Senior Integrated Paid Media Strategist

Reports To: Director of Paid Media Department: Paid Media Status: Full-Time Experience: 5+ years in paid media strategy, planning, buying, and performance optimization About Stratacomm Stratacomm's Paid Media Department manages more than $70 million in annual media investment across digital, social, search, programmatic, CTV, video, audio, print, out-of-home, and broadcast channels.

We partner with federal agencies, nonprofits, and corporate clients to deliver campaigns that drive measurable awareness, engagement, and behavior change. We're intentionally built differently from many agencies. We don't separate planning from buying or strategy from execution. We believe the strongest media professionals understand every phase of the campaign lifecycle—from audience research and strategic planning through activation, optimization, reporting, and client consultation.

Every strategist owns their accounts end-to-end, building stronger client relationships and producing better campaign outcomes. We're a lean, highly collaborative team that values curiosity, accountability, continuous improvement, and smart problem-solving over bureaucracy. Our work moves quickly, our standards are high, and every team member has an opportunity to shape how our department continues to evolve.

Position Overview We're looking for an experienced Senior Integrated Paid Media Strategist who combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution. This is not a role focused solely on planning or platform management. You'll own the complete media lifecycle across multiple accounts—developing audience-first strategies, building integrated media plans, executing campaigns, optimizing performance, managing financials, and translating campaign data into compelling business narratives for clients.

The ideal candidate is equally comfortable discussing audience insights in a client meeting, negotiating media placements with vendors, building campaigns in Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager, troubleshooting tracking issues, and presenting performance recommendations backed by data. Success in this role requires both strategic leadership and executional excellence. Core

Responsibilities

Media Strategy & Integrated Planning Develop insight-driven media strategies aligned with client business objectives, communications goals, KPIs, and budgets. Translate audience research into integrated media recommendations across Search, Social, Programmatic, Display, Video, CTV, Audio, Broadcast, Print, OOH, and emerging platforms. Conduct audience analysis using tools such as MRI-Simmons, GWI, eMarketer, Nielsen, and first-party data sources.

Build comprehensive media plans including channel strategy, targeting, flighting, budgeting, forecasting, and measurement frameworks. Identify opportunities to test new media channels, technologies, AI capabilities, and emerging platform features that improve campaign performance. Collaborate with client leadership, creative, analytics, and digital teams to ensure media strategy supports the broader communications effort.

Campaign Buying & Activation Execute media buys directly across major advertising platforms, including Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and other self-service platforms. Develop RFPs, evaluate proposals, negotiate rates, secure added value, and manage publisher and vendor relationships. Issue insertion orders, oversee trafficking, coordinate creative delivery, and ensure campaigns launch accurately and on schedule.

Maintain campaign documentation, including media plans, buy summaries, specifications, UTMs, authorization tracking, and campaign setup materials. Campaign Management & Optimization Monitor live campaign performance and pacing across multiple channels. Analyze KPIs including impressions, reach, CTR, CPC, CPM, CPA, ROAS, VCR, engagement, and conversion metrics. Make data-driven optimization recommendations involving audiences, creative, bidding strategies, placements, frequency, and budgets.

Troubleshoot tracking, tagging, pixel implementation, and delivery issues in partnership with analytics and technical teams. Lead structured testing initiatives to continuously improve campaign effectiveness. Financial Stewardship Manage campaign budgets from planning through final reconciliation. Track authorizations, insertion orders, revisions, vendor invoices, and monthly billing. Ensure campaigns deliver efficiently without over- or under-spending.

Identify and resolve delivery discrepancies with vendors proactively. Reporting, Insights & Client Leadership Develop reporting that goes beyond performance metrics to explain: What happened Why it happened Why it matters What should happen next Present campaign performance and strategic recommendations clearly to clients and internal leadership. Translate complex media data into actionable business insights and future planning recommendations.

Lead media discussions during client meetings with confidence and credibility. Produce campaign wrap reports, benchmark analyses, and strategic recommendations that inform future investments. Department Leadership & Innovation Serve as a senior resource and mentor for junior strategists, coordinators, and analysts by reviewing work, sharing knowledge, and fostering professional growth. Help improve department templates, workflows, documentation, quality control, and operational efficiency.

Apply AI thoughtfully to improve planning efficiency, reporting, research, and workflow automation while maintaining strategic judgment. Contribute to agency thought leadership, new business initiatives, and ongoing evolution of Stratacomm's media practice. Department: Paid Media. ATS provider: Paylocity.