Head of Paid Media

WISE Digital Partners is a growth-focused digital marketing agency for professional services firms and home services businesses. We build websites and run SEO, content, and paid media for accounting firms, law firms, wealth and financial advisors, and trade businesses across the U.S. Our teams work in an AI-first operating model, with Claude-powered workflows behind research, builds, and reporting. We’re looking for a Head of Paid Media who can lead the department, grow it, and represent it with confidence in front of clients and prospects.

01 POSITION OVERVIEW

The Head of Paid Media owns WISE’s paid media department: its revenue, its client results, its people, and the way it works. You’ll set account strategy across Google, Microsoft, Meta, and local platforms, lead a lean U.S. team and offshore specialists, and decide where AI and automation carry the work and where experienced people need to. For your first few months, you’ll also run some of our largest accounts directly while you build the team around them.

This is a client-facing leadership role. You’ll lead strategy and upsell conversations with existing clients, join prospect calls alongside our sales and account teams, and turn performance data into plain-language recommendations that attorneys, CPAs, and business owners can act on. Our Account Managers own day-to-day client relationships; you’re the senior paid media voice they bring in when it matters.

The ideal candidate has led a paid media team at an agency, grown a book of business, and built AI-assisted workflows that changed how their team works. They are as comfortable presenting to a managing partner as they are in Google Ads Editor, and they run a tight operation: budgets on pace, tracking you can trust, and commitments kept.

02 CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Client and Prospect Communication

Lead strategy reviews, quarterly business reviews, and upsell conversations with clients. Support sales on prospect calls with well-scoped paid media recommendations and pricing. Translate performance into business outcomes such as cost per case, cost per client, and revenue, and be clear about what comes next.

2. Department Growth and P&L

Own department revenue, margin, and client retention. Build service packages and upsell paths, find growth opportunities across our client base, and set up the forecasting and reporting leadership uses to plan.

3. AI-First Operating Model

Design how the department runs with AI at the center. Decide what can be automated, such as builds, pacing, search term reviews, and reporting, and what needs human judgment. Then build and maintain those workflows with Claude and our internal tools, in partnership with our Search Strategy & Innovation lead.

4. Team Leadership

Lead, coach, and develop a lean U.S. team and offshore Paid Media Specialists. Set clear standards, review work, and build capacity so growth doesn’t depend on any one person. Work closely with SEO, web, creative, and account management so paid media never operates as a silo.

5. Account Strategy and Results

Set strategy across the book: account structure, bidding, budget allocation, audiences, and platform mix. Run key accounts directly at first, and stay close enough to the rest to diagnose problems quickly, and hold the team to measurable client results.

6. Budget Governance and Measurement

Run spend controls across every account: documented, client-approved budgets, pacing alerts, and no surprises for clients. Own the standards for conversion tracking, call tracking, and attribution so bidding and reporting run on reliable data.

03 ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• New platforms and vendors. Evaluate emerging ad channels, tools, and partners, with a written scope and business case before recommending them.
• Hiring. Lead hiring for the department, including offshore specialists.
• Process documentation. Maintain SOPs and AI workflow documentation the team can run without you.
• Internal education. Help account managers and sales understand what paid media can do for each client.

04 QUALIFICATIONS

REQUIRED

• 5+ years of hands-on paid media experience, including 3+ years leading a team, ideally at an agency
• A track record of growing a paid media book of business through upsells, expansions, or new client wins
• Strong client-facing communication: leading strategy reviews and sales conversations, and explaining performance in plain business terms
• Hands-on experience building AI-assisted workflows that changed how a team works, not only using AI tools
• Experience managing remote or offshore team members
• Experience building or rebuilding a department, service line, or team
• Deep Google Ads expertise across Search, Performance Max, and Local Services Ads, plus working knowledge of Microsoft and Meta Ads
• Experience overseeing $200,000+ per month in combined ad spend across lead generation accounts for service businesses, including at least one account above $50,000 per month
• A track record of keeping spend within client-approved budgets across many accounts, backed by systems such as alerts, scripts, or caps
• Strong command of conversion tracking, including GA4, Google Tag Manager, enhanced conversions, and call tracking
• Available to work U.S. business hours

PREFERRED

• Experience with legal, accounting, financial services, or home services advertisers
• Department P&L or margin ownership
• Offline conversion imports and CRM-connected reporting, such as HubSpot or ServiceTitan
• Server-side tracking, incrementality testing, or experience launching emerging ad platforms
• Claude or similar AI tools used in production workflows
• Familiarity with ClickUp, Slack, and Google Drive

05 WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

FIRST 90 DAYS

• Leading client strategy and upsell conversations on key accounts, with Account Managers asking for you on calls
• Spend controls in place on every account, with no unapproved overspend
• A clear read on every account in the book: what’s working, what isn’t, and the plan
• A documented map of the department’s workflows, with the first AI-driven improvements live
• An assessment of the team and a development plan for each person

FIRST 12 MONTHS

• Department revenue growing through upsells, expanded services, and new clients
• Client retention improving across the paid media book
• An AI-first operating model that lets the department grow faster than its headcount
• A team that works to clear standards, with offshore specialists running accounts independently
• Paid media seen as a strategic partner by the SEO, web, and account teams

Path to Director. Promotion to Director of Paid Media is tied to department revenue, margin, and retention targets that we agree on together in your first 90 days.

06 COMPENSATION AND WHY WISE

• $85,000 to $90,000 base salary, plus an annual performance bonus tied to department revenue, margin, and client retention.
• Medical, dental, and vision benefits beginning at 30 days
• 96 hours of PTO accrued annually, plus 10 paid holidays
• Optional 401(k) with matching beginning at 12 months
• Fully remote, with a leadership seat in an agency that is building its operating model around AI
• Lead generation work for professional services and home services, industries we know deeply