Vice President, Paid Social

Overview

The VP, Paid Social is responsible for the strategic leadership, growth, management, retention, and satisfaction of a portfolio of key clients. This role leads paid social strategy and execution across assigned accounts, serving as a senior client partner and trusted advisor. The VP will provide strategic and tactical leadership across social marketing, develop strong senior-level client relationships, and guide teams in delivering innovative, data-driven solutions that drive business results.

The ideal candidate is an experienced paid social leader with a strong agency background, demonstrated business acumen, and a track record of developing talent, strengthening client relationships, and driving growth. They are passionate about the evolving social landscape and able to translate emerging platforms, technologies, data, and trends into meaningful opportunities for clients and the agency.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic vision and overall leadership for paid social initiatives across assigned clients, ensuring strategies align with client business and marketing objectives.
Maintain overall oversight of workflow, priorities, and assigned responsibilities within the team, ensuring projects are delivered completely, accurately, efficiently, and on time.
Develop comprehensive paid social strategies across relevant platforms, partners, bidding technologies, and campaign management tools.
Develop action plans for achieving and measuring campaign success, including establishing key performance indicators, measurement frameworks, and optimization strategies.
Analyze campaign performance and translate data into actionable insights and recommendations that improve performance and identify opportunities for growth.
Guide teams in optimizing campaigns and implementing new platform features, technologies, strategies, and best practices.
Work closely with strategic planning, digital planning, activation, and other agency partners to ensure paid social is integrated with broader client marketing initiatives.
Deliver strategic presentations and performance recommendations to clients and internal stakeholders.
Serve as a subject matter expert on paid social, keeping clients and agency partners informed of industry trends, platform developments, emerging technologies, and new opportunities.
Define and champion the strategic vision for leveraging AI-driven targeting, automation, and personalization across paid social, ensuring capabilities are applied at scale to drive measurable business growth and competitive advantage
Develop points of view, best practices, case studies, and other intellectual capital that advance the agency's paid social capabilities.
Support new business development and organic client growth by identifying opportunities, contributing to pitches, and helping develop solutions that drive agency growth.
Provide vision, direction, coaching, and support to team members, fostering an environment that encourages collaboration, creativity, learning, and high performance.
Allocate assignments effectively based on individual strengths, development opportunities, and client needs.
Develop talent through ongoing coaching, feedback, mentorship, and performance management.
Recruit, retain, and develop top talent to build a high-performing social team capable of delivering against client and agency goals.
Serve as a senior point of contact and strategic advisor for assigned clients, building trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and providing effective long-term counsel.
Develop a deep understanding of client businesses, industries, audiences, objectives, and competitive landscapes.
Identify and communicate trends, emerging opportunities, and innovations across paid social and the broader digital media ecosystem.
Advocate for the value of paid social and educate clients, partners, and internal teams on evolving capabilities, best practices, and opportunities.
Partner with clients to define business objectives, establish appropriate KPIs, and translate those objectives into effective paid social strategies.

Qualifications

10+ years of experience in digital media, paid social, and/or marketing, with increasing levels of responsibility within an agency or media company.
Significant experience leading paid social strategy and execution in an agency environment, including direct client-facing responsibilities.
Strong understanding of paid social platforms, campaign management and bidding technologies, publisher self-service platforms, and the broader social media ecosystem.
Experience developing and executing paid social strategies against both brand-building and direct-response objectives with clearly defined KPIs.
Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret campaign performance data, develop insights, and make strategic optimization recommendations.
Demonstrated business acumen and a track record of success in media, marketing, or advertising services.
Proven ability to build and strengthen senior-level client relationships and serve as a strategic advisor.
Strong presentation, communication, relationship-building, diplomacy, and decision-making skills.
Ability to think strategically and creatively while translating complex media and data concepts into clear recommendations.
Experience evaluating the financial implications of strategic recommendations, including scopes, staffing, budgets, and/or fees.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including intermediate to advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills.