Lead Growth & Acquisition Strategist (Paid Media)

Role Overview

We’re looking for a Lead Paid Media Strategist who thinks like an owner—someone who is obsessed with ROI, growth, and performance at scale.T his is not a campaign management role—it’s a growth ownership role. And it’s not a team leadership role—it’s a hands-on, in-the-platform, build-it-yourself role.

You’ll be the sole owner of paid media at GLPG. There’s no team to delegate to, and that’s the point. We want someone who loves working in accounts as much as they love shaping strategy. You’ll set the vision, build the campaigns, optimize the performance, and report on the results—all with full autonomy and a direct line to leadership.

You’ll drive measurable outcomes across:

• Patient acquisition (primary growth driver)
• Therapist acquisition (supply growth)
• Brand expansion (GLPG / Find My Therapist)
• Individual therapist marketing (localized growth at scale)

Your mission is to turn paid media into a predictable, scalable growth engine—and you’ll do it with your own hands.

Essential Functions & What You'll Own:

1. Growth & ROI Ownership

Own key performance metrics:

• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Return on ad spend (ROAS)
• Patient and therapist growth
• Lifetime value (LTV), payback periods, and cohort-level unit economics
• Develop and execute strategies to consistently improve efficiency and scale
• Treat budget allocation like an investor—continuously shifting spend to highest-return opportunities
• Think beyond top-of-funnel metrics; connect paid media performance to downstream revenue and retention

2. Full-Funnel Paid Media Strategy & Execution

Lead strategy and hands-on execution across:

• Google Ads (Search, Performance Max, Display, YouTube)
• Meta (Facebook / Instagram, Advantage+ campaigns)
• Emerging and diversifying channels: TikTok, Reddit, programmatic / CTV, and AI-powered search placements

Build, manage, and optimize campaigns across:

• High-intent search
• Paid social acquisition
• Retargeting and funnel optimization

Run both:

• Large-scale brand campaigns
• Highly targeted, localized campaigns for individual therapists

This means you’re in the platforms daily—building ad groups, writing copy, adjusting bids, launching tests, and troubleshooting performance. You’re not directing this work; you’re doing it.

3. AI & Automation Strategy

• Leverage AI-powered campaign tools (Performance Max, Advantage+, automated bidding) with strategic judgment—knowing when to trust platform automation and when to override it
• Use generative AI for ad copy iteration, creative testing, and audience modeling at scale
• Stay current on AI-driven changes across ad platforms and proactively adapt strategies
• Evaluate and integrate emerging AI tools that improve campaign efficiency and creative output

4. Privacy-First Measurement & First-Party Data

• Own tracking, attribution, and reporting infrastructure in a privacy-first landscape
• Implement and maintain server-side tracking, conversion APIs (Meta CAPI, Google Enhanced Conversions), and consent management platforms
• Build and maintain privacy-safe measurement frameworks: media mix modeling, incrementality testing, and lift studies
• Develop and leverage first-party data assets (CRM audiences, customer match lists, lookalike modeling from owned data) while maintaining HIPAA compliance
• Navigate evolving state and federal privacy regulations and platform signal loss with practical, compliant solutions

5. Creative Strategy & CRO

• Drive creative direction based on performance data—brief the creative team on hooks, formats, angles, and messaging that convert
• Own structured creative testing frameworks: systematically test copy, visuals, formats, and landing page variations
• Own or co-own conversion rate optimization (CRO)—treat landing page performance as inseparable from ad performance
• Design and run structured experiments across audiences, creative, landing pages, and bidding strategies
• Identify scaling opportunities and aggressively optimize underperforming campaigns

6. Analytics & Reporting

• Build dashboards that clearly tie spend to outcomes—from click to patient intake or therapist onboarding
• Translate performance data into strategic recommendations and clear executive-level insights
• Partner with leadership to guide budget allocation, growth forecasting, and long-term planning

7. Cross-Functional Impact

Collaborate with:

• Creative team to improve ad and landing page performance
• Web / tech teams on conversion tracking, landing pages, and CRO infrastructure
• Leadership on growth strategy and forecasting
• Influence broader growth strategy beyond paid media

8. Compliance & Industry Awareness

• Ensure campaigns align with HIPAA and healthcare marketing best practices
• Stay ahead of platform changes, privacy legislation, consent requirements, and attribution challenges
• Navigate the intersection of healthcare data sensitivity and performance marketing with sound judgment

What You Bring

Required

• 6–8+ years of hands-on paid media experience—emphasis on hands-on. You should be building campaigns today, not just overseeing them.
• Proven track record of driving measurable ROI and scaling campaigns profitably as the primary executor, not just the strategist
• Deep, current, in-platform expertise in Google Ads (Search, Performance Max, Display, YouTube) and Meta Ads (Facebook / Instagram, Advantage+)
• Demonstrated experience with AI-powered campaign tools, automated bidding strategies, and generative AI for creative production
• Strong understanding of privacy-first measurement: server-side tracking, conversion APIs, consent management, and privacy-safe attribution models
• Experience building and activating first-party data strategies (CRM audiences, customer match, lookalike modeling)
• Strong analytical and data-driven mindset: GA4, conversion tracking, attribution modeling, and LTV / unit economics analysis
• Experience managing and optimizing meaningful ad budgets (six-figure+ annually or higher)
• Ability to drive creative direction from performance data—not just collaborate, but lead
• Comfortable operating as a team of one—you thrive with autonomy and don’t need a large support structure to do great work
• Strong communication skills—able to explain performance and strategy clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Preferred

• Experience in healthcare, behavioral health, or regulated industries
• Familiarity with HIPAA-compliant marketing practices
• Experience with both B2C acquisition (patients / consumers) and B2B or provider acquisition (therapists)
• Experience running multi-entity or localized campaigns at scale
• Hands-on experience with emerging channels: TikTok, Reddit, programmatic / CTV, AI-powered search placements
• Experience with media mix modeling, incrementality testing, or lift studies
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO) experience—landing page testing, funnel optimization
• Familiarity with CRM and marketing tools (e.g., Salesforce)

Nice to Have

• Google Ads Certifications (Search, Display, Video)
• Meta Certification
• Google Analytics Certification

Who Thrives in This Role

You’re the kind of person who gets energy from being in the platforms—not from managing people who are. You want strategic ownership and a seat at the table without giving up the craft. You’ve spent years building real expertise in paid media and you’re not ready to hand that off to a team. You want to be the one driving results, not reviewing someone else’s work.

At another company, you’d probably be a director. Here, you’re something better: the person who actually does the work and gets full credit for the outcomes.

Why This Role Matters

This role directly impacts the growth of both sides of our marketplace—patients and therapists. Your work will determine how effectively we scale access to care while helping therapists build sustainable, thriving practices.