ROLE OVERVIEW
Croud is a global, full service digital marketing agency with a unique business model that helps businesses drive sustainable growth in the new world of marketing. Croud was recently named a Sunday Times Best Place to Work for the second year in a row, and was named Performance Marketing Employer of the Year by PMW.
At Croud, we unlock potential by elevating our people, clients, and communities within a rapidly advancing and complex economy. We operate as a unique scaled network of Intelligent, Creative Specialists, enabling us to deliver superior brand outcomes and unlock potential for our people, our clients and our communities.
Our culture is strategically driven and inspired by a shared long-term vision. It is collaborative and connected, with a focus on continuous learning and mutual support. We are energised by future thinking, driving innovation to achieve better outcomes. We are instinctively generous, actively including and empowering our people. Above all, we are purpose-driven, committed to positively impacting our people, the planet, and our global communities.
We are seeking a dynamic Strategy Director (SD) to lead PPC strategy for some of Croud’s most high-profile clients. In this client-facing role, you will bring innovative PPC thinking and market insights to drive performance. Your primary focus will be managing a multi-million-pound account for a well-known household brand while also overseeing a portfolio of smaller clients.
Reporting directly to the Head of PPC, you will play a key leadership role, inspiring and guiding the PPC activation team. As a strong communicator and strategic thinker, you will lead with resilience, positivity, and passion—acting as a role model not only within the PPC team but across the wider agency.
RESPONSIBILITIES
* Acting as the lead senior strategic contact on one of Croud’s largest, technically complex financial services PPC clients.
* Being accountable for the creation and delivery of the PPC strategy and surpassing performance targets.
* Progressing client maturity through the incorporation of technology and data and innovative solutions.
* Leading the collaboration with Google, Microsoft and other partners, casting a critical eye on recommendations from partners to ensure they are fit and properly tailored for clients' needs.
* Understanding the impact of PPC on real business data (commercially) and using that to navigate PPC strategy & recommendations. Understanding the role of PPC as a lever to our client’s business, and presenting to C-Suite on performance impacts/projects/experimentation.
* Being a thought leader within the PPC space by staying ahead and having a point of view on the evolution of the channel, and subsequently sharing this with clients in the context of long-term roadmaps.
* Partnering with the client leadership team ensuring client satisfaction is high and putting plans in place to rectify where it may fall short.
* Leading & inspiring a team of PPC experts by being at the forefront of PPC, able to provoke thought to a group and lead in strategic planning sessions.
* Accountable for ensuring best-in-class activation for your portfolio of PPC clients, delivering strong performance for the client’s businesses and continuous improvement in terms of implementation and innovation.
* Ensuring that your portfolio of PPC clients has an up-to-date ADP in place and that ADs and SAMs stay focused on delivering them. This includes oversight of multiple roadmaps and being accountable for empowering the team to drive client success.
* Actively contribute to Croud’s PPC proposition in the context of wider Paid Media. Challenging the PPC teams across the agency to remain market-leading & at the forefront of innovation & AI.
* Continuously gathering information from multiple sources within the industry and being able to adopt a client-centric perspective to evaluate findings subjectively, enabling you to shape Croud’s point of view and provide a well-informed recommendation to our clients.
* Fostering strong relationships with your client stakeholders, ensuring trust, alignment, and open communication. They should see you as the go-to expert who delivers strategic solutions that contribute to long-term success.
Business Development & Marketing
* Acts as the ‘strategic pitch lead’ on new business responses. Taking the information provided in a prospects brief and designing and articulating a winning PPC strategy and approach.
* Inspiring the internal team to deliver highly innovative work for clients through the identification of work conducted both internally and in the wider industry.
* Leading on the production and writing of case studies that have the potential to win awards and/or form part of stories for our website and social media.
* Driving growth from the teams’ client base, proactively getting involved in cross-sell and upsell opportunities.
* Working with the product team to evolve Croud’s PPC proposition, driving testing and innovation at every opportunity and working closely with marketing on awards, case studies and POVs to amplify and elevate Croud’s reputation in the market. Playing an active role in how Croud builds proprietary technology and its uses.
* Work with the Head of PPC and other channel senior leaders to define and communicate Croud’s PPC capabilities and positioning.
* Clearly define and drive best practice adoption across the PPC team. Ensure comprehensive account health checks are completed regularly for all accounts in your portfolio.
* Own and continually enhance our relationships with key platform partners. Working to ensure we deliver against agreed JBPs with all key partners. Including Google, SA360/GMP & Microsoft.
Team Leadership & Operational Excellence
* Being a visible role model to PPC Account Directors and Senior Account Managers. Demonstrating a proactive, highly positive/mature and professional approach at all times.
* Accountable for managing team workload and effectiveness and working with the Head of Channel on resourcing requirements.
* Identify and address pain points within the team and create processes to address them. Overall accountable for team QA and performance of your team.
* Ensuring your team delivers against revenue and margin targets including team utilisation & Croudie usage goals. (Croudies are our freelance network of talent).
* Accurate forecasting through effective, timely management of revenue tracker and growth pipeline. Ensuring effective month-end billing. Driving the process with Account Directors to ensure fees are updated and approved accurately and on time.
* Control and oversee all key processes that limit financial or reputational risk to Croud. I.e. budget management.
* Ensure a high level of quality is maintained in everything delivered by the team.
* Delivery and presentation of high-quality MI as required.
* Working closely with the PPC leadership team to ensure ongoing career development for the team including ensuring all staff have clear objectives and personal development plans.
* Supporting ongoing recruitment within the team helping to ensure Croud attract, select, onboard and retain talent effectively.
* Drive and continuously develop a positive team culture in the PPC team, ensure knowledge and ideas are shared freely across the whole team and that Croud is always seen as a great place to work.
Client Specific
* We have a preference for someone with experience of working on a lead gen account in a highly regulated industry– in this case financial services with a cross channel way of working.
* Foster collaboration between our clients teams and our internal team, Croud, analytics, data scientists on a cohesive technical roadmap and consulting partners.
* Understanding of end-to-end measurement which is underpinned by robust testing and collaboration with data scientists. Confidence with managing complex bidding techniques, audience ingestion and integration of opportunities to utilise data.
* Strong technical knowledge around bidding automation, particularly learning period and collaboration.
* Ability to forecast and present for C-Suite to manage expectations and highlight risks.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
* Proven ability to grow senior level client relationships and drive the strategic direction of key PPC accounts.
* Extensive experience in building, inspiring and motivating high performance PPC teams delivering best-in-class strategies and innovation for large advertisers.
* Strong commercial awareness with the ability to synergise workstreams and connect channel initiatives.
* In depth PPC knowledge in order to define, and ensure consistent implementation of, Croud PPC best practices. Knowledge of wider paid media channels (e.g. Social or Programmatic is a bonus).
* Client leadership skills, ability to set out a vision, clearly communicate this to stakeholders at all levels and articulate the requirements to achieve the goals and vision outlined.
* Able to build strong partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, and contribute to wider development projects in the agency.
* Proven project management skills demonstrating the ability to effectively prioritise and unify teams on complex projects in a digital marketing environment.
COMPANY BENEFITS
Croud operates a hybrid working model with a minimum of 3 days a week based in our Shrewsbury office and the remaining days from home if you wish.
Croud offers a clear path to progression for all members of staff. We are committed to offering development opportunities alongside a support system of regular performance reviews. The opportunities are endless!
On completion of the three-month probation period, every employee is eligible for the benefits listed on our careers site which include:
* 25 days holiday per year with the option to purchase an additional 5 days.
* Discretionary annual performance based incentive.
* Sabbatical: Paid sabbatical at 7 years with an option to take it unpaid at 5 years.
* Recruitment Referral Bonus.
* Sale Commission.
* Health & Wellbeing Contribution.
* Ride to Work Scheme.
* Railcard & Season Ticket Loan.
* Home Office Equipment (chair and screen).
* Office Perks: Free fruit, breakfast cereals, lunches twice a week, snacks, and tea/coffee.
* Enhanced Family Leave: Including primary and secondary family leave, extended parental leave, and shared family leave.
* Life Assurance & Income Protection.
* Medical Cash Plan.
* Pension.
* Learning & Development: Access to Croud Campus, curated third-party learning platforms, and an IPA Membership with subsidised training and events.
* Peer Recognition: Through our “Bonusly” program.
* Team Off-Sites & Social Events.
* Year-round Holiday Celebrations.
* Flexible Working Options.
* A Day to Make a Difference.
Standard hours are from 9.00am to 5.30pm, there’s flexibility if agreed in advance with your line managers (it may also be necessary on occasions to work outside of these hours).
Croud is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the grounds of a person's gender, marital status, race, religion, colour, age, disability or sexual orientation. All candidates will be assessed based on merit, qualifications and their ability to perform the requirements of the role.
OUR VALUES
At Croud, our vision centres around the idea of unlocking potential. We do this by elevating everyone in an inclusive and progressive culture, empowering individuals to deliver their best work. This means we build better brand outcomes, and unlock potential for our people, our clients and our communities.
We live and breathe five core values that foster a culture where everyone can thrive. Our commitment to elevating each other is fundamental to both our cultural and business success. The ideal candidate will excel in and demonstrate the following:
* In it together - our value on integration, collaboration and outcomes.
* Eye on the future - our value on futurism, creativity and passion.
* Generous in spirit - our value on people, development and inclusion.
* Do what you say - our value on integrity and accountability.
* Make a difference - More than a value, this is our guiding principle. It ensures we grow the right way, broadens our impact beyond Croud, and strengthens our purpose.
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