Manager, Paid Media

Overview: 

The ideal candidate will lead a data-driven approach to media buying across the entire GC enterprise, fostering a test-and-learn culture. They will be responsible for implementing media buying best practices—including measurement, creative strategy, and campaign execution—to support diverse business objectives across ecommerce and retail initiatives. This role requires strong analytical skills, as well as the ability to collaborate with internal teams to navigate the complexities of creative development, promotional strategies, and media measurement. 

This is an excellent opportunity for a seasoned ecommerce digital media buyer to manage budgets in-house while gaining expertise in online-to-offline measurement. The position offers significant visibility within the digital organization and the opportunity to influence the strategic direction of the enterprise. 

Key Responsibilities: 

• Campaign Design and Execution: Possess a deep understanding of the required campaign structures and creative for various campaign types (e-commerce, store traffic, lead generation)  

• Creative Strategy: Help drive performance-oriented creative best practices within the Guitar Center marketing organization. Partner with creative resources to create a test and learn feedback loop between the paid media team and creative partners. 

• Data Driven Decision Making: Effectively manage Guitar Center’s marketing budget by ensuring optimal allocation of each dollar for maximum efficiency. Success in this role requires not only strategic budget management but also fostering a test-and-learn culture and leading ad experimentation initiatives. 

• Platform Expansion: Drive expanding our media buying tactics to new platforms and placements. Testing and growing on new inventory sources will be a large driver of growth in 2026, and this person needs to be comfortable on the frontier. 

• Performance Analysis: Continuously analyze campaign and site performance to identify opportunities for growth and improvement. Provide actionable insights and recommendations to enhance campaign effectiveness. 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE & REQUIREMENTS: 

• 4-6+ years experience as a media buyer and allocator of seven figure annual budgets. 
• Mastery of Meta and Google with the ability to easily take learnings to new ad platforms.  
• Continuous learning – candidate must be professionally curious and interested in new trends in digital advertising. 
• Experience measuring the impact of online advertising on in-store visits and sales. 
• Strongly opinionated on creative direction and the impact that ad creative has on ad performance. 
• Advanced understanding of attribution modeling for both ecommerce and retail advertising. 
• Comfort with integrating marketing automation tools to streamline campaign workflows. 
• Highly process-oriented, with strong multitasking skills to manage and track multiple projects and deliverables simultaneously. 
• Experience using AI solutions to speed up workflows. 
• Music instrument industry experience not required but a strong plus.