Google Ads Specialist jobs

Big budgets. Bold ideas. Bigger ambitions.

Some marketers manage campaigns. Others make things happen. We're looking for the latter.

At Cruise Nation, we've never been particularly interested in doing things the way everyone else does.

Since 2009, we've been shaking up the travel industry, helping hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers discover that seeing the world doesn't have to cost the earth.

We pioneered our Smart Packages, combining flights, hotel stays and cruises into brilliantly priced holidays that offer more experiences for less money. With over 200 destinations worldwide, we're making incredible holidays more accessible, and we're only getting started.

Now we're looking for a Paid Media Manager who shares our appetite for doing things differently.

Someone who sees beyond clicks and impressions. Who understands that every pound invested should have a purpose. Who gets excited about testing new ideas, challenging conventional thinking and turning clever marketing into serious commercial results.

This isn't about keeping campaigns ticking over. It's about making them work harder, smarter and better than ever before.

You'll have the freedom to challenge, the backing to innovate and the opportunity to play a major role in shaping the future of our paid media strategy.

And the best bit? You'll see the impact of your work where it matters most. In customers, bookings, revenue and growth.

The opportunity. Your strategy. Your impact.

As our Paid Media Manager, you'll take ownership of our paid media performance, developing strategies that attract new customers, maximise marketing investment and drive profitable growth.

You'll work across Google Ads, Meta and other digital advertising platforms, combining commercial thinking, analytical expertise and creative flair to deliver campaigns that genuinely stand out.

Working closely with our marketing, creative, product and commercial teams, you'll have the opportunity to influence everything from campaign strategy and customer targeting to creative direction and website conversion.

We want someone who's as comfortable challenging a campaign's performance as they are pitching a bold new idea.

Someone who doesn't just ask, "How did the campaign perform?" but "How much better could it perform?"

What you'll own

1. Make every click count

Own the strategy. Challenge the results. Keep raising the bar.

• Develop, execute and continually optimise our paid media strategy across Google Ads, Meta and other relevant advertising platforms.
• Manage paid search, Performance Max, paid social, display, programmatic and retargeting campaigns to drive qualified traffic, enquiries, bookings and profitable revenue.
• Take a joined-up approach to the media mix, ensuring channels complement one another rather than compete for the same customers.
• Identify opportunities to improve customer acquisition, conversion and profitability throughout the customer journey.
• Challenge existing campaign structures, bidding strategies and platform recommendations to ensure we're making commercially sound decisions.
• Explore new platforms, advertising formats and acquisition opportunities that can help us reach customers our competitors haven't.

2. Turn data into decisions

Because impressive-looking dashboards don't pay the bills. Bookings do.

• Take ownership of paid media performance, monitoring key metrics including CTR, CPC, CPA, conversion rate, ROAS and overall return on marketing investment.
• Go beyond platform metrics to understand the true commercial contribution of each campaign, including booking value, revenue and profitability.
• Use GA4, advertising platform analytics, Excel and internal Cruise Nation data and APIs to identify trends, opportunities and performance gaps.
• Develop structured testing programmes across audiences, creative, messaging, landing pages, bidding strategies and advertising formats.
• Analyse performance across devices, audiences, destinations, products and stages of the customer journey.
• Produce clear, meaningful performance reports that explain what's working, what isn't and, most importantly, what we're doing about it.
• Translate complex data into straightforward commercial recommendations for senior management.

3. Spend smarter. Grow faster.

We're not looking for someone who simply spends a budget. We're looking for someone who makes it earn its keep.

• Plan, manage and optimise paid media budgets across all channels.
• Allocate investment according to commercial priorities, customer demand, campaign performance and growth opportunities.
• Forecast spend and performance, ensuring activity remains aligned with agreed budgets and business objectives.
• Identify opportunities to reduce wasted expenditure, improve acquisition costs and increase profitable bookings.
• Work closely with Product and Marketing to ensure investment supports the right holidays, destinations and promotional opportunities.
• Make confident, evidence-led decisions about where to increase, reduce or redirect advertising investment.
• Continuously challenge how effectively our media budget is working and identify opportunities to deliver more from every pound.

4. Bring creativity and performance together

The best advert isn't always the one with the biggest budget. Sometimes it's the one nobody else thought of.

• Collaborate with our creative, content, social media and wider marketing teams to develop distinctive, high-performing campaigns.
• Help shape advertising concepts, messaging and creative direction using customer insight and campaign performance data.
• Ensure creative assets are designed for the platforms, audiences and objectives they're intended to serve.
• Lead creative testing across headlines, imagery, video, calls to action and campaign formats.
• Challenge repetitive, generic advertising and help develop campaigns that give customers a compelling reason to choose Cruise Nation.
• Work with the wider digital team to improve landing pages, customer journeys and conversion performance.
• Share insights and best practice to ensure our paid, owned and organic marketing activities work together.

5. Find the customers we haven't met yet

There's a whole world of potential customers out there. Let's make sure they know we exist.

• Develop sophisticated audience targeting and segmentation strategies across our paid media channels.
• Use first-party data, platform insights, GA4 and Cruise Nation's internal systems to improve targeting, personalisation and campaign relevance.
• Build strategies that balance attracting new-to-brand customers with re-engaging existing prospects and previous visitors.
• Develop effective prospecting, remarketing and retargeting activity across the customer journey.
• Explore opportunities to improve audience quality, reduce acquisition costs and increase conversion rates.
• Review attribution and measurement approaches to better understand the contribution of different channels and customer touchpoints.
• Identify opportunities to use marketing automation and audience intelligence to deliver more relevant advertising experiences.

6. Stay ahead of the game

Digital marketing doesn't stand still. Neither should we.

• Keep ahead of developments in paid media, AI, advertising technology, privacy, measurement and consumer behaviour.
• Explore AI-driven tools and automation that can improve campaign efficiency, targeting, creative testing and decision-making.
• Assess new advertising platforms, formats and technologies for their potential commercial value.
• Challenge the status quo and introduce smarter, more effective ways of working.
• Build a culture of continuous testing, learning and improvement across our paid media activity.
• Share knowledge and insights with the wider team, helping Cruise Nation remain competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

About you

You're not just good with numbers. You know what to do with them.

We're looking for a commercially minded, analytical and ambitious paid media specialist who loves solving problems, spotting opportunities and delivering results.

You'll bring:

• Significant experience in paid media, digital advertising or performance marketing, ideally within a consumer-focused B2C business.
• A proven track record of driving customer acquisition, conversions, revenue and measurable ROI through paid advertising.
• Strong hands-on expertise in Google Ads, including Search, Performance Max and Display, alongside Meta Ads Manager.
• Experience in media planning, buying, campaign activation, bidding strategies and ongoing optimisation.
• Exposure to programmatic advertising and wider digital media channels.
• Strong knowledge of audience segmentation, targeting, remarketing, attribution and conversion measurement.
• Confidence working with GA4, Excel, advertising analytics and performance reporting tools.
• A sound understanding of SEO and how paid, owned and organic channels contribute to wider marketing performance.
• A good understanding of the social media landscape, including how paid and organic content work together.
• Experience developing structured testing strategies and translating performance insights into commercial improvements.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex performance data in a clear, engaging and actionable way.
• Strong organisational and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple campaigns, budgets and competing priorities.

Even better if you have:

• Experience within the travel, tourism, cruise or holiday sector.
• Experience with marketing automation, CRM audiences and advanced remarketing strategies.
• Knowledge of AI-powered advertising tools, emerging measurement solutions and marketing technology.
• Experience using first-party customer data to improve targeting, personalisation and acquisition performance.

The kind of person who'll thrive here

Qualifications and experience matter. But attitude? That's what really makes the difference.

You'll fit right in if you're someone who:

• Questions everything. Not for the sake of it, but because there's nearly always a smarter way.
• Loves the numbers. You don't just report on performance. You want to understand it, improve it and beat it.
• Thinks commercially. You understand that successful marketing is about profitable growth, not vanity metrics.
• Gets things moving. You're proactive, resourceful and comfortable taking ownership without waiting to be told what to do.
• Isn't afraid to experiment. You'll test new approaches, learn quickly and turn the results into better decisions.
• Works brilliantly with others. You enjoy collaborating with creative, content, digital and commercial teams to make great things happen.
• Thrives on pace. You can juggle competing priorities, meet deadlines and maintain attention to detail without losing momentum.
• Wants to make a difference. You're excited by the opportunity to help build something bigger, rather than simply maintain what's already there.

Why Cruise Nation?

Because life's too short for ordinary.

We're not weighed down by layers of management, endless meetings or the dreaded "that's how we've always done it" mentality.

We're a business built on challenging the norm. We move quickly, make decisions confidently and give talented people the freedom to do what they do best.

Here, you won't be another name on an organisational chart. You'll have a voice, genuine responsibility and the opportunity to influence how we grow.

Your ideas won't sit gathering dust in a presentation. If they're good, we'll back them.

You'll work alongside ambitious people who care about what they do, in a business where creativity meets commercial thinking and success is something we build together.

We're continuing to invest in our technology, marketing and people, and there's a huge opportunity to help shape how we attract and engage the next generation of Cruise Nation customers.

We're not looking for someone to simply fill a role.

We're looking for someone who wants to leave their mark.

The perks of coming aboard

We believe great people deserve more than just an interesting job.

Here's what you can expect:

• £40,000–£50,000 salary, depending on experience.
• Remote-first working, giving you flexibility while staying connected to the team.
• Regular time together in Swansea. Every six weeks, you'll spend Monday to Friday working alongside our team at our Swansea HQ, with company-paid travel and food expenses.
• Performance bonus scheme following successful completion of probation.
• Private medical insurance following successful completion of probation.
• Company pension scheme following successful completion of probation.
• Discounted holidays and travel perks following successful completion of probation. Because working in travel should have its advantages.
• Perkbox membership, giving you access to employee discounts, rewards and wellbeing benefits.
• 20 days’ annual leave plus 8 bank holidays, with annual leave entitlement increasing after two years’ service.

Pay: £40,000.00-£50,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Company events
• Company pension
• Employee discount
• Private medical insurance
• Work from home

Application question(s):

• Are you currently based in the UK and able to work from the UK for this role?

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Swansea (Swansea)