One of my favourite clients, a leading full-service digital agency, is looking for a Head of Performance Media to lead their growing media function.
This is a pivotal role within the agency, you’ll be responsible for driving performance excellence across all paid media channels, ensuring campaigns deliver measurable results for clients while meeting internal commercial objectives. You’ll lead a talented team, set the strategic direction, and serve as the senior point of contact for performance-related client communication.
Key Responsibilities
1. Campaign Performance & Commercial Delivery
Ensure all campaigns meet or exceed KPI benchmarks, with clear tracking against performance goals.
Manage campaign budgets to maintain spend at or below 80% of allocated media budgets (protecting agency margin).
Lead performance reviews for major campaigns, identifying optimisation opportunities.
Ensure campaign pacing, tracking, and data integrity are consistently accurate.
2. Media Strategy, Planning & Implementation Oversight
Oversee development of all media plans, ensuring alignment with client objectives and strategies.
Review and sign off all media briefs and chase lists.
Provide strategic input on channel mix, targeting, and budget allocations to maximise results.
3. Reporting & Insights
Oversee all media reporting outputs, ensuring accuracy, actionable insights, and alignment to KPIs.
Review key client reports prior to submission.
Present performance reports and insights to senior stakeholders and clients as required.
4. Team Leadership & Development
Lead and manage the media team, ensuring workloads are balanced and outputs are of exceptional quality.
Provide mentorship, guidance, and training to support team growth and skill development.
Ensure all team members maintain relevant certifications (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, etc.).
Foster a performance-driven, collaborative culture within the department.
5. Client Communication & Stakeholder Management
Build strong, trusted relationships with clients and internal teams alike.
6. Media Owner & Platform Relationships
Manage relationships with key media owners and platform partners.
Interrogate rate cards, proposals, and reports to ensure alignment with performance and commercial goals.
Stay informed on emerging formats, tools, and opportunities across platforms.
Arrange regular knowledge-sharing sessions to keep the team up to date on innovations.
Ideal Candidate
6+ years’ experience in paid media or performance marketing, ideally within an agency environment.
Strong understanding of programmatic, social, search, and performance channels.
Proven leadership experience with the ability to inspire and develop a team.