Paid Media Specialist

TAG - The Aspen Group•Chicago, IL

6d•$75,000 - $88,000

About The Position

The Aspen Group (TAG) is seeking a curious, analytical, and highly accountable paid media professional to support the management and optimization of a large-scale performance marketing program. This role will work across paid search, paid social, and other digital acquisition channels, partnering closely with internal marketing teams, agencies, analytics partners, and business stakeholders. Success in this role requires more than platform expertise; it demands an understanding of how the business works, the ability to connect multiple data points to understand performance drivers, and comfort in explaining performance changes and recommending actions. The ideal candidate is naturally curious, takes ownership, and consistently seeks opportunities for improvement.

Requirements

Experience working in paid search, paid social, or another performance marketing discipline.
Strong analytical instincts and comfort working with large or imperfect datasets.
Ability to move beyond surface-level observations and investigate the underlying drivers of performance.
Demonstrated ability to connect data from multiple sources to develop a complete view of a business problem.
Strong sense of ownership and accountability.
Intellectual curiosity and a genuine desire to understand how and why things work.
Ability to operate effectively when a problem does not have an obvious answer or predefined set of steps.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Comfort asking questions, challenging assumptions, and developing an independent point of view.
Ability to prioritize work based on business impact rather than simply completing assigned tasks.
Collaborative mindset and willingness to learn.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta Ads, or similar platforms.
Experience working with external media agencies.
Familiarity with conversion tracking, offline conversions, attribution, CRM or first-party data.
Experience managing or analyzing significant digital media budgets.
Experience in a lead-generation or performance marketing business where media success depends on downstream customer actions.
Exposure to experimentation, landing-page optimization, or conversion-rate optimization.

Responsibilities

Support the day-to-day management and strategic oversight of paid search, paid social, and other performance marketing channels.
Analyze performance across the entire customer funnel rather than evaluating advertising platforms in isolation.
Investigate performance changes by triangulating multiple signals, including media metrics, conversion behavior, lead quality, scheduling activity, downstream outcomes, tracking changes, landing-page changes, and broader business trends.
Translate data into a clear point of view: What happened? Why did it happen? Does it matter? What should we do next?
Identify opportunities, risks, and anomalies proactively rather than waiting for them to be assigned.
Develop recommendations around budget allocation, channel mix, campaign strategy, testing, targeting, landing pages, and measurement.
Partner with media agencies while maintaining strong internal ownership of performance and strategy.
Challenge agency recommendations when appropriate and ensure decisions are grounded in business outcomes rather than platform metrics alone.
Monitor testing and changes across the organization that could impact paid media performance and help ensure appropriate stakeholders are informed.
Work closely with analytics and measurement partners to understand attribution, conversion tracking, offline conversion data, and other signals used to evaluate media effectiveness.
Communicate findings clearly and concisely to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Maintain a strong understanding of current initiatives, priorities, tests, and performance drivers across the business.
Help build repeatable processes, reporting, documentation, and analysis that make the broader team more effective.
Develop expertise across additional media channels over time and take on increasing ownership as the role grows.