Paid Social Creative Strategist

Ariat•San Leandro, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Are you ready to turn creative instinct into measurable growth? We are seeking a curious, data-driven Creative Strategist to lead performance creative for Ariat's paid social channels. The Creative Strategist will report to the Sr. Manager of Digital Brand Content on the Digital Brand Marketing Team and will work closely with brand marketing, brand creative, brand & ecommerce paid media teams, and external creators and agencies to develop, test, and scale ad creative that drives customer engagement, acquisition and revenue. This role is based in San Leandro, CA / hybrid. This role sits at the intersection of data and creativity. You will write briefs grounded in audience insight and competitive research, run a continuous creative testing program across paid social and digital channels, and read performance data to decide which angles, hooks, and formats to iterate on, scale, or retire. The ideal candidate is comfortable being wrong often and fast, is motivated by business results over personal taste, and builds the kind of trust with crossfunctional partners and leadership that gets great work made and shipped.

Requirements

4+ years of experience in creative strategy, performance marketing, or growth marketing for a direct-to-consumer or eCommerce brand.
Strong data and analytical skills to translate data into creative insights and future briefs.
Proven track record of briefing and testing paid social creative that improved acquisition efficiency at meaningful spend.
Portfolio or case studies showing creative tests you've run, what you learned, and the business results.
Fluent in performance creative metrics (hook rate, hold rate, click-through rate, cost per acquisition, return on ad spend) and able to separate creative taste from what the data says.
Strong writer who can turn insight into a tight brief and a sharp hook.
Comfortable with failure as part of the process; treats underperforming creative as information, not a mistake.
Skilled relationship builder who earns trust with designers, editors, creators, and media buyers and can influence the final output without owning the pen.
Working knowledge of Meta Ads Manager and creative analytics tools such as Motion; experience with TikTok, YouTube, or programmatic video is a plus.
Exceptional cross-functional collaboration and project management skills; able to run multiple concepts through brief, production, launch, and readout at once.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, to pivot, and balance multiple priorities.

Nice To Haves

Experience in footwear, apparel, or outdoor and equestrian categories is a plus

Responsibilities

Owning the performance creative strategy and testing roadmap for Ariat eCommerce across paid social, paid video, and digital channels., with a testing cadence that delivers meaningful creative diversity at volume.
Writing clear, insight-led creative briefs that articulate the audience, the problem the product solves, the angle, the hook, and the success metric for every concept.
Conducting ongoing competitive and category research to identify creative trends, formats, and messaging opportunities relevant to riders, workers, and outdoor consumers.
Mining customer reviews, search data, site behavior, and CRM insights to surface the motivations and objections that shape high-performing creative.
Partnering with brand creative, in-house production, and external creators and agencies to bring briefs to life as static, video, UGC, and motion assets that meet Ariat brand standards and ladder up to seasonal campaign strategies and product stories.
Partnering with the paid media team to structure creative tests, and read results across hook rate, thumb-stop rate, click-through rate, cost per acquisition, and return on ad spend.
Analyzing creative performance weekly, diagnosing why concepts win or lose, and translating findings into the next round of iterations and net-new concepts., scaling proven angles and formats while retiring fatigued creative on a disciplined cadence.
Using AI tools to accelerate research, scripting, and variant production while maintaining Ariat brand quality.
Presenting creative performance recaps and learnings to eCommerce, brand, and marketing leadership with actionable recommendations.
Maintaining a creative learnings library and naming taxonomy so insights compound across teams and seasons.
Assisting with other responsibilities based on business needs.