Digital Marketing Manager

Description

Multi rooftop dealer group, 20 to 40 locations

Reports to: [Director of Marketing / VP of Marketing] 

Location: Houston TX

Role summary

Own digital marketing performance across the group's dealership portfolio. This role sets strategy, manages the agencies and technology vendors that execute it, and is accountable for the traffic, leads and cost efficiency that feed sales and service at every rooftop.  Most weeks are spent in performance data, vendor calls, OEM compliance portals and store level problem solving.

Core responsibilities

Strategy and paid media

• Lead development and execution of digital strategy across paid search, display, video, paid social, vehicle listing ads, third party marketplaces and OEM tier 3 programs.
• Own budget allocation by store, channel and inventory need. Reallocate when a store is overstocked, understocked or missing its lead target.
• Build marketing plans from data, store objectives and defined budget parameters rather than rolling last month forward.
• Review account structure, targeting, bidding and creative on a set cadence. Do not accept agency reporting at face value.
• Track cost per lead, cost per sale and attributed units by channel. Escalate underperformance with a specific recommendation.

Website, conversion and digital retailing

• Own website platform performance across all rooftops, including search results pages, vehicle detail pages and landing pages.
• Drive conversion improvement: user experience, form performance, page speed, indexation and the paths that produce leads.
• Advance digital retailing so the online to in store handoff is continuous rather than a restart.
• Keep specials, incentives, pricing and payment disclosures accurate and consistent with what finance and the OEM program actually support.
• Coordinate site tools including trade valuation, payment calculators, chat, credit application and digital retailing. Own decisions to add, replace or cancel them.

Marketing operations

• Own operational audits of lead routing, call tracking, form submission and listings data integrity. Drive fixes with store teams and vendors rather than logging the issue and waiting.
• Maintain tagging and measurement infrastructure so reporting is trustworthy: tag manager, conversion actions, offline import where used.
• Reconcile lead counts across website, CRM and vendor reporting. Investigate discrepancies rather than reporting the highest number.

CRM and owned channels

• Build and manage CRM and email campaigns, including audience segmentation, send calendar and performance reporting.
• Coordinate equity mining, service retention and conquest campaigns with store and BDC leadership.

SEO, organic and reputation

• Direct local SEO across all rooftops: content calendar, model research and comparison pages, technical fixes, internal linking.
• Own Google Business Profile per store, including hours, photos, posts, Q and A and service attributes.
• Manage review generation and response across Google, DealerRater, Cars.com and OEM platforms.
• Track manufacturer satisfaction scores such as OSAT, NPS and CSI. Work with store leadership on both survey send volume and response rate, since score movement depends on both.

OEM programs and compliance

• Manage co-op claims, tier 3 enrollment and reimbursement across all represented brands.
• Document and track advertising spend by store, including co-op eligible spend, so claims are supportable.
• Submit advertising for OEM pre approval where required and clear compliance findings before deadlines.
• Track program changes, enrollment deadlines and approved vendor lists.

Vendor and agency management

• Serve as day to day owner of agency and vendor relationships. Set expectations, run recurring reviews and evaluate partner performance critically.
• Maintain a current register of every digital vendor by store: contract term, monthly cost, cancellation notice period and renewal date.
• Audit invoices against contracted scope. Identify duplicate tools, unused products and services that no longer earn their spend.
• Manage additions and cancellations end to end, including confirming that the correct product was cancelled and that billing stopped on the agreed date.
• Keep advertising and analytics accounts owned at group level rather than inside agency owned accounts, so access survives a partner change.

Team leadership

• Manage, mentor and develop direct reports. Set clear performance expectations and hold the team to them.
• Partner with dealer principals, general managers and regional operations to align marketing with store level sales objectives.
• Deliver monthly reporting by store and channel that a general manager can act on, covering what worked, what did not and what changes next month.

Tools and technology environment

• Website and digital retailing: dealer website platforms, digital retailing tools, OEM website programs
• CRM and DMS: [CDK, Reynolds, VinSolutions, eLead or DriveCentric]
• Analytics and reporting: Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console, BI or dashboard tooling
• Advertising: Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, third party automotive marketplaces, vehicle listing feeds
• Operations: call tracking, chat, lead management and routing tools
• Productivity: spreadsheets at an advanced level for budget, invoice and lead reconciliation

Requirements

 Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, advertising, communications, business or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Five or more years in digital or performance marketing, with meaningful ownership of strategy and budget.
• Automotive retail, automotive agency or high volume lead generation experience strongly preferred. Multi location experience required.
• Demonstrated ability to manage external agencies and vendors with accountability for results.
• Hands on experience in Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager, including reading account structure and diagnosing performance rather than reviewing dashboards.
• Working knowledge of GA4, Google Search Console and tag management.
• Hands on CRM experience including campaign build, segmentation and reporting.
• Prior experience leading or mentoring team members.
• Advanced spreadsheet skills. This role reconciles budgets, invoices and lead counts monthly.
• Clear written communication. Much of this job is documenting decisions and holding partners accountable in writing.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience across 15 or more rooftops.
• Familiarity with OEM co-op and tier 3 programs for the brands represented.
• Experience managing agency transitions, vendor consolidation or platform migration.
• Working knowledge of inventory feeds and vehicle listing ads.
• Google Ads and GA4 certifications.

How performance is measured

• Lead volume and cost per lead by store and channel
• Vehicle detail page views and conversion rate
• Organic session and organic lead growth
• Digital spend against budget, and spend removed from tools that were not producing
• Co-op dollars claimed against dollars available
• Survey response rate and manufacturer satisfaction scores
• Timeliness of OEM compliance submissions