Senior Paid Media Manager in Manchester

Hybrid/Remote | UK-Based Only | Full Time

This is not a graduate role. No recruiters please.

We are on the hunt for an experienced, strategic, and hands‑on Senior Paid Media Manager to join our growing Paid Media team. This is a key hire, someone who not only delivers brilliant results for clients but also takes ownership of developing and supporting the team around them. This role requires a strong balance of strategic thinking and people management.

In this role, you’ll manage and optimise high‑performing paid media campaigns across both PPC and Paid Social channels for e‑commerce and lead generation accounts (B2B, B2C & DTC), with monthly budgets up to £350,000. You will line manage two members of the Paid Media team, taking accountability for their performance, development, and the quality of work delivered across the accounts they manage. You’ll work directly with clients to understand their business goals, guide strategy, and communicate results in a clear and confident way.

Alongside campaign management, you’ll play a key role in ensuring campaigns are underpinned by accurate tracking and measurement, while also bringing a strong creative eye to paid media activity, guiding ad creative, shaping briefs, and identifying opportunities to improve performance through better messaging and assets. We’re looking for someone who can combine hands‑on campaign management with commercial thinking, someone who understands how paid media contributes to wider business outcomes such as profit, lead quality, and revenue growth. This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced paid media professional who enjoys combining hands‑on campaign management with team leadership and strategic thinking.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead, implement and optimise paid media campaigns across PPC (primarily Google Ads) and Paid Social platforms including Meta and LinkedIn.
• Line manage two Paid Media team members, providing structured support, feedback, and development opportunities while taking accountability for the performance and quality of the accounts they manage.
• Use data to drive strategic decision‑making, working with attribution models, offline conversion data, and custom performance dashboards.
• Implement and troubleshoot conversion tracking across platforms using tools such as Google Tag Manager, GA4, and platform pixels.
• Set up and manage offline conversion tracking to ensure campaigns are optimised towards real business outcomes rather than just platform conversions.
• Work with clients and internal teams to implement profit‑based bidding strategies, ensuring campaigns optimise towards revenue and profitability metrics rather than surface‑level performance metrics.
• Provide guidance on creative strategy across paid social and display activity, including writing clear creative briefs and supporting the development of high‑performing ad assets.
• Identify and resolve tracking or attribution issues to ensure campaign performance is measured accurately.
• Analyse campaign data outside of platform dashboards to uncover insights and identify optimisation opportunities.
• Contribute to new business pitches, bringing paid media insight and strategy to proposals and helping showcase what makes our approach stand out.
• Develop advanced solutions across accounts from feed‑based ads and Performance Max to audience strategies, first‑party data activation, and automation scripts.
• Support the planning and delivery of account strategies and quarterly performance reviews.
• Regularly meet with clients to discuss performance, provide strategic recommendations, and build long‑term relationships.
• Run A/B tests and push for continuous improvement across all areas of paid media activity.
• Stay on top of industry changes and share insights with the wider team to keep us all learning.

What We Are Looking For

• 3+ years of hands‑on experience managing paid media campaigns (preferably agency).
• Proven experience managing or mentoring team members, with the ability to support development and take accountability for team performance.
• Strong technical understanding of conversion tracking, including implementation and troubleshooting using Google Tag Manager and GA4.
• Experience implementing or working with offline conversion tracking and attribution models.
• Experience working with profit‑based bidding strategies or performance metrics beyond simple CPA or ROAS.
• Confident managing campaigns across Google Ads (including PMax and Shopping) and paid social platforms such as Meta and LinkedIn.
• Strong analytical skills, with experience working with raw performance data in Excel or Google Sheets (VLOOKUPs, formulas, pivot tables).
• Experience briefing and guiding creative assets for paid media campaigns.
• Clear, confident communicator, written and verbal, who can build trust with clients and teammates alike.
• Organised, proactive, and comfortable managing multiple campaigns with competing deadlines.

About Cedarwood Digital

Cedarwood Digital is an award‑winning SEO, PPC and Digital PR agency based in Manchester, helping ambitious brands grow their visibility, traffic and revenue through data‑driven digital marketing strategies. Recognised at both the UK Search Awards and European Search Awards, the agency has recently won multiple accolades including Best Small SEO Agency, Best Small PPC Agency and Best Small Integrated Agency, alongside a range of campaign awards for client work. Cedarwood specialises in SEO, paid media and digital PR campaigns that earn high‑authority media coverage, combining strategic insight with measurable performance to deliver measurable results for clients across the UK and internationally.