Head of Paid Media

As Head of Paid Media, you will own how Trade Nation drives net new direct First Time Trade accounts (FTTs) through paid channels, within clear CAC and payback guardrails. Your remit covers Paid Search and Paid Social first, with programmatic, CTV/addressable TV, and mobile campaigns added only once measurement is stable and incrementality is proven.

This is a hands-on role. In the first phase you will stabilise and rebuild paid search (working through the current recovery plan and agency support), then launch controlled paid social testing with a clear measurement ladder and stop rules. You will install a weekly operating cadence that links spend to funnel movement: apply, approved, funded (FTD), first trade (FTT), and early payback signals.

Trade Nation is a regulated CFD and spread betting broker. Paid activity must be compliant, audit-ready, and consistent with how we win: clear costs, fixed spreads where available, and a straightforward, fair customer experience.

Trade Nation is a global CFD and spread betting broker. We help traders make better decisions through clear market insights, transparent pricing and fairer approach to trading.

Since 2014, we’ve grown into a market-leading, low-cost broker with our headquarters in London and offices across Europe, South Africa, Asia-Pacific, and key offshore regions including the Caribbean and Indian Ocean. Our platform is available in 14 languages, making it accessible to traders worldwide.

Built on transparency and trust, and driven by our people, our focus is simple: helping customers trade more effectively. We do that by keeping costs low, cutting unnecessary complexity and using technology to put traders first.

We have each other’s backs

There when we need each other most

 We challenge each other

Be more creative, more curious, more bold

We thrive together

Taking our work to the next level

We form strong bonds

Through team building and social events

We don’t judge

Instead, we teach and are open to learning

We step up

Taking ownership and supporting each other to do the same

Strategy and planning (near-term and long-term)

• Defining the near- and long-term paid media strategy to deliver against subscriber/account acquisition and FTT goals.
• Planning and executing the global strategy across paid media and performance partner channels (affiliates/referrals where applicable), with continual improvement based on results.
• Building a clear channel roadmap: PPC and paid social first; then expanding into programmatic/CTV/mobile-only when incrementality and measurement standards are met.

Paid Search ownership (rebuild and steady state)

• Owning Google Ads account standards: structure, naming, query quality, negatives hygiene, ads, assets, and extensions.
• Leading the account rebuild and stabilisation, including agency management and knowledge transfer.
• Maintaining change control, experimenting discipline, and posting-change evaluation.

Paid Social (controlled testing to scale)

• Launching paid social in a controlled way: clear test plans, creative angles, audiences, measurement ladder, and stop rules.
• Partnering with Studio and Brand to build a repeatable creative system: concepts, variants, refresh cadence, and documentation.
• Setting rules around frequency, exclusions, and audience overlap to protect efficiency and user experience.

Channel expansion (only once incrementality is proven)

• Identifying, testing, and scaling new channels that can contribute to growth, such as programmatic display/video, CTV/addressable TV, and mobile campaigns.
• Defining clear entry criteria per channel: measurement readiness, minimum data requirements, test design, and kill criteria.
• Running incrementality testing where feasible (holdouts, geo tests, lift studies), with Data support.

Forecasting, reporting, and performance governance

• Delivering investment, acquisition, and CAC forecasts, with ongoing re-planning based on actual results.
• Delivering overall and channel-level performance analysis and reporting, including campaign measurement and evaluation.
• Keeping a clean weekly performance narrative that ties spend to funnel movement and early payback signals.

Measurement, attribution, and data partnership

• Partnering with the data analytics team and external partners to improve attribution, forecasting, and measurement capability.
• Partnering with the data analytics team to improve the quality, accuracy, and automation of reporting.
• Ensuring platform conversions map to the agreed event ladder (apply, approved, funded, first trade).

Cross-functional delivery with Creative and Integrated Marketing

• Partnering with the integrated marketing team and the Creative Studio on all paid campaigns to ensure messaging, creative, and landing pages are aligned.
• Ensuring paid media briefs are clear, testable, and compliance-ready (claims references, risk lines, version control).
• Working closely with Organic Growth and Lifecycle on message match and on-site conversion priorities.

Team leadership

• Leading and develop a high-performing team of growth marketers, with clear goals and coaching.
• Hiring and managing manager-level support as volume grows (PPC Manager, Paid Social Manager).
• Managing agencies and contractors with clear scope, deliverables, and handover expectations.

• Proven experience owning paid media for a performance-led business, including hands-on execution.

• Strong depth in Google Ads, plus experience designing and running paid social testing.
• Strong measurement instincts: conversion definitions, QA, and working closely with analytics and engineering partners.
• Good judgement in regulated advertising and approvals, with a practical approach to audit trails.
• Clear communicator who can run a disciplined weekly cadence and make trade-offs.

• Experience in trading, investing, fintech, or similarly regulated sectors.
• Experience scaling across multiple regions and entities, including localisation constraints.
• Experience with offline conversion links and cohort-based evaluation.
• Programmatic experience (agency-led is fine).
• App acquisition or re-engagement campaign experience.

• Competitive salary, and discretionary annual bonus.
• Private healthcare.
• Personal protection insurances
• Active Lifestyle allowance.
• Annual leave above minimum entitlement.
• Up to 3 weeks allowance to work in any location.
• Enhanced parental leave packages.