Performance Marketing Director
Lead Strategy. Drive Results. Build Client Trust. Make an Impact.
Leads: Paid Media (Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn) and SEO (Organic search, AI visibility).
About the Role
We're hiring a sharp, strategic, and dependable Performance Marketing Director to lead our Paid Media and SEO departments — owning results across Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn, all organic search, AI visibility. You'll lead a blended team of paid media managers, SEO managers, and freelancers, and work cross-functionally with project managers, designers, and copywriters.
This role blends leadership, strategy, performance accountability, and hands-on support across paid and organic. You'll shape high-impact strategies, mentor and hold a team accountable, and continuously improve systems, reporting, and campaign performance — measured in leads, rankings, ROI, and margin, not vanity metrics.
You'll be the internal performance voice for Halstead's clients: making sure every channel works together to generate results that support long-term growth. Most importantly, you own outcomes — from the first signal that something's off through to a confirmed, verified fix.
About Halstead
At Halstead Media Group, we help landscape and outdoor living companies eliminate instability, fuel growth, and shape a lasting legacy with year-round, specialized marketing systems. As a StoryBrand Certified Agency, we lead with clarity, empathy, and results that matter.
Our clients choose us — and stay with us — because we deliver best-in-class ROI, strategic thinking, and genuine human connection. We act like co-owners in our clients' growth, embrace change, and move fast. We believe growth comes from action, curiosity, and collaboration.
What You'll Do
Leadership & Strategy
Own and execute integrated performance strategy across Paid Media and SEO.
Set goals, KPIs, and campaign strategy across platforms and search environments, tailored to each client's growth stage and service focus.
Lead and mentor a team of paid media managers and SEO managers (plus freelancers) — building accountability, communication, and real ownership, not just task completion.
Partner with project managers and leadership to forecast capacity, set priorities, and resolve bottlenecks before they become client problems.
Maintain strong QA and reporting processes for both paid and organic — where "reported" and "actually true" are the same thing.
Identify and prioritize cross-channel growth opportunities — campaigns, content strategy, local SEO, landing pages, and testing.
Ensure paid and SEO strategies reinforce each other and align with client goals, seasonal cycles, and budgets.
Act as the internal escalation point for performance issues and strategic pivots — present and accountable, not reachable only after the fact.
Paid Media Oversight
Direct strategy, execution, and optimization across Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and Microsoft Ads.
Review and support ad copy, campaign structure, pacing, targeting, and platform fit.
Set testing agendas and creative frameworks for performance lift.
Step in to troubleshoot campaign issues and guide budget-allocation decisions.
Lead performance reporting, client insights, and recommendations.
SEO Oversight
Own the SEO roadmap across all clients — keyword strategy, on-page optimization, link-building, content direction, and AI visibility / GEO (how clients surface in AI search and answer engines).
Review and guide SEO work done by team members, and confirm it actually ships — live, across every client site it should touch, including legacy sites, at the scope represented.
Ensure strong collaboration across SEO, web, content, and UX.
Interpret performance data, rankings, and AI-visibility signals to shape recommendations — and reconcile reported progress against actual organic leads and traffic.
Stay ahead of algorithm, AI-search, and answer-engine changes that affect rankings, AI visibility, or lead flow, and translate them into action fast.
Lead reporting on organic traffic, keyword growth, AI visibility, lead quality, and overall search presence; ensure technical SEO tasks are managed and resolved.
Collaboration & Communication
Partner with copywriters so all messaging (ads and organic) aligns with StoryBrand principles.
Work with designers and video editors on creative assets for paid and organic — e.g., paid media landing pages and campaign creative.
Collaborate with project managers to track performance, align on goals, and respond quickly to client needs — supporting the PM who owns the account, not taking it over.
Train and coach team members to strengthen cross-functional knowledge and performance thinking.
Participate in internal marketing planning, tool selection, and team development.
How This Role Is Measured
This is a high-ownership seat. Beyond the "what you'll do," here's the bar we hold it to:
Own it end to end. You own performance problems from the moment the signal appears through to a confirmed fix — present in the escalation, on the client call, in the thread. Diagnosis without follow-through isn't ownership; the result changing is.
See it before it's escalated. You surface underperformance and risk proactively — typically within a few business days of the signal — rather than waiting for a client, a PM, or your VP to raise it. What you catch on your own is the measure, not what you respond to once flagged.
Report honestly, backed by evidence. Your status reflects reality. A channel isn't "green" while its leads are falling. You bring bad news early and plainly, and you back completion and quality claims with the source — the dashboard, the account, the live result — never a verbal "it's handled."
Verify the work shipped — everywhere. "Done" means confirmed live everywhere it should be, at the scope and depth represented. You check; you don't assume a task marked complete actually reached every site.
Analysis drives action. Being right about the data is the starting point, not the deliverable. You turn insight into the right action at the right time — for your own accounts and for the team you lead.
Own the economics. You run both channels to their margin and labor-efficiency targets, not just their lead targets — results the business can afford to deliver, and that improve over time.
You'll Thrive Here If You
Are a performance strategist at heart — always chasing results and clarity.
Have 4+ years leading paid media campaigns and SEO strategy.
Have managed and mentored a multi-disciplinary team (paid + SEO + freelancers).
Blend high-level strategic leadership with hands-on support — comfortable getting into the account when it moves the outcome.
Can lead integrated strategy and reporting across both paid and organic search.
Are highly analytical and can turn data into direction for others — then make sure the direction gets executed.
Write clear, conversion-optimized ad copy and value messaging with precision.
Are organized, accountable, and effective at building and maintaining systems.
Give thoughtful, respectful feedback and guide cross-team collaboration.
Take ownership of outcomes — and are the person who stays present and calm exactly when performance is at risk.
Would rather deliver an accurate "red" than a comfortable "green."
What This Role Is Not
Not a checkbox manager who marks tasks complete and moves on.
Not a diagnostician who hands off — you carry problems through to a verified resolution.
Not a status-painter — you don't dress up a struggling account in green.
Not absent when it's hard — you're most visible exactly when a client's results are at risk.
Nice-to-Have (Bonus Skills)
Experience with HubSpot or similar CRMs.
Comfort with Google Analytics, Search Console, SEMrush, and AI-visibility / GEO tracking tools (e.g., Peec, Local Falcon).
Familiarity with GA4 reporting, budget forecasting, and attribution modeling.
Working knowledge of technical SEO (site structure, schema, page speed).
Background in the lawn, landscape, or outdoor living industries.
Familiarity with the StoryBrand messaging framework.
Ability to build client-facing performance narratives and recommendations.
Details & Perks
PTO: 15 days to start (combination of vacation and sick) plus paid holidays
401(k) with match
Health insurance (medical, dental, vision): 100% of the medical premium paid for the employee. Have your own insurance? Opt out and receive a weekly opt-out pay perk.
$500 annual equipment reimbursement
Monthly perks (snack, tea/coffee subscriptions)
Paid training and professional development
Final Word
We're not looking for a checkbox manager. We're looking for someone who owns performance across both paid and organic channels — and knows how to lead, teach, and inspire others to deliver measurable results, honestly and on budget.
If you're ready to elevate both traffic and leads — and build a performance engine that drives real client growth — this role is for you.