At a glance:
The Paid Search & YouTube Specialist’s primary focus at Rain is the day-to-day activation, optimization, pacing, reporting, and quality assurance of Paid Search & YouTube campaigns.
A successful Specialist combines executional precision with curiosity about how search intent, automation, creative, landing page experience, audience signals, shopping feeds, measurement, and cross-channel activity work together to drive business outcomes. Applicants should be comfortable working in Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Search Ads 360, and YouTube.
While this is a fully remote position, periodic travel and accommodating meetings in different time zones is expected.
What does the Paid Search & YouTube Specialist do at Rain?
Execute and optimize Paid Search & YouTube campaigns with precision.
- Work alongside channel leadership on planning, research, structure, launch, and ongoing management of Paid Search & YouTube campaigns from start to finish.
- Monitor daily pacing, budgets, KPIs, search demand shifts, and campaign performance; surface risks and opportunities early and clearly.
- Develop and implement proactive optimizations across bidding, budgets, keywords, search queries, audiences, creative assets, placements, and campaign structure.
- Track ad copy, keyword, audience, and landing page performance against client goals, including disciplined A/B testing and documentation of results.
- Support weekly, monthly, and quarterly reporting by identifying the most important performance storylines and translating platform data into clear, actionable insights.
- Conduct competitive, keyword, search landscape, and marketplace research to inform campaign strategy and uncover growth opportunities.
- Maintain disciplined quality assurance across campaign builds, trafficking, tracking, budgets, naming conventions, and reporting.
- Take an active role in campaign management across key clients and help expand Rain’s capabilities across shopping, Performance Max, commerce, and search-adjacent media.
- Contribute research, POVs, case studies, and process improvements that strengthen the agency’s Paid Search and YouTube practices while building your own expertise.
Build trusted partnerships across client, agency, and platform teams.
- Represent Paid Search & YouTube in internal and client meetings, clearly explaining campaign performance, recommendations, and next steps with support from channel leadership.
- Partner with Client Service, Integrated Planning, Analytics, Creative, Media Investment, AdOps, and Project Management to ensure sound recommendations, strong communication, and disciplined execution.
- Build productive relationships with platform and technology partners and bring relevant updates, best practices, and opportunities back to the team.
- Approach collaboration with curiosity, accountability, and a willingness to challenge conventional thinking when the data or client opportunity calls for it.
Effectively manage your workload.
- Prioritize and execute assigned work across multiple accounts while meeting deadlines and maintaining a consistently high standard of quality.
- Follow agency processes, maintain accurate documentation, and communicate proactively when timelines, budgets, performance, or deliverables are at risk.
- Apply a performance marketing mindset to daily work, balancing short-term efficiency with the client’s broader growth, customer acquisition, revenue, lead quality, and brand objectives.
- Contribute to the ongoing growth of the Digital Media team through knowledge sharing, training, process development, and continuous skill building.
What do we look for in a Paid Search & YouTube Specialist at Rain?
- 2–3 years of hands-on paid search campaign execution experience.
- Working knowledge of Google Ads and Microsoft Ads; platform certifications are preferred.
- Experience with YouTube campaign activation and optimization; Search Ads 360 experience is a plus.
- Advertising agency experience is a plus, including exposure to multiple accounts, stakeholders, priorities, and deadlines.
- Experience with campaign trafficking, tracking, reporting, budget management, and the development of performance insights through data analysis.
- Ability to identify performance variables, recommend optimizations, and communicate the rationale and expected impact clearly.
- Strong attention to detail, project management skills, and commitment to disciplined quality assurance.
- A collaborative spirit, creative problem-solving mindset, intellectual curiosity, and willingness to go above and beyond for client needs when the work requires it.
- Interest in ad tech, AI-driven search, automation, commerce, digital trends, and the changing consumer discovery landscape.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office, with strong Excel and PowerPoint skills.
- Willingness to travel approximately 2–3 times per year and accommodate occasional extended workdays or meetings across time zones.
- Appreciation of Rain’s Core Values.
Why work at Rain?
- We are a national leader in DTC marketing and a fully integrated creative and media agency. With a 25+-year history and around 250 employees, we are established enough to have all the bells and whistles, but small enough for an entrepreneurial and welcoming culture where everyone is heard.
- Our Flexible First environment empowers us to work from where we’d like but still connect with one another virtually and in-person when possible.
- We proudly invest in our employees, technology, and tools, ensuring the best possible work experience. As such, we offer a rich benefits package including the following:
- Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
- Quarterly profit-sharing program
- 401(K) plan with employer match (and immediate eligibility)
- 4-6 weeks PTO
- 12 paid holidays
- 12-18 weeks paid family and medical leave
- Monthly Work-From-Home allowance
- Additional benefits details can be found here
- Transparency is valued. We actively ensure employees know how we are doing and where we are going. We encourage open communication, share our successes, and hold each other accountable.
- We are passionate about our clients and deliver simultaneously on their brand and sales objectives, an approach we call Transactional Brand Building. To learn more about our work and proprietary philosophy, please check us out here.
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



.png)