Head of Performance Marketing

An established, consumer-facing organisation is seeking an experienced Head of Performance Marketing to lead and evolve its performance function during a critical phase of growth. This is a senior, hands-on role with end-to-end ownership of paid and earned performance activity. The focus is on building efficient, high-intent demand across the full funnel, with clear accountability for investment decisions, commercial impact and measurable outcomes.

The Role

You’ll be responsible for shaping and delivering an integrated performance marketing strategy across paid media and partnership/earned channels. Moving beyond channel-by-channel execution, the role is centred on investment-led decision making, incrementality, and translating spend into genuine revenue and customer value. Working closely with brand, product, sales and customer teams, you’ll ensure performance activity is aligned to demand quality, conversion and operational capacity, not just volume.

Key Responsibilities

• Performance Strategy & Channel Ownership
  • Define the role of each paid and earned channel across the funnel, from intent creation through to conversion
  • Own paid acquisition strategy across platforms such as paid social, paid search and emerging channels
  • Lead partnership, affiliate and earned activity with clear commercial accountability
  • Actively plan, test and optimise campaigns, audiences and creative frameworks
  • Reduce inefficient or overlapping spend through clear channel mandates and intervention
• Budget & Investment Management
  • Own performance marketing budgets, pacing and in-year reallocation
  • Allocate spend based on marginal return, incrementality and ROI
  • Make and execute clear trade-offs between channels, audiences and activity types
  • Ensure investment decisions are evidence-led and clearly communicated to senior stakeholders
• Team Leadership
  • Lead and develop a small performance-focused team and external creative partners
  • Set clear priorities and expectations, with a strong bias to action
  • Remain hands-on in execution where speed, quality or complexity demands it
• Measurement & Optimisation
  • Define success metrics, reporting standards and performance review cadence
  • Personally engage with data, dashboards and analysis to inform decisions
  • Drive continuous optimisation based on incremental revenue and contribution, not vanity metrics
  • Translate performance insight into clear actions for the wider business
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Work closely with brand teams to ensure creative strategy supports performance outcomes
  • Partner with sales and customer teams to ensure high-intent demand converts effectively
  • Use performance insight to inform decisions beyond paid media, including product and customer experience

What Success Looks Like (12 Months)

• Improved customer acquisition efficiency and demand quality
• Clear, trusted visibility of performance contribution to revenue
• Strong control and confidence in budget pacing and reallocation
• Demonstrable uplift driven by hands-on optimisation and creative testing
• High confidence from senior stakeholders in performance strategy and execution

Essential Experience

• 5+ years’ experience leading performance marketing in a consumer-facing environment
• Proven, hands-on ownership of paid acquisition at scale (e.g. paid social and paid search)
• Experience owning or scaling partnership, affiliate or influencer-led demand with clear ROI accountability
• Strong commercial and analytical capability, including budget ownership and incrementality thinking
• Experience leading and developing teams while remaining actively involved in delivery
• Ability to translate complex performance data into clear senior-level recommendations

Desirable Experience

• Background in seasonal, demand-led or capacity-constrained businesses
• Experience working closely with brand, product and sales teams
• Confidence balancing creative experimentation with financial discipline

This Role Will Suit You If You…

• Enjoy owning strategy and rolling up your sleeves to execute
• Care deeply about efficiency, incrementality and long-term value
• Are comfortable being accountable for spend, trade-offs and outcomes
• Prefer practical collaboration over working in silos

This is an opportunity to shape a performance marketing function with real commercial impact, combining strategic leadership with hands-on delivery in a fast-moving environment.

We would love to respond to every application however due to the volume of applications we receive this isn’t always possible. If you have not heard within 2 weeks of applying, please assume on this occasion that your application has not been shortlisted. We may retain your CV to contact you about future employment opportunities that are being managed by The Growth Foundation Talent. The Growth Foundation Talent is deeply committed to building a diverse & inclusive workplace and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.