Head of Performance Marketing

Position : Head of Performance Marketing

Salary : £1,500 per month (negotiable - dependent on experience and proven scale)

Working Hours: : UK business hours

Holidays : UK public holidays

Our UK client is a high-growth, international e-commerce powerhouse managing major international direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands with multi-million-pound monthly paid media investments across Google, Meta, and global marketplaces.

We are seeking a commercially sharp, analytically rigorous, and battle-tested Head of Performance Marketing based in South Africa to take full strategic and operational ownership of our paid acquisition engine. Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer (COO), you will drive scalable, profitable DTC revenue across multiple international territories, with a core focus on Google Ads and Meta Ads.

This is a senior, hands-on leadership mandate. You will inherit established Google and Meta teams, conduct a comprehensive audit of current performance and external agency partnerships, systematically transition externally managed accounts in-house, and institute an elite culture of scientific testing, bidding optimization, and creative experimentation.

Key Responsibilities

Performance Marketing Strategy & Global DTC Scale

• Holistic Acquisition Ownership: Architect and execute paid media strategies across Google Ads (Search, Shopping/Performance Max, YouTube) and Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram) across our portfolio of international DTC sites.
• Country-Specific Growth Plans: Formulate localized market playbooks focused on top-line revenue, blended CAC, customer lifetime value (LTV), contribution margin, and net profitability.
• Capital Allocation & Scaling: Optimize multi-million-pound monthly budgets across campaigns, territories, and channels to maximize commercial return on ad spend (ROAS) and net margin.
• Full-Funnel CRO & Creative Testing: Partner with Design, Content, and Web Development teams to lead rapid creative testing frameworks, landing page CRO, and frictionless checkout funnels.
• Cross-Functional Synergy: Align closely with CRM, Retention, and Marketplace teams to optimize full-lifecycle customer journey efficiency.

Team Leadership, In-Housing & Operational Rigor

• In-House Transition: Take direct ownership of repatriating externally managed agency campaigns back in-house, ensuring zero downtime, data loss, or performance dips.
• Team Leadership & Development: Lead, mentor, and elevate existing Google and Meta managers and media buyers; conduct skill-gap analyses and recruit specialized talent to build an elite internal unit.
• Hands-on Technical Leadership: Maintain deep operational fluency—diving into accounts to inspect negative keyword trees, PMax asset groupings, CBO/ABO structures, bid caps, pixel integrations, and Conversions API (CAPI) setups.
• KPIs & Performance Governance: Establish rigid reporting cadence, weekly performance sprints, attribution tracking, and commercial scorecards for executive leadership.