We place Retail and Ecommerce PPC Specialists who turn ad spend into profitable revenue, not just traffic.
Generic recruiters check for platform certifications and campaign management experience. They do not always assess whether a candidate knows how to structure campaign types without cannibalising one or the other, or has the judgment to flag a promotional calendar that will outspend its return before it launches.
A strong Retail or Ecommerce PPC Specialist also understands how paid and organic channels interact. This broader view is what separates a generic hire from genuine specialist talent.
We work exclusively in search marketing, paid media, and growth. Our network was built from inside these industries, through relationships, not job boards.
We assess real commercial thinking, channel depth, and proven impact. Not tenure. Not titles.
The best paid media professionals aren’t browsing job boards. We go to them, directly, discreetly, and with a reason to move.
The difference between a strong Retail or Ecommerce PPC Specialist and a weak one is not always visible on a CV. Strong candidates understand the full commercial picture behind a campaign. They read performance in context, recognising when a year-on-year drop reflects a genuine problem versus a comparison-period anomaly, a past product launch, collaboration, or a key trading moment falling in a different fiscal period.
Strong ecommerce PPC hires balance upper and lower-funnel activity, defending prospecting spend on its long-term contribution rather than cutting it the moment platform-reported ROAS dips. They tie paid media performance to profit and customer lifetime value, not taking clicks, impressions, or platform-reported ROAS at face value.
Generalist PPC hires may report conversions without connecting them to wider business activity. When performance dips, they may default to lower-funnel harvesting because it shows immediate return, but it limits the prospecting activity that should be feeding it long-term. This kind of forward planning and broad business positioning is what separates strong specialist talent with industry knowledge from a generalist hire.
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Retail and Ecommerce PPC Specialist salary expectations vary by location, seniority, and the commercial complexity of the role.
Use this as a baseline. Expect variation in either direction depending on campaign scale, catalogue size, and whether the role is agency-side or in-house.
| Region | Junior/Coordinator | Mid-Level | Senior/Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| US | $70,000 – $80,000 | $85,000 – $115,500 | $116,000 – $170,000+ |
| UK | £33,000 – £38,000 | £41,000 – £55,000 | £46,000 – £67,000+ |
Based on 111 salary submissions in the last 12 months. Powered by our sister company, SalaryGuide.com
These benchmarks come from the world’s #1 marketing salary directory, built on over 15,000 verified submissions. Real market data, so you can set an offer with confidence.
A specialist with hands-on experience managing high-spend Shopping and Performance Max campaigns across a large product catalogue commands a premium over a generalist PPC hire who lists retail or ecommerce as one of several verticals.
Specialists managing large, fast-moving catalogues, multiple brands, or complex marketplace and retail media integrations (Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect) typically command higher compensation than those managing a single, simple product range.
US markets, particularly New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, offer the highest median compensation. London carries a premium within the UK market, and Sydney within Australia. Remote and hybrid policies can compress or widen these gaps.
Candidates who can manage upward, pushing back on senior stakeholders when a request risks budget or margin, and proactively building the case for new channel opportunities, are scarcer and command a premium over those who only execute what they’re told. At the most senior level, this extends to leading a wider paid media team. This is the capability that separates a tactical hire from a strategic one.
Base salary is one part of the total cost. Add employer taxes, benefits, and onboarding, and the true cost is typically 15–20% above the headline figure. A mis-hire compounds this: according to the Society for Human Resource Management, replacing a bad hire can cost up to 5 times their annual salary.
Benchmarks are directional. Live market data gives you negotiation power.
A traditional job board process takes 60 to 90 days and produces a huge list of candidates who applied.
Our process takes on average 22 to 25 days and produces Paid Media candidates who are qualified, available, and assessed against the specific demands of your role.
We brief against your commercial context: catalogue size, product categories, campaign budget, and the specific gap the hire needs to close. Budget size and channel mix shape who we target.
We do not post and wait. We go directly to the paid media talent pool, agency-side, in-house, and consulting, and approach Retail and Ecommerce PPC Specialists who match your brief. The right hire is rarely applying speculatively. They are already delivering results for someone else.
Every candidate is evaluated across a 9-area scorecard, such as feed management, Shopping and Performance Max architecture, margin-aware budget allocation, and stakeholder communication. Assessments include a live feed audit and a campaign structure review exercise. We assess execution, not interview performance.
You receive a shortlist of two to three candidates, each with a full brief on their sector experience, commercial context, and the specific rationale for their inclusion. No padding. No volume.
Every Search For Hire placement is backed by a one-year satisfaction guarantee. If the hire leaves or underperforms within 12 months, we replace them at no additional cost. Accountability is built into the process.
A Retail or Ecommerce PPC Specialist plans and manages paid advertising campaigns designed to drive profitable sales for product-based businesses: online retailers, multi-brand ecommerce stores, and direct-to-consumer brands.
They own Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, manage product feeds to maximize visibility, and allocate budget across campaigns and channels. They are accountable to ROAS, profit contribution, and customer lifetime value, not just clicks and impressions in isolation.
Freelance platforms surface available capacity. Generalist recruiters surface applicants. Neither evaluates whether a candidate understands how to structure Shopping and Performance Max without cannibalising one or the other, or how to read a year-on-year performance drop in the context of a shifted promotional calendar.
Retail and ecommerce PPC has distinct demands that a generalist hire will take months to learn: feed-driven campaign management, margin-aware budget allocation, and the judgment to separate a genuine performance issue from a comparison-period anomaly. We operate exclusively within SEO, Paid Media, and Growth, and our assessments are built around real operational capability in sector-specific paid media, not platform certifications.
Our average placement time is 22 to 25 days from brief to accepted offer, with 95% of roles filled within 28 days. We maintain an active pipeline of vetted Paid Media talent with sector experience.
Because we headhunt directly into the market rather than relying on inbound applications, we are not starting from scratch with every brief. Speed comes from specialism, not shortcuts.
Every Search For Hire placement is backed by a one-year satisfaction guarantee. If the candidate leaves or fails to perform within 12 months, we replace them at no additional cost. The guarantee is a commercial commitment grounded in process rigor.
Every Retail or Ecommerce PPC Specialist we place is assessed against a structured scorecard that includes a live feed audit and campaign structure review. We place with confidence because the evaluation earns it.
Yes. We place Retail and Ecommerce PPC Specialists across the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia, and have placed internationally beyond these core markets. We headhunt actively rather than posting regionally, which means candidate reach is defined by the role requirements, not by geography.
If your role is remote, hybrid, or requires relocation, we will structure the search accordingly and advise on salary benchmarking by market.
High-stakes roles require high-precision hiring. Tell us what you need. We will tell you whether we can place it and how.
