[Hiring] Paid Media Strategist @Lifeway Christian Resources

Role Description

Lifeway is seeking a Remote Paid Media Strategist to take hands-on ownership of Google Ads, YouTube, and Bing / Microsoft Advertising as we bring paid media management in-house. You'll plan, build, optimize, and measure campaigns (search, Performance Max, video, audience-driven and Demand Gen) that drive customer acquisition, lead generation, eCommerce revenue, and ministry reach. You'll serve as the platform expert and trusted advisor to ministry and business partners while stewarding media budgets as entrusted funds. This is a remote-eligible role with periodic travel to Nashville for team gatherings.

Responsibilities

• Lives out Lifeway’s mission and values, showing deep commitment to Kingdom work.
• Own strategy, structure, and best practices for Google Ads, YouTube, and Microsoft Advertising, including search, Performance Max, video, shopping, and Demand Gen.
• Turn ministry and business goals into channel media plans covering audiences, bidding, budget allocation, flighting, and measurement.
• Build, traffic, and quality-check campaigns, ad groups, audiences, and creative variations before launch.
• Manage and pace platform budgets, forecast spend, and recommend reallocations to Paid Media leadership and partners.
• Run a structured testing roadmap (A/B and incrementality), documenting hypotheses, results, and what you learned.
• Build dashboards and recurring reports, and explain performance in plain terms, including when results miss goals, with recommended next steps.
• Manage audiences, first-party data uploads, exclusions, conversion tracking, and UTM structures in line with platform policy, privacy rules, and Lifeway standards.
• Advise cross-functional teams, and other partners on what the channel can realistically deliver.
• Define creative requirements and brief Creative based on performance evidence.
• Work with platform reps and vendor partners, pursue certifications and betas, and share what you learn across the marketing team.
• Limited travel: 2-4 times per year to Nashville, typically for 2-3 days.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Analytics, or a related field, required.
• Master's degree, preferred.
• Advanced graduate degree (PhD, etc.), not required.
• 5+ years of hands-on paid media experience managing campaigns directly in platform interfaces, in-house or agency.
• Demonstrated depth in Google and Bing ad platforms, including campaign structure, bidding, audience strategy, and troubleshooting.
• Proven management and pacing of media budgets against CPA/CPL, ROAS, revenue, or lead goals.
• Working proficiency with GA4, pixels/Conversions API, UTMs, and attribution concepts.
• Experience designing and running structured A/B tests and applying the results.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including explaining performance to non-technical audiences.
• Ability to manage multiple campaigns and stakeholders with sound judgment and accuracy.
• Ability to travel to the Middle Tennessee area 2-4 times annually for team gatherings.
• Actively involved in an evangelical Christian church.

Requirements

• Google Ads, Google Analytics, or comparable platform certification, preferred.
• Microsoft Bing Advertising certification, preferred.
• Experience managing paid media for multiple brands, audiences, or business units, preferred.
• Experience with Data Studio, Tableau, Power BI, Supermetrics, or similar reporting tools, preferred.
• Familiarity with incrementality testing, media mix modeling, or multi-touch attribution, preferred.
• eCommerce or direct-response experience (shopping campaigns, product feeds), preferred.
• Experience in publishing, retail, ministry/nonprofit, or a multi-brand organization, preferred.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits plans including healthcare, vacation and sick time, holiday pay, care days, 401(k) plan, maternity and parental leave, adoption assistance, mission trip time, and more.
• Work from Anywhere (WFA) culture with autonomy and flexibility in work hours.
• Equipment and resources provided for a productive and ergonomic workspace.
• All-team meetings several times per year and travel for key team gatherings for remote-based team members.