Performance Marketing Director

Lead Strategy. Drive Results. Build Client Trust. Make an Impact.

Leads: Paid Media (Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn) and SEO (Organic search, AI visibility). 

About the Role

We're hiring a sharp, strategic, and dependable Performance Marketing Director to lead our Paid Media and SEO departments — owning results across Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn, all organic search, AI visibility. You'll lead a blended team of paid media managers, SEO managers, and freelancers, and work cross-functionally with project managers, designers, and copywriters. 

This role blends leadership, strategy, performance accountability, and hands-on support across paid and organic. You'll shape high-impact strategies, mentor and hold a team accountable, and continuously improve systems, reporting, and campaign performance — measured in leads, rankings, ROI, and margin, not vanity metrics.

You'll be the internal performance voice for Halstead's clients: making sure every channel works together to generate results that support long-term growth. Most importantly, you own outcomes — from the first signal that something's off through to a confirmed, verified fix.

About Halstead

At Halstead Media Group, we help landscape and outdoor living companies eliminate instability, fuel growth, and shape a lasting legacy with year-round, specialized marketing systems. As a StoryBrand Certified Agency, we lead with clarity, empathy, and results that matter.

Our clients choose us — and stay with us — because we deliver best-in-class ROI, strategic thinking, and genuine human connection. We act like co-owners in our clients' growth, embrace change, and move fast. We believe growth comes from action, curiosity, and collaboration.

What You'll Do

Leadership & Strategy

• Own and execute integrated performance strategy across Paid Media and SEO.

• Set goals, KPIs, and campaign strategy across platforms and search environments, tailored to each client's growth stage and service focus.

• Lead and mentor a team of paid media managers and SEO managers (plus freelancers) — building accountability, communication, and real ownership, not just task completion.

• Partner with project managers and leadership to forecast capacity, set priorities, and resolve bottlenecks before they become client problems.

• Maintain strong QA and reporting processes for both paid and organic — where "reported" and "actually true" are the same thing.

• Identify and prioritize cross-channel growth opportunities — campaigns, content strategy, local SEO, landing pages, and testing.

• Ensure paid and SEO strategies reinforce each other and align with client goals, seasonal cycles, and budgets.

• Act as the internal escalation point for performance issues and strategic pivots — present and accountable, not reachable only after the fact.

Paid Media Oversight

• Direct strategy, execution, and optimization across Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and Microsoft Ads.

• Review and support ad copy, campaign structure, pacing, targeting, and platform fit.

• Set testing agendas and creative frameworks for performance lift.

• Step in to troubleshoot campaign issues and guide budget-allocation decisions.

• Lead performance reporting, client insights, and recommendations.

SEO Oversight

• Own the SEO roadmap across all clients — keyword strategy, on-page optimization, link-building, content direction, and AI visibility / GEO (how clients surface in AI search and answer engines).

• Review and guide SEO work done by team members, and confirm it actually ships — live, across every client site it should touch, including legacy sites, at the scope represented.

• Ensure strong collaboration across SEO, web, content, and UX.

• Interpret performance data, rankings, and AI-visibility signals to shape recommendations — and reconcile reported progress against actual organic leads and traffic.

• Stay ahead of algorithm, AI-search, and answer-engine changes that affect rankings, AI visibility, or lead flow, and translate them into action fast.

• Lead reporting on organic traffic, keyword growth, AI visibility, lead quality, and overall search presence; ensure technical SEO tasks are managed and resolved.

Collaboration & Communication

• Partner with copywriters so all messaging (ads and organic) aligns with StoryBrand principles.

• Work with designers and video editors on creative assets for paid and organic — e.g., paid media landing pages and campaign creative.

• Collaborate with project managers to track performance, align on goals, and respond quickly to client needs — supporting the PM who owns the account, not taking it over.

• Train and coach team members to strengthen cross-functional knowledge and performance thinking.

• Participate in internal marketing planning, tool selection, and team development.

How This Role Is Measured

This is a high-ownership seat. Beyond the "what you'll do," here's the bar we hold it to:

• Own it end to end. You own performance problems from the moment the signal appears through to a confirmed fix — present in the escalation, on the client call, in the thread. Diagnosis without follow-through isn't ownership; the result changing is.

• See it before it's escalated. You surface underperformance and risk proactively — typically within a few business days of the signal — rather than waiting for a client, a PM, or your VP to raise it. What you catch on your own is the measure, not what you respond to once flagged.

• Report honestly, backed by evidence. Your status reflects reality. A channel isn't "green" while its leads are falling. You bring bad news early and plainly, and you back completion and quality claims with the source — the dashboard, the account, the live result — never a verbal "it's handled."

• Verify the work shipped — everywhere. "Done" means confirmed live everywhere it should be, at the scope and depth represented. You check; you don't assume a task marked complete actually reached every site.

• Analysis drives action. Being right about the data is the starting point, not the deliverable. You turn insight into the right action at the right time — for your own accounts and for the team you lead.

• Own the economics. You run both channels to their margin and labor-efficiency targets, not just their lead targets — results the business can afford to deliver, and that improve over time.

You'll Thrive Here If You

• Are a performance strategist at heart — always chasing results and clarity.

• Have 4+ years leading paid media campaigns and SEO strategy.

• Have managed and mentored a multi-disciplinary team (paid + SEO + freelancers).

• Blend high-level strategic leadership with hands-on support — comfortable getting into the account when it moves the outcome.

• Can lead integrated strategy and reporting across both paid and organic search.

• Are highly analytical and can turn data into direction for others — then make sure the direction gets executed.

• Write clear, conversion-optimized ad copy and value messaging with precision.

• Are organized, accountable, and effective at building and maintaining systems.

• Give thoughtful, respectful feedback and guide cross-team collaboration.

• Take ownership of outcomes — and are the person who stays present and calm exactly when performance is at risk.

• Would rather deliver an accurate "red" than a comfortable "green."

What This Role Is Not

• Not a checkbox manager who marks tasks complete and moves on.

• Not a diagnostician who hands off — you carry problems through to a verified resolution.

• Not a status-painter — you don't dress up a struggling account in green.

• Not absent when it's hard — you're most visible exactly when a client's results are at risk.

Nice-to-Have (Bonus Skills)

• Experience with HubSpot or similar CRMs.

• Comfort with Google Analytics, Search Console, SEMrush, and AI-visibility / GEO tracking tools (e.g., Peec, Local Falcon).

• Familiarity with GA4 reporting, budget forecasting, and attribution modeling.

• Working knowledge of technical SEO (site structure, schema, page speed).

• Background in the lawn, landscape, or outdoor living industries.

• Familiarity with the StoryBrand messaging framework.

• Ability to build client-facing performance narratives and recommendations.

Details & Perks

• PTO: 15 days to start (combination of vacation and sick) plus paid holidays

• 401(k) with match

• Health insurance (medical, dental, vision): 100% of the medical premium paid for the employee. Have your own insurance? Opt out and receive a weekly opt-out pay perk.

• $500 annual equipment reimbursement

• Monthly perks (snack, tea/coffee subscriptions)

• Paid training and professional development

Final Word

We're not looking for a checkbox manager. We're looking for someone who owns performance across both paid and organic channels — and knows how to lead, teach, and inspire others to deliver measurable results, honestly and on budget.

If you're ready to elevate both traffic and leads — and build a performance engine that drives real client growth — this role is for you.