VP Paid Media

Role Description

The Vice President, Paid Media, is the senior-most Paid Media leader at Kanahoma, responsible for the strategic direction, performance, and continuous evolution of the agencyâ??s Paid Media practice. Reporting directly to the SVP, Marketing, the VP, Paid Media fully owns the Paid Media product, from strategy and team leadership to execution quality and partner outcomes.

This leader, who will define what Kanahoma's paid media product and team become, bringing a strong point of view on will define what it becomes, bringing a strong point of view on attribution, the future of search, and creative strategy in a world where paid media will look fundamentally different in five years. This individual directly manages the Paid Media team, drives year-over-year enrollment growth across the partner portfolio, actively contributes to agency operations and new business development, and leads the integration of AI tools and emerging technologies to keep Kanahoma at the forefront of performance marketing.

Role

Responsibilities

Own Paid Media as a Product

Serve as the Paid Media product owner, defining and evolving product strategy, standards, and vision in collaboration with the SVP, Marketing

Translate agency-level strategy into actionable paid media frameworks, processes, and playbooks, leveraging AI tools to accelerate development and improve consistency

Partner with the Accounts team on upsells and partner renewals, identifying and championing opportunities to expand Paid Media scope

Represent the Paid Media team in partner pitches and AOR conversations

Collaborate with the SVP, Marketing on SOW development, resource planning, and new business pipeline

Build & Lead A Best-in-Class Paid Media Team

Directly manage Sr. Directors and Directors of Paid Media, serving as the primary leadership layer for the full Paid Media team

Lead by example; take ownership and execute with a sense of urgency

â??Yes, butâ? Culture â?? always presenting solutions when tasked with an opportunity

Recruit, develop, and retain top paid media talent; actively support hiring and onboarding across all levels of the team

Champion AI fluency across the team, ensuring all Paid Media team members are trained on and actively utilizing approved AI tools in their day-to-day workflows

Conduct weekly one-on-ones with direct reports

Hold quarterly skip-level meetings with all Paid Media team members who are not direct reports

Set, track, and evaluate direct reportsâ?? annual and bi-annual goals, aligned with performance reviews

Execute bi-annual performance reviews for all direct reports

Escalate team concerns to the SVP, Marketing or through L10 discussions

Own Paid Media Performance

Meet or exceed partner inquiry, application, and start goals across all Paid Media books of business

Ensure all Paid Media campaigns come within 5% of planned spend goals

Maintain a thorough understanding of partner portfolio performance for L10 weekly meetings, including budget pacing and performance metrics

Identify and implement AI-powered optimization strategies to improve campaign performance, reduce inefficiencies, and drive stronger partner outcomes

Ensure all deadlines are delivered on time; communicate early and often when delays arise

Serve as the senior escalation point for all Paid Media account service interruptions, ensuring timely resolution and proactive partner communication

Own Kanahomaâ??s Forward-Looking Paid Media POV

Serve as Kanahomaâ??s primary voice on where paid media is headed, across attribution, search evolution, and creative strategy, and translate that POV into a concrete roadmap for the practice

Bring a strong perspective on cross-channel attribution: whatâ??s working, whatâ??s broken, and how to build measurement frameworks that reflect real business outcomes in a multi-step acquisition model

Maintain an informed, opinionated view on the future of paid searchâ??including AI-driven bidding, the evolution of match types, and the shift in how intent is captured and monetized

Drive creative strategy thinking across the paid team, with a clear POV on how creative will evolve as generative AI matures and platform automation increases

Regularly share POV with agency leadership and partners; represent Kanahomaâ??s perspective in industry conversations and new business contexts

Develop, own and execute a recurring Paid Media Testing process

Drive a culture of innovation across the Paid Media team, ensuring Kanahoma remains a leader in the performance marketing landscape

Own the annual and quarterly paid media testing roadmap; oversee performance readouts shared with partners and internal teams

Identify and evaluate new channels, platforms, and ad units to test across the portfolio, including AI-native and AI-enhanced media opportunities

Work with existing vendors to identify new ad units and AI-powered targeting or bidding capabilities to test

Build and standardize the creative testing process; leverage AI tools to accelerate creative iteration and analysis

Own landing page testing as a core component of the paid media testing program; partner closely with the Web team on conversion rate optimization (CRO) initiatives to ensure a cohesive experience from ad click to lead generation and applications

Ensure quarterly creative refresh requests are made for every partner based on prior quarter testing results

Deliver quarterly creative performance results to the Creative Services team

Own Paid Media Performance Reporting and Planning

Partner with key accounts to define client reporting metrics and cadence; ensure deliverables meet or exceed partner expectations

Collaborate with the Data and Analytics team to ensure Daily Trackers and performance reports leverage partner CRM and platform data accurately

Identify opportunities to leverage AI for automated reporting, anomaly detection, and predictive insights that improve decision-making speed and accuracy

Own Paid Media data accuracy and reporting integrity across the full portfolio

Own the annual, quarterly, and monthly Paid Media planning process, including:

Overall strategy

Forecasting

Plan execution

Support Agency Operations

Actively participate in the agencyâ??s EOS process, including weekly L10 meetings and quarterly right person right seat (RPRS) exercises as directed by the SVP, Marketing

Collaborate with the SVP, Marketing to manage Paid Media team resource allocation, billability targets (80â??90% per employee), and coverage planning

Support the agencyâ??s international staffing strategy as it relates to Paid Media capacity and margin improvement

Ensure all Paid Media projects are properly managed within the agency project management system; identify opportunities to leverage AI to streamline workflows and expand templated processes

Track and escalate paused jobs, red reports, change orders, and other flags to the SVP, Marketing as needed

Lead Paid Media AI Enablement

Serve as the Paid Media teamâ??s primary champion for AI adoption, working closely with the SVP, Marketing and external consultants to identify, evaluate, and implement AI tools that create meaningful workflow improvements

Lead successful AI pilots within Paid Media, including scoping, execution, performance measurement, and socialization of results across the agency

Continuously assess the AI tool landscape â?? including platform-native AI features across Google, Meta, and programmatic channels â?? to ensure Kanahoma is leveraging best-in-class capabilities

Develop and maintain AI usage guidelines and best practices specific to Paid Media workflows, ensuring responsible, effective, and consistent adoption across the team

 Role

Qualifications

10â??12+ years of progressive performance marketing experience, including 5+ years managing Paid Media teams

Proven experience managing a paid book of business of $50M+ annually

Proven experience in a multi-step, lead-to-sale acquisition environment is required,  industries such as education, insurance, financial services, considered D2C, or other high-volume lead-gen categories. Higher-ed experience, ideally in the adult/online segment, is strongly preferred.

Cross-industry experience is a strong plus, weâ??re especially interested in candidates who can bring proven paid strategies from outside higher ed (e.g., insurance, financial services, e-commerce, or other lead-gen-driven categories) and adapt them to our multi-step acquisition model.

Weâ??re looking for someone who has built paid media solutions from the ground up, not just optimized a polished big-agency machine. Experience standing up teams, processes, channel strategies, and measurement frameworks in environments that didnâ??t have them is a meaningful differentiator.

A strong, opinionated POV on the future of paid media, including where attribution is headed, how search is evolving, and what creative strategy looks like as AI and automation reshape the channel mix.

Demonstrated experience building, managing, and developing teams of 5 or more across multiple levels

Exceptional communication, leadership, and strategic thinking skills

Comfort in a player-coach role, balancing team leadership with senior-level Paid Media contribution

Strong analytical mindset with the ability to translate data into actionable strategy

Demonstrated success in partner-facing roles with a customer service focus

Previous leadership experience in an agency environment preferred