Senior Account Executive (PPC/SEO) - Firebrand Communications

Firebrand helps startups crush their marketing goals. We are a specialist PR and marketing firm for tech startups. Based in San Francisco, Firebrand’s integrated public relations, content marketing, demand generation and growth marketing programs help startups outshine their competitors. Our experienced team combines domain expertise, marketing best-practice, operational efficiency and the x-factor to implement winning campaigns. Firebrand was named Boutique agency of the year 2023 from PRSA (Public Relations Society of America).

You can expect an entrepreneurial culture, to work directly with a senior team, to be strategic and hands-on, and to help build a fantastic firm. We have no politics, no bureaucracy, efficient systems and a supportive approach. We focus on great work, high levels of client service and expanding our skills.

We work with a roster of hand-picked startups that are leaders in their field and backed by prominent VCs including a16z, First Round, GV, Initialized, LightSpeed, Menlo Ventures and Unusual VC. Our clients are technology startups – primarily with complex propositions that need clear positioning and messaging. At present, clients range from ‘deep tech’ – data analytics, AI/ML, storage, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity – to fintech, health tech and climate tech.

About the role

We’re looking for a Senior Account Executive, specializing in PPC and SEO, with B2B agency experience managing clients and executing sound strategies to consistently deliver results.

You will bring superb writing skills, technical know-how, an analytical approach, and creativity to create great paid media and SEO programs for highly technical products and services. You'll help drive the SEM/SEO roadmap and be responsible for campaign implementation, measurement and collaborating with clients to prove efforts are successful and scalable. Most of our campaigns are integrated across PR, content marketing, demand gen and digital marketing so you’ll get plenty of exposure to other disciplines.

PPC / Paid Media Expectations: We expect you to have a strong grasp of running successful paid media campaigns across the main platforms (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn, X [Twitter], Meta), some experience with account-based marketing strategies (ABM) or platforms (Demandbase / 6Sense), and ideally the CRM chops (Hubspot, Marketo) to cover the entire B2B marketing funnel. Responsibilities will include auditing clients' existing campaigns, strategizing new campaigns, configuring conversion tracking, conducting audience and keyword research, optimizing campaign performance, improving landing page performance, and reporting. Of course, this must all operate efficiently, within budget and be measured and evaluated according to industry best practice.

SEO Expectations: We expect you to have a fundamental grasp on the current strategies to research keywords and optimize websites so that they rank for a higher volume of high-intent keywords and scale organic traffic and conversions. This will include auditing client sites (keywords, competitors, technical SEO), defining information architecture and technical requirements, conducting keyword research and insertion (SEO copywriting), optimizing site performance, improving organic search result listings, and link building. Additionally, this must all be done in an organized and measurable way to prove that our SEO strategy is scaling and helping generate revenue.

Responsibilities

• Client management -- work directly with clients on a daily basis advising on strategy, technical implementation, status and performance of paid media and SEO campaigns.
• Copywriting -- craft compelling copy for ads, landing pages, blogs, reports, and more, without relying on ChatGPT. Skilled wordsmithing to combine marketing messaging with SEO keywords.
• Audits -- research client and competitor sites for performance and optimization potential as a basis for program recommendations.
• Configuration -- set up of network ad accounts to ensure correct audience targeting, ad structure and conversion event tracking through Google Analytics (GA4), Tag Manager, Ad Networks, and into CRM systems (HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot [Salesforce]).
• Keyword Research -- expert skills with keyword tools for use in PPC/SEO and development of keyword distribution sheets and SEM campaign structures mapped to recommended site architecture and conversion opportunities.
• Digital Advertising Strategy -- ability to understand technical products quickly and to strategize, develop and execute ad campaigns from ideation to iteration including account-based marketing (ABM), remarketing, and audience automation from CRM systems or prospecting tools (Leadlander, ZoomInfo) back into ad platforms.
• SEO Strategy & Execution -- up-to-date knowledge of recent SEO best practices, and experience identifying and rolling out optimizations for B2B websites, including copywriting and tactics to prepare for the changes in organic search strategy due to generative A.I.
• CRO -- ability to analyze landing page performance and behavior of users on website landing pages to identify areas of improvement and articulate conversion rate optimization hypothesis to clients.
• Reporting -- reporting primarily based on custom-built dashboards to show the journey of attaining leads to after capturing them from digital marketing campaigns. This includes platform metrics (Google Ads etc.), website metrics (Google Analytics (GA4 / Crazy Egg) all the way through to CRM metrics (lead quality and ROI in HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot [Salesforce]).

Requirements

• 4-6 years' relevant PPC (SEM) and SEO management experience (emphasis on B2B technical products / services), ideally in an agency
• Tech sector domain expertise, including working with startups
• Experience (certification preferred) setting up and managing campaigns in Google Ads (Search / Display / Video), LinkedIn Campaign Manager, X (Twitter) Ads, Meta Ads, Reddit Ads)
• History of rolling out search engine optimizations for sites from research to content creation and technical SEO to reporting
• Deep understanding of paid search, display, and paid social performance marketing metrics
• Strong copywriting skills, complemented by wordsmithing and editing abilities
• Technically savvy with MarTech systems from channel to database with ability to configure and optimize how systems connect and data flows work to be able to measure the entire journey of lead generation from click through to attribution in CRMs (HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot [Salesforce])
• Reporting chops using combination of Google Analytics (GA4), Excel, SEMrush, Hubspot, Google Data Studio, Pardot (Salesforce), Marketo, Tag Manager, (roughly in this order of importance)
• In-depth knowledge of web content management systems (mainly Wordpress and WebFlow)
• Solid academic track record at least to Bachelor degree level

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• 20 days' vacation (excluding public holidays)
• Health, dental and vision care
• Company 401(k)
• Brand new Macbook
• Flexible schedule
• Regular 'Crossfire' training days
• Team socials

Location

The agency is headquartered in San Francisco, California. We are currently working on a remote-first hybrid model. So this position can be in the Bay Area or remote.

To Apply

To apply, fill in the details and remember to include a link to your LinkedIn profile. Please only apply if you meet the requirements. We'll be in touch with the strongest candidates.