Senior Associate Director, Paid Social (12 Month FTC) in London

About WPP Media

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth.

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

About EssenceMediacom: A Leading WPP Media Brand

EssenceMediacom is a new breed of media agency. Grounded in analytics & insights and powered by data & technology, we believe in the power of media and creative to drive breakthroughs for the world’s best brands. We help clients understand the modern marketing paradox and discover the breakthroughs brands need to win with their consumers.

Role Summary and Impact

The Senior Associate Director will lead the day-to-day responsibility for the paid social output of a busy client account (or accounts) and will also help oversee a team made up of Account Directors, Account Managers and Account Executives over the everyday running of the account. Experience managing a team of social specialists, preferably in an agency environment is hugely desirable. This person will also be required to develop strong relationships with clients, suppliers, and other stakeholders becoming a trusted voice for all things paid social.

A closer look

You hold excellent knowledge of the UK Social media landscape and are well-versed in planning and activating across digital media, both DR and Brand. You have strong communication and project management skills and can engage with stakeholders effectively. You will also work closely with other media specialists to oversee delivery of an integrated plan, often taking the lead in using digital/social to link other media channels and understanding how other media plans fit in the system. You will be responsible for delivering exceptional and exciting social work as well as the output of a manager and a team of planners and execs.

Key Responsibilities:

• Client & Partner Management: Responsible for delivering on the over-arching paid social strategy across the account(s) and ensuring this ties in with the wider digital and comms strategy. Acting as a key social point-of-contact for your client(s) ensuring their continuing confidence in the quality of the team and agency’s social output. Demonstrating a deep understanding of the media and technology developments that influence your client’s business. Able to identify opportunities to test and innovate in the paid social space, presenting these opportunities to stakeholders and securing client backing. Managing internal and external stakeholders to ensure multiple projects can be delivered simultaneously and to the required standard. Building and maintaining relationships with the key media partners including Meta, Twitter, Snap, TikTok, Pinterest and others.
• Campaign Management: Overseeing the production of comprehensive paid social media plans (+ supporting material) that align with client’s objectives and KPIs. Able to clearly articulate the rationale for proposed campaign tactics (channels, budget, audience, formats etc.) and present these back, both to internal and external stakeholders. Overseeing a hybrid team (made up of both local and Global Hub employees) responsible for the end-to-end setup of paid social campaigns across all the relevant social platforms. Comfortable troubleshooting and helping train junior team members to use advanced features such as bid rules and 3rd party optimisation/creative/measurement tools. Responsible for maintaining the standard of regular quality assurance (QA) checks undertaken by those working on the account to ensure campaigns are set up to defined best practice standards (and helping to evolve these best-practices as necessary). Working with team to ensure the standard and accuracy of weekly/monthly campaign performance reports. Leading client calls on a regular basis and supporting the wider team to present results as necessary. Ensuring all performance commentary delivers valuable insight and recommendations to clients. Working with the team to identify trends and recommend actions on-platform to capitalise/mitigate these trends as necessary. Ensuring the standard of end-of-campaign reporting and quarterly/annual reviews. Leading standalone research projects as required by the client.
• People Management: Ensuring the effective management of both the local team and Global Hub employees, ensuring workloads are sufficiently monitored & prioritised to ensure deadlines are met. Working with your Account Directors and team leadership to help train and develop team members. Leading by example to motivate and encourage all those with less experience on the team. Communicate clearly and in a timely manner with internal and external stakeholders as required across email, chat, video and in-person. Leading presentations where necessary. Attend and lead regular internal meetings and training sessions in order to actively contribute to a collaborative and friendly paid social community. Leading the recruitment process for your immediate team and working with the head of department to assist with wider team recruitment as needed. This will involve leading interviews, making staffing decisions and acting as an ambassador for the team to potential candidates.
• Operational Excellence: Identify opportunities to test and innovate in the paid social space. Presenting these opportunities to stakeholders and securing client backing. Developing these into initiatives that can be used to further evolve the standard & efficiency of paid social buying across the wider team. Developing tailored testing/learning agendas for clients that drive clear and actionable insight on each social platform. Working closely with planning team + other channel specialists to ensure paid social activity compliments and enhances the wider marketing mix. Collaborating on thought-leadership pieces and POVs for the agency and GMS social community. Responsible for the accurate and effective management of agency finance processes. Ensuring the immediate team fulfil the mandatory finance process in a timely and accurate manner to ensure prompt payment/invoicing and minimise finance queries.

Skills and Experience

At WPP Media, we believe in the power of our culture and our people. It’s what elevates us to deliver exceptional experiences for both our clients and each other. In this role it will be critical to embrace WPP & WPP Media’s shared core values: Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity. Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust. Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise.

About You:

• Experience working in a busy agency or client-side social team is key to this role.
• Extensive experience setting up and optimising paid social campaigns across a number of the key social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snap, TikTok etc).
• Training certifications in any of the key platforms would be a plus (e.g. Meta Blueprint).
• Strong experience planning large-scale paid social campaigns, preferably across a mix of brand and direct-response objectives.
• Experience compiling detailed and insightful end of campaign reports & presentations.
• Experience managing a team to jointly compile regular client presentations (QBRs, annual reviews etc).
• A clear track record of working with clients and external stakeholders.
• Forming strong relationships is key to the role, the ideal candidate should feel comfortable presenting to clients and leading calls as required.
• Demonstrable experience line managing others, helping ensure day-to-day workloads are effectively managed.
• The ideal candidate should also have experience training and mentoring those more junior across all things paid social and should be able to communicate effectively with people from all diverse backgrounds, cultures, countries.
• Teamwork is key to this role and we are looking for someone who is collaborative, friendly, and with a can-do attitude.

In return the successful candidate can expect to work as a member of a fun and engaging team that is part of a company that truly champions learning, development and will invest in your career over the long term.

Life at WPP Media & Benefits

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days.

WPP Media is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers. We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

While we appreciate all applications received, only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.