[Hiring] Senior Search Strategist @USA TODAY Co.

Role Description

The Sr. Paid Search Specialist role is focused on defining strategy and driving success for top brands across the National, Enterprise and Multi-Location team. In this role, you will act as an advisor and investigator, understanding the clients’ business goals, analyzing current campaigns, the results, the setup, and recommending modifications and appropriate capabilities and implementation skillsets needed to help achieve set benchmarks. This role will own the strategic recommendation elements to help campaigns reach client goals.

This role will also take an active role in our pre-sales process and in making initial client recommendations prior to onboarding. The role we play is significant and we strive to exceed our goals and client expectations, while learning, growing, and having fun as a team along the way.

About the job:

• The Senior Paid Search Strategist will focus efforts around four core functions:
  • Discovery
  • Implementation
  • Optimization
  • Results
• Leveraging our in-house reporting dashboards, you will identify and select campaigns to review based on shortfalls you see from established client expectations.
• In other circumstances, cases will come directly to you from our Sales and Brand Management team, soliciting your advice on recommendations to correct campaign performance.
• Some brands will be existing, while new, large brands will be also folded in as they are closed by our sales team.
• Our brands today are primarily focused on SEM, and you will work to ensure that this tactic is delivering stellar results across each brand and account within the brand.
• Recommended changes will then be implemented.
• Whether helping implement the changes directly or delegating tasks to associated client success managers attached to the brands, you will be accountable for ensuring implementation is completed correctly.
• Continuous optimization will occur with consistent reviews that you will conduct leveraging reporting tools to help tell the story to clients.
• Results will then be shared with internal and external clients.
• This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports and will own the strategic elements of the client relationship while the current/existing managers will own people management of teams and execution disciplines.

Qualifications

• Applied experience in SEM at an expert level.
• Advanced knowledge of shopping ads and paid search ads outside of search engine platforms, such as Yelp and Amazon.
• Cross-section of skills spanning:
  • Advertising Strategy
  • Project Management
  • Technology
  • Attention to detail
  • Consumer Insights
  • Analytics
  • Implementation of Data-Driven Decisions

Requirements

• Develop and execute effective SEM and paid search strategies that align with clients’ goals and objectives.
• Conduct in-depth keyword research to identify high-value keywords and phrases for both organic and paid search campaigns.
• Oversee paid search campaigns, including budget management, ad copywriting, bid optimization, and performance tracking.
• Monitor and analyze performance metrics using tools like Google Analytics, Google Ads, and internal software, and provide regular reports to external and internal stakeholders.
• Stay current with industry trends, algorithm updates, and best practices in search marketing to ensure compliance and effectiveness.
• Conduct competitive analysis to identify opportunities and threats in the search marketing landscape.
• Collaborate with client or internal web development and UX teams to optimize landing pages and user experiences for improved conversion rates.
• Manage the search marketing budget, allocating effectively to maximize ROI.
• Foster cross-functional collaboration with other departments, such as sales, post-sales, creative, data science, customer experience and others, to integrate search marketing efforts with broader business objectives.
• Identify areas for improvement, conduct A/B testing, and implement optimization strategies to enhance clients’ SEM performance.

Benefits

• The annualized base salary for this role will be $70,000.00 - $85,000.00.
• Variable compensation is not reflected in these figures and based on the role, may be applicable.
• Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, location, and union representation, if applicable.

Company Description

USA TODAY Co., Inc. is a diversified media company with expansive reach at the national and local level dedicated to empowering and enriching communities. We seek to inspire, inform, and connect audiences as a sustainable, growth-focused media and digital marketing solutions company.

Through our trusted brands, including the USA TODAY NETWORK, we provide essential journalism, local content, and digital experiences to audiences and businesses.