Director of Performance Marketing

Empower Brands•Richmond, VA

About The Position

Empower Brands is seeking a Director of Performance Marketing to build and lead a centralized franchisee growth capability across its portfolio of brands. The role oversees paid media strategy, platform and partner management, franchisee performance reporting, and the development of services supporting local lead generation and conversion. The Director works across brand teams, digital marketing, finance, operations, and franchisee stakeholders to create consistent, scalable local marketing execution. The initial priority is launching and scaling in-house performance marketing; the broader service portfolio is expected to expand as the operating model, technology, and franchisee adoption mature. The position is based in Richmond, Virginia, and reports to the Chief Marketing Officer, partnering closely with the Senior Director of Digital and Marketing Operations. The initial growth-products and services portfolio is expected to include in-house paid media across Google Search, Local Services Ads, Display, YouTube, and other Google advertising capabilities; Meta advertising; localized campaign landing pages; franchisee-facing dashboards and reporting; call-tracking integration; speed-to-lead tools and workflows; AI-enabled SMS, voice, and email follow-up; lead-management and CRM integrations; and standardized direct mail. Future offerings may include additional franchisee demand-generation and conversion products. The Director will design and launch the capability, establish its operating model and service experience, lead initial campaign setup and execution, and own the evolution of the growth-products ecosystem. The role includes managing platforms, vendors, and integrations; guiding franchisee onboarding, adoption, and change management; monitoring commercial and operating performance; and recommending and eventually building a future team. The Director begins as an individual leader without immediate direct reports and is expected to remain close to execution as the capability develops. Empower Brands is a franchise organization encompassing ten residential and commercial services brands. It is a portfolio company of MidOcean Partners. The job description states that duties may include other job-related assignments, and that employment is at will. Empower Brands is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion.

Requirements

At least 5 years of experience leading paid-media strategy and execution across Google and Meta.
Bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, communications, business, or a related discipline.
Deep knowledge of Google Search, Local Services Ads, Display, YouTube, Meta, campaign architecture, attribution, and optimization.
Experience implementing or operating marketing technology, advertising platforms, dashboards, or multi-location marketing systems.
Experience integrating paid-media execution with CRM, call tracking, landing pages, lead routing, and reporting.
Demonstrated experience building a new service, capability, operating model, or internal agency function from the ground up.
Strong change-management experience across complex stakeholder groups.
Experience selecting, negotiating with, and managing agencies, technology vendors, and platform partners.
Ability to personally execute campaigns and platform work during the initial build.
Ability to work across strategy, product design, operations, technology, campaign execution, and stakeholder management.
Experience building business cases and contributing to pricing, packaging, budget, and service-economics decisions.
Strong analytical skills and ability to translate data into actions and business recommendations.
Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in an entrepreneurial, evolving, and highly visible environment.

Nice To Haves

Franchise marketing experience.
Multi-location or distributed marketing experience.
Agency leadership or agency operations experience.
Experience supporting multiple brands through a shared platform or centralized operating model.
Product-management or product-ownership experience.
Experience in home services or another locally driven service category.
Experience in a private-equity-backed organization.
Experience scaling capabilities through rapid growth and organizational change.
Familiarity with franchise agreements, required marketing programs, local advertising requirements, and franchisee advisory structures.
Experience with speed-to-lead, conversational AI, automated follow-up, or lead-conversion platforms.

Responsibilities

Lead the design, implementation, and launch of Empower’s in-house performance marketing capability.
Translate the strategic vision into an operating model, service offering, implementation roadmap, and franchisee experience.
Lead platform implementation, configuration, and ongoing optimization; establish scalable workflows, standards, service levels, governance, and processes.
Partner with brand and corporate stakeholders and franchisee leadership groups to prepare for launch, and support onboarding of brands and franchisee accounts.
Lead initial campaign architecture, account setup, migration, launch, and optimization across Google Search, Local Services Ads, Display, YouTube, Meta, and other relevant paid channels.
Establish campaign structures, naming conventions, budget-management practices, tracking standards, and quality controls; evaluate performance by franchisee, territory, market, service line, and channel.
Preserve account access, historical data, tracking integrity, and continuity of lead flow during account transitions wherever possible.
Develop standards and playbooks for future campaign managers, account managers, platforms, and agency partners.
Serve as product owner for the franchisee growth-products and services ecosystem and maintain a roadmap for MaaS, landing pages, dashboards, speed-to-lead, AI follow-up, and related capabilities.
Translate franchisee, brand, and business needs into platform requirements and product enhancements; determine which capabilities should be built internally, delivered by vendors, or managed through hybrid models.
Identify opportunities to improve service quality, automation, scalability, and franchisee outcomes.
Manage vendor onboarding, service levels, issue resolution, and performance reviews.
Partner with IT and internal stakeholders on CRM, data, tracking, security, and user-access requirements; maintain appropriate ownership and administrative access to advertising accounts, landing pages, tracking assets, and performance data.
Lead integration of media, CRM, call-tracking, dashboard, billing, and reporting workflows.
Define franchisee onboarding, support, training, engagement, stabilization, monthly review, escalation, and performance-management processes.
Partner with Digital Marketing Managers and brand marketing teams on franchisee communications and recurring performance reviews.
Develop adoption and migration strategies for new and existing franchisees and lead account and agency-transition planning.
Create rollout communications, training, documentation, and escalation paths; help establish participation, exception, and transition frameworks with relevant stakeholders.
Monitor platform fees, internal costs, media funding, billing workflows, and account-level economics; establish adoption, revenue, capacity, service-quality, and performance targets.
Evaluate MaaS performance in terms of service economics and contribution to franchisee sales and royalty growth; partner with FP&A on forecasting and financial analysis.
Recommend future team structure, hiring triggers, and role definitions based on account volume, complexity, service expectations, and platform capabilities.
Hire, train, and lead the future team as the capability scales, and establish accountability across product ownership, account management, campaign execution, brand teams, and vendors.