You'll independently lead performance across assigned accounts, contribute to broader acquisition strategy, and serve as a trusted technical resource for the team.

We value initiative, sound judgment, and the ability to turn insights into action. If performance changes, you investigate. If something isn't working, you develop a plan. If you see an opportunity, you bring it forward. And when a decision is made, you're comfortable getting into the platforms and executing.

What You'll Own

Paid Media Strategy & Execution

• Lead the strategy, execution, and optimization of paid media campaigns across Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, and other relevant platforms
• Remain deeply hands-on with campaign creation, management, testing, and optimization
• Build and optimize campaign structures across Google Search, Performance Max, YouTube, Demand Gen, Meta, and other acquisition channels
• Develop full-funnel acquisition strategies aligned with client objectives, budgets, and conversion goals
• Independently manage multiple brands, markets, locations, and advertising budgets
• Make informed decisions around bidding, budget allocation, audience targeting, conversion objectives, and creative testing
• Identify opportunities to scale successful campaigns while maintaining acquisition efficiency
• Collaborate with our Marketing Director on strategic planning and account performance

Performance Analysis & Optimization

We don't just need someone who can explain what happened. We need someone who understands why it happened, what it means for the business, and what we should do next.

• Take ownership of performance across assigned client accounts
• Analyze CTR, CPC, CPM, CVR, CPL, CPA, ROAS, conversion quality, acquisition costs, and revenue outcomes
• Diagnose performance challenges across platforms, audiences, bidding strategies, creative, landing pages, and conversion funnels
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, increase conversion volume, and scale results
• Develop testing strategies with clear hypotheses, success metrics, and actionable conclusions
• Translate performance data into recommendations and execute approved optimizations
• Proactively identify risks and opportunities before they become urgent

We want someone who takes responsibility for improving results, not simply reporting them.

Tracking, Attribution & Measurement

Strong technical knowledge is essential.

• Demonstrate advanced working knowledge of GA4, GTM, Google Ads conversion tracking, Meta Pixel, Conversions API, UTMs, and attribution
• Troubleshoot conversion discrepancies, tracking issues, and data-flow problems
• Evaluate conversion quality and downstream business outcomes rather than relying exclusively on platform-reported metrics
• Identify measurement gaps and recommend improvements
• Collaborate with technical resources when complex implementation support is needed

You don't need to be a developer, but you should be technically confident, resourceful, and capable of diagnosing problems before escalating them.

Creative Strategy & Conversion Optimization

Great performance marketing requires more than managing media.

• Analyze creative performance to identify winning concepts, messaging, offers, and audience responses
• Recognize creative fatigue, audience saturation, and testing opportunities
• Provide data-backed creative recommendations to our creative and account teams
• Identify friction within landing pages, lead forms, and conversion funnels
• Recommend improvements that increase lead quality, conversion rates, and acquisition efficiency

You won't be expected to design advertisements, but you should know what effective creative looks like and be able to explain why something is or isn't working.

Technical Leadership & Team Development

You'll serve as a senior technical resource and trusted partner to our Marketing Director, helping elevate the quality and consistency of work across the team.

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to performance marketing specialists and managers
• Help troubleshoot challenging account and campaign issues
• Review campaign structures, optimization approaches, and tracking configurations when needed
• Share best practices, platform updates, and emerging opportunities
• Help strengthen internal processes, quality assurance, and campaign management standards
• Lead by example through expertise, accountability, curiosity, and collaboration

We believe leadership is demonstrated through actions, not titles. You don't need to have all the answers, but you should have the experience to ask the right questions, the confidence to make recommendations, and the humility to collaborate with others.

Client Strategy, Communication & Ownership

Agency life moves quickly. Successful leaders know how to balance competing priorities without sacrificing quality.

• Contribute to client strategy discussions, performance reviews, forecasting, and budget recommendations
• Explain complex advertising performance in clear, actionable terms
• Manage multiple client accounts, deadlines, budgets, and performance objectives simultaneously
• Prioritize work based on urgency, impact, and client needs
• Maintain excellent organizational and quality assurance practices
• Communicate proactively when results change, priorities shift, or additional resources are needed
• Identify opportunities to improve workflows and operational efficiency
• Take initiative without waiting to be told what needs attention

Sometimes a client request that arrives at 10:00 AM really does need to be executed that afternoon. We value people who can assess the situation, communicate clearly, make decisions, and move.

What You Bring

• 6+ years of hands-on performance marketing experience, preferably in an agency or multi-brand environment
• Deep expertise in both Google Ads and Meta Ads, including campaign architecture, bidding, optimization, audience development, and troubleshooting
• Advanced Google Ads experience across Search and Performance Max; YouTube and/or Demand Gen experience preferred
• Proven experience developing and executing acquisition strategies across multiple accounts or brands
• Demonstrated success improving campaign performance, scaling acquisition, and managing meaningful advertising budgets
• Strong analytical capabilities and the ability to independently diagnose complicated performance challenges
• Advanced working knowledge of GA4, GTM, conversion tracking, pixels, attribution, and CRM data integration
• Experience building campaigns and account structures from scratch
• Ability to connect media performance with lead quality, customer acquisition costs, revenue, and business outcomes
• Experience mentoring or providing technical guidance to other marketers
• Excellent communication, organization, prioritization, and QA habits
• A demonstrated track record of initiative, independent judgment, and accountability
• A genuine interest in remaining hands-on with campaign execution and optimization

Strongly Preferred

• Significant agency experience managing multiple client accounts
• Multi-location, franchise, or geographically targeted advertising experience
• Fitness, wellness, healthcare, or membership-based business experience
• TikTok Ads experience
• Looker Studio, dashboard development, or advanced reporting experience
• CRM integrations and offline conversion tracking experience
• Google Ads, Meta, or GA4 certifications
• Programmatic advertising or CTV exposure

The Person We're Looking For

You're a technically exceptional performance marketer who combines analytical thinking with initiative, sound judgment, and a genuine desire to improve results.

You're confident enough to challenge assumptions, humble enough to welcome feedback, and experienced enough to take ownership without constant direction.

You enjoy solving difficult problems, helping teammates succeed, and turning insights into measurable improvements.

Most importantly, you don't view your job as maintaining advertising accounts. You view it as finding ways to make them perform better.

We don't measure success by how busy you are or how many campaigns you manage. We measure it by the quality of your decisions, the improvements you drive, the problems you solve, and the value you create for our clients and team.