UK

United Kingdom · Marketing · Senior (5-8 years)

Senior Performance Marketing Executive

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

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  • Experience bandSenior (5-8 years)
  • Direct reportsNo direct reports
  • Reports toPerformance Marketing Manager
  • UK framework levelUsually a professional owning their own work, or leading a small team

Also advertised as Senior Paid Media Specialist · Lead Digital Acquisition Executive · Performance Marketing Lead (PPC/Paid Social)

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in what real qualifications cover

Two short quizzes about you

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

OCNLR Level 4 Diploma in Digital Marketing OCN London · Level 4 · covers 4 of 10 standards
OCNLR Level 4 Certificate in Digital Marketing OCN London · Level 4 · covers 2 of 10 standards
ATHE Level 4 Extended Diploma in Digital Marketing ATHE Ltd · Level 4 · covers 2 of 10 standards
OCNLR Level 4 Award in Digital Marketing Planning OCN London · Level 4 · covers 1 of 10 standards
Pearson BTEC Level 4 Higher National Certificate in Marketing Management for England Pearson Education Ltd · Level 4 · covers 1 of 10 standards
OCNLR Level 4 Award in Digital Analytics OCN London · Level 4 · covers 1 of 10 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Digital Analytics OCNLR Level 4 Diploma in Digital Marketing
Digital Business, Marketing Metrics and Analytics ATHE Level 4 Extended Diploma in Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing Planning OCNLR Level 4 Award in Digital Marketing Planning
Managing Marketing and Digital Communications Pearson BTEC Level 4 Higher National Certificate in Marketing Management for England

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
Systems Fluency seeing the whole picture
Your Plan Illustration

Built for Senior Performance Marketing Executive

4 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Digital Analytics OCN London · covers 4 of 10 standards Level 4
  2. Digital Business, Marketing Metrics and Analytics ATHE Ltd · covers 2 of 10 standards Level 4
  3. Digital Marketing Planning OCN London · covers 1 of 10 standards Level 4
  4. Managing Marketing and Digital Communications Pearson Education Ltd · covers 1 of 10 standards Level 4
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Senior Performance Marketing Executive?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skill this role is being asked for

  • Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Senior Performance Marketing Executive plan as you set up, starting with the free AI Fluency module. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

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Keep this read. One email with what AI is changing in this job, the new skills it asks for and where to start free. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

3What this role really is

This job involves managing paid acquisition campaigns, making sure spend on ads converts into customers. You own a channel such as Paid Search or Paid Social, setting up campaigns and testing them to improve results. The work is about tracking targets and adjusting campaigns to get better returns.

4What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Google Ads Expert

Architecting complex campaign structures (e.g., Performance Max, SKAGs), writing custom scripts for automation, mastering bidding strategies (tCPA, tROAS), and debugging conversion tracking issues. You're the go-to person here.

Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram) Expert

Mastering advanced audience segmentation (custom/lookalike), systematically A/B testing creative and copy, managing multi-million-pound budgets, and leveraging CAPI (Conversions API) for better tracking.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Advanced

Building custom explorations and funnels, configuring custom events and conversions via GTM, segmenting audiences for in-depth analysis, and connecting GA4 data to Looker Studio for reporting.

Google Tag Manager (GTM) Expert

Writing custom HTML/JavaScript tags, setting up complex trigger logic, managing server-side tagging (if applicable), and establishing a clean, scalable container structure for the organisation. You're the guardian of our tracking.

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) Advanced

Creating complex, multi-source dashboards from scratch. Using calculated fields and data blending to derive new insights. Automating reporting for your channel and the wider team, making data accessible.

Asana / Monday.com Advanced

Designing and building project plans for complex campaigns, creating automation rules to improve team workflow, and managing resource allocation across multiple initiatives. You'll keep us organised.

5What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Campaign Bidding Strategy Propose strategy to supervisor for approval. Choose strategy within established guidelines; inform manager. Define and implement strategy; inform manager of rationale and expected impact.
Budget Allocation (within channel) Execute daily budget changes as directed by supervisor. Adjust daily/weekly budgets within a pre-approved monthly allocation. Allocate monthly budget across campaigns/ad groups within your channel (up to £10K variance); consult manager for larger shifts or new initiatives.
A/B Test Design & Launch Assist in setting up tests designed by supervisor. Design and launch standard A/B tests; review results with manager. Design, launch, and interpret complex A/B/multivariate tests, making data-driven recommendations without direct approval.
Vendor Selection (minor tools) No authority. Research and recommend tools under £500/month. Recommend and trial new tools/platforms up to £1,000/month; require manager approval for commitment.

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
The revenue generated for every £1 spent on advertising within your owned channel.
Target · Maintain or exceed 3.5x ROAS for your primary channel

If your target is 3.5x ROAS and you spend £10,000, we'd expect to see at least £35,000 in attributed revenue. You hit 3.7x last month, which was great.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
The average cost to acquire a new customer through your campaigns.
Target · Keep CAC below £150 for your primary channel

If you acquire 100 new customers for £12,000, your CAC is £120. If it creeps up to £160, we'll be asking what's going on and how you plan to bring it down.

Conversion Rate (CVR)
The percentage of website visitors from your campaigns who complete a desired action (e.g., sign-up, purchase).
Target · Improve CVR by 10% quarter-over-quarter through optimisation

If your landing page converts at 5% and you implement changes that push it to 5.5% next quarter, that's a 10% improvement and a clear win.

Budget Adherence
How closely you manage and spend your allocated budget without significant over or under-spend.
Target · Stay within ±5% of allocated monthly budget

If your monthly budget is £50,000, spending £52,000 is acceptable, but £55,000 isn't. Likewise, spending only £40,000 means we're missing opportunities.

Strategic Campaign Development
Your ability to design and implement sophisticated campaigns that align with broader business goals, not just simple 'turn it on' efforts.
  • You're proposing multi-stage campaigns, new audience segments, and testing hypotheses that push beyond basic optimisation. Your campaign structures are well-thought-out and documented, showing clear intent and expected outcomes.
Mentorship & Knowledge Sharing
How effectively you guide and upskill junior team members, helping them grow their own capabilities.
  • Junior team members regularly seek your advice. You're giving constructive feedback on their work, helping them troubleshoot, and actively sharing your insights during team meetings or dedicated training sessions. They're visibly improving because of your input.
Proactive Problem Solving
Identifying potential issues before they become major problems and proposing solutions without being prompted.
  • You flag a sudden drop in impression share before anyone else notices, or you identify a tracking discrepancy between platforms and present a plan to fix it. You don't just report problems
  • you come with ideas for how to sort them out.
Cross-functional Collaboration
Your ability to work effectively with other teams (e.g., Product, Content) to achieve shared marketing objectives.
  • Other teams actively involve you in their planning because they trust your input. You're effectively communicating campaign needs to the creative team and providing clear feedback to the product team on landing page performance. There's a genuine sense of working together, not just handing things over.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Seeing Direct Impact

You get a real buzz from seeing your campaign changes directly translate into more sales or lower costs. Checking the dashboards and seeing the numbers move in the right direction is genuinely satisfying.

You launched a new ad copy test, and within a week, you see a 15% uplift in click-through rate and a corresponding drop in CPA. That's your work, right there.

Solving Puzzles

Performance marketing is a constant puzzle. Why did that campaign suddenly dip? How can we get more conversions from this audience? You enjoy digging into the data and experimenting to find the answers.

A campaign's ROAS is 'tanking'. Instead of panicking, you systematically check pixel firing, impression share, and quality score, eventually pinpointing a specific keyword bleeding budget.

Continuous Learning & Mastery

The digital landscape changes constantly, and you love that. You're always reading up on new platform features, testing new bidding strategies, and sharing what you've learned with the team.

You're the first to experiment with Google's new Performance Max campaigns, figuring out its nuances and reporting back to the team on what works and what doesn't.

What frustrates people
  • The 'Attribution War': Constantly defending your channel's value against other teams who want to take credit, especially when you're dealing with last-click data.
  • Sudden Platform Algorithm Shifts: Waking up to find Google or Meta has changed their rules without warning, forcing you to relearn what works and rebuild campaigns.
  • Subjective Creative Feedback: Getting told to change an ad because someone 'doesn't like the colour' when your data clearly shows it's performing well.
  • The Tracking Black Hole: A website update breaks your GTM or pixel, and you're left with no data, trying to diagnose a problem that isn't your fault.
  • Budget Whiplash: Having your budget approved, launching campaigns, then having it suddenly cut mid-month because another department overspent, ruining your momentum.
  • Explaining Statistical Significance: Trying to convince a manager not to make a major strategic decision based on a two-day A/B test with tiny traffic.
What this role does not give you
  • A perfectly stable, unchanging environment – the digital marketing world moves fast.
  • Guaranteed immediate success for every campaign – testing and failure are part of the process.
  • Complete control over all variables – you'll depend on other teams for creative, landing pages, and tech.
  • A role where you never have to justify your numbers or defend your decisions.

8Who you work with

This role is crucial for our growth. You'll directly influence how many new customers we acquire and at what cost. Your work ensures our marketing budget is spent effectively, driving measurable revenue and helping us hit our overall business targets. Get it right, and we scale; get it wrong, and we're just burning cash.

Inside the business
  • Performance Marketing Manager (your direct boss)
  • Content & Creative Team (for ad assets)
  • Product Team (for landing page optimisation and conversion funnels)
  • Data & Analytics Team (for reporting and attribution insights)
  • Sales Team (to understand lead quality and conversion feedback)
Outside the business
  • Google/Meta Account Managers (for platform updates and support)
  • Ad Tech Vendors (e.g., bid management tools)
  • External Agencies (if we're working with them on specific projects)

9What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Proven track record of 3-5 years in a dedicated performance marketing role, with hands-on experience managing significant budgets (e.g., £50K+ monthly).
  • Demonstrable experience in optimising campaigns to specific ROAS/CPA targets, not just managing spend.
  • Solid understanding of Google Analytics 4 (or a similar analytics platform) and Google Tag Manager.
  • Experience with A/B testing methodologies and interpreting results to drive conversion rate optimisation (CRO).
  • Strong analytical skills, including proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets for data manipulation and reporting.
  • Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and meet tight deadlines.

10What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced Data Integration & Automation

Manual data pulling and reporting is a huge time sink. The ability to connect different marketing platforms (Google Ads, Meta Ads, CRM) to a central data warehouse (like BigQuery) and automate reporting will be essential. This frees you up for actual analysis, not just data wrangling.

API fundamentals for marketing platforms · Basic SQL for data querying · Cloud data warehousing (e.g., Google BigQuery basics) · Dashboard automation principles

  • This month: Find a simple Python script online to pull Google Ads data via API and get it working.
  • Month 2: Learn basic SQL queries and practice extracting data from a sample dataset.
  • Month 3: Investigate how to connect your Looker Studio dashboards directly to a BigQuery dataset.
  • Month 4: Document one manual reporting process and outline how it could be automated.

Quick win: Start by exploring the 'Automated Rules' features within Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager to handle routine optimisations (e.g., pausing low-performing ads). This is a simple step towards automation.

Privacy-First Measurement Strategies

The deprecation of third-party cookies and increasing privacy regulations (like GDPR and upcoming changes) mean traditional tracking methods are dying. You'll need to understand and implement new, privacy-centric ways to measure campaign performance.

Server-Side Tagging (SST) · Conversions API (CAPI) for Meta Ads · Enhanced Conversions for Google Ads · Consent Mode v2 implementation

  • This month: Read up on Google's documentation for Enhanced Conversions and Meta's CAPI. Understand the 'why'.
  • Month 2: Work with our dev team (or an external agency) to understand our current tracking setup and identify gaps for privacy-first measurement.
  • Month 3: Propose a plan to implement one privacy-enhancing measurement technique (e.g., CAPI) for a specific campaign.
  • Month 4: Get hands-on with a test implementation of server-side tagging in GTM if possible.

Quick win: Review our current cookie consent banner and ensure it's fully compliant with GDPR. Understand how it impacts our data collection today.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly follow industry blogs and thought leaders (e.g., Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, PPC Hero, Jon Loomer) to stay on top of platform changes and new strategies.
  • Actively participate in online communities or forums dedicated to performance marketing to learn from peers and share insights.
  • Attend virtual or in-person industry conferences (e.g., BrightonSEO, MeasureCamp) to network and hear about emerging trends.
  • Take online courses (e.g., from CXL, Udemy, LinkedIn Learning) on advanced analytics, data visualisation, or specific platform features.
  • Seek out opportunities to mentor junior colleagues and share your expertise, which solidifies your own understanding.

12The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration

Honestly, competitors are already using tools like ChatGPT and Claude to draft ad copy, generate creative ideas, and even summarise performance reports in minutes. Analysts who figure this out will outproduce their peers significantly. It's not a 'nice-to-have' anymore; it's a competitive edge.

  • Context windows and token limits
  • Temperature settings for different tasks
  • RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) architectures
  • Output validation and hallucination detection
  • Prompt chaining for complex analysis

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Attribution Modelling
  • Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
  • Full-Funnel Campaign Architecture
  • Audience Segmentation & Management
  • Unit Economics Analysis

14The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Performance Marketing Executive (L2)

    2-3 years

    Skills to master

    • Independent campaign management, advanced audience segmentation, A/B testing execution, basic data analysis and reporting.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Consistently hitting ROAS/CPA targets for assigned campaigns without heavy supervision.
    • Proactively identifying optimisation opportunities and implementing them.
    • Demonstrating a strong understanding of attribution and its challenges.
    • Effectively communicating campaign performance to your manager.
  2. 2

    Digital Marketing Specialist (Broader Role)

    4-6 years

    Skills to master

    • Deep expertise in one or two specific digital channels (e.g., SEO, Content Marketing) combined with a strong understanding of paid media. You'd transition by specialising in performance.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Demonstrable success in driving measurable results from paid channels within a broader digital role.
    • A clear passion and aptitude for data-driven optimisation and ROI.
    • A desire to specialise and become an expert in paid acquisition.
  3. 3

    Analyst (Data/Marketing)

    3-5 years

    Skills to master

    • Strong analytical and data manipulation skills, experience with reporting tools, and a good understanding of marketing metrics. You'd transition by applying your data skills directly to campaign optimisation.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Proven ability to extract insights from complex datasets and make actionable recommendations.
    • A keen interest in the 'why' behind marketing performance and a desire to influence spend.
    • Familiarity with marketing platforms and their data structures.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This work can lead to managing a wider team and budget, or into growth and acquisition strategy roles that cover more of the business.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Senior Performance Marketing Executive is actually changing.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

The record names a next step, but the catalogue has no page for it yet:

  • Lead Performance Marketing Strategist (L4)

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Digital Analytics, worked against Senior Performance Marketing Executive.

Digital Analytics Level 4

Applied to your work in Senior Performance Marketing Executive

This unit aims to provide learners with a comprehensive understanding of digital analytics principles, tools, and techniques. Learners will develop the skills to collect, analyse, and interpret digital data from various sources, enabling them to measure the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns, improve strategies, and report findings to stakeholders, while adhering to data protection regulations.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

See Your Progress Grow Illustration
Senior Performance Marketing Executive
  • Attribution Modelling
  • Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
  • Full-Funnel Campaign Architecture
  • Audience Segmentation & Management
  • Unit Economics Analysis
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

16The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Senior Performance Marketing Executive is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. Lead Performance Marketing Strategist (L4)

    3-5 years

    You'll move from owning a channel to managing a portfolio of paid channels, designing complex, multi-channel strategies, and building testing frameworks for the entire team. You'll also likely have direct reports.

    • Media Mix Modelling (MMM) concepts
    • Advanced experimentation design (e.g., incrementality testing)
    • Cross-channel attribution strategies
    • Platform API integration for custom solutions
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be real, performance marketing is a grind sometimes. The constant need for new ad copy, digging through data, and writing reports can eat up your day. But what if you could offload some of that grunt work to AI? We're not talking about replacing you; we're talking about giving you a serious productivity boost so you can focus on the truly strategic stuff.

We're embracing AI to make our team more efficient and effective. For a Senior Performance Marketing Executive, this means using smart tools to automate the tedious, repetitive tasks that usually bog you down. Imagine spending less time on manual reporting or brainstorming ad copy, and more time on high-impact strategy and deep analysis. Here's a peek at how AI can actually help you day-to-day:

Ad Copy & Creative Generation

Use AI tools like ChatGPT or Jasper to quickly generate dozens of headline and description variations for your Google and Meta Ads. Need fresh image concepts? Generative AI can give you a starting point in minutes, freeing up your creative team for bigger ideas. It's about getting to the best creative faster.

Performance Anomaly Detection

Forget sifting through endless spreadsheets. AI-powered analytics platforms can automatically flag significant performance shifts – like a sudden drop in CTR for a key ad group – that you might miss in your manual checks. It's like having an extra pair of eyes constantly monitoring your campaigns, so you can react quicker.

Competitive & Audience Research

Feed competitor ad copy, landing pages, and offers (from tools like Semrush) into an AI and get instant summaries of their strategy. You can also ask AI to brainstorm new potential audience segments based on your existing customer personas, giving you fresh ideas for targeting.

Stakeholder Reporting & Summaries

Got raw performance data? Drop those weekly CSV exports into an AI model and ask it to 'write a concise summary for a non-marketing executive, highlighting key trends, wins, and areas for concern.' It'll save you hours of crafting the perfect narrative, letting you focus on the insights.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Senior Performance Marketing Executive?

Common routes in include Performance Marketing Executive (2-3 years), Digital Marketing Specialist (Broader Role) (4-6 years) and Analyst (Data/Marketing) (3-5 years). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Senior Performance Marketing Executive progress to?

This role can lead on to Lead Performance Marketing Strategist (3-5 years), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Senior Performance Marketing Executive?

Increasingly, Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

Want a read on where you stand?

Three free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with a role, a level and a way in.

Read the Zavmo manifesto to understand how you will be taught Meet your tutors

Or try another one

17Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 4

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

 More jobs in marketing

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.
If you leave this industry

The skills built in this role transfer across industries such as e-commerce, SaaS and finance. Some people move client-side, others move to agencies managing campaigns for several clients. The core skills of data-driven acquisition apply in most sectors.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my free AI Fluency module What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.