Paid Ads Manager

Our client operates a technology-driven indoor soccer facility chain with dozens of locations across North America and an aggressive expansion target over the next two years. Founded by a former professional and international player, the business runs three product lines: youth and adult soccer classes, a proprietary technology-based one-on-one training system with no direct competitor, and a fast-growing adult pickup format. On-site conversion is already strong, so the mandate is simple. Bring more qualified leads through the door. They are hiring a Paid Media Specialist to take paid acquisition in-house from an outside agency, own Meta as the primary channel, support Google as the secondary channel, and raise the quality and velocity of creative. This is a 30 hour per week remote engagement.

Need to have qualifications:

• 4+ years managing paid media with direct, hands-on ownership of Meta Ads Manager (not oversight of someone else running it)
• Proven experience running lead generation campaigns, not traffic or awareness campaigns
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose and reverse rising cost per lead through audience, structure, and creative changes
• Experience briefing, directing, and evaluating creative for paid social, including video and UGC-style content
• Track record of shipping new creative on a consistent testing cadence rather than letting evergreen assets run for months
• Working knowledge of Google Ads (Search, Performance Max, YouTube) sufficient to manage and optimize a secondary channel
• Experience with account hygiene: naming conventions, campaign structure, archiving dormant assets, clean reporting
• Experience with multi-location or local advertising, including geo-targeted structure and budget allocation across markets
• Ability to give specific, practical conversion feedback on landing pages
• Familiarity with conversion tracking and measurement: Meta pixel and Conversions API, GA4, UTM discipline, lead-stage reporting
• Ability to explain performance in terms of cost per qualified lead and downstream conversion, not CTR and CPM alone
• Strong written and verbal communication, with genuine real-time responsiveness rather than scheduled check-ins
• Ability to set a testing roadmap independently where no playbook exists
• Comfort with AI creative tools, paired with the judgment to reject output that does not look realistic
• C2 or Native level English is a must
• Meaningful daily overlap with US Central time hours

Nice to have:

• Experience marketing to parents of youth athletes, or in youth sports, fitness, gyms, studios, or membership businesses
• Personal familiarity with soccer or another participation sport, enough to speak credibly to a knowledgeable audience
• Experience marketing to two distinct buyers in the same account (a parent buying for a child, and an adult buying for themselves)
• Experience with franchise or multi-unit brands, including new market launches
• Ability to script or storyboard short-form video and write UGC creator briefs
• Familiarity with Webflow and dedicated campaign landing pages
• Experience building campaigns around founder-led brand storytelling
• Experience with free trial and first-session lead magnets, and the follow-up sequence behind them
• Experience with Higgsfield, Runway, Midjourney, or comparable AI creative tools
• Experience taking an account over from an outside agency and rebuilding it
• Agency background combined with in-house pace and ownership

Responsibilities:

• Own day-to-day Meta campaign management, including structure, audience testing, budget pacing, bidding, and daily optimization
• Rebuild and clean up the existing ad account, retire dormant assets, and set a clear naming and structure standard
• Run a continuous creative testing cadence so no ad set is left running on stale assets
• Brief, direct, and evaluate creative across static, video, and UGC formats, working alongside the in-house social and video lead
• Develop creative concepts around the founder story, the proprietary training technology, measurable improvement and touch-count proof points, and the adult pickup product
• Write and iterate ad copy and hooks for distinct audiences, including soccer-savvy parents and adult recreational players
• Build and test lead magnet offers such as a free one-on-one session or a free trial class, and the messaging around each
• Manage Google Ads as a secondary channel across Search, Performance Max, and YouTube
• Recommend and adjust budget allocation between Meta and Google based on cost per qualified lead, not historical split
• Review dedicated landing pages and give specific conversion feedback to the internal web owner
• Build campaign structure that scales across a growing facility count and supports new market launches
• Monitor performance daily and raise changes in real time rather than holding them for a scheduled review
• Report on cost per lead, lead quality, and cost per acquisition by location and by product line
• Partner with the email and lifecycle manager so paid leads are handed off cleanly into nurture
• Document what was tested, what won, and what was learned, so the account's learnings compound
• Provide overlap and continuity through the transition off the current outside agency, with no gap in live advertising