Digital Paid Media Manager

Digital Paid Media Manager

Salary: £50,000 - £55,000

Type: Permanent

Location: Hybrid / Ashford, Kent and London, King Cross

Our award-winning business area, Saga Cruise, is recruiting a Digital Paid Media Manager to join the growing marketing team from early 2025! Here you will have the chance to play a big part in driving our continued success and growth by the planning, implementation, and optimisation of highly effective digital acquisition campaigns. You will work closely with our newly appointed Head of Digital in this energetic and results-driven team.

As the Paid Media Manager, your key focus will be to deliver growth across paid search, paid social, affiliates, display, and other paid digital channels, ensuring all activity is measured, reported on, and continually improved to meet commercial objectives.

You will work to improve the end-to-end digital customer journey by delivering standout creative executions, identifying opportunities to enhance click-through rates (CTR), and improving conversion funnels. As a key driver of digital media activity, you will use insight to ensure volume at target CPA levels, ultimately contributing to increased bookings, revenue, and efficiency.

You will continually track and apply digital marketing best practices, lead test-and-learn initiatives, and advise on new tools, channels, and techniques. You will use data and analytics to identify opportunities for performance enhancement, experimenting with programmatic networks and leveraging insights from reporting platforms such as Google/Adobe Analytics and GA4.

We work in a hybrid way at Saga, both at home and in the office. Our Digital Marketing Team in the Cruise function attends the office 3 days a week. You will be allocated to Ashford, Kent as your hybrid office but will also use our London office in Kings Cross to collaborate with your team. You will need to be in a reasonable commuting distance to Ashford.

Benefits Available to All Colleagues:

1. 25 days holiday + bank holidays
2. Option to purchase additional leave up to 5 extra days
3. Pension scheme matched up to 10%
4. Life assurance policy on joining us
5. Wellbeing programme
6. Colleague discounts including family discounts on cruises and holidays
7. Range of reductions and offers from leading retailers, travel groups, and entertainment companies
8. Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
9. Grandparents leave
10. Company performance-related annual bonus - Up to 5%
11. Income protection
12. Access to Saga Academy, our bespoke learning platform

Main Responsibilities:

1. Manage a digital executive and collaborate with a range of stakeholders including the wider Cruise Marketing team, external agency partners, the Ecommerce and Digital team, and the Data & Analytics team.
2. Be the digital expert and recommend the optimal digital channel mix and budget allocation to support all our Cruise Marketing campaigns.
3. Deliver the online media plan (PPC, Display, Affiliates, Paid Social) within set budgets.
4. Line management of the Digital Paid Media Executive, guiding their development and ensuring the highest quality output.
5. Monitor and optimise all paid media activity, acting as the primary contact for all digital agencies.
6. Provide robust reporting and analysis of all paid media channels, ensuring transparency in performance and clear insights for continuous improvement.
7. Collaborate with the Cruise Marketing team and internal creative teams to develop digital-first creative that drives strong CTRs, site visits, bookings, and revenue.
8. Work closely with agency partners to ensure activities deliver volume at the target CPA and identify areas for increased efficiency.
9. Partner with the Data & Analytics team to analyse customer purchase funnels and optimise conversion.
10. Provide marketing insights to the Head of Digital to inform ongoing marketing strategy and decision making.
11. Continually apply digital marketing best practices and insights to support test-and-learn activities and drive ongoing optimisation.

The Ideal Candidate:

1. Credible Paid Search expert with prior experience from a consumer-facing brand/platform.
2. Proven ability to implement and optimise digital acquisition strategies that deliver against commercial targets.
3. In-depth experience with Google Ads, SA360, and Facebook Business Manager.
4. Familiarity with programmatic networks is highly advantageous.
5. Demonstrated analytical skills using reporting platforms (Adobe Analytics and GA4), with the ability to interpret data to inform decisions.
6. Ability to adapt quickly to changing business needs and market conditions.
7. Strong project management skills: Able to manage multiple campaigns, stakeholders, and deadlines effectively.
8. Creative thinking: Ability to develop and optimise digital-first creative solutions for better engagement.
9. Analytical understanding: Skilled in translating data into actionable insights.
10. Strong commercial awareness: Focused on delivering results against key business performance indicators.

Desirable: Previous experience in a travel marketing role and/or an in-house, commercially focused environment is preferable.

Saga Values: Make it Happen, Do the Right Thing, Customer First, Excellence Every Day.

About The Company:

Over the past 70 years, we have become the UK's specialist provider of products and services to people aged over 50 in the UK. The Saga brand has become one of the most recognised and trusted brands amongst UK consumers in this demographic, recognised for its high-quality products and exceptional standards of service. These include cruises and holidays, insurance, personal finance, and the Saga Magazine.

We are a dynamic and forward-looking business with a clear, single-minded purpose; to create exceptional experiences every day whilst being a driver for positive change in our markets and communities. Our focus on exceptional experiences empowers our colleagues to create moments that are simple, personal, and special for our customers and for each other. Our values underpin our approach and help guide us to deliver our purpose.

At Saga, we are committed to treating all employees fairly and to offering equal opportunities in all aspects of employment and advancement. We value diversity not just because it is the right thing to do, but because diverse teams perform better.

We’re passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Championing diversity is important to us, and diverse teams really are the best ones. We’re dedicated to creating a culture where every colleague feels like they belong. So that at Saga, more than anywhere else, you can be your best, be yourself, and make a difference.

Fair consideration is given to all applicants, including those with disabilities and those who are over the age of 50. As champions of age inclusivity and signatories of the Age-Friendly Employer Pledge, we are proud of our multigenerational teams. We are also an official Disability Confident Committed employer and ensure that our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible; we will make reasonable adjustments as required. For more information on our DEI policies please visit our Saga Careers page.

Saga does not accept agency CVs unless specifically engaged on the role by the Talent Acquisition Team. Please do not forward CVs to our recruiters, employees, or any other company location. Saga will not be responsible for any fees related to CVs received in this unsolicited manner.

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