If you’re a strategic thinker that loves helping businesses grow and forming technical campaigns (from writing enticing copy for adverts to pushing the campaign live and monitoring the success), a career in paid media / paid search is creative, analytical and systematic. There are a range of paths you can go down, including agency where you could be managing various campaigns for different clients, or you could be based in-house with one focus – growing the business of one brand through effective online paid strategies.

This career path can take you down a variety of different routes. Your role may blend more with digital marketing or you could specialise in PPC alone.

PPC Executive or Paid Search Executive

You’ll manage paid search campaigns on channels such as Google and Bing and social media. Part of your role is to create, optimise, report and to delve into the data and related analytics, to discover what is driving performance.  You could as work as a PPC Executive as part of an agency team, and this is sometimes called a PPC Account Executive.  This role would involve managing various accounts for a wide range of clients.

You’ll specialise in paid search, biddable media, programmatic and display. You’ll be instrumental in supporting the success of client accounts, ensuring successful digital marketing strategies for your clients. You’ll be comfortable working across commercial, analytical, communication and hands-on PPC based tasks.

PPC Specialist

You’ll provide day-to-day management and optimisation of paid search campaigns – to enhance performance in line with ROI targets. Daily PPC optimisations will include, query reports, budget/bid management, ad copy changes and keyword expansions. Competitor research will be key in staying several steps ahead of the competition. You’ll play part in the wider marketing team, ensuring a unified message is portrayed.

Paid Social Specialist

You’ll manage campaigns on platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The principles are similar to PPC, in you will create, manage and optimise campaigns but these will be focussed only on social media channels. Analysis of analytical data will give you insight into customer behaviour and allow you to edit your overarching strategy.

Programmatic Account Manager

You’ll oversee the automated process of buying and selling ad inventory. This occurs in real-time and allows you to bid across mobile, display, video and social channels. The process makes use of artificial intelligence technologies and demand site platforms to facilitate the process.

• PPC Specialist
• PPC Executive
• PPC Assistant
• Paid Search Manager
• PPC Account Executive
• Head of PPC
• Head of Paid Search
• Paid Social Executive
• Paid Social Manager
• Programmatic Account Manager

• PPC Assistant
• PPC Executive
• PPC Manager
• Head of Paid Search

We’ve outlined the latest salary benchmarks for Paid Media roles in the guides below:

Digital Marketing Salary guide – South West

Digital Marketing Salary guide – London & South East

Agency Salary Guide – South West

You should be naturally analytical with great organisational skills, along with the ability to communicate your ideas well and explain them technically.

You may hold a degree or diploma within a relevant subject such as IT, marketing or mathematics. There are other options to get your foot in the door, such as apprenticeships, online courses and on-the-job training.

Salary:

£20k – £25k

What They Do:

Supports campaign setup, monitoring, and reporting. Assists with administrative tasks, data input, and liaising with media platforms and agencies.

Skills Needed:

• Strong Excel and data literacy
• Basic understanding of paid media channels (Google Ads, Meta Ads)
• Attention to detail
• Communication and organisation
• Willingness to learn media planning tools

Salary:

£25k – £30k

What They Do:

Executes paid campaigns across social, search, and display. Assists in optimising performance, producing reports, and contributing to creative briefs.

Skills Needed:

• Hands-on experience with Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager
• Basic knowledge of PPC, CPM, and CPA models
• Reporting via GA4 or Looker Studio
• Campaign optimisation basics
• Team collaboration

Salary:

£30k – £38k

What They Do:

Takes ownership of campaign strategy and optimisation. Leads A/B testing, briefs creative, and presents reports to internal or client stakeholders.

Skills Needed:

• Paid media strategy development
• Advanced campaign testing (A/B, multivariate)
• Platform certifications (Google Ads, Meta Blueprint)
• Client/stakeholder reporting
• Channel performance analysis

Salary:

£40k – £55k

What They Do:

Manages full-funnel performance campaigns. Leads a team or works with agencies to ensure ROAS and CPA goals are met across paid channels.

Skills Needed:

• Campaign budget ownership
• Channel strategy (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, programmatic)
• Attribution modelling
• Conversion rate optimisation (CRO)
• Paid media forecasting and planning

Salary:

£55k – £65k

What They Do:

Oversees multi-channel campaign ecosystems. Aligns paid media with commercial and product strategy. Guides cross-functional teams in scaling performance.

Skills Needed:

• Multi-market media planning
• Data-led decision making
• eCommerce or lead-gen campaign experience
• Managing agencies and in-house teams
• Advanced reporting tools (e.g. Looker, Tableau)

Salary:

£38k – £52k

What They Do:

Manages campaigns on Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and other social platforms. Develops creative briefs and optimises for engagement, conversion, and reach.

Skills Needed:

• Audience segmentation and lookalikes
• UGC and performance creative briefing
• Trend-led content optimisation
• Social commerce familiarity
• Retargeting campaigns

Salary:

£40k – £55k

What They Do:

Oversees paid search campaigns across Google and Microsoft Ads. Focuses on search intent, keyword targeting, and search copy performance.

Skills Needed:

• Keyword strategy and bid management
• Ad copywriting for search
• Search term reporting and refinement
• Performance tracking and call-to-action testing
• Conversion tracking setup

Salary:

£65k – £80k

What They Do:

Owns paid strategy across all channels. Manages teams and budgets, aligns paid media with business objectives, and drives innovation and performance growth.

Skills Needed:

• Team leadership and coaching
• Budget and ROAS accountability
• Paid media transformation and innovation
• Strategic roadmap development
• Internal and external stakeholder communication

Salary:

£80k – £100k

What They Do:

Defines the business’s paid marketing direction. Manages investment, risk, and return across paid channels. Supports C-suite in commercial planning.

Skills Needed:

• Executive reporting
• Cross-channel investment strategy
• Team scaling and operations
• Digital growth planning
• Emerging channel leadership