Director of Paid Media & Performance Marketing

Position Summary: IMG Academy is seeking a strategic Director of Paid Media & Performance Marketing to lead customer acquisition across its global sports education portfolio, including camps, boarding school, digital products and NCSA college recruiting services.  This leader will own the strategy, execution, and optimization of paid digital acquisition channels, driving growth in qualified leads, enrollments, and revenue. The role manages a significant media investment and scales high-impact, data-driven programs across search, social, video, programmatic, and emerging platforms.   The Director will lead full-funnel paid media initiatives that drive customer acquisition, increase brand awareness, and accelerate revenue growth. This role partners closely with product, brand, website, data and analytics teams while managing agency relationships to ensure campaigns deliver measurable business impact.  The ideal candidate brings deep performance marketing expertise, strong analytical capabilities, and a proven ability to scale high-performing digital campaigns.   Position Responsibilities: Strategic Leadership & Planning Develop and lead the paid media and performance marketing strategy for IMG Academy aligning acquisition initiatives with enrollment, revenue, and growth objectives across campus programs, digital products and recruiting services. Identify scalable customer acquisition opportunities across global markets while establishing performance goals, acquisition targets, and channel strategies that drive efficient growth. Build and manage annual and monthly paid media roadmaps, budgets, and forecasts, ensuring media investments maximize return and support business priorities. Lead agency relationships and cross-functional collaboration with product, brand, and web teams to execute integrated paid media strategies across search, social, programmatic, affiliate, and emerging channels. Provide thought leadership on paid media strategy staying ahead of platform and industry trends, and fostering a culture of experimentation and continuous performance improvement. Campaign Management & Optimization Oversee the execution and performance of paid media campaigns, ensuring delivery against timelines, budgets, and defined performance goals. Guide agency partners on performance improvements through structured testing and optimization across creative, landing pages, bidding strategies, audience targeting, and channel mix. Implement and refine audience segmentation and lifecycle targeting strategies to deliver the right message to the right audience at each stage of the funnel. Establish and drive a rigorous testing framework including A/B testing, creative experimentation, and audience expansion to continuously improve campaign performance. Partner closely with web and product teams to optimize landing pages and digital experiences, improving conversion rates, supporting ecommerce initiatives, and ensuring paid traffic is directed to high-performing, conversion-focused destinations. Leverage AI-driven tools and automation to optimize creative, targeting, and bidding strategies, improving efficiency and scaling performance across paid channels. Apply advanced measurement frameworks, including Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA), to inform media investment decisions and optimize channel effectiveness Budget Management & Performance Analytics Own and manage the paid media budget, ensuring efficient allocation of spend across channels to maximize ROI and support business priorities. Analyze campaign performance and provide regular reporting, insights, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership, leveraging AI-driven analytics and automation to identify optimization opportunities. Establish KPIs, attribution frameworks, and measurement strategies, including Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA), to evaluate channel effectiveness and guide future investment decisions. Allocate and manage test-and-learn budgets to evaluate emerging platforms, new audience segments, and incremental growth channels, using data-driven experimentation to accelerate scalable results. Integrate AI tools and automation to streamline reporting, optimize budget allocation, and improve forecasting accuracy across campaigns Cross-Functional Collaboration Partner with Product, Brand, and Creative teams to develop high-impact ad creatives that align with business objectives and brand standards. Collaborate closely with Web, Ecommerce, and Digital Product teams to optimize landing pages, user experiences, and conversion paths, ensuring paid traffic drives maximum engagement and revenue. Work with Data & Analytics teams to evaluate campaign performance, uncover actionable insights, and refine media strategies, including identifying growth opportunities across products, sports, and geographies. Align with Product and Sales teams to ensure paid media initiatives support broader business, revenue, and customer acquisition goals. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Advertising or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred. 8+ years of experience in paid media with at least 3 years in a leadership or management role, ideally with paid media agency experience. Collaborative leader with a mentorship mindset, fostering a team-first culture focused on shared success and collective impact Proven track record of scaling high-performing paid media campaigns across multiple channels. Deep expertise in platforms such as Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, and other major digital advertising ecosystems. Strong understanding of digital marketing analytics, attribution models (MMM & MTA), and campaign optimization techniques. Experience with tools such as Google Analytics, Tableau, and Google Looker Studio. Familiarity with CRM and marketing automation platforms (Salesforce Marketing Cloud) and e-commerce is preferred. Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to present insights and recommendations to senior executives. Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, performance-driven environment.