Strategist, Marketing & Strategy (Paid Media Focus)

Formative is looking for a full-time Paid Media Strategist to join our Marketing & Strategy team. This person will be the day-to-day execution engine for paid media across a portfolio of high-profile clients in the philanthropy and social good spaces. This role will work closely with other paid media team members and support a cross-functional account team and will work closely with organic and reporting teams.


Who We Are

Formative is a Seattle-based agency of professionals who are passionate about helping to solve society's most pressing challenges by connecting with audiences in deep, meaningful ways. We operate in the arenas of social good and purpose-driven brands, working to design and launch campaigns, programs and platforms that maximize impact on behalf of clients including Allen Family Philanthropies, National Geographic Society, and Amazon Sustainability to name a few.


Our people are relentless seekers, problem solvers, thoughtful collaborators and sector experts. We're inspired by doing work that matters in the world and delivering powerful solutions that solve our clients' biggest priorities.

Who We're Looking For

Formative is looking for a Paid Media Strategist who brings both the technical depth to run sophisticated campaigns and the strategic instincts to make them better over time. This is a role for someone who genuinely loves paid media - not just executing it, but understanding it, questioning it, and finding ways to push it further.


Day-to-day, this role will own the hands-on paid work - SEM execution, ad builds, campaign QA, and reporting support - while also contributing to the strategic conversations that shape how we run and evolve paid programs on behalf of our clients.


This role will work across SEM, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn. The right team member should have a point of view on emerging platforms and where they fit in a broader paid mix. You should feel equally at home building and launching a campaign, pulling numbers for a weekly report, and walking into a team discussion with a smart take on what the data is telling us.


The right person for this role is technically sharp, genuinely curious, and relentless about quality. A desire to understand the latest evolutions in the paid media landscape, including the role of AI, is a must. You take pride in the details - catching errors before they go live, keeping campaigns clean, and holding yourself to a high standard - but you also know how to move fast when the work demands it.


Requirements (candidate should be proficient in all of these)

• 2+ years of hands-on paid media experience, with demonstrated proficiency across search and social platforms including Google (YouTube, Demand Gen, Display) and Meta Ads.
• Demonstrated proficiency in SEM (Google and Microsoft) and understanding of how AI-driven features are reshaping search campaign management
• Experience building and launching paid campaigns end-to-end across multiple platforms: ad setup, audience targeting, trafficking, QA, and go-live
• Strong analytical skills - comfortable pulling, organizing, and interpreting data from native platform dashboards, and able to translate what the numbers are saying into clear, actionable optimization recommendations
• Solid understanding of campaign structure best practices across platforms, including naming conventions, campaign hierarchy, and how structure impacts reporting and optimization
• Ability to manage multiple workstreams and competing deadlines simultaneously without losing quality or accountability
• Intermediate Excel skills including pivot tables, basic formulas, and the ability to build clean, readable data summaries
• Ability or strong willingness to actively build AI tools into your daily workflow
• Exceptionally high attention to detail across all aspects of the work - from campaign builds and tracking setup to data pulls and reporting
• Track record of quickly building subject matter experience with enough context and credibility to understand client's business and research domain
• Demonstrated ability to work within a cross-functional team environment, with an understanding of how paid media intersects with organic, content, and editorial strategies - and how decisions in one channel affect performance across others

Preferred

• Experience working in an agency environment, supporting multiple clients or accounts simultaneously
• Familiarity with social impact, global health, climate, or philanthropy-adjacent work
• Experience with reporting tools or dashboards (e.g. Tableau, or similar)
• Experience with programmatic, CTV, or display advertising and an understanding of how these channels fit into a broader paid media mix
• Familiarity with emerging or non-standard platforms such as Pinterest, Reddit, or TikTok - and a point of view on when and why they make sense for a client
• Familiarity with audience targeting strategies including custom audiences, lookalike audiences, retargeting, and first-party data / CRM list uploads
• Conversion tracking setup and QA, including pixel implementation and troubleshooting across Meta Pixel and Google Tag Manager
• Platform certifications are a plus, including but not limited to Google Ads, Meta Blueprint, Microsoft Advertising, Google Analytics 4, Adobe Analytics

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day SEM management: daily search term reviews, negative keyword management, bid and budget optimization, and delivery pacing across active campaigns
• Build and launch paid campaigns across platforms (search, social, display), including ad setup and QA
• Monitor campaign performance and flag anomalies or delivery issues, implementing approved changes with speed and accuracy
• Maintain campaign checklists and optimization logs to ensure accountability and continuity
• Work closely with the Paid Media Manager to ensure alignment on priorities, deadlines, and client standards
• Track spend pacing against flight dates and budget caps across all active campaigns, flagging under- or over-delivery
• Actively monitor platform updates, algorithm changes, policy shifts, and new ad formats across active platforms, and bring relevant opportunities or risks to the team proactively

Reporting & Analytics

• Pull and organize platform data to support weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting
• Maintain accuracy and consistency in data pulls across Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, and other active platforms
• Identify patterns in performance data and surface optimizations and recommendations proactively
• Coordinate across organic, editorial, and reporting team members to support integrated account delivery

Additional responsibilities as client and business needs evolve.

Work Location

Most of our team is based in Seattle, WA. We have a preference for someone that can collaborate with colleagues in-person 1-2x/week, but are open to other locations for the right fit.


Formative has a '2-3-5 Hybrid Office' Policy. We ask that all employees who live in the Seattle metro area work from the Formative Seattle office 2 days per week within a 3-day window -- Tuesday, through Thursday -- each week. Formative employees work 5 days per week as a norm with periodic evening and weekend work when required to meet client deadlines.


Salary Range
$65k - $95k, inclusive of associate through senior strategist titles


Benefits
Competitive compensation package based on experience including medical, dental, vision, and life insurance. Formative also contributes a percentage of your salary to a 401K account that is 100% vested.


We are committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. Learn more at