Ascension is seeking an experienced Media & Campaign Optimization Specialist who combines hands-on advertising platform expertise with the analytical discipline necessary to plan, execute, measure, and continuously improve integrated paid-media campaigns.

The ideal candidate is more than a general digital marketer. We are seeking a practitioner who has personally managed advertising campaigns and budgets across platforms such as Google Ads, Meta, programmatic advertising platforms, paid social media, and other digital channels, and who understands how those channels work together with traditional media such as print, radio, and outdoor advertising.

This individual will support public-facing communications and engagement initiatives for Montgomery Planning and potentially other M-NCPPC organizations. The role is important because effective advertising must reach diverse audiences with the right message, through the right channel, at the right time, while using public resources responsibly and producing measurable results.

The successful candidate will be comfortable translating communications objectives into media strategies; defining audiences; establishing targeting criteria; developing media plans; coordinating campaign creative; launching advertisements; monitoring performance; making rapid data-driven adjustments; and explaining campaign results to communications professionals and client leadership.

We are particularly interested in candidates who are analytical, organized, responsive, detail-oriented, curious, and commercially disciplined. The candidate should be capable of working independently with limited supervision, anticipating campaign performance issues, identifying optimization opportunities, balancing multiple concurrent deadlines, and making defensible recommendations regarding media spend.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Paid Media & Campaign Optimization Specialist will provide specialized promotional campaign support to Ascension and Montgomery Planning on an on-call basis.

The Specialist will help transform communications and engagement objectives into measurable integrated advertising campaigns across digital, social, search, programmatic, print, radio, and outdoor channels as appropriate to each assignment.

The individual will support the complete paid-media lifecycle:

Plan → Target → Launch → Monitor → Optimize → Measure → Recommend

The Specialist will develop campaign objectives, audience strategies, messaging and channel recommendations, media allocations, implementation schedules, key performance indicators, and measurement frameworks.

Once campaigns are activated, the Specialist will monitor results in near real time and make evidence-based adjustments to targeting, advertisements, placements, bids, budgets, creative rotations, and other variables to improve campaign performance.

Because Montgomery Planning communicates complex land-use and planning issues to diverse communities, the Specialist must understand that campaign success is not limited to clicks. Depending on the campaign, success may include increased awareness, broader community participation, event registrations, website engagement, survey participation, educational-program participation, or other public-engagement outcomes.

The Specialist must also be capable of supporting multilingual and culturally responsive campaigns when required and coordinating effectively with communications strategists, researchers, graphic designers, web specialists, public relations professionals, and client stakeholders.

Primary Responsibilities and Day-to-Day Activities

• DEVELOP integrated paid-media campaign plans establishing objectives, audience segments, messages, creative concepts, media channels, timelines, budgets, and KPIs.
• TRANSLATE communications and public-engagement objectives into measurable advertising and media strategies.
• DEFINE demographic, geographic, behavioral, contextual, interest-based, and other audience-targeting parameters appropriate to individual campaigns.
• PLAN channel and media mixes across paid search, paid social, display, programmatic advertising, print, radio, outdoor, and other channels.
• EXECUTE paid advertising campaigns through platforms such as Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, programmatic demand-side platforms, and comparable systems.
• MANAGE campaign setup, account structure, bidding strategies, audiences, placements, budgets, schedules, tracking parameters, conversion goals, and creative rotations.
• COORDINATE media buys and placements with publishers, radio outlets, print publications, outdoor-media providers, programmatic platforms, and other media vendors when required.
• MONITOR active campaigns for impressions, reach, frequency, clicks, click-through rates, engagement, conversions, conversion rates, cost-per-click, cost-per-conversion, cost efficiency, and other established KPIs.
• OPTIMIZE campaigns in real time by adjusting bids, budgets, creative, audience targeting, geographic targeting, placements, schedules, frequency, and channel allocations.
• IDENTIFY underperforming media, creative, audiences, keywords, placements, or campaign components before they materially affect campaign objectives or budgets.
• RECOMMEND corrective actions and reallocations of media spend based on campaign performance and emerging audience insights.
• CONDUCT keyword research, audience research, competitive reviews, placement analysis, and related research needed to strengthen campaign performance.
• DEVELOP campaign measurement plans and ensure appropriate tracking mechanisms are established before campaign launch.
• IMPLEMENT UTM parameters, conversion tracking, tagging conventions, and campaign naming standards to support reliable attribution and reporting.
• ANALYZE campaign performance using advertising-platform data, website analytics, conversion data, and other available sources.
• PREPARE dashboards, campaign summaries, optimization reports, and post-campaign reports communicating results clearly to nontechnical stakeholders.
• REPORT impressions, reach, clicks, engagement, conversions, cost efficiency, audience performance, channel performance, and other KPIs.
• INTERPRET performance data to distinguish meaningful trends from short-term fluctuations and recommend appropriate actions.
• PRODUCE recommendations and lessons learned that can improve subsequent Montgomery Planning campaigns.
• COORDINATE with graphic designers and communications staff to ensure paid-media creative complies with campaign strategy, platform specifications, approved messaging, and brand standards.
• ADAPT campaign assets for different platforms, placements, audiences, and advertising formats.
• SUPPORT multilingual advertising campaigns by coordinating translated/adapted campaign assets and ensuring corresponding targeting and tracking are implemented correctly.
• VERIFY campaign landing pages, URLs, tracking links, and calls to action before campaign activation.
• MAINTAIN organized campaign documentation, media plans, insertion orders, campaign settings, performance files, optimization histories, and supporting records.
• ADVISE Ascension and Montgomery Planning communications staff on paid-media trends, platform changes, targeting options, emerging advertising practices, and opportunities to improve campaign effectiveness.
• COLLABORATE with communications strategists, researchers, PR specialists, designers, video professionals, web/UX specialists, and project management staff to deliver coordinated campaigns.
• RESPOND quickly to changing campaign priorities, emerging communications requirements, or performance conditions.
• PROTECT client data, campaign information, audiences, analytics, credentials, and other restricted information in accordance with client security requirements.

Core Competencies

• Paid Media Strategy
• Performance Marketing
• Media Planning and Buying
• Paid Search / SEM
• Paid Social Advertising
• Programmatic Advertising
• Audience Segmentation and Targeting
• Geographic Targeting
• Campaign Budget Management
• Campaign Optimization
• Conversion Tracking
• Marketing Analytics
• KPI Development
• Attribution and Measurement
• A/B Testing
• Digital Campaign Reporting
• Creative Performance Analysis
• Multichannel Campaign Management
• Client Consultation
• Stakeholder Communication
• Quality Assurance
• Data-Driven Decision Making

Expected Tools and Platforms

Candidates should be comfortable working with several of the following tools or comparable platforms:

Advertising and Media

• Google Ads
• Meta Ads Manager
• LinkedIn Campaign Manager
• YouTube Ads
• Google Campaign Manager 360
• Display & Video 360
• The Trade Desk or comparable programmatic DSP

Analytics and Measurement

• Google Analytics 4
• Google Tag Manager
• Looker Studio
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Power BI
• Platform-native advertising analytics

Creative and Collaboration

• Adobe Creative Cloud familiarity
• Microsoft 365
• Microsoft Teams
• SharePoint
• PowerPoint