At Viral Nation, we specialize in building social-first ecosystems for brands to connect with the modern consumer journey. Our integrated solutions align strategy, talent, media, and technology with culturally relevant creativity to scale the world’s fastest-growing digital brands. Viral Nation offers a fluid, creative, and growth-oriented environment that will support your ambitions to apply your talents in an open, collaborative, and fast-paced culture. Our ability to stay at the forefront of the industry has fuelled our success and will guide us in paving the path forward. We’re driven to push boundaries and think beyond today to deliver strategies, and we’re just getting started.
While we continuously exceed our goals, we need your help – our success is only as great as our people. Strong performance leads to high expectations, and we must keep raising the bar!
The Manager brings the strategy lens to an integrated Performance Marketing pod, with an emphasis on paid social. You own the strategic POV and lead the development of the media plan, audience strategy, client narrative, QBRs, and creative briefing, working closely with Sr. Associates to ensure historical performance learnings are integrated throughout, while staying fluent in tactical, in-platform execution.
What You'll Do Here:
- Lead the development and execution of full-funnel, cross-channel paid media strategies aligned to client business objectives.
- Own campaign performance across paid social (primary), paid search, and programmatic, ensuring strong execution, optimization, and reporting.
- Translate client goals into media plans, balancing audience strategy, budget allocation, and channel mix.
- Act as the senior strategic lead on accounts, guiding optimization frameworks and identifying growth opportunities.
- Collaborate with Sr. Associates to develop performance driven insights, recommendations.
- Own the development of clear client narratives; lead weekly, bi-weekly and monthly reports. Collaborates with Associate Director to develop quarterly, semi-annual and/or annual business reviews.
- Manage and strengthen client relationships, being the lead point of contact for performance marketing related questions and strategic recommendations.
- Drive a culture of experimentation across creative, audiences, bidding strategies, and platforms.
- Partner with creative, strategy, and influencer management teams to ensure content aligns with platform best practices and performance goals.
- Own final campaign QA and establish QA standards and tracking frameworks across your team.
- Manage, mentor, and develop Sr. Associates, providing feedback, training, and career development growth goals.
- As needed, support new business pitches and contribute to process improvement and thought leadership.
What You Need To Have:
- 4+ years of performance-driven digital marketing experience, with deep expertise in paid social and strong working knowledge of paid search; programmatic experience a strong asset.
- Experience mentoring team members, supporting growth goals and education of strategic media planning best practices.
- Demonstrated ability to lead multi-channel campaigns from strategy through execution, with a focus on performance and business goals.
- Strong understanding of attribution, conversion tracking, and measurement frameworks.
- Experience managing vendor and platform relationships (Meta, TikTok, Google, etc.).
- Advanced understanding of media planning, audience strategy, platform algorithms, and optimization techniques.
- Excellent client management and communication skills, including presenting to internal and external stakeholders.
- Proficiency in the Google Suite and project management tools (e.g., monday.com).
- Agency or fast-paced, client-facing experience is highly preferred.
At Viral Nation, compensation is structured, performance-led, and market-aligned. Pay decisions are intentional, based on role requirements, performance, and market alignment by country, and are set to maintain internal pay equity across comparable roles and levels.
Compensation progression is tied to demonstrated performance, expanded scope, and sustained contribution over time, not tenure alone. Employee compensation is reviewed regularly through formal performance reviews and check-ins to ensure alignment with role expectations and impact.
DEI Commitment:
Viral Nation is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our agency. Viral Nation welcomes applications from people with visible and non-visible disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the recruiting and selection process.
Similar Jobs
What you need to know about the Chicago Tech Scene
Key Facts About Chicago Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 245,800; 5.2% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: McDonald’s, John Deere, Boeing, Morningstar
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, fintech, software, logistics technology
- Funding Landscape: $2.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Arch Venture Partners, MATH Venture Partners, Jump Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners
- Research Centers and Universities: Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Institute of Technology, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
