Paid Media Specialist in Hampshire, Portsmouth

About Us

Iris is a global integrated agency driven by one simple philosophy: Participate or Perish. We create ideas that earn attention and inspire people to interact with brands in meaningful ways. Working with some of the world’s most ambitious brands, we combine strategy, creativity, technology, and media to deliver impactful campaigns.

We’re on the hunt for an enthusiastic and driven Paid Media Specialist to join our Performance Marketing team. This role is ideal for someone who loves getting into the nitty-gritty of campaign setup, optimisation and performance analysis, but who can also see the bigger picture, collaborating closely with Client Leads and Paid Media Leads to deliver a best-in-class paid media strategy and activation.

You will work across a portfolio of global B2C and B2B clients in exciting verticals such as travel, SaaS and real estate and across regions (Americas, Europe, ACPAC). The remit will be across full-funnel Paid Media, primarily managing campaigns across Paid Search and Paid Social, and with exposure and opportunity to grow into other channels such as Video, Display, Native and more.

This role will have real impact, helping shape and activate Paid Media campaigns that help improve our clients’ bottom line. Specifically, helping them reach high-quality audiences online, making media budgets more efficient, running A/B testing and AI experiments, to help increase conversion rates, deliver more Sales and improve ROAS.

What you’ll be doing

• Own the day-to-day management, optimisation and delivery of Paid Search and Paid Social campaigns across multiple global markets, with a focus on Google Ads, Meta and LinkedIn - covering build, optimisation, analysis and scaling to drive high-quality engagements and improve conversions.
• Translate strategy into high-impact execution, partnering closely with the Client Leads to ensure activity aligns with wider brand and performance objectives, and feeding performance insights back into strategic planning.
• Manage the end-to-end Search campaign lifecycle, including campaign builds, keyword and audience setup, QA, tracking implementation, ongoing optimisation, budget pacing management, reporting, and post-campaign reviews.
• Brief and manage workflows, ensuring efficient support across campaign builds, optimisation processes, reporting outputs, and localisation for different markets and languages.
• Analyse performance signals across Paid Media platforms, Google Analytics, Looker Studio and internal datasets, turning insights into actionable recommendations that improve efficiency, engagement and on-site quality.
• Prioritise and manage multiple markets, campaigns and deadlines simultaneously, maintaining strong communication with internal teams and client-side stakeholders.
• Provide input into audience, keyword and campaign optimisation opportunities, ensuring campaigns effectively cover the various stages of the funnel to, ultimately, influence the bottom line.
• Stay up to date with Paid Media platform updates, tools and best practices, proactively sharing learnings and opportunities with the wider team to elevate overall Search performance.

What we’re looking for

• 1–2 years’ experience supporting or managing paid media campaigns, ideally within an agency environment.
• Hands-on experience with Google Ads and Paid Social, with a good understanding of conversion funnels, optimisation tactics, keyword strategy and core performance KPIs.
• Proficient in Excel and comfortable using reporting and analysis tools such as Looker Studio and Google Analytics (GA4).
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret campaign data and contribute meaningful insights and recommendations.
• A collaborative and proactive mindset, with a willingness to take ownership of tasks, solve problems and support smooth day-to-day delivery.
• Clear communication skills, with confidence in sharing updates, insights and rationale with teammates and internal stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience managing multi-market multi-channel media, especially across Europe or North America.
• Familiarity with SEO and other non-paid for strategies and how they interact with Paid Media executions.
• Exposure to A/B testing or automation tools (e.g., ad copy tests, bid strategies, scripts, bulk workflows) to enhance optimisation and efficiency.

Why this role?

• Join a driven and collaborative team known for its deep expertise across the digital landscape - from Paid Search and SEO to Meta and Google Analytics, content and CRO - giving you the chance to learn from experts across the full ecosystem.
• Work with an award-winning team recognised and trusted by industry leading brands. You’ll help drive impact across multiple global markets, supporting clients with big ambitions and plenty of room to test, learn and innovate.
• Grow your Paid Media craft while stepping into more channel strategy thinking, taking increasing ownership of insight generation, testing roadmaps and recommendations that shape how campaigns evolve.
• Opportunity to mentor and take on more responsibility over time, supporting junior colleagues and gradually expanding your ownership across markets and workflow.

Equal Opportunities

Iris is an advocate for equal opportunity in the workplace. We are committed to ensuring equal opportunities regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability and gender identity. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.