Paid Social Business Director

About WPP Media

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. For more information, visit wpp.com.

WPP Media is WPP’s global media collective. In a world where media is everywhere and in everything, we bring the best platform, people, and partners together to create limitless opportunities for growth. For more information, visit wppmedia.com

About Wavemaker: A Leading WPP Media Brand

Wavemaker positively provokes growth for clients by reshaping consumer decision-making and experiences through media, content, and technology. Our name is both our mission and our method. We do our best work for brave brands and people who relish being challenged to go further and faster, together.

Role Summary and Impact

The Paid Social Business Director provides day-to-day leadership to the client and the team (London Paid Social team, Paid Social champions in 5 markets and Poland offshore team). You will advance the Paid Social maturity across the region, be proactive, drive innovation, ensure teams within the network adhere to their roles and responsibilities so that the campaigns outperform media quality and performance KPIs.

The individual in this role will need to be comfortable working within a matrix organization, working directly into the Paid Social Lead

Key Responsibilities:

Drive Paid Social Roadmap and foster a community

• Partner with Regional and Global WPP teams to drive the overall Paid Social capability across the region.
• Accelerate Paid Social maturity across audience, creative and measurement.
• Curate a regional Paid Social roadmap that all teams (London, Poland Offshore and Paid Social champions in 5 markets) work towards.
• Lead regional Paid Social reviews with the regional Paid Social client.
• Facilitate strong internal community working on Paid Social across region.
• Oversee creation of a campaign testing plan across the region and the dissemination of highlights of the activity across the region.

Overseeing Paid Social Delivery

• Oversee and ensure best-in-class campaign activation across relevant accounts, ensuring campaigns are operating at the highest standard and delivering highest quality output for our clients.
• Ensure that the team is using templates to prove methodologies for optimisation approach for key trading tactics and optimisation logs.
• Escalation points for the team on activation issues and challenges and any conflict between best practice and client requirements and asks.

Client and Partner Management

• Ultimate responsibility of client interaction and the success of the relationship, with a focus on nurturing key strategic relationship, and team operations/deliverables
• Agree and set business objectives for each client and review campaign performance against these objectives
• Create/design Paid Social strategy for client portfolio, ensuring strategy is clear and most appropriate to the client's objectives, KPIs and clients industry
• Drive growth through spotting new optimisation opportunities, services or products and delivering excellent results.
• Develop strong relationships with media owners and other service providers to guide team in developing their understanding of the ecosystem.
• Drive understanding of the products and solutions that could be relevant for clients that have been developed within the group.

 People Management

• The ability to manage, motivate and train individuals, in line with business requirements, resource, and development needs
• Ensure workloads are managed and prioritised in line with client needs and SLAs, including the Paid Social resource which sits across the markets and in the offshore team.
• To have identified training requirements with Line Manager, and a formal plan for delivery over 12 months
• To be responsible for the team’s development (their 360’s, and task & objectives), and to be tied into their own objectives
• Highlight great teamwork, and client initiatives. Demonstrate examples of Paid Social best practice to the wider team, and contribute to department and wider agency communications

Operational Excellence

• The appropriate use of tools to drive accountability in Paid Social buying, operational efficiencies, and actionable business insights, with the scoping of agreed client outputs.
• Ensure financial accuracy, integrating the planning and buying process, and reconciliation of spends, including client terms and platform fees, via buying templates and processes.
• Maintain standards and process throughout the end-to-end campaign lifecycle
• Develop productive relationships with key internal departments and help ensure appropriate opportunities through matching client needs to resource and facilitate introductions.
• Understand and promote the function and value of the other departments within the Agency and its partners within the group.

Skills and Experience

At WPP Media, we believe in the power of our culture and our people. It’s what elevates us to deliver exceptional experiences for both our clients and each other. In this role it will be critical to embrace WPP & WPP Media’s shared core values:

• Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity.
• Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust.
• Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise.

• Strong ability to work working within a matrix organisation and confidence in managing onshore and offshore teams.
• Passionate about Paid Social as a channel and driving continued excellence. With proven experience in Paid Social multi-channel campaign activation and management.
• Experience in developing and leading client relationships
• Exceptional people management skills, including support and development of junior team members
• Understanding of core trading platforms, in particular DV360, TTD and Amazon.
• An understanding of how Paid Social can integrate with other digital and offline channels
• Ability to translate technical and complex points to non-technical audiences and coach others to do the same.
• Ability to develop and execute comprehensive testing roadmaps in the Paid Social space – audience, media, creative.

Life at WPP Media & Benefits

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days.  

WPP Media is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.
We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

Please note this is a UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location

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