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Hire a Senior PPC Manager

We place Senior PPC Managers who own commercial outcomes from paid investment. Not just candidates who interview well.

100+ senior placements
23 day average placement time
1-year placement guarantee

Generic recruiters don’t understand Paid Media. We do.

If you’ve hired a Senior PPC Manager who looked strong on paper but spent the first three months optimising for impressions while your cost-per-acquisition climbed, you know what a mis-hire costs.

This is a performance-critical hire: the person accountable for how efficiently your paid budget converts into commercial outcomes. Getting it wrong doesn’t just underperform. It stalls the function by 6 to 12 months while a replacement search begins.

Generic recruiters match keywords. They see “Google Ads” on a CV and call it relevant. We evaluate actual operational capability: how a candidate architects multi-channel campaigns, how they manage bids and budgets under commercial pressure, and whether they can communicate performance to senior stakeholders with clarity.

SEO, Paid Media, and Growth is all we do. That specialism is what makes the difference between a keyword match and a qualified hire.


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 SEO, PPC, and growth professionals aren’t browsing job boards. We go to them, directly, discreetly, and with a reason to move.

Senior PPC Manager Hire?

The gap between a strong Senior PPC Manager and a weak one doesn’t show on a CV.

It surfaces in how they manage budgets under pressure, how they communicate performance to leadership, and how they build capability in the team beneath them. Strong hires own the function end to end: from campaign architecture to commercial reporting.

The wrong hire optimises in the wrong direction. They hit click targets while CPA climbs, or scale spend without testing whether that volume converts at a commercially viable rate.

Evaluate in Every Senior PPC Manager Candidate

Hard Skills

What to Look For:

  • Google Ads campaign architecture across Search, Shopping, PMax, and Video
  • Bid strategy and budget management at scale (Target CPA, tROAS, manual CPC)
  • Conversion tracking: GA4, Google Tag Manager, enhanced conversions, Conversions API

Red Flag:

  • Knows one campaign type only; relies on default platform settings
  • Applies blanket bid changes without diagnosing underlying performance signals
  • Cannot set up tracking independently; relies on platform-native attribution only
Soft Skills

What to Look For:

  • Translating performance data into commercial recommendations for senior stakeholders
  • Coaching and developing junior PPC analysts or executives
  • Cross-functional collaboration with creative, CRO, and analytics teams

Red Flag:

  • Reports on clicks and impressions without linking to revenue or CPA targets
  • No experience managing or mentoring a direct report
  • Operates in channel isolation with no visibility of post-click performance
Future-Proof Skills

What to Look For:

  • AI-assisted campaign management: Smart Bidding, Performance Max signal optimisation
  • Privacy-forward tracking: enhanced conversions, Conversions API, offline conversion imports
  • Omnichannel strategy: coordinating Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok Ads for full-funnel coverage

Red Flag:

  • Dismisses automation or runs AI-driven campaigns without understanding the inputs
  • Still reliant on third-party cookie models; no first-party data strategy
  • Channel-siloed thinking; no view of how platforms interact across the buyer journey
Tools & Platforms

What to Look For:

  • Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads Manager, SA360, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, GA4, Google Tag Manager, Looker Studio

Red Flag:

  • Cannot demonstrate hands-on proficiency; relies on reports built by others

Senior PPC Manager Salary Benchmarks – 2026

Senior PPC Manager salary expectations vary significantly by location, sector, and seniority. Use this as a baseline.

Expect variation of 15–20% in either direction depending on the business, the team size, and the commercial complexity of the role.

Region Salary Range
US $105,000 – $130,000
UK £50,000 – £70,000
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Powered by our sister company, SalaryGuide.com

These benchmarks are backed by the world’s #1 marketing salary directory. With over 15,000 verified submissions. We offer total transparency into the market, helping you hire with confidence based on real-world data.

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Factors that move the number

Experience and seniority

A Senior PPC Manager who has managed six or seven-figure budgets with demonstrable ROAS or CPA improvement commands a significant premium.

Industry and commercial complexity

High-spend sectors such as e-commerce, travel, consumer finance, and SaaS demand more from the role and pay accordingly. Regulated industries including healthcare and financial services add compliance complexity, narrowing the talent pool and elevating market rates.

Location and remote policy

London and major US markets such as New York, San Francisco, and Seattle carry notable premiums over regional roles. Remote and hybrid policies are reshaping salary norms, with some businesses maintaining location-adjusted pay and others applying national scales.

Team scope

A Senior PPC Manager who supervises team members, manages cross-channel functions, or holds budget ownership earns more than a solo contributor. P&L accountability and the scale of paid investment under direct management both move the number upward.

Hidden costs

Base salary is one component of the total hiring cost. Adding employer taxes, benefits, and onboarding typically increases the true cost by 15 to 20%. A mis-hire compounds this further: the Society for Human Resource Management estimates the cost of a bad hire at up to five times the employee’s annual salary.

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Get accurate salary data for your market

Benchmarks are directional. Live market data gives you negotiation power.

Book a consultation

Our Senior PPC Manager Recruitment, Headhunting and Vetting Process

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.

View our full recruitment process
01

We brief against your commercial context, not just your job description. Team structure, growth stage, budget scale, and the performance gap the hire needs to close: this shapes who we target.

02

We do not post and wait. We go directly to the Senior PPC Manager talent pool, agency-side, in-house, and consulting, and approach candidates who match your brief. The right hire rarely applies speculatively.

03

Every candidate is evaluated across a 9-area scorecard, such as multi-channel campaign strategy, budget and bid management under commercial pressure, stakeholder communication, and leadership track record.
Assessments include practical challenges depending on the role: a live campaign audit review, a budget reallocation scenario, and a stakeholder performance briefing. We assess execution and strategic judgement, not interview performance.

04

You receive a shortlist of two to three Paid Media candidates, each with a full brief from us on their capability, commercial context, and the specific rationale for their inclusion. No padding. No volume.

05

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.

06 Book a Discovery Call

Recent Placements

Frequently asked questions

What does a Senior PPC Manager do?

A Senior PPC Manager leads the paid advertising function, owning strategy, execution, and commercial accountability across search, social, and other digital channels.
Sitting above a PPC Manager or Specialist and below a Head of Paid Media or Performance Marketing Director, they own campaign architecture and bid strategy, manage budgets across platforms, coordinate with creative and analytics teams, develop junior team members, and report on performance to senior stakeholders. The role carries direct accountability for CPA, ROAS targets, and attributed revenue from paid investment.

Why Search For Hire over Fiverr, Upwork, or a generalist recruiter?

Freelance platforms surface available capacity. Generalist recruiters surface applicants. Neither evaluates whether a candidate can actually perform in your specific commercial environment.
Hiring a Senior PPC Manager through a generalist channel means accepting a process that cannot assess bid strategy architecture, multi-channel attribution competency, or the ability to manage six-figure budgets and communicate performance to the board.
We operate exclusively within SEO, Paid Media, and Growth. Our vetting is built around the competencies this role actually demands: real execution capability, strategic clarity, and commercial accountability under pressure.

How quickly can you place a Senior PPC Manager?

Our average placement time is 22 to 25 days from brief to accepted offer, with 95% of roles filled within 28 days.
Traditional hiring relies on posting a role, filtering unsolicited applications, and running multiple interview rounds. That process typically runs 60 to 90 days and rarely reaches the strongest candidates, who are not actively looking.
Our active pipeline of Senior PPC talent, built through years of operating exclusively within SEO, Paid Media, and Growth, enables us to reach pre-qualified candidates and move them through a structured vetting process without the delays of a reactive search.

What if the Paid Media hire doesn’t work out?

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.
Our guarantee is not goodwill. It reflects confidence in the process. Every Senior PPC Manager we place is assessed across a structured 9-area scorecard with practical exercises that test real capability rather than interview performance. That vetting is what makes the guarantee credible.

Do you have access to international Senior PPC Manager talent?

Yes. We place Senior PPC Managers 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.

Brief us on your Paid Media role

High-stakes roles require high-precision hiring. Tell us what you need. We will tell you whether we can place it and how.

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