Paid Media Account Manager

The button pushing side of paid media is shrinking. Meta and Google automate more of it every year. What they can’t automate is judgement: knowing what to test, what the results are telling you, and where the next pound should go. That’s the job here. On your accounts, you’re the one making those judgement calls. Kandidly is a paid media and creative agency in London, working with ecommerce and DTC brands turning over seven and eight figures. We’ve been going since 2018 and we’re still small enough that you won’t disappear into an org chart.

You’ll run your accounts day to day, work with your Account Director on strategy, and have an Account Executive reporting into you. You’ll work the commercial side as hard as the platforms: what a customer is worth, what a brand can afford to pay to win one and how fast that money needs to come back. Creative and media talk to each other every week, and you’re the one who can look at a set of results and say why the work is winning.

The name is a play on “candidly”, and we mean it. You’ll get straight feedback on your work and you’ll be expected to give it, to your Exec and to your clients, even when the news isn’t what they wanted to hear. We’re picky about who we work with, clients and colleagues alike. Not everyone gets in.

Who are we looking for? Two people fit this role. A strong Account Executive with around two years in the seat who is ready to run accounts of their own. Or an Account Manager with a year or more at that level who wants a different challenge and a client list they can actually move. Either way, you’ll need at least two years in paid media and a working grasp of both Paid Search and Paid Social. You’ll lead your own client calls and carry full responsibility for your accounts from the start, with your Account Director there for the strategy and the hard calls, not to check your homework.

Characteristics we value:

• Relentless curiosity: You are hungry to learn, adapt, and grow. You don’t just accept platform defaults, you soak up knowledge, ask meaningful questions, and test new frameworks.
• Extreme accountability: You take the reins and own the results. You aren’t afraid to stand by your data, troubleshoot proactively, and deliver on client goals.
• Sharp communication (with a high-tier meme game): You are a confident communicator with killer time management skills. You know how to translate complex data into clear human insights, spread good vibes, and simply get things done.
• High adaptability: You thrive in the fast lane. You are resilient, flexible, and ready for a landscape that changes underneath you every quarter.

What you will be doing:

You are the day-to-day lead on your accounts, running Paid Search and Paid Social for ecommerce brands and owning the client relationship end to end, over email, on regular calls and with the occasional in person meetup.

Campaign management:

• Execute full-funnel strategies: Build and scale Paid Search and Paid Social campaigns, working with your Account Director during high-level strategy reviews.
• Performance optimisation: Aggressively optimise campaigns for direct response, ruthlessly troubleshoot account errors, and build account structures engineered to hit client growth KPIs.
• Platform innovation: Move fast on new platform updates and algorithmic shifts, ensuring our technical execution stays ahead of the curve.
• Account health & best practices: Maintain a pristine standard across advertising accounts, ensuring flawless activation details and seamless alignment with upcoming client initiatives.

Client management:

• Lead the relationship: You are the day-to-day lead for your clients. You aren’t an order-taker; you understand their unit economics, their customers, and where they want the business to get to.
• Run the calls: Lead weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly growth meetings yourself, delivering clear insights and proactive next steps rather than reading data off a dashboard.
• Proactive growth mapping: Look beyond the immediate ad accounts to spot holistic business opportunities, whether that is a creative gap, a landing page worth fixing, or an inventory trend nobody has flagged.
• Lead an Account Executive: An Account Executive will report into you, either from the start or shortly after you join. You set their priorities, review their builds, and bring them on.
• Work with our specialists: Our Creative Strategist sits between the paid media team and the design studio, so you don’t write briefs or manage designers. You bring the performance read that sets the creative direction.
• Own the operation: Timelines, deliverables and workflow on your accounts are yours. Nothing slips and nobody has to chase you for it.

Skills & requirements:

• Paid media experience: At least 2 years hands-on, whether that is agency side or in house. Around two years as an Account Executive and you are ready to step up, or a year or more already running accounts as an Account Manager and looking for a new challenge.
• Paid Search: Building and managing Google Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, including feed basics and bid strategy.
• Paid Social: Scaling Meta and TikTok conversion campaigns to CPA or ROAS targets, including catalogue/DPA setups and pixel/CAPI tracking.
• Both sides of the house: You’ll be stronger on one than the other and that’s fine. You do need to know your way around both interfaces without hand-holding.
• Creative judgement: You can read hook rate, hold rate and CTR alongside conversion data and tell a client why one ad is working and another isn’t.
• Data & analytics: Proficient in Excel/Google Sheets (pivots, formulas) and comfortable building client dashboards in Looker Studio.
• Client communication: You can run a performance call on your own and turn the numbers into a plan the client understands.
• Technical troubleshooting: Ability to diagnose feed errors, tracking issues, and ad rejections without escalating every time.

Bonus:

• Line management: You’ve already had someone report into you, even informally.
• TikTok and Microsoft Ads: Experience running TikTok Ads and Bing Ads accounts.
• CRO: Experience analysing landing pages and suggesting post-click optimisation strategies.

What we’re offering you:

• £500 a year training budget.
• Remote working today, with a laptop and home office essentials provided. We're moving to two days a week in a London office during 2027, so you'll need to be within commuting distance.
• Private medical insurance.
• 25 days annual leave, plus your birthday off.
• Work from anywhere in the world for 1 month a year.
• Early finishes on Fridays and plenty of socials.
• Company pension scheme.

Please note:

• This role is London based. You'll be working remotely for now, but you need to be able to get into a London office two days a week from 2027.
• Strictly no recruitment agencies.
• We are unable to sponsor visas at present.