Director, Paid Media & Search Strategy

Gartner • Stamford, CT

6h • $120,000 - $167,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Paid Media & Search Strategy serves as Gartner Conference Marketing's internal authority on paid media strategy, audience development, search strategy, channel planning, measurement, and platform best practices across search, social, video, display, programmatic, and emerging channels. The role connects marketing strategy, agency partnership, and campaign execution by translating business objectives into media strategies, guiding audience and channel decisions, evaluating agency recommendations, encouraging innovation, and ensuring paid media investments deliver measurable business impact.

The Director owns the expertise and strategic guidance that inform how paid media and search drive audience engagement, registration growth, and business outcomes. The role manages and develops the SEO function, partners with teams across Sales, Marketing, Marketing Operations, Analytics, and CRM, and leads the organization's evaluation and adoption of emerging platforms and search capabilities.

Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive experience in paid media, digital marketing, performance marketing, media strategy, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated expertise across search, paid social, video, display, and programmatic advertising channels.
• Experience developing audience strategies and targeting approaches in complex B2B organizations.
• Experience managing agency relationships, influencing senior stakeholders, and evaluating strategic recommendations.
• Strong understanding of measurement methodologies, attribution concepts, and campaign performance evaluation.
• Experience leading or partnering closely with SEO functions.

Nice To Haves

• Experience operating within a Center of Excellence model supporting multiple business units or stakeholder groups.
• Deep expertise across Google Ads, Performance Max, YouTube, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, and programmatic platforms.
• Experience managing significant media investments and budget allocation decisions.
• Experience in B2B marketing, event marketing, demand generation, or information-services environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop paid media strategies aligned with business objectives, marketing goals, and growth priorities.
• Define channel recommendations across Google Search, Google Display Network, YouTube, Performance Max, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn, programmatic media, and emerging platforms.
• Guide investment strategies, budget allocation decisions, and optimization priorities across channels, audiences, and campaign objectives.
• Lead test-and-learn initiatives to improve campaign effectiveness and identify new opportunities.
• Own audience strategy across paid media programs, translating ideal customer profiles, sales priorities, and marketing objectives into targeting and segmentation approaches.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing leadership to refine audience prioritization and optimize performance across customer, prospect, account, industry, and buying group segments.
• Serve as Gartner Conference Marketing's internal subject matter expert across paid media platforms and advertising technologies.
• Establish governance, best practices, measurement standards, and strategic guidance; educate stakeholders on platform capabilities, limitations, and emerging trends.
• Partner with Marketing Operations to ensure campaign execution aligns with strategic intent, audience strategy, measurement standards, and best practices.
• Evaluate new platform capabilities and opportunities to improve marketing performance and efficiency.
• Provide strategic leadership across organic search, paid search, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and emerging AI-driven search experiences.
• Partner with SEO resources to develop search visibility strategies aligned with business objectives and audience priorities.
• Align SEO, paid search, content, and audience targeting strategies.
• Evaluate how evolving search behavior and AI-driven discovery affect Gartner's acquisition strategy.
• Evaluate, challenge, approve, or reject agency and vendor recommendations based on business objectives and industry best practices.
• Serve as the organization's internal authority for assessing external recommendations and strategic direction.
• Hold agencies and partners accountable for strategic quality, innovation, operational excellence, and performance outcomes.
• Manage and develop the SEO function by providing strategic direction, coaching, and professional development.
• Foster collaboration across Paid Media, SEO, Marketing Operations, Analytics, Sales, and Marketing teams, building organizational expertise in acquisition strategy and emerging search channels.
• Define measurement frameworks, KPIs, dashboards, and reporting requirements in partnership with Analytics teams.
• Partner with Analytics, CRM, and Marketing Operations to improve attribution, audience targeting, performance visibility, and measurement approaches.
• Analyze performance trends and translate insights into recommendations on audience refinement, channel optimization, and budget allocation.
• Drive continuous testing, optimization, and periodic reviews of campaign structure, targeting, measurement frameworks, and reporting approaches.
• Evaluate emerging platforms, technologies, and acquisition opportunities, including Meta, AEO, AI-driven search experiences, and future advertising innovations.
• Lead testing strategies and drive adoption of opportunities that improve performance and organizational capability.
• Lead regular reviews with Gartner marketing experts and research teams to assess trends, audience behaviors, platform evolution, and opportunities affecting paid media, search, and acquisition strategies.

Benefits

• Generous PTO.
• 401k match up to $7,200 per year.
• Opportunity to purchase company stock at a discount.
• Market-leading benefit programs.
• Annual bonus plan based on company and individual performance, or a role-based, uncapped sales incentive plan, as applicable to eligible candidates.
• Hybrid work environment with flexibility to work virtually when productive and meet with colleagues in person.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed