PPC Manager in Stevenage

Location: Hemel Hempstead, hybrid, 3 days per week

Salary: Up to 52,000 + 15% bonus + benefits

This is a PPC Manager role with proper scale behind it. Large budgets. 2 big revenue lines in a dynamic, fast-moving ‘trading’ type of industry. Working with a high-profile consumer brand. Where paid search has a direct line into commercial performance.

The important part is this: they are not looking for someone who has already done everything. This role is aimed at someone who has built strong hands-on PPC capability, probably at Senior Executive level or maybe stepped into management already, but only just entered into that journey, and you’re looking to mature your career down that line. Wanting more ownership, more strategic involvement, and the chance to develop into a broader paid search leadership role over time.

You’ll be joining a business that runs its paid search activity in-house, so this is not a light-touch supplier management role. You’ll be close to the platforms, the numbers, the campaigns and the decisions. You’ll be expected to understand what is happening in the account, why performance is moving, where the opportunity sits, and how to communicate that clearly to the wider business.

You’ll also be working closely with, and learning from, a highly experienced Head of Search Marketing who has been recognised by Google as one of the leading people in this space. So there is structure, coaching and senior support around you, but also enough room to step up and take ownership.

The business itself operates in the hospitality and leisure space, with a well-known consumer brand and a sizeable marketing operation. Campaigns are large, commercially important and often complex, spanning different products, trading periods and customer journeys.

If you want the next step in PPC without being thrown in unsupported, this is a very strong chance to achieve that.

What you’ll be doing

• Take on day-to-day ownership of PPC campaign activity across Google and Microsoft Ads, helping manage performance across a sizeable paid search estate.
• Managing and optimising PPC campaigns across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
• Working across campaign types including Search, Performance Max and AI Max.
• Using automated bidding strategies, particularly around ROAS and commercial return.
• Supporting budget management across daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly cycles.
• Monitoring performance trends and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, scale and profitability.
• Working with SA360 and wider paid search tools to manage campaign structure, performance and reporting.
• Translating campaign data into clear recommendations for senior marketing stakeholders.
• Supporting planning around seasonal trading periods, product priorities and wider marketing activity.
• Helping shape testing plans across creative, bidding, audiences, landing pages and campaign structure.
• Working closely with internal teams across digital, brand, analytics and commercial functions.
• Gradually taking on more ownership of planning, reporting and stakeholder management as the role develops.

This is not just “keep the campaigns ticking over”. The expectation is that you’ll grow into someone who can take a more active role in decision-making, performance planning, people or channel leadership.

What they’re looking for

• A solid grounding in PPC and paid search campaign management, with enough hands-on experience to be credible around performance, platform set-up, optimisation and analysis.
• Likely operating as a Senior PPC Executive, Senior Paid Search Executive, PPC Specialist or similar, either agency-side or in-house.
• Strong hands-on PPC experience across Google Ads.
• Experience with Microsoft Ads would be useful.
• Good working knowledge of SA360.
• Exposure to Performance Max, AI Max and automated bidding strategies.
• A strong grasp of budget pacing, ROAS, CPA, conversion performance and campaign efficiency.
• Confidence working with spreadsheets, dashboards and performance data.
• Experience using Google Analytics or similar analytics tools.
• The ability to spot patterns in data and turn them into useful action.
• Clear communication skills, especially when explaining performance to non-technical stakeholders.
• A genuine appetite to step into a bigger remit, not just maintain what already exists.
• You do not need to be the finished article. What matters more is that you have the technical base, commercial curiosity and maturity to grow into a management-level PPC role.

Why this role?

This is a good fit for someone who feels they have outgrown pure execution, but is not necessarily being given enough room to progress where they are now.

You’ll get:

• A genuine step up into a PPC Manager title.
• Exposure to large-scale budgets and more complex campaign structures.
• A clear pathway towards broader strategic ownership.
• Coaching from a very experienced Head of Search Marketing.
• The chance to work in-house for a recognisable consumer brand.
• More visibility across commercial planning, trading performance and senior stakeholder conversations.
• A business that invests in learning, development and long-term progression.
• It is a role with enough stretch to be interesting, but enough support to make that step realistic.

Package

Up to 52,000 base salary, 15% bonus, Pension, Life assurance, Discount platform covering holidays, utilities, retail and more, EV car scheme, Additional lifestyle and wellbeing benefits.

Want to apply?

You must have the right to live and work in the UK. You can share your LinkedIn profile, but please make sure it includes more than just job titles, or email across a CV.

For a chat and more information, contact: Colin Doree Recruiter | Blue Pelican 01892 507122